Yuki Kaida

is a Japanese voice actress. Although she has an extensive vocal range, voicing a large variety of characters throughout her career, she is commonly typecasted as young males, achieving mainstream success as her roles in Hunter × Hunter as Kurapika, The Prince of Tennis as Shusuke Fuji, Shōnen Onmyōji as Abe no Masahiro. and Hetalia: Axis Powers and Hetalia World Series as China or Yao Wang. She was formerly affiliated with the talent management agency Toritori Office, but is currently freelance. She is one of the few Japanese voice actors to have completed their formal education in the United States. Consequently, she can speak multiple languages with varying degrees of fluency outside of Japanese. She is affectionately nicknamed by her Japanese fans. Biography Career Kaida was born in Tokyo, Japan, and was raised in the Shinjuku ward of the city. Shortly following her graduation from Shinjuku High School, she enrolled in the International University of Art and Music in San Diego, California, and studied abroad for four years, where she majored in musical theater. She returned to Japan to focus on voice acting, making her debut in the OVA Southern Wind as Himiko, followed up by some minor roles in other television animation; but her first major role as a voice actor came when she was cast as Kurapika in Hunter × Hunter in 1999, after which her popularity began to grow. However, she went on to perform her arguably most well-known role, that of Shusuke Fuji in The Prince of Tennis, which began airing in 2001; she reprises the role for later adaptations as well as for voice acting events to promote the series and for CDs sung as the character. She is also known for her wide vocal range and feminine natural voice, being skilled at voicing males as well as adult women such as Ouka from .hack//Legend of the Twilight, gag characters such as Son Goku/Patalliro from Patalliro Saiyuki!, and young females such as Machi Kuragi from Fruits Basket.