29 years ago, in 1989, it was a much simpler time. The internet wasn’t established yet, the anime industry was still growing, and the global audience still didn’t know much about Japanese seiyuu. Recently, veteran seiyuu Rei Sakuma strolled down memory lane and showed off a special listing from that year. It came from Animage magazine, and listed the results of the 12th Anime Grand Prix, the time’s anime popularity contest. It revealed who were the most popular seiyuu of that year, and some of them are still going strong today.

The listing showed that fans voted for Akira Kamiya as the most popular seiyuu. Fans might know him as the voice of City Hunter’s Ryo Saeba, as well as Fist of the North Star’s Kenshirou. The listing also featured Kouichi Yamadera (Ranma½ ‘s Ryouga Hibiki), Toshihiko Seki (Ranma ½ ‘s Mousse), Toshio Fukukawa (Dragon Ball Z’s Piccolo), Tohru Furuya (Gundam’s Amuro Ray), Kazuhiko Inoue (Legend of Galactic Heroes’ Dusty Attemborough), and Kappei Yamaguchi (Ranma ½’s male Ranma Saotome).

As for the female seiyuu, it listed the legendary Megumi Hayashibara as the most popular one. She voices the female Ranma in Ranma ½, as well as Lina Inverse in Slayers. The magazine also listed Noriko Hidaka (Ranma ½’s Akane), Rei Sakuma (the one who posted the image and (Ranma ½’s Shampoo), Minami Takayama (Ranma ½’s Nabiki), Miina Tominaga (Patlabor’s Noa Izumi), Masako Nozawa (Dragon Ball Z’s Goku), Shinobu Adachi (Madou King Granzort’s Rabi), Sumi Shimamoto (Maison Ikkoku’s Kyoko Otonashi), Mayumi Tanaka (Dragon Ball Z’s Krillin), and Kazue Ikura (City Hunter’s Kaori Makimura).

Now, those are some pretty legendary names. However, back then, many of them might still be starting out and are still fresh faces. It looks like it worked out well for many of them, huh?