How do popular voice actresses such as Kotono Mitsuishi, Shimamoto Sumi and Hidaka Noriko keep their voices sounding young?

With a voice becoming lower in age, many seiyuu (voice actresses) say it’s difficult to keep the same treble for a long time.

Kotono Mitsuishi (50) is known for her voice as Tsukino Usagi in the anime series “Sailor Moon Crystal”.  And she has been doing the voice of Usagi since the original “Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon” series aired back in 1992.

Kotono does admit that her voice has gone lower as she gotten older.

An example of differences is her role as Katsuragi Misato from “Neon Genesis Evangelion” when she was 29-years-old and when the series was televised 23-years ago and playing the character for the revival theatrical release.

Kotono explained, “When I first played the role of Katsuragi Misato, I was the same age as my character.  When I played her again more than ten years later, the director said, “Your voice is too loud and I thought I was being bullied (laughing), I was wondering if I was doing it wrong?”.

While the character does not change, the voice talent gets older.

Kotono said, “When I was doing her voice, I tried to imitate my old self at first but it was a challenge to see how far I could reproduce that same voice”.

Voice actress Shimamoto Sumi, best known for her voice of Lady Clarisse de Cagliostro in “Lupin III: The Castle of Cagliostro” and Nausicaa for “Nausicaa Valley of the Wind” said in an interview, “After giving birth in my mid-30’s, I felt that my voice has gone down.  And even moreso after menopause, as the high voice of Clarisse is very hard for me to do.  Even a professional voice talent are unable to resist the aging of their voice”.

But Shimamoto is able to still do high voices such as for the anime series “Chobitsutsukan” which requires less than two hours of recording and has very fast tempo and there is rarely a break”.

But how is it that Kotono is able to keep doing a “young voice” 26-years since she started doing “Sailor Moon”?

Kotono said, “I care about my entire physical condition and so I wear a mask but I will also take medicine immediately if I feel like I’m catching a cold”.

Shimamoto said about catching a cold, “As soon as I catch a cold, my vocal chords are not in good shape.  And it would take a month to return back to its original condition, so I’m preoccupied with managing my physical condition.  I also eat a lot of vegetables.  It’s important to sleep well because sleep deprivation will lower your immunity.  I also where a mask on the train when there is a lot of people as a prevention.  In addition, I constantly drink water and regularly drink a lot of water.  When I got older, it’s easier for my vocal chords to be affected and easy for germs to come in when your mouth is dry.”

Another example of taking care of your voice is through exercises and yoga.

Kotono said she trains once every three days, who felt that it would be better to strengthen her muscles in her 50’s.

Shimamoto said that she stretches her abdominal muscles and back muscles every day.

Voice actress Hidaka Noriko (55), best known for voice as Akane in “Ranma 1/2”, “Kusakabe Satsuki” in “My Neighbor Totoro” and Asakura Minami in “Touch” also talked about her voice changing as she got older.  Hidaka noticed that her voice started to change in her ’30s.

Hidaka said, “One day I noticed that I had no elongation of the tremble in my voice, so I consulted with my voice training teacher.  My teacher told me that when the muscles that support the vocal chords decline, there will be tension in your voice.  So, I decided to loosen up the stiffness in my body and do more muscle training.  While I watched television, I would keep my hands behind me and kept my posture while trying to touch my shoulder blades for an hour.  If the blood flow around the neck gets worse, your voice gets worse, so I stretch my neck and shoulders by straightening my arms upward and put it above my head and stretch.  I made it a habit of doing that often.  Also, I started to do yoga, acupuncture and also Moxibustion therapy.  And by doing this, after six months, my voice returned.  And I think the tone of my voice is better now than in my 30s (laughing).”

Hidaka continued, “During bathing, I would repeat difficult words and also would do  “Papipupipapipapapipupo” by saying it slowly and then increasing the speed gradually.  This helps muscular strength around the mouth.  It is recommended that you talk a lot with your friends, sing karaoke and also hum to your favorite songs”.

But also the memories of youth is important.

For playing a younger role such as 14-year-old Tsukino Usagi, Kotono said, she is more conscious about feeling rejuvenated at playing Tsukino now than when she played Katsuragi in her twenties.  Kotono said she remembers the memories of being a young girl and to imagine the feeling of being a young girl that keeps things fresh for her in everyday life.

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