Yuu Mizuma: Dreamiest Voice of the 80's

Yuu Mizuma: Dreamiest Voice of the 80's

Yuu Mizushima: Dreamiest Voice of the 80's

As the magical girl genre moved from the 70's into the 80's, a certain subplot came into new prominence: the love story. While romance was certainly not unheard of in 70s majokko series, it rarely played a large part in the plot. Mahou no Mako-chan (1970), for instance, is at the core of its premise a love story, but Mako’s love interest only appears in a handful of episodes. The heroines of works like Majokko Megu-chan (1974) may meet some sweet boys during their adventures, but they inevitably disappear before the ending credits roll. Of course the absence of this kind of subplot largely makes sense; in many cases, these magical girls are very young, and their personal journeys revolve more around their relationships with friends and family. These earlier series often end with the heroine making a choice between a life spent with her new friends, and life lived in the magical land of her childhood. However, as the genre approached its twentieth birthday, romantic subplots began creeping in, beginning with the fairytale wedding at the end of Hana no Ko Lunlun (1979) that paved the way for a decade in which young women quite often used their magic powers to sweep their paramours off their feet.
And said paramours needed to be hunky. Which means he’d better have a hunky voice. And this is where a fellow named Mizushima Yuu comes in. Maybe it was something about the way the guy spoke through his nose, or his relatively large range, but for some reason a whole bunch of love interests in 80s magical girl series had the exact same voice: that of God Mars actor Yuu Mizushima. After appearing as the disguised prince in the aforementioned Hana no Ko Lunlun, Mizushima played Shun, the mullet-headed boxer whom Tokimeki Tonight (1982)’s magical heroine pursues. The next year Mizushima’s nasal voice appeared in Creamy Mami, and he would continue to provide the voices for love interest boys from all of Studio Pierrot’s magical...

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