Atsuko Tanaka (田中 敦子, Tanaka Atsuko, November 14, 1962 – August 20, 2024) was a Japanese voice actress and narrator. Born in Maebashi, she became interested in acting during her youth, and while educated at Ferris University, worked as a background extra at Shochiku. After spending years working as an office lady for a Tokyo executive, she enrolled in the Tokyo Announcement Academy [ja] and joined the talent agency Mausu Promotion, with whom she was still affiliated at the time of her death.
After graduating from Ferris, she took a break from acting and relocated to Tokyo to become an office lady for a private company's male executive.[4][3] After finding it unreasonable to work as an office lady until retirement, she decided to change careers after about six years with her employer, later recalling in a 2022 interview: "Even if it's not stable, if I can get a job that I like, it's rewarding and I can do it for the rest of my life".[4] While she continued her dancing career during her office lady career, she decided to end her career because "somewhere in my mind [she] felt like [she] had done everything [in dancing she] could".[5]
After she chose acting over dancing, she became interested in voice acting after meeting a fellow dancer from her native Gunma Prefecture who was also a voice actor,[5] with another inspiration being voice actress Yukiko Nikaidō [ja].[2] She subsequently joined the Tokyo Announcement Academy [ja] in order to study voice acting and get voice acting work, graduating in 1991.[5][4][6] After failing to find a talent agency that would hire her, she was eventually invited to join Ezaki Production by manager Mitsue Ono.[5] She then joined the agency's training school and, despite her parents' objections, quit the company she worked at as an office lady after six years after getting enough voice acting work.[5][7][3]
After graduating from Tokyo Announcement Academy, she formally joined Ezaki Production (which would later become Mausu Promotion), where she remained until her death.[2] At the encouragement of her Tokyo Announcement Academy teacher, sound director Morio Kobayashi [ja], she took on roles she herself thought were "unsuitable for her", such as heroine roles.[7] Her debut role was as Karen Carr in the 1992 American film Unlawful Entry.[2] Although her parents initially disapproved of her voice acting career, they reconsidered after starring as the guest heroine in the 1993 Lupin III television special "Voyage to Danger".[7]
In 1995, she started voicing Motoko Kusanagi, the protagonist of the 1995 film Ghost in the Shell, a role she recalled was the first one "where [she] was rambling on about incomprehensible terms"; she reprised the role in the Ghost in the Shell franchise's media for 27 years thereafter.[7] Tanaka retrospectively cited this as one of the most memorable roles of her voice acting career.[7][8] A year before her death, she reprised her role in the second season of Ghost in the Shell: SAC_2045.[8]
Tanaka also worked in foreign works as a Japanese-language dub actress.[3] Among the actresses she dubbed, she had a particularly strong attachment to Nicole Kidman, feeling "a great chemistry" with her and describing herself as "the one person in Japan who understands her acting the best."[13] Other actresses she dubbed include Kate Beckinsale, Angelina Jolie, Jennifer Lopez, Gwyneth Paltrow, and Julia Roberts.[13][14] She also worked as a narrator.[3]
Personal life and death
Tanaka had a son, voice actor Hikaru Tanaka, who did not disclose his familial relationship before announcing her death,[9] and a younger sister.[15] She considered Kikuko Inoue to be her best friend.[16]
Outside of acting, she also had a side career of giving pandas names, including as a godparent of Adventure World's giant pandas Yuihin and Saihin, and at point appearing as the anonymous Kanjuku Mango (完熟マンゴー, Kanjuku Mangō, lit. "ripe mango") in Shinichiro Azumi [ja]'s panda name prediction radio show Azumi Shin'ichirō no Nichiyō Tengoku [ja].[17] She was a fan of the Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters baseball team, and she and Rika Fukami would often go to the stadiums to attend games.[18][19]
On August 20, 2024, Tanaka died at the age of 61, one year after being diagnosed with an undisclosed illness.[9] Fellow voice actress and friend Kikuko Inoue had visited Tanaka at the hospital prior to the latter's death.[20] Condolences came many of the people, teams, and works she worked with, including her Ghost in the Shell co-star Koichi Yamadera,[14]Bayonetta developer PlatinumGames,[21] and the Frieren and Nier franchises.[11]
References
^Nihon Tarento Meikan 2008: Talent Who's Who in Japan (in Japanese). VIP Times. 2008.
^Tanaka, Atsuko (January 18, 2008). "オールアップ!". Tanaka Atsuko no Cafe Central Park. Archived from the original on January 24, 2022. Retrieved August 22, 2024.