Maaya Sakamoto (坂本真綾, Sakamoto Maaya) born March 31, 1980 in Itabashi, Tokyo) is a Japanese seiyū and singer-songwriter who made her debut in 1996 as the voice of Hitomi Kanzaki[1] in the hit anime series The Vision of Escaflowne. She sings songs in both Japanese and English.
She is set to voice Alphard, alongside Miyuki Sawashiro who voices the main character Canaan, in the anime Canaan. The series is currently in production.
She also does the voice of Padmé Amidala in the Japanese dub of Star Wars Episodes I, II, and III. She reprised the role in the current ongoing American 3D CGI animated television series, Star Wars: The Clone Wars
Her latest single Ame ga Furu was released on October 29, 2008.
Maaya is a graduate from Toyo University (Bachelor in Sociology). Her favorite colors are pink and brown, while her hobbies are performing, reading and singing. Her blood type is A.
She was one half of the seiyū duo "Whoops!!", alongside Chieko Higuchi. She has been called お姉さま(Onee-sama), a respectful way of saying "older sister" by her Ouran co-host Ayaka Saitō.
Nothing much is known about her family except that her father, Yoshimi Sakamoto, is an expert in stage lighting. When she was at AnimeFest in 2005, she said that her favorite Western bands are Oasis and Maroon 5. She also has had at least one song, that appeared on the NHK program, Minna no Uta.
Maaya first teamed up with composer Yoko Kanno in her debut single, Yakusoku wa Iranai in 1996. Kanno collaborated with Maaya up until her fifth album, Yūnagi LOOP, which has no songs composed by Kanno. Maaya also performed three songs for the anime Wolf's Rain, for which Kanno was the composer: "Gravity", "Tell Me What The Rain Knows" (with lyrics by Chris Mosdell), and "Cloud 9". More recently, Maaya and Kanno collaborated again for Triangler, the opening theme song for the anime Macross Frontier. She performed "The Garden of Everything" for the anime RahXephon with Steve Conte. She also performed the song "cream" with HIDE, which was featured in Ghost in the Shell's mini album, be Human.
Maaya typically writes her own lyrics but occasionally uses lyrics written by or in collaboration with others. Frequent collaborators include Yūho Iwasato for Japanese songs and Tim Jensen for English songs. She also wrote lyrics with Gabriela Robin for two of Megumi Nakajima's songs. Lyricist Chris Mosdell, well known in Japan particularly for his association with Yellow Magic Orchestra, has also written lyrics for her, including "Kingfisher Girl" on Shōnen Alice and "Another Grey Day in the Big Blue World" on Easy Listening.
She also worked with composer, h-wonder in a few occasions, with certain songs such as Loop and action!. She covered the Beatles song Here, There and Everywhere, but this cover does not appear in any of her albums or singles to date.
She won the Anime Grand Prix in year 1999 under the song category, for Cardcaptor Sakura’s opening theme Purachina. She won the award for two consecutive years.
In the first Seiyū Awards, she was nominated for "Best Actress in a leading role" for her protrayal of Haruhi Fujioka in Ouran High School Host Club as well as "Best Musical Performance" for Tsubasa Chronicle’s ending theme Kazemachi Jet.
Her first participation in anime and OVAs adapted from works by CLAMP was in CLAMP School Detectives. She sang Bokura no Rekishi, which was the theme song to its radio drama. She also provided the anime's second ending theme song, Gift.
Later, Purachina was used as an opening song for Cardcaptor Sakura and she lent her voice to a Clow Card (the Nothing) in the second Cardcaptor Sakura movie. She also voiced Sū in Clover's OVA.
More recently, she voiced Tomoyo in Tsubasa Chronicle, and sang several songs for the soundtracks, as well as the ending theme from Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle's OVAs, Tokyo Revelations and the upcoming new OVA Tsubasa Shunraiki.
She also sings the opening theme, action! for CLAMP in Wonderland 2.
