Nagomi Saijo

"I'm a quiet person from Kansai, but I want to be more tough and cheering. Please keep your eyes on me" Nagomi Saijo was born on July 25, in Hyogo Prefecture, Japan. Her nickname is "Nagomin". As a digital seiyuu idol in 22/7, Nagomi portrays Miu Takigawa via both voice acting and motion-capture physical acting. She is the center of 22/7.

Nagomi's image color is white.

Biography
Nagomi did not know much about anime or voice acting before joining 22/7, nor did she intend to enter the entertainment business. She did not have anything she wanted to do in particular, but thought that it would be dull to just stay in her hometown as is. At the time, she did not have anything fun to do, and did not want to get involved with people nor go to school. She thought that it would be bad if she stayed like that as an adult and felt like she needed to change herself.

During middle school, Nagomi had a clever best friend who she was always with. However, she spread rumors about her which resulted in Nagomi believing she couldn't trust clever people. Nagomi states she was more sociable back then.

She then learned about the 22/7 auditions by a friend and resolved to try it out. Her older sister, who works as a model, used to make Nagomi take auditions with her, but the 22/7 audition was the first one she applied out of her own will, much to the surprise of her mother. Nagomi thought that just doing the same things she has been doing is the easy way out, so she challenged herself by doing the thing she dislikes the most. She also thought that if she passed, she could go to Tokyo and physically get out of her current situation as well.

During the auditions, because Nagomi dislikes and had avoided public speaking up until that point, the judges often asked if she was angry.

Her career began on 24 December 2016 upon successfully passing 22/7 auditions and joining the unit. As Digital Idol 22, she was provisionally assigned the role of Akane. After character assignments were finalized, she was cast as Miu, which was provisionally assigned to Urara. On learning that she would not have the role, Urara said that if anyone other than her portrayed Miu, she wanted it to be Nagomi.

Coming from Hyogo, Nagomi could not participate in the group's initial lessons on weekdays due to school and only practiced on her own at home. On weekends, she would stay in a hotel with Mizuha and Moe, who are also from Kansai region, so they can attend their lessons. Before she moved to Tokyo, Nagomi would travel through Shinkansen at 5 or 6 AM on Saturdays and would leave at around 11 PM on Sundays for school the next day.

Nagomi's family seems to be supportive of her career. She could not stream on Showroom alone at first, but her mother encouraged her to try it out so that she doesn't keep on troubling other members to do it with her. Nagomi's parents and older sister sometimes help her set up for streams. Her sister, who used to be vice president of an Art Club, often prepares drawings and written announcements for Nagomi to use in her streams.

She was one of the top 3 finalists of the recital matches (22/7 朗読女王決定戦) and performed in Differ Ariake during their February 27 live along with Mei and Mizuha. She placed third in the final match, receiving 21.4% of the votes.

Goals
Beyond becoming a well-established seiyuu, no particular professional goals are known at this time.

Seiyuu Influences

 * Minami Takayama

Interests
Nagomi is a big fan of the show Aibou along with the rest of her family. While she is usually soft-spoken, she gets very excited when she gets to talk about the show and even buys Aibou goods.

Nagomi likes stories that "aren't peaceful", such as mystery and detective stories. She is interested in stories with scary themes (e.g. revenge, betrayal, murder, crimes), but prefers those with living characters rather than horror ghost stories. Nagomi said that if she were in a detective story, she would probably play the role of the messed up or psychopathic criminal. Sally said that in this respect she might be most similar to Nagomi so she sometimes gives her show and manga recommendations.

In order to know more about anime, she also started watching some series the members recommended to her. Some anime that she likes are Psycho-Pass, Puella Magi Madoka Magica, and Detective Conan.

Nagomi likes dancing but often worries about not being idol-like, as she has trouble keeping up a smile while dancing. She learned how to dance as a child by imitating the routines of her favorite idol groups, such as Fairies. She is also a big fan of Sonoko Kawai of Onyanko Club. Among the members of 22/7, she likes Chiharu Hokaze's dancing the most because it is energetic and she makes dancing seem fun.

Nagomi also likes art, especially impressionism works from France and claims she wants to go to an art gallery, but can't as there's too many people. She also seems to like photography.

Quirks
Nagomi has a lot of weird hobbies and interests, which inspired the corner Turn Around, Nagomin! (振り向いて、なごみん!) in 22/7's weekly radio program, where listeners can send their own weird habits or quirks for Nagomi to rate.

Nagomi does not show a lot of emotion and very rarely cries, prompting people to describe her as cold. While she has cried a few times upon joining the group, she says that she hasn't cried in about ten years until then. She doesn't cry when watching movies or during graduation ceremonies. However, she thinks that people who can cry are stronger and braver.

Nagomi is quite picky with her food. The list of food she doesn't like is longer compared to those she likes, so it has been one of her goals to increase the types of food that she can eat. Sally once tried to make a list of all the food Nagomi is able to eat. Her favorite foods are canned tuna and unagi donburi. Nagomi said that as long she has canned tuna she can live. Nagomi is allergic to some flour based foods.

Despite being able to tell the season or time by smelling the air, she says that she does not like the smell of rain and of nighttime. She likes the smell of spring at around 12 to 1 in the afternoon. Nagomi also likes the smell of elevators and stairs going down to the subway.

During interviews, Nagomi says that answering questions is fine, although she doesn't like being filmed, as she doesn't like the attention from people.

Behind the scenes
Nagomi is usually very quiet and seldom starts conversations. During break times in between lessons, she likes sitting in a corner and spacing out while looking at floor or wall patterns or staring at the cable socket. Nagomi gets nervous when she is left alone with another member but she says that she really feels glad inside when someone starts a conversation with her. While she likes being alone, she doesn't like it when she is intentionally left out.

Nagomi was considered as the "baby" of the group, with the members frequently calling her Aka-chan (赤ちゃん). She sees Chiharu and Kanae as her older sisters among them. She also saw Mei as her sister. She currently appears very close with fellow member Rino.

Nagomi does not know how to cook but can make sweets. She makes handmade sweets for Valentine's every year.

Her worst subjects in school are English and History. She once had Sally and Mizuha tutor her for an English test.

She before having a personal Twitter account, she often checked tweets with her #西條和 hashtag and replies to people through the Chat Time corner (おはなしたいむ) in her blog. Her Twitter was created in July, 2021.

Nagomi was in a LINE group with Reina and Mei.

Minus promotional images taken for 22/7, Nagomi usually avoids being in pictures and Kanae even stated that it was rare for her to be in them.



Gallery
For more images of this voice actor please refer here.

Trivia

 * Nagomi was the last member to have her own personal Twitter Account, and social media account overall.
 * Nagomi likes the songs Boku wa Sonzai Shiteinakatta and Ashi wo Arae!