Mizuha Kuraoka

"My name is Mizuha Kuraoka! My aim is to live every day with laughter and also to make people smile. I will make people all over the world smile through 22/7(^^)" Mizuha Kuraoka (Currently known as Riko Kuramaru) was born on June 21, 1998, in Shiga Prefecture, Japan. Her nickname was "Mizuhan", although she was usually referred to as "Mizzy" in the English fanbase. As a former digital seiyuu idol in 22/7, Mizuha portrayed Miyako Kono via both voice acting and motion-capture physical acting.

Prior to the consent of using their names for voice roles, Mizuha went under the alias "Kurao."

Mizuha officially graduated on November, 30, 2021.

Mizuha's image color was orange.

Biography
Mizuha generally speaks using a Kansai dialect. She has a younger sister.

Mizuha used to be captain of dodge ball and basketball in grade school but since becoming an otaku in middle school, she mostly stayed home without exercise so she became unathletic.

In middle school, Mizuha had a lot of friends who liked anime so she started recording and watching late-night anime in order to keep up with their conversations. She then learned that Asami Seto was doing voice work while still in high school. She was impressed by her vocal range and thought that she would also like to be a voice actor in the future.

In high school Mizuha was in the broadcasting club.

She started to audition for voice work but did not pass any. Her parents were also against the idea of her being a voice actor and would not hear any talk about voice acting schools. Her teachers also told her to pick a more "realistic" career path.

Since the applications for 22/7 was done online, Mizuha was able to keep it a secret from her parents. When her application was accepted, she told her parents that this will be the last audition she will take and asked them to let her push through with it. She then got permission to go to Tokyo for the audition process.

Her career began on 24 December 2016 upon successfully passing 22/7 auditions and joining the unit.

For the group's initial lessons, Mizuha would stay in a hotel with Moe and Nagomi on weekends, so they could attend their lessons.

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 Hanakawa and Nagomi Saijo. She placed second in the final match, receiving 37.3% of the votes.

she officially graduated from the group on November, 30, 2021, although she has said that she hopes to return to showbussiness sometime in the future. Mizuha officially returned on January 5, 2022, under the new name Riko Kuramaru and is affiliated with Maimu Pro.

Goals
Beyond becoming a well-established seiyuu, no particular professional goals are known at this time. She said that it is her dream to win and give a speech at the Seiyuu Awards.

Seiyuu Influences

 * Asami Seto
 * Yoko Hikasa
 * Nana Mizuki

Interests
Mizuha likes the anime Neon Genesis Evangelion and Ayanami Rei is her favorite character. She is also a fan of the Uta no Prince-sama franchise.

Tsuritama is her favorite anime of all time and is the reason she got hooked on anime.

Mizuha is good at swimming. She learned front crawl, butterfly, breaststroke, and backstroke from swimming school.

Mizuha has loved Kansai comedy ever since kindergarten. The reason she loved Kansai comedy in particular is because she feels at home when listening to it.

Mizuha's favorite color is orange.

Quirks
Mizuha knows a bit of English and often tries to communicate with international fans. While she believes that she is quite good at it, Sally Amaki told her that her pronunciation can be hard to understand. She once said that she does not like using Google Translate because it messes up the grammar.

When singing, she can control her voice to mimic a singing voice synthesizer (i.e. vocaloid). She also likes to occasionally sing in an operatic style. Mizuha is good at singing Disney songs, so when she goes to karaoke, she sings lots of them.

Mizuha can also juggle.

Behind the scenes
Mizuha is the Kansai representative of 22/7.

Mizuha is very close to fellow member Moe and declares Moe her best friend. She often hangs out with Moe even on their days off and have stayed over at each other's places on numerous occasions. Mizuha is also good friends with Sally.

She is not good at cooking anything besides egg dishes.

Mizuha thinks that Aina has nice legs.

On February 24, 2020, it was announced that due to undisclosed health issues, Mizuha would be taking a break from 22/7 and related activities. During this break, she received medical treatment and was in the care of a physician. On September 1, 2020, it was announced that Mizuha would return from her hiatus later that month on September 20. Mizuha also made a statement on the official blog thanking fans for their support and patience.

On September, 2018, management granted her an individual official Twitter account. Although it has since been deleted since her departure. She currently has a new official Twitter account. She frequently interacts with the current and former 22/7 members online.



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