At 02:54 AM 9/23/97 +0800, you wrote:

Um,  I need a little info...for a new Ranma 1/2 fanfic. (Yup, I don't know
anything else, yet)

Who among the beauties of Ranma 1/2 sings the best?  I think Akane sings the
best, but that may be a bias on the CDs.  Ukyou?  Um, does she really scoff
like that while singing?  Kodachi seems a good singer, except for the laugh,
of course.  Shampoo's too high pitch.  What about Ranma-chan?

Anyway, I hope this doesn't sprout into numerous spams on the ffml.

Well, here's some hard info along with my considered opinions on vocal
quality (not who I personally prefer---as a singer that would be Hisakawa
Aya, who isn't even in Ranma :-)

Certainly in terms of commercial success it's onna Ranma's seiyuu:
Hayashibara Megumi's latest album sold 240K copies in its first 3 weeks,
and her previous was 101K in the first week, 46K in week two.
That's very good for *anyone*, let alone a seiyuu.  She has a lot
of range, and I think technically she's quite good; I haven't heard her
strain at anything, including the difficult Evangelion OP in several
versions (compare her to Kotono (Misato), who can just hold her own,
and (Asuka), who can't quite pull it off, in the Evangelion Addition version).

Nabiki would be next, depending on how you count things; Takayama Minami
is one half of Two Mix, which I gather is quite successful in general
(outside the seiyuu ghetto).  The Gundam Wing OP is an example of their work;
in what I've listened to, she has a good, strong voice.

Kasumi's Inoue Kikuko would be next; she has a number of solo CDs, but not
a whole lot of new songs recently (I think).  She has a *very* *nice*
voice, and it comes through in the Ranma and AMG songs, and she has a lot of
range as a seiyuu (not just Kasumi/Belldandy, but a lot of serious, sexy
and/or nasty roles), but I haven't listened to her solo much.

Akane's seiyuu, Hidaka Noriko, has done 3 full CDs and a bunch of singles,
but only one solo item (a single) since 1994.  I think she's got a great
voice (about my favorite), is great in ensemble, but solo, she's just
good/average, if her last CD is any indication---you can tell she's at
the edge of her envelope.  I was about to say she's showing her age, but
she's 2 years younger than me! ^_^

The following are all first class seiyuu, but none have solo albums:

Shampoo Sakuma Rei
Kodachi Shimazu Saeko
Ukyou Tsuru Hiromi

Sakuma Rei seems to hold her own in Doco (onna Ranma, Shampoo, Akane,
Nabiki, and Kasumi); Tsuru Hiromi shows some obvious limits in "Whispering
Misty Night" from KOR a decade or so ago; on the basis of that, I'd put
her below the seiyuu who's released albums.  (Although you have to be
careful about in character songs; Takada Yumi supposedly can sing better
than she does as Aeka in the Tenchi Muyo CDs, where she'd downright painful.)

I also have to mention Hinako-sensei (a beauty in warrior mode :-), voiced
by Touma Yumi; she has 3 solo albums, a lot of Ah My Goddess stuff (she
plays Urd), etc.  She's got a good, sexy voice, no obvious limitations but
I can't remember if she's tried very hard stuff.

Everything you ever wanted to know about seiyuu can be found at

	http://www.tcp.com/doi/seiyuu/seiyuu.html

Which along with the rest of Hitoshi's site is doing around a million hits
a week.

					- Harold