Minori Matsushima

Minori Matsushima spent the 1960s and 70s playing boys. She was Dororo, the thieving child of Dororo and Hyakkimaru; Hiroshi Ichikawa in Kaibutsu-kun; Jim in Animal Treasure Island. Casting a woman as a young boy is ordinary practice in Japanese animation, but sustaining it for decades without the performance turning cute is not, and Matsushima never sweetened hers. Her boys are scrappy, loud and slightly rude.

She spent her career at Aoni Production, and her most repeated role came out of the robot boom: Sayaka Yumi in Mazinger Z, carried across into Mazinger Z vs. Devilman. Around that sat the parts that ask one voice to hold a whole story. She was Baby Chirin in Ringing Bell, a children's film considerably harsher than its packaging. She was Fantine in The Tale of Jean Valjean, Elizabeth in The Monster of Frankenstein, Himiko in Queen Millennia, Gyopi in Goldfish Warning!, Alexandria Meat across the Kinnikuman features, and the narrating voice of The Wonderful Adventures of Nils.

The last act is the interesting one. As the voice aged she moved into mothers, teachers and elders without losing any authority, most visibly as Tsuru in the One Piece films, which she was still recording in her seventies. She died of pancreatic cancer in April 2022, at 81, having worked from 1960s television through to the biggest franchise in modern anime.