Make Your Daily Life a Scene from an Anime with Hikaru Midorikawa’s “Ikebo”! The Birth of the “Sexy Cicada” Brings Laughter to the Studio

On ABEMA’s “Anime LIVE Channel,” “Say You To Yo Asobi Friday [Tomokazu Seki × Hikaru Midorikawa] #15” aired on Friday, August 22, 2025, at 10:00 PM. In this episode, Hikaru Midorikawa appeared on “Yo Asobi” for the first time as a substitute MC for Reiji Kawashima. In the segment titled “Legendary Voice Actor Tradition! Deep Dive into the Questionnaire Talk!,” a wide range of topics were discussed, from Midorikawa’s childhood and training school years to his early days as a voice actor. Furthermore, the segment “I Want to Hear That Sound in Midorikawa’s Voice!” featured Midorikawa recreating various everyday sounds with his voice, turning daily life into epic scenes.

■Midorikawa World Unleashed: Overflowing Ikebo and Laughter!?

At the start of the show, Hikaru Midorikawa made a solo appearance due to Tomokazu Seki’s absence. The “solo opening talk” is a tradition of Say You To Yo Asobi, and despite it being his first time, Midorikawa took on the role. He began with, “Let’s play rock-paper-scissors with me, old man! If you want to be praised, win! If you want to be scolded, lose!” and delivered sweet lines and a sadistic (“do-S”) voice to the viewers. Comments poured in from the audience, such as “Ear candy!”, “Ikebo~”, and “This is too much fan service.” After that, Seki appeared, clapped, and praised him, saying, “As expected! Well done!” and added, “Despite being put on the spot, you weren’t flustered at all!”

During the program, the “Legendary Voice Actor Tradition! Deep Dive into the Questionnaire Talk!” was held. Many questions covering Midorikawa’s childhood, time at training school, and current voice acting career were posed. According to Midorikawa, his first crush was Lynn Minmay, the heroine from “The Super Dimension Fortress Macross.” He explained, “Since the protagonist had the same name as me—‘Hikaru’—it left an impression whenever Minmay called him ‘Hikaru.’” Seki agreed, saying, “That would definitely make you happy.”

Midorikawa also revealed that he had the experience of performing with Mari Iijima, the artist who voiced Lynn Minmay in “Macross,” at an event. He shared, “But I couldn’t bring myself to talk to her at all.” To this, Seki joked, “Even though you said such sweet things in the opening…!” to which Midorikawa replied, “At the time, I was still a child.”

When asked about “the job he was scolded for the most in his voice acting career,” Midorikawa talked about a narration job during his rookie days where he couldn’t correct his regional dialect and was sent home from the studio. “They sent me back home,” he recalled, adding that we didn’t have much time to check accents at the site. Seki expressed surprise, saying, “So you had those kinds of times too, Midorikawa-san!”

Other stories included the time at training school when Midorikawa, who loved practical jokes, often made classmate Aya Hisakawa angry, and the episode where he became the first male to be chosen for a lead role in the training school’s graduation performance. The program was filled with excitement.