The Many Sides of Voice Actor Radio

 The Many Sides of Voice Actor Radio (声優ラジオのウラオモテ) is a 12 episode slice of life industry series based on the light novel series of the same name by Nigatsu Ko.  The series originally aired during the 2024 Spring season.

    Sato Yumiko is a high school student who moon lights as the pop idol voice actor Utatane Yasumi.  In real life she is a flash gyaru type person who is struggling to find voice acting roles with a high profile.  Unknown to her, a classmate that she never interacts with, Watanabe Chika, is the pop idol voice actor Yugure Yuhi.  Chika as well is quite different in real life compared to her bubbly voice actor persona.  She is reserved, gloomy and generally keeps to her self.  Neither girl knows that the other does the same thing and a tense interaction between them in class leads to a great deal of animosity.  Yumiko receives a call from her manager about a new job opportunity doing a weekly radio program.  The producer apologizes about inadvertently learning some personal things about her, which lead to the idea to create the program.  Before he can clearly explain himself, Chika walks into the meeting.  The producer learned that both girls were classmates and decided to create a program in which their voice actor personas would talk about life as classmates and friends, the exact opposite of their reality.

    The two conflicting voice actors must put on the front of getting along for the sake of their careers as they begin their weekly radio program.  Both of their managers hope this will further their career opportunities and profiles.  Chika has no interest in getting to know the flash Yumiko, but the gyaru is determined to make this work, desperate for some ray of hope in her flagging and short career.  Unfortunately, their program lags and when a scandal erupts around Chika and a new voice roll she got, the future of their program and of Chika's career hang in the balance.  Unwilling to let her partners success crumble along with her own potential, Yumiko makes a drastic move to clear Chika's name in the public sphere.  The efforts don't work as planned and instead she exposes both girls for who they really are, sending shock waves through the fan base and the voice actor community leading to a greater threat to their continued careers.  Will they be able to regain the public trust when in their eyes the two bubbly and cute girls have been lying about who they really are this entire time?

    This was the Spring anime I chose for the inaugural season of The Otaku Network Podcast, available on both YouTube and Spotify.  I went into the series fearing it would be similar to the moe trash bin that is New Game!  But was quickly proven wrong when the series presented a serious and realistic look at the characters and their work as voice actors.  The story quickly moves outside of the core concept and focuses on the struggles that the two main characters have in regard to their work.  Their choice to present idealized alternative personalities for their voice actor persona's soon causes them trouble with the aforementioned scandal.  The story gets side tracked dealing with the fallout around the scandal but refocuses near the end to enter on the true core, Yumiko's flailing career.  Through out the series the two girls grow into frenemies and as Chika becomes more open you learn its due to jealousy for the lesser girl and the latent abilities she recognizes.  AS is the case, its hard to see your own value from inside and Yumiko struggles with what everyone else sees in her, lacking the confidence she needs.

    Over all a decent slice of life industry piece that could have had a subtle yuri plot.  The series flows awkwardly through an indeterminable time frame and the artwork its self is quite horrific at times, particularly profile shots of characters heads.  Lets just say there were some questionable design choices made.  It flagged in the middle and had a few moments of awkward and unnecessary fan service but ended strongly, if a bit unrealistically.   It by no means carries the weight and quality of Shirobako but is a good enough submission into the industry category for anime.

The series was simulcast on Crunchyroll.