I have had the pleasure of going to many 22/7 (pronounced as “Nana-bune-no-ni-jyu-ni”) events in the recent months and they have all been a blast to attend. With each event, I get a better grasp of each member and really started to feel more and more attached to them. However since they are a fairly new group, there isn’t much information about them, especially in English.

For those who don’t know what 22/7 is, you can learn more about it here. But to summarize, 22/7 is a digital seiyuu idol group consisting of 11 members. This means that they are idols like the idols from AKB48 or NMB48, but instead has an anime character which they voice. They do their idol work mostly as their anime character which they voice.

One of the 11 members in 22/7, Amaki Sally, has a huge following of foreign fans due to the fact that she speaks fluent English (as well as have great sense of humour!!) This opened up the door to communicate with an actual Japanese idol which we have never seen nor experienced before!

I have been buying seiyuu magazines here and there ever since I started following seiyuus closely. Within one of the magazines series (called「Seiyuu Grand Prix」, which is one of the big 3 seiyuu magazines published each month), I was able to find a serialization of each of the 11 members of the group, which is introduced to us throughout each month. I don’t know the details, but I believe this is the first time 22/7 has been on「Seiyuu Grand Prix」thus this probably served as an introduction article for the group to the readers.

Without further ado, this is the translated「Seiyuu Grand Prix February 2018 Edition」 featuring our beloved queen, Amaki Sally.

Being born and raised in Los Angeles, what is something that you like that we wouldn’t expect?

Hello, my name is Amaki Sally and I was born in Los Angeles. Recently, I have taken interest in making cuisines, and as for a special skill, it only started recently, but I am able to sleep in class without being caught (lol).

The spark that made me want to become a voice actress was actually when I was still in America studying. There was one day which I felt like not going to school and on that same day, I watched an anime called「Gintama」and got super energized from it. That was the first time I knew about the voice actor Tomokazu Sugita, who voiced the main character, Sakata Gintoki, from「Gintama」. From there I also found out there is an occupation called voice actors. To me, Sugita’s performance helped revitalized me, I was able to go to school the next day. I want to do what Sugita was able to do for me, thus I came to Japan.

Before I came to Japan, the goal I set for myself was to voice a character Hiroguchi Yukiko, who is also the character designer for 「K-On!」, designed within 2 years. With that in mind, I started going to a training school. By the way, I love Yui from 「K-On!」and even though I can’t play guitar, I bought the same model guitar that Yui owns in the show. That’s how much I love her (lol). I named it “Giita Jr.” and it’s still at my home.

Note: Giita is what Yui named her guitar in the anime, K-On!

Since I am a hasty person, I wanted to become a voice actress as soon as I can. So while I was still going to the training school, I looked up and applied for many auditions but I failed each one of them. My Japanese level wasn’t good enough. I wasn’t able to speak keigo (polite form of Japanese) nor was I able to read the scripts that I received on the spot. That’s why during the 1-2 months before 22/7’s audition, I made time to study and improve my Japanese level and made sure my keigo was good enough.

Something that I like is to be in the closet. I have a walk-in closet at home, so I turn on the light to make it seem like it’s another room. So why on earth do I like closets? Well, because it’s comfortable. I like occult and documentaries but after watching a certain American documentary where a suspicious person broke into a guy’s home, the guy opened my eyes to the closet thing. The reason the guy was saved is because he hid in the closet and called the police.

After watching the documentary, I though to myself, “I must also look for a place to hide in my house” (lol). It felt really good burying myself in my clothes that are in my closet. By the way, all of our rooms in my house has an intercom system which when I press a button, I can hear all the noise and sound around the house. Because of this, I am not sure whether others can hear sounds in my room which makes me feel like it’s not really a private space. After thinking for a bit, I realized the closet doesn’t have an intercom system and it’s really quiet like a soundproof room once you shut the door so that’s why I often do things like voice recordings, singing practices, studying in there. The room now is more of a “hobby room” to me than a clothing storage space. I have piles of mangas in there!

It’s a super comfy closet, but there is a rule that I must absolutely follow, which is to not look up when I’m in the closet. There was an occult book I read before which one of the sentences stated that “just don’t look up, because I’m here”. From that point on, I got scared and I wasn’t able to look up while in the closet anymore (lol). But still, it’s super comfy and that’s why it’s my favourite room.

Bonus Section: A question from the previous member from last month’s article!

Q: Is there a deep sea fish you admire or a deep sea fish you want to be a member of 22/7?

A: There is a deep sea fish that I want to be friends with. It’s the pink and smooth blobfish (warning: it looks scary if you intend to look it up). I don’t think it looks that ugly in water, but if you take it out of water it becomes limply and is recognized as the ugliest fish on Earth. But it seems to have a good personality and seems to have a face that understands the pain of humans which I think is cute. It’s a candidate for a new mascot!

And that’s a wrap for this short article!

If you want a copy of the magazine, you can buy a physical copy through CDJapan, digital copy through Magazine Walker (although it only seem to have the most recent 2 months), or just find them in anime/ book stores all around Japan!

If you want to see Sally panic about the next thing, check out her twitter! She posts quite often and always gets me laughing!

Thank you so much for reading!

Until next time~~

Salo

PS: Apologies for the photo quality (I have no scanner) and the photoshop skill (never learned it before). Also all translations are done by me so feel free to let me know if you find any mistakes~