Rinoa's Actresses

The other side of Rinoa.

Three different women played the role of Rinoa for the full motion videos in Final Fantasy VIII. The character does not have a voice but in some videos she is heard breathing. Foley artists in the U.S.A. recorded and mixed that breathing, along with all the other sounds heard in the FMV movies. Strangely, the staff included a voice track of a young woman (eerily similar to the Selphie at Wing Heart Productions) saying "What's the matter?" within FF8's sound files.

Mayuko Aoki: Rinoa's Motion Actress

Name: 青木麻由子
Birthdate: December 17, 1975
Height/Blood: 164cm / O
Birthplace: Kochi Prefecture
Hobby: Kabocha collection
Phrase: 笑顔 (smile)

Mayuko Aoki acted out the motion capture needed for most of Rinoa's movie sequences. She also did the motions for Edea. She was Garnet's motion actress for FF9 and Yuna's voice & motion actress for FF10. Since then she has been nicknamed the "Successive FF series heroine motion actress". In the spirit of tradition, she also worked on Tifa Lockhart's motions for FF7: Advent Children.

Since her breakthrough role as Yuna in FF10 and FFX-2 – complete with song recordings, she has voiced Selphie in Kingdom Hearts and Kingdom Hearts 2. She continues to do numerous bit parts in television, games, movies and radio dramas. She is actually reluctant about taking on more voice acting work, as she wants to do each role to the best of her ability. She plays the FF games she has worked on and honestly cares about the finished product. Her favorite FF10 character is Wakka.

For fun, you can listen to a bit of Mayuko Aoki MC-ing at the FINAL FANTASY: Orchestra Concert. This clip gives you a good idea of how she sounds normally as opposed to her Yuna voice. During the clip Masakazu Morita (Tidus' actor) has told her to ask for "more light" onto the stage – but she has to say it the way a Summoner would! So she summons, "Light... please!" until she gets the voice just right.

Hoshimi Asai: Rinoa's Action Actress

Name: 浅井星光
Birthdate: July 7, 1970
Height/Blood: 157cm / A
Birthplace: Toyko
Hobby: tap dance, drums
Specialty: karate, judo

Hoshimi Asai performed the action (stunt) motion capturing for both Rinoa and Selphie. These include Selphie tumbling down a cliff and Rinoa falling down the side of B-Garden. Asai is a karate master turned actress who often takes on action roles in dramas, movies and stagework. Like Mayuko Aoki, most of her work has been NHK related.

Yasuko Yokoyama: Rinoa's Dance Actress

Yasuko Yokoyama was Rinoa's motion actress for a most important scene, the graduation dance party. The ballroom sequence was a Viennese Waltz choreographed by Hiroyuki Kikuchi, who also choreographed Yuna's "Ikai Okuri" dance in FF10. Dancing Office Saijo Co., Ltd. supervised the choreography and motion capture for FF8's other dance sequences as well, such as Edea's Parade.