Yui Makino (????, Makino Yui) is a Japanese voice actor, actress, singer and pianist. She is best known for her work in the anime Tsubasa Chronicle and Aria. She can speak basic English.[citation needed] She is well known as a nice, caring, polite and a down-to-earth person, according to her fans. Her fans sometimes call her "Yucchi", "Maki-Maki" or simply "Yui-chan". She is called "Yui-hime" by a fellow seiyuu, Yukari Fukui. She also participated voicing the character Sister in a short-anime movie Bavel no Hon when she was only 10. She was a child actor. Because of her signature childish and girlish voice, she often voices cheerful and sweet girls (Sakura, Misaki, Kyoko). But, she also can voice girls with mysterious backgrounds (Misaki, Honoka, Ryphia), innocent and childish girls (Ryphia), up-beat girls (May-Yu, Tsubasa, Mio), lolita-chara (Mio), boyish girls (Hazuki, May-Yu) and even emotionless characters (Honoka, Cui Ling/Lapis). Makino took up piano at the age of four. Her talent for playing piano was discovered by the film director Shunji Iwai when she was seven years old and from the age of 8 to 17, she played piano solos for three of his films: Love Letter, All About Lily Chou-Chou and Hana and Alice. She made her debut as a singer in 2005 with “Omna Magni”, produced by Yoko Kanno. It was used as the ending theme song for the anime Sousei no Aquarion. In the April of the same year, she also debuted as a seiy?, starring as heroine Sakura in Tsubasa Chronicle and recording several songs for its soundtrack. She released “Amrita”, the ending song for the Tsubasa Chronicle film, as well as “Undine”, the opening theme for the TV Tokyo anime Aria the Animation, coupled with its inserted song “Symphony”.[1][citation needed] It achieved #25 on the Oricon chart. On 2006, Makino released two songs from another TV Tokyo anime, Aria the Natural, the theme song “Euphoria” and insert song “Amefuribana”. They were released on one product and achieved #18 on the Oricon chart. She released her debut album, Tenky? no Ongaku on 6 December 2006. In 2007, she was invited to represent Japan at the Japan-China cultural exchange event. She also released two singles for the programmes Sketchbook ~full color's~ and Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle. On 23 January 2008, Makino released her seventh single, “Spirale” as the opening theme of Aria the Origination. Coupled with the anime’s insert song, “Yokogao”, the single reached #20 on the Oricon chart. She also performed her first solo concert at the Fuchuno Mori Geijutsu Gekijo Wien Hall in Tokyo, where she sang and played the piano accompaniment for each song. She released her eponymous second album, Makino Yui in March 2008. It reached #22 on the Oricon chart. She graduated from Tokyo College of Music as a piano major in the same month. In 2009, Yui started traveling overseas to perform in various events, and on 7 October 2009, she released her single "Tampopo Suisha (??????)". (с)wikipedia.org