Just started watching a new series. Does this guy look familiar at all?
His name’s Takasugi Yuusuke. That last name is interesting to me for the following reason:
高杉 Takasugi
上杉 Uesugi
高 (taka) means tall or high. 上 (ue) means above. And both names have the same second part, 杉 (sugi). Coincidence?!?!
Actually, the art and last name aren’t the only similarities. The voice actor is the same, too. :D
Common voice actors in Hiatari Ryoukou, Touch, and Miyuki (all three based on manga by Adachi Mitsuru):
| Voice Actor | Hiatari Ryoukou | Touch | Miyuki |
| Mitsuya Yuji | Takasugi Yuusuke | Uesugi Tatsuya | — |
| Tsuru Hiromi | Seki Keiko (love triangle!) |
Nishio Sachiko (former club manager) |
Kajima Miyuki (more love triangle goodness) |
| Tanaka Hideyuki | Sakamoto | Kashiwaba Eijirou (evil coach!!) |
— |
| Inoue Kazuhiko | Muraki Katsuhiko | Nitta Akio (Sumi Tech’s star player) |
— |
| Hayashiya Kobuhei | Ariyama Takashi (big soccer player) |
Matsudaira Koutarou (big catcher) |
— |
| Tominaga Miina | Ohta Maria | Nitta Yuka (ugh) |
— |
| Siozawa Kaneto | Mikimoto Shin (the playboy) |
Kuroki Takeshi (former baseball club captain/pitcher) |
Muraki Yoshio |
That’s a lot of similar cast for those first two shows…the art is very similar in all three, as well, though the ears on the guys are drawn kind of oddly in Miyuki. Hiatari Ryouko and Touch were both produced by Group TAC, while Miyuki was produced by Kitty Films.
I do find it interesting that while they had no problems using the same voice actors for male leads and supporting roles and female supporting roles, they didn’t recycle voice actors for female leads. Ultimately, you can posit that the male lead is going to end up with the female character who has a unique voice actress ;>
I knew going in that the character designs were practically the same as those of Touch, but I didn’t realize the similarity wasn’t going to end there. I was thinking, for example, that Hiatari Ryoukou would have nothing whatsoever to do with baseball.
It would appear I was mistaken! In fact, episode 2 seems to be foreshadowing that Yuusuke will join the baseball club at some point, even though he states that he wants to be on the cheering squad. (Tatsuya had his stint in the boxing club, after all…)
Maybe Myoujou will go to the Koushien!! @_@