Mayumi Tanaka

Mayumi Tanaka has held two of the longest-running jobs in Japanese animation. She has voiced Krillin in Dragon Ball since the 1980s, across the television series, the Z films, Kai and the modern Super features, and she has voiced Monkey D. Luffy in One Piece since 1999, through more than a dozen theatrical spin-offs. Either alone would be a career.

Her voice is small, hoarse and boyish, and the interesting thing is what she does with the range at both ends of it. In the same filmography she plays a young boy in a mining town, Pazu in Castle in the Sky, a teenage pirate captain who shouts constantly, a bald adult martial artist, and two cackling old women: Uranai Baba in Dragon Ball Z and Turbo Granny in Dan Da Dan. That last one arrived in 2024, decades into the run, and it is the funniest thing in the show. She also voiced Koenma in Yu Yu Hakusho, Ryunosuke in Urusei Yatsura, Kirimaru in Nintama Rantaro, Kanna in the Sakura Wars games, the title character of Konami's TwinBee, and MegaMan Volnutt in the Mega Man Legends series.

Be honest about the shape of the catalogue: it is two franchises multiplied by thirty-five years of theatrical releases, and if you are not already invested in either, the sheer count of Dragon Ball films is not an invitation. She received the Kazue Takahashi Award at the fifth Seiyu Awards.