Mayumi Tanaka Voice Talent - Dragon Ball

Mayumi Tanaka (born January 15, 1955 in Tokyo, Japan) is a Japanese voice actress affiliated with Aoni Production, a Japanese talent agency. She is best known for her voice acting in the roles of ‘Krillin’ and ‘Yajirobe’ in the Dragon Ball anime series. ‘Krillin’ is one of the human supporting protagonists of the series and, after a brief rivalry in martial arts, became the lifelong friend of the main protagonist, Son Goku. ‘Yajirobe’ is also a human character, and a martial artist skilled in using his katana. Both characters appear in Dragon Ball Z, Dragon Ball GT, and Dragon Ball Super and essentially all adaptation and derivative works of the Dragon Ball franchise.

Mayumi Tanaka is also well known for her work in voicing the character ‘Luffy’ for over two decades, from the popular anime series One Piece.

Start of Career

Mayumi Tanaka got her start in voice acting in 1979, at the age of 24, when she played the character ‘Heinrich’ in the television series Julie the Wild Rose. In the same year, she voiced ‘Betty’ in the television series Jeanie With the Light Brown Hair, quickly getting more roles in other Japanese television series.

She has played several notable roles in animated movies as well, such as ‘Pazu’ in the 1986 movie Laputa: Castle in the Sky, ‘Shijimi Shiba’ in the 1992 movie Talking Head, and ‘Kanna Kirishima’ in the 2001 movie Sakura Wars.

Her first role in the Dragon Ball franchise was as ‘Krillin’ in 1987, in the movie Dragon Ball: Sleeping Princess in Devil’s Castle. She went on to play ‘Krillin’ and ‘Yajirobe’ in the following years in Dragon Ball Specials, Dragon Ball: Goku’s Fire Brigade and Dragon Ball: Goku’s Traffic Safety, (these being educational short films, also referred to in the original Japanese title as Doragon bôru: Gokû no shôbô-tai and Doragon bôru: Gokû no shôbô-tai), Dragon Ball: Mystical Adventure, Osamu Tezuka Story: I am Son Goku, Dragon Ball Z: Dead Zone, Dragon Ball Z: The Strongest Guy in the World, Dragon Ball Z: Super Battle in the World, Dragon Ball Z: Super Saiyan Son Goku, Dragon Ball Z: Cooler’s Revenge, Dragon Ball Z: The Return of Cooler, Dragon Ball Z: Super Android 13!, Dragon Ball Z: Gather Together! Goku's World, Dragon Ball Z: The History of Trunks, Dragon Ball Z: Broly - The Legendary Super Saiyan, Dragon Ball Z: Bojack Unbound, Dragon Ball Z: Broly - Second Coming, Dragon Ball Z: Bio-Broly, Dragon Ball Z: Wrath of the Dragon, Dragon Ball: Hey! Son Goku and Friends Return!!, Dragon Ball Z: Battle of Gods, and finally Dragon Ball Z: Resurrection "F".

Her other notable role as ‘Luffy’ in the anime series One Piece began in 2000, when she played ‘Monkey D. Luffy’ in the One Piece: The Movie. She currently still voices the character now which to date is in its 20th Season and has surpassed 100 episodes.

Achieving Fame

In 1986, Mayumi Tanaka received the ‘Voice Actress of the Year’ award in the 9th Anime Grand Prix awards. In 2011, she won an award in the category ‘Kazue Takahashi Memorial Award’ in the 5th Seiyu Awards. She won another the ‘Kids Family Award’ two years later in 2013 during the 7th Seiyu Awards, this award being voted and chosen on by the children themselves, rather than a panel of judges.

Other Roles

Other than her roles in the Dragon Ball and One Piece animated series, Mayumi Tanaka has done voice acting work in live-action films, dubbing, audio dramas, and video games.

Her roles in Dragon Ball video games include:

Marriage

Mayumi Tanaka was previously married to voice actor Hiroyuki Shibamoto, who is known for his work in the television mini-series popular in the US Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Legend of the Supermutants as ‘Raphael’.

Trivia

Mazumi Tanaka’s star sign is Capricorn, and her Chinese zodiac sign is the horse. Her birth name is ‘Mayumi Abe’, and has been voice acting for a total of over forty years. Most of her voice acting roles have been male characters.

Links

Dragon Ball Series
Dragon Ball Z Series
Dragon Ball Kai Series
Dragon Ball Super Series
Dragon Ball GT Series
Super Dragon Ball Heros
Akira Toriyama