Mei Hanakawa

"I hope to be a person who can support people. I will work hard to grow my skills day by day."

Mei Hanakawa (currently known as Yui Asakura) was born on June 8, 1996, in Aomori Prefecture, Japan. Her nickname was "Meimei". As a former digital seiyuu idol in 22/7, Mei portrayed Nicole Saito via both voice acting and motion-capture physical acting.

Mei officially graduated on December 24, 2019, although her activities with 22/7 officially ended on December 28, 2019. Her role was succeeded by Uta Kawase.

Mei's image color was blue.

Biography
When Mei was little, she always admired voice actors and idols. When finding out about the 22/7 auditions, she thought it was fate. She started watching anime when her father would watch Naruto, and as an only child, would only look forward to watching anime.

Mei had a period when she didn't want to go to school a lot and didn't have much courage in herself.

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

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 Mizuha Kuraoka and Nagomi Saijo. She placed first in the final match, receiving 41.3% of the votes.

On December 24, 2019, Mei officially graduated from 22/7, although her activities with 22/7 ended on December 28 with a handshake event for Nani mo Shiteagerarenai. Her profile was wiped from the official site after this.

Despite leaving 22/7, Mei still wishes to continue seiyuu work.

In 2021, it was revealed that she is an artist under the Libera agency as Asakura Yui and was casted as Hana Natsuki in Kamen Rider Revice.

Goals
Beyond becoming a well-established seiyuu, Mei stated that she was unsure what she wanted to do, but would find out what she wants to do along the way.

Mei's goals for 2019 were to reach out to people around the world through social media and be invited to more events overseas.

Seiyuu Influences

 * Kana Hanazawa
 * Miho Arakawa

Interests
Mei often talked about games with Chiharu, and Chiharu recommended Harvest Moon to her because there were rabbits in it. Mei, Kanae, and Chiharu played Splatoon 2 together on Nintendo Switch.

She loves rabbits.

Mei really likes Mawaru Penguindrum and could die if she voiced the main character Himari Takakura. Mei likes Pokémon and has merchandise of the series. She also likes Gintama, and talks to Sally about it.

Mei enjoys making sweets and has done so since primary school. During Anime Expo 2018, Mei said that strawberry parfait was her favorite food.

Mei enjoys performing at live shows.

Quirks
Mei has a slight lisp. Mei often says 確かに(tashika ni, たしかに) or "Surely."

Mei gets nauseous in cars travelling on bumpy roads.

Mei claims that she can get depressed easily. She also says that she doesn't get along with many people.

Behind the scenes
Mei loves winter and snow. Before recording for her character, Mei did tongue twisters to help with pronunciation. To improve her stamina for lives, Mei would run every evening. Her goal was to run 5km within 25 minutes.

Mei's house was formerly close to Reina's, and the two would often walk home together while talking about idols.

Mei thought of Nagomi as her sister. She was also in a LINE group with Nagomi and Reina.

Alongside Reina and Sally, the three of them went to Anime Expo 2018 together.

On October 1, 2019, it was announced that due to undisclosed health issues, Mei would be taking a break from 22/7 and related activities. She was receiving medical treatment and in the care of a physician.

On December 12, 2019, it was announced that Mei would permanently graduate from 22/7 by the end of 2019 due to seeing difficulty recovering while carrying out idol activities. Her final blog post can be seen here, announcing her departure.

On December 27, her blog on the group's website was officially shut down.

On May 18, 2018, management granted her an individual official Twitter account, however it has since been deleted since her departure.

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

Trivia

 * Mei's favorite song to perform live was Yasashii Kioku as it has a deeper meaning and is really emotional.
 * Alongside Reina, Mei was arguably the most popular 22/7 member within Japan.