Ai Kayano

Ai Kayano (茅野 愛衣) is a Japanese voice actress. She was represented by the Pro-Fit talent agency until 2014. She has been represented by Office Osawa since 2015. She played leading roles in several anime series, including Meiko "Menma" Honma in Anohana, Inori Yuzuriha in Guilty Crown, Alice Zuberg in Sword Art Online: Alicization, Utaha Kasumigaoka in Saekano: How to Raise a Boring Girlfriend, Mashiro Shiina in The Pet Girl of Sakurasou, Saori Takebe in Girls und Panzer, Shiro in No Game No Life, Darkness in KonoSuba, and Mamako Oosuki in Do You Love Your Mom and Her Two-Hit Multi-Target Attacks?. She has also performed opening, ending and insert theme songs for each series.

Biography
Kayano wanted to work in a job that would involve "healing people", leading to initially take up a course at a vocational school. She worked in the beauty industry and became interested in acting, after watching Aria. While attending school, Kayano continued working in the industry and paid for her tuition.

Kayano began working at Pro-Fit in 2010, starring in the original video animation Princess Resurrection. She also voiced a number of background roles in the anime series A Certain Magical Index II, voicing Itsuwa. She voiced Meiko "Menma" Honma in Anohana. Kayano, Haruka Tomatsu and Saori Hayami performed the series' ending theme "Secret Base – Kimi ga Kureta Mono (10 years after Ver.)", a cover of a song originally sung by the band Zone. Kayano won the Best Newcomer Award at the 6th Seiyu Awards. She voiced Inori Yuzuriha in Guilty Crown.

Kayano voiced Mayaka Ibara in Hyouka. She and Satomi Satō performed the series' ending themes "Madoromi no Yakusoku" (まどろみの約束) and "Kimi ni Matsuwaru Mystery" (君にまつわるミステリー). Kayano voiced Mashiro Shiina in The Pet Girl of Sakurasou, and Saori Takebe in Girls und Panzer. She played several roles in 2013, including Ai Fuyuumi in Oreshura, and Chisaki Hiradaira in Nagi-Asu: A Lull in the Sea.

In 2014, Kayano played Shiro in No Game No Life. She performed the series' ending theme "Oración". Later that year, she left Pro-Fit and became a freelancer. Kayano joined Office Osawa in 2015. That same year, she played Megumi Sakura in School-Live!, and Utaha Kasumigaoka in Saekano: How to Raise a Boring Girlfriend. In 2016, she played the roles of Darkness in KonoSuba, Chizuru Hishiro in ReLIFE, and Rin Tōyama in New Game!. In 2017, she played Kirie Sakurame in UQ Holder. She also played Shuvi in No Game No Life: Zero.

In 2016, Kayano hosted a show titled "Kayanomi ~Kayano Ai ga Nihonshu wo Nominagara, Taberu dake" (かやのみ 〜茅野愛衣が日本酒をのみながら、食べるだけ〜) at Animate Times' YouTube channel. The show focuses on her looking through into various types of sake. The title of show is also a combination of her surname Kayano and the Japanese word for "drink", which is "nomi" (飲み).

Controversy
In 2021, controversy arose on Chinese social media as a result of Kayano's post regarding her February 11 trip to the Yasukuni Shrine, a Shinto shrine often a subject of controversy which enshrines Japanese men, women, children, and soldiers who died in numerous wars involving Japan spanning between the Meiji and Showa eras, including 1,068 convicted war criminals that were sentenced to death by the International Military Tribunal; of which 14 of them, including former Japanese Prime Minister Hideki Tojo, are labeled as A-Class criminals. In response, her voice was removed from six characters in the Chinese version of Azur Lane. Similar action was also taken in other games such as the removal of Kayano's voice lines from Punishing: Gray Raven and the Chinese version of Arknights, where her voice was replaced with that of Miku Itō and Mizuki Kitajima for all servers in 2021, respectively.