Biography

Tamura Yukari is one of Japan's top seiyuu, or voice actresses, who are viewed as celebrities in the anime-centric Japanese culture. She's also a radio show host and a singer known for both anime theme songs and original compositions done in the cute J-pop style that corresponds to her "sweet Lolita" fashion preferences. Her albums have been rising steadily in the charts, eventually cracking the Top Ten, and she was one of the few seiyuu to book the Budokan, the nation's top venue. The Fukuoka-born Tamura was dreaming of being a voice actress since elementary school, but it didn't come easy. She studied at a seiyuu academy in her home town, but failed to score a role and moved to Tokyo, where she enrolled in the Nichinare Seiyuu Institute, aiming to enter its parent company, Arts Vision. In 1997, she debuted as a singer with the EP What's New Pussycat?, and for a while she was on the verge of giving up on voice acting, but the same year she finally got her debut roles in Tenchi Muyo and Battle Athletes Victory, and the next year she voiced her first lead in Futari Gurashi. Things continued to go well, and by the early 2000s Tamura had voiced characters in high-profile anime series such as Kanon, Galaxy Angel, and Naruto, often working with Yui Horie, with whom she also released two singles in 2001 as Yamato Nadeshiko. Her musical career was put on hold for a while, but in 2001 she was picked by Konami and released her debut major-label album, Tenshi wa Hitomi no Naka Ni. It didn't blow the Oricon away, but her subsequent releases, which have kept on coming once a year since, except for 2003 and 2007, when she released best-of collections instead, continued to climb the charts. She entered the Top 20 with her sixth album, Izayoi no Tsuki, Canaria no Koi (2008). In 2001, she also started her own radio show and became active in the "character song" business, recording theme songs for anime series. Her list of credits continued to grow steadily: in the mid-2000s she played in Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha, Da Capo, and Kashimashi, often voicing the same characters for anime-based video games as well. In 2007, Tamura transferred from Arts Vision to its I'm Enterprise sublabel as a seiyuu and from Konami to King Records, her actual production company. She cut down her voice acting activities in 2008, but in 2009 she scored four lead roles. Her 2009 album, Komorebi no Rosette, charted at number eight. ~ Alexey Eremenko, Rovi