Natsuki Hanae

Verified Timeline

Lore & Background

Natsuki Hanae entered the workforce while in high school and planned to become a voice actor. He joined Across Entertainment in November 2009. His first leading role was in Tari Tari, where he was also credited as a composer for episodes 5 and 12. He and Ryōta Ōsaka hosted the radio show ŌHana (逢坂市立花江学園, Ōsaka Shiritsu Hanae Gakuen). On August 27, 2016, Hanae announced that he had married a woman five years his senior. On September 20, 2020, he announced that he has become the father of a pair of fraternal twin girls. On January 27, 2022, Hanae tested positive for COVID-19, and on February 7, 2022, it was announced that he had recovered.

In Their Own Story

In Grand Blue, Natsuki Hanae voices Iori Kitahara, a college student who moves to Izu to pursue diving but is dragged into a club that prioritizes drinking and stripping over underwater exploration. Hanae's performance captures Iori's rapid descent from an ambitious diving student into a brawling, shirtless party animal. The series blends real scuba diving terminology with exaggerated comedy, and Hanae's vocal range spans from calm to maniacal screaming, defining the show's unique comedic rhythm. His work on this series stands out as a masterclass in vocal comedy, where he often conveys extreme physical exertion and drunken slurring without visual cues.

Reader's Guide

Grand Blue Diving Club blends real scuba diving terminology with exaggerated comedy, and Natsuki Hanae's performance often highlights the gap between technical jargon and the characters' actual behavior. Terms like 'equalization,' 'buoyancy control,' and 'safety stops' are frequently misused or ignored by the cast, a joke that relies on the audience knowing proper diving protocols to appreciate the absurdity. From a production standpoint, Hanae is known for recording his lines with intense physical energy, often acting out scenes to capture the right breathlessness and emotion. The series' humor draws from Japanese university club culture (bunkatsu), where hazing and drinking are sometimes depicted as rites of passage, though Grand Blue takes this to an extreme level. The animation style uses 'chibi' forms for comedic effect when characters are drunk or enraged, and Hanae's ability to match these visual shifts vocally ensures the transition from serious diving instruction to slapstick comedy feels seamless.

Did You Know?

• Natsuki Hanae won the Best Rookie award at the 9th Seiyu Awards.
• He began uploading Let's Play videos on YouTube in March 2019 and amassed over 500,000 subscribers seven months later.
• On July 23, 2021, his SNS accounts' total followers surpassed two million people.
• He announced on August 27, 2016 that he had married a woman five years his senior.
• On September 20, 2020, he announced he had become the father of a pair of fraternal twin girls.