Rie Kugimiya is a Japanese voice actress and singer. She is best known for her voice performances in anime, which include Alphonse Elric in the Fullmetal Alchemist series, Kagura in Gin Tama, and Happy in Fairy Tail and Edens Zero, and in video games, such as Haruka Sawamura in the Yakuza series and Kiana Kaslana in Honkai Impact 3rd. Because of her roles for characters such as Shana in Shakugan no Shana, Louise in The Familiar of Zero, Nagi Sanzenin in Hayate the Combat Butler, Taiga Aisaka in Toradora!, Aguri Madoka/Cure Ace in DokiDoki! PreCure, and Aria Holmes Kanzaki in Aria the Scarlet Ammo, some of her fans have nicknamed her the "Queen of Tsundere." She is currently represented by the talent agency I'm Enterprise.

Alphonse Elric is a fictional character and one of the protagonists in the Fullmetal Alchemist manga series and its adaptations created by Hiromu Arakawa. Alphonse is a child who lost his body during an alchemical experiment to bring his deceased mother back to life and had his soul attached to a suit of armor by his older brother Edward. As a result, Alphonse is almost invulnerable as long as the armor's seal is not erased, but is unable to feel anything. To recover their bodies, the Elrics travel around their country Amestris to obtain the Philosopher's Stone—an alchemical object that could restore them. In the animated adaptations of Fullmetal Alchemist, Alphonse is voiced by Rie Kugimiya in Japanese. In the English adaptations, he is voiced by Aaron Dismuke in the first series and by Maxey Whitehead in the second.