Urara Takano
Urara Takano is an actor, born 1961.
Born Hisako Takayama in Togane, Chiba, in 1961, she has worked under the stage name Urara Takano for her whole career and now represents the agency she is signed to, REMAX. The role Japanese audiences name first is Maria Tachibana in Sakura Wars, which began in the games and carried into the television series.
What makes her unusual is range across register rather than range across accent. She has a low, level voice that anime uses for two very different jobs: adult women with authority, and boys with none. Inside the same working decade she was Marller in Ah! My Goddess, Tiger in Saber Marionette J and Veffidas Feaze in Macross 7, and also Mowgli in The Jungle Book: The Adventures of Mowgli, Antonio in Romeo's Blue Skies, Kantaro in Soar High! Isami and Kai Hiwatari in Beyblade. She voiced Monkey D. Luffy in the 1998 pilot OVA One Piece: Defeat the Pirate Ganzack.
The list runs on into the 2000s and 2010s in smaller parts, and the smaller parts are where the control shows: Illumi Zoldyck in Hunter x Hunter, Zeon in Zatch Bell!, Sasorina in HeartCatch PreCure!, Francis Drake in a Fate/Grand Order film. Her daughter, Anna Kirie, is an actress and director.
Movies (17)
- Detective Conan: The Phantom of Baker Street (2002)
- Naruto the Movie: Legend of the Stone of Gelel (2005)
- Fate/Grand Order Final Singularity – Grand Temple of Time: Solomon (2021)
- One Piece: Defeat the Pirate Ganzack! (1998)
- Macross Plus: The Movie (1995)
- Pikachu's Vacation (1998)
- Marco: Carry a Dream (1999)
- Genius Party Beyond (2008)
- New Kimagure Orange Road: Summer's Beginning (1996)
- Beyblade the Movie: Fierce Battle (2002)
- Go! Anpanman: Gomira's Star (2001)
- Sakura Wars: ~Su~Mi~Re~ (2002)
- Wanna-Be's (1986)
- HeartCatch PreCure! Musical Show (2010)
- Magical Circle Guru Guru (1996)
- Heart-Coloured Killer Ticket (1990)
- The Voice Makes a Miracle (2011)
TV (39)
- Hunter x Hunter (1999)
- Beyblade (2001)
- Zatch Bell! (2003)
- HeartCatch PreCure! (2010)
- Turn A Gundam (1999)
- New Cutey Honey (1994)
- Macross 7 (1994)
- Bubblegum Crisis (1987)
- Ah! My Goddess (2005)
- Matchless Raijin-Oh (1991)
- Beck: Mongolian Chop Squad (2004)
- Romeo's Blue Skies (1995)
- Case Closed: Zero's Tea Time (2022)
- Ninja Scroll: The Series (2003)
- Saber Marionette J (1996)
- Fate/Extra Last Encore (2018)
- After War Gundam X (1996)
- Kekkaishi (2006)
- Sakura Wars (1997)
- The Jungle Book: The Adventures of Mowgli (1989)
- Super Doll★Licca-chan (1998)
- The Legend of Condor Hero (2001)
- Someday's Dreamers (2003)
- Simoun (2006)
- Matchless Passion Go-Saurer (1993)
- Coji-Coji (1997)
- VS Knight Lamune & 40 Fresh (1997)
- Diamond Daydreams (2004)
- Animal Lane (2005)
- Final Fantasy: Legend of the Crystals (1994)
Where to start with Urara Takano
The efficient way in is Beyblade. Kai Hiwatari is the clearest example of what she is best at: a teenage boy played without cuteness, flat and impatient, so he reads as genuinely unimpressed rather than as an adult doing a child impression. Sakura Wars is the other essential, the signature role and the one her audience associates with her.
After that, split by register. For the adult women, Saber Marionette J and Macross 7 come from the mid-1990s stretch when she worked constantly. For the boys, Romeo's Blue Skies and The Jungle Book: The Adventures of Mowgli are full-season leads in classic children's adaptations, which is the hardest version of the job. Hunter x Hunter is the small part worth hearing, played very quietly, and One Piece: Defeat the Pirate Ganzack! is the curiosity: her Luffy, in a half-hour OVA.