Famous voice actress Masako Nozawa has announced when she will retire. Luckily for her fans, that’s 100 years away.
Image via Aoni Pro
Outstanding voice actor Masako Nozawa was awarded the prestigious Kikuchi Kan Award on December 1. Presented by the Japan Association for the Promotion of Literature, this annual award is given to those with achievements in cinema, broadcasting, Japanese literature and other literary fields. In its 71-year history, this is the first time a voice actor has won this award. It’s really no wonder why Nozawa is the first voice actor to do this. With a long career that began in 1963 when she voiced a supporting character in Osamu Tezuka’s Astro Boy anime, she has continued to voice characters in various anime series at an annual rate. However, Nozawa is best known for voicing Son Goku, Son Gohan and Son Goten in the Dragon Ball series – roles she still actively performs. However, for anime fans, her acceptance speech attracted much interest.
第71回 #菊池寛賞 受賞者のうち、野沢雅子さんは声優として初の栗山英樹さんは野球の監督として2人目の受賞者となります。なお監督として初めて受賞したのは、栗山さんが師と仰ぐ三原脩さん(第9回・1961年)です。
— 日本文学振興会 (@shinko_kai) October 11, 2023
Of the 71 #菊池寛賞 (Kikuchi Kan Prize), Masako Nozawa was the first voice actor to receive the award and Hideki Kuriyama was the second baseball coach to receive the award. Manager [bóng chày] The first to win the prize was Osamu Mihara (9th prize, 1961), whom Kuriyama considered his mentor.
Nozawa’s acceptance speech for the Kikuchi Kan award was quite short. In it, she talks about how her first grade teacher conveyed the importance of correct pronunciation to her. And although Nozawa jokes about not always pronouncing correctly, she will continue to try her best to do so.
Her final comment was striking, to say the least. Nozawa announced his retirement. Thankfully, her fans around the world won’t have to worry. She plans to continue voicing until she is 182 years old. This is also not a random number for Nozawa—it carries a special meaning. Unfortunately, she doesn’t elaborate on why 182 is important to her. However, Nozawa has emphasized that dubbing until she is 182 years old is not a hope but that she will live to be 182 years old and continue to pronounce words correctly as written in the fan script anime.
Nozawa’s acceptance speech for the Kikuchi Kan Award is available on YouTube. However, there are no English subtitles.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xuRqkBhcWL0[embeddedcontent[nộidungđượcnhúng
Although Masako Nozawa’s career may be slowing down, she’s still active enough to continue performing at least one role a year. In fact, she recently reprized her role as Sanae Yukishiro from the first Pretty Cure television anime in the ongoing Power of Hope: Precure Full Bloom anime, and was recently cast in the anime The Foolish Angel Dances with the Devil. She even joked in 2019 that she could take on the role of One Piece’s Luffy if anything happened to Mayumi Tanaka (now 68 years old).
Who knows, Nozawa may even achieve her goal and continue to entertain us until she is 182 years old. But we can’t know for sure because there are still 95 years to go.
Source: Twitter of the Japan Literature Promotion Association accountOricon’s YouTube channel, Livedoor via Otakomu