It was for the film “Mizu no Tabibito.” I was in my early teens and incredibly shy.
I hid under the table during my first audition. She has gone on to star in a number of critically acclaimed films and dramas, including “All about Lily Chou-Chou,” “Tokyo,” “Gantz” and “Hirugao,” as well as performing as the voice actress for Tifa Lockhart in the popular role-playing game,“Final Fantasy.” She was also the lead singer for Chara and Yuki’s group, Mean Machine, who reached number seven in the charts with their album “Cream.” This month Ito is set to play the lead role in NHK BS’s new show “Sono Otoko, Ishiki Takai Kei.” Wanting to hear more about that and her career to date, Weekender recently decided to sit down and chat with the stylish actress in Shibuya. Three years later a gripping performance in “Swallowtail Butterfly” won her the Best Newcomer and Best Actress in a Supporting Role prizes at the Japan Academy Awards, in addition to the Best New Actress accolade at the Takasaki Film Festival.
She released her fourth studio album "Tabi*Note" in October, and continues to perform worldwide, attracting many with her broad and diverse talents.Ayumi Ito made her movie debut in Nobuhiko Obayashi’s “Mizu no Tabibito: Samurai Kids” at the age of just 13. In July, she performed her solo concert in Hong Kong to a sold out crowd. She was also engaged worldwide, and attended events in Vietnam, Canada, Bangkok, Singapore, China, and Hong Kong. She held her anniversary concert at AKASAKA BLITZ, which can be seen in her DVD Yui Makino 10th Anniversary Live~So Happy!!~. Yui has released "88 Flight" digitally, and "Kimi no Erabu Michi" in 2015, her 10-year anniversary from her debut. In 2009, Yui performed in France at Japan Expo, the world's largest Japan pop culture festival, as the first Japanese Seiyu, and continued on to perform in New York, Shanghai, Singapore and Seoul. Yui became active in events overseas starting from 2007, where she performed in Beijing as a Japanese ambassador for a Japanese-Chinese cultural exchange business event. Since then, she has continued on to sing theme songs for animes such as "Undine" for ARIA The ANIMATION, "Euforia" for ARIA The NATURAL, "Sketchbook wo Motta Mama" for Sketchbook ~full color's~, "Synchronicity" for TSUBASA CHRoNiCLE: TOKYO REVELATIONS OVAs, "Spirale" for ARIA The ORIGINATION, and Sasayaki wa "Crescendo" for Francesca, to name a few. In August, she debuted as a singer with "Amrita", which was the theme song for TSUBASA CHRoNiCLE the Movie: The Princess in the Birdcage Kingdom. Yui debuted as a voice actress in April 2005 as Sakura, the main character of TSUBASA CHRoNiCLE, while at the same time she pre-debuted as a singer with "Omna Magni", the ending theme song for Genesis of Aquarion. Throughout the years, she has played for two more of his films, All About Lily Chou-Chou and Hana and Alice.
At age 4, she started playing piano, and her talent was discovered by film director Shunji Iwai at age 8, where she played incidental music for his film Love Letter. Yui started out her career as a child actor at age 3.