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Tomoko Kawakami

was a Japanese voice actress. She was also known by her pen-name , and her Christian name . Having graduated from the Toho Gakuen College of Drama and Music, she was a member of Production Baobab.

Career

Kawakami debuted in 1994 as a role of a boy in Metal Fighter Miku. Her first regular performance was in 1995 as Chiriko in Fushigi Yuugi. Two years after, she landed her first starring voice role as Utena Tenjou in Revolutionary Girl Utena. Aside from Chiriko and Utena, her famous roles are in Air (Misuzu Kamio), Bleach (Soifon), Chrono Crusade (Rosette Christopher), Hikaru no Go (Hikaru Shindo), Sgt. Frog (Fuyuki Hinata), Ape Escape (Natsumi),Yukiko Kawasaki (Dear Boys), Sugar (A Little Snow Fairy Sugar), Aria (Athena Glory), and Miu FÅ«rinji ().

Kawakami provided voices for young boys, girls and comical characters. The best-known genre of her roles are tomboyish characters (Soifon, Utena Tenjou). With such a powerful voice, she was often affiliated in paranormal and yuri-themed anime. She also made her name voicing the heroine in the Harukanaru Toki no Naka de series, based from the Neoromance game with the same title produced by Koei in 2000.

Illness and death

In August 2008, Kawakami was diagnosed with ovarian cancer, which required surgery. During her battle with cancer over the next three years, replacement voice actresses stepped into most of her ongoing roles, although Kawakami managed to do some voice work until her retirement in early 2010. She died on June 9, 2011. Her death was met with an outpouring of grief. Kumiko Watanabe, a fellow voice actress and particularly close friend of hers who worked alongside Kawakami in series such as Klonoa and Sgt. Frog, responded on her web diary with condolences just two days after Kawakami's death. Her mother Shizuko thanked all her fans for their condolences in an online letter on 29 June 2011.

Filmography

Anime series

Anime films

Video games

Dubbing roles

Original video animation

Successors

References

Sources

  • Nakagami, Yoshikatsu. "The Official Art of AIR" (October 2007), Newtype USA. pgs. 135–41

External links