Fujimori Yuki, the Angel; Yukina, the Demon

This morning on X (Twitter) I found out some absolutely wild news:

Basically: eroge voice actress Fujimori Yukina is calling it quits starting next year.

She’s not the first VA to throw in the towel, and she won’t be the last. But this is the most sudden one. Compared to last year’s Shimura Yumi retirement announcement, this one came out of nowhere.

And it’s a thorough retirement, too. She’ll probably stop updating Twitter, and her blog is getting shut down.

Honestly, it’s way too sudden. In the R18 sphere she’s basically on the same level as Ogura Yui—does every kind of nukige, just never anime for general audiences, uses her own stage name without a separate alias, and doesn’t mind showing her face. She’s very open about it all. She started voicing games back in 2005, so that’s over a decade in the business. She’s a veteran, probably in her thirties now.

Despite being a veteran, Fujimori Yukina doesn’t have that high a status in visual novels. She rarely voices main heroines—mostly supporting characters or side characters of side characters. And honestly? I remember her name, but when it comes to what roles she’s actually played, I can only think of three:

Madoka, the main heroine of Sakuranomori Dreamers

And then the heroine dies right at the start. An FD came out later to fill in her story, but it felt forced.

Then there’s the busty girl from Corona Blossom, who was kind of the designated main heroine—except Akino Hana was the actual main heroine…

And finally, the one everyone knows—her highest-profile role: Hikawa Rina in Sakura no Uta -Sakura no Mori no Ue o Mau-.

That’s probably the peak of her career. Though I don’t know if she’ll show up in a Sakura no Uta sequel, or if they’d recast her if she did.

Anyway, Fujimori Yukina’s voice is extremely distinctive, but she doesn’t change her timbre much—it’s basically that one voice. Luckily she’s very game, so she gets plenty of work. Some people speculate she’s retiring suddenly to get married. I think that’s plausible. Maybe she thought about it for a long time and finally decided to leave the industry after this year. Or maybe it was a compromise after talking it over with someone.

I did hold out a little hope that her retirement might just mean her alias is retiring, since her real name isn’t Fujimori Yukina.

But then her real-name agency page got deleted too:

http://y-tail.jp/talent/talent_w/takahashi_k

Yeah, it’s really over… she’s genuinely done.

Let me keep a final sample voice of hers as a memento.

Sometimes, watching familiar VAs retire one after another, I feel like I’m really getting old. I haven’t found a new favorite VA yet—maybe Toda Megumi is a solid pick. Not every VA gets the luck of a certain Sendai lady, I guess.