Megumi Hayashibara

Megumi Hayashibara (林原はやしばら めぐみ) is a voice actress who provides the voice of Lina Inverse in the Slayers anime and Canal Vorfeed in the Lost Universe anime.

Biography
Megumi Hayashibara was born on March 30, 1967, in Tokyo, Japan. When she was a young girl, she loved to watch anime, and she was shocked to learn that adults provided the voices of the characters she believed were real. When she was a little older, she was one of 18 girls out of over 600 chosen by a talent agency, Arts Vision, to undergo training to become a voice actress. Despite her two-year training with Arts Vision, Hayashibara's parents were opposed to her prospective career; bowing to their pressure, Hayashibara enrolled in nursing school, and disliked it. She eventually saw a magazine article about a voice acting school that was recruiting students, and she made up her mind to quit nursing and become an actress.

Hayashibara's first anime role was that of a kindergartener heard off-screen in the first episode of Maison Ikkoku, and she later was credited as providing the voice for Yosuke Nanao. She then went on to provide hundreds, if not thousands of other voices.

In addition to her voice acting career, Hayashibara is an accomplished singer, with fourteen solo albums released between 1991 and 2004. She also has hosted two radio talk and music shows, Tokyo Boogie Night (in Tokyo) and Megumi's Heartful Station (in Osaka).

On March 30, 1998, on her 31st birthday, Hayashibara was married to a coworker she had been seeing for five years previous. On June 28, 2004, she had her first child, a girl.

Slayers
Hayashibara performed the major role of Lina Inverse and the one-shot character of Lila in the Slayers anime. Lina Inverse was arguably the role that brought Hayashibara the fame she enjoys today, and especially the fame she received in the late 1990s.

Hayashibara has made it known that she misses playing Lina and wishes there were more to the Slayers anime so she could perform as the character more. She has said on more than one occasion that Lina is "sleeping" inside her heart, ready to be summoned for another performance.

Lost Universe
While the Lost Universe anime was nowhere near as popular as Slayers, Hayashibara went on to provide the voices of Canal Vorfeed and Night Dragon Vorfeed in this series.

Famous non-Kanzaka roles

 * Ranma Saotome (girl) (Ranma ½, 1989)
 * Pai (3×3 Eyes, 1991)
 * Ai Amano (Video Girl Ai, 1992)
 * Momiji Fujimiya (Blue Seed, 1994)
 * Tira Misu (Bakuretsu Hunters, 1995)
 * Lime (Saber Marionette series, 1995)
 * Rei Ayanami (Neon Genesis Evangelion, 1995)
 * Musashi (Pocket Monsters, 1997)
 * Ai Haibara (Detective Conan, 1997)
 * Faye Valentine (Cowboy Bebop, 1998)
 * Anna Kyōyama (Shaman King, 2000)

Solo albums

 * Half and, Half (1991)
 * WHATEVER (1992)
 * Perfume (1992)
 * SHAMROCK (1993)
 * PULSE (1994)
 * SpHERE (1994)
 * Enfleurage (1995)
 * bertemu (1996)
 * Iravati (1997)
 * ふわり (Fuwari) (1999)
 * VINTAGE S (2000)
 * VINTAGE A (2000)
 * feel well (2002)
 * center color (2004)
 * Plain (2007)
 * Tanoshii Douyou (2007)
 * CHOICE (2010)

Slayers

 * Get along
 * KUJIKENAIKARA!
 * Give a reason
 * Breeze
 * don't be discouraged
 * Nemurenai yoru wa
 * Otome no inori
 * EXIT→RUNNING
 * Going History
 * Shakunetsu no Koi
 * SLAYERS 4 the future
 * MIDNIGHT BLUE
 * Shining Girl
 * just be conscious
 * RUN ALL THE WAY!
 * Reflection
 * GLORIA ~Kimi no Todoketai~
 * raging waves
 * I & Myself
 * Kagirinai Yokubō no Naka ni
 * Touch yourself
 * feel well
 * Rumba Rumba
 * Meet again
 * Plenty of grit
 * Revolution
 * Front breaking
 * Sunadokei
 * JUST BEGUN

Lost Universe

 * ~infinity~∞
 * EXTRICATION
 * Toki wo Koete