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Keiko Yokozawa

Japanese voice actress From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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Keiko Nanba (難波 啓子, Nanba Keiko; born September 2, 1952[1][2] in Niigata, Japan), better known by the stage name Keiko Yokozawa (よこざわけい子, Yokozawa Keiko), is a Japanese voice actress, actress, and narrator. She is most well known for the roles of Dorami (Doraemon), Mami Sakura (Esper Mami), Benio Hanamura (Haikara-san ga Tōru), and Sheeta (Castle in the Sky).

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Biography

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Yokozawa was born on September 2, 1952, in Niigata City as the daughter of Kyūhachi Yokozawa, who was a junior high school English teacher.

Although she did not want to become a voice actress originally, both of her parents wanted Yokozawa to speak standard Japanese as she frequently struggled with Niigata dialect, so they decided to enroll her into a children's theater company. The company ended up disbanding three years after she joined, but she was able to become a regular in radio dramas thanks to the close acquaintances she made during the time.[3][4]

In her kindergarten years, Yokozawa took ballet, piano, and art lessons, but didn't like piano or ballet very much, and only had liked doing art. From that time on, she disliked music.[5]

When she was in middle school and high school, she thought about becoming an actress, but when she stepped on stage in schoolplays, she felt a sense of pleasure, but that was about it. If she had been more confident in her appearance, she would have wanted to become an actress, but because she wasn't, she thought, "I don't really want to go down that path...". However, her parents told her, "Since you've done that kind of thing, you should become a news announcer or something like that."

During Yokozawa's junior high school days, things like The Time Tunnel were popular, so she got inspired and wanted to become a scientist. At the time, when she was saying "It will be," Yokozawa's mother ended up telling her teacher, who then called her in and suggested that she become an announcer.

Now aspiring to become a voice actor, Yokozawa thought that she could use what she learned to play a wide range of roles, so she decided to pursue a career in voice acting and enrolled in the Broadcasting Department at the Nihon University College of Art.[6]

Per recommendation from voice actor Hisashi Katsuta, she then entered Haikyo's "affiliated training school" (now known as Haikyo Drama Research Institute), and while she enrolled, she made her drama début in NHK General TV's Hanaguruma in 1974.[7] Because she had to travel back and forth to Osaka Prefecture for a year for recording, she dropped out of the Broadcasting Department at the Nihon University College of Art in 1974. At first, Yokozawa did roles in TV dramas where she showed her face.[8]

What prompted her to switch to voice acting was recording a commercial for Agnes Lum. At the time, there was no one who matched the actresses' voice image, so Yokozawa was called in at the last minute and provided her dubbing voice. After that, the Tokyo Actors' Consumers' Cooperative, which at the time she was affiliated with, thought she did voice acting work too.

At one point, Yokozawa was split between acting in TV dramas and doing voice acting. However, as the time required for TV dramas increased, it became difficult balancing the two, so she decided to solely focus on voice acting, which was what she wanted to do. When she first started her voice acting career, she mainly did dubbing for foreign films that aired on NHK.

Yokozawa made her voice acting début in 1975 in Time Bokan. Her first regular role was as Kyoko in Dokaben and her first heroine role was Nina in Paul's Miraculous Adventure[9]

In 1980, Yokozawa voiced the character of Dorami in the second television anime of Doraemon. She voiced the role of Dorami for 25 years until the 1979 series ended in March 2005.[10]

In 1982, she was selected to play the role of Pikkoro in the puppet show Niko Niko Pun on Okaasan to Issho, a role she went on to play for 10 years. She also played leading and heroine roles in many other productions in the 1980s.

Wanting to do narration in addition to acting as a voice actor, Yokozawa worked at the Tokyo Actors' Consumers' Cooperative Association and then founded Yurin Productions in 1988.[11] After that, she decided to retire from frontline voice acting to focus on training the next generation at the Keiko Yokozawa Voice Actors and Narrators School. When she decided to set up her own agency, she also set up the school at around the same time, as she wanted people she trained to be affiliated with her.

The company name of Yurin Pro came from a picture book, Yukiko Yurin, that she wrote for her daughter.[12] She currently writes and directs theatrical performances performed by actors and training school students who are affiliated with Yurin Pro.

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Filmography

Anime

Anime: Doraemon (1979–2005)

Video games

Dubbing roles

Live-action

Animation

Miscellaneous

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References

External links

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