Youko Ogai is a Japanese voice actress born on July 5, 1959, in Hamamatsu, Shizuoka Prefecture, Japan. She is also widely known by her later stage name, Akari Hibino, which she adopted in August 1999 upon returning full-time to the voice acting industry. Her career began in 1981, and she worked under her real name and the name Hibino Akari until 1989, when she retired for a period. She returned to voice acting in 1994 for the series Captain Tsubasa J before fully resuming her career in 1999. By 2002, she had stepped back from regular voice acting work but continued to reprise roles from her previous projects and later became active as a rakugo performer under the name Bibiriya Akari.

Ogai is best known for her iconic role as the young protagonist Tsubasa Ohzora in the long-running soccer anime franchise Captain Tsubasa. This included numerous series and films such as Shin Captain Tsubasa and Captain Tsubasa: Holland Youth. She was married to Yōichi Takahashi, the creator of Captain Tsubasa, for a period. Her other significant roles from the 1980s include Konpoko in ESPer Mami: Hoshizora no Dancing Doll, Shinji Oda in Sonic Soldier Borgman, and Asa in the Project A-ko film series, including Project A-ko 2: Plot of the Daitokuji Financial Group. She also voiced the characters Robin God and Robin Jr. in the Wrestler Gundan series, which includes Go! Wrestler Gundan and Wrestler Gundan Ginga-hen Seisenshi Robin Jr.. Additional roles from this era include Cancer in Transformers: Super God Masterforce and Grandma in My Melody no Akazukin.

In the late 1990s, following her return to voice acting, she took on roles in prominent series such as Feitan in the 1999 version of Hunter × Hunter and Okita Sōji in the acclaimed Rurouni Kenshin: Trust & Betrayal OVA. Throughout her career, she was a frequent collaborator with fellow voice actors including Hironori Suzukake, Nobuo Tobita, Ikuya Sawamura, Shigeru Nakahara, Kenyu Horiuchi, and Sho Hayami. In addition to her voice work, she performed theme songs for the Captain Tsubasa franchise, such as "Burning Hero" and "Shoot for Tomorrow".