Why hasn’t “Sazae-san” seiyuu Kato Midori worked on any other anime series?

Fuji TV’s popular anime series “Sazae-san” is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year and six years ago, received a Guinness Book of World Record for “the longest TV anime program”.

Voice actress Kato Midori (80) has been the voice actress for “Sazae-san” since the anime series first debuted back in 1969.

Why hasn’t Kato worked on any other anime series?

The answer was revealed in a tweet.  The reason is because Kato Midori took the role of “Sazae-san” which was supposed to last three months and she accepted the job on one condition, that she does not work on any new work while working on “Sazae-san”.  And since 1969, because she still works on “Sazae-san”, she continues to honor that original condition.

加藤みどりさんは、当初『サザエさん』が3か月で終わると思っていたため、プロデューサーからの「サザエさんをやっている間、他のアニメ声優の仕事を新規で受けないこと」という条件を受け入れてしまったそうなのですが、それが50年続いてしまったことになります。

— ΗΚΝ⋈サザエさんじゃんけん研究所 (@jq1hkn) November 18, 2019

これの出典は、加藤みどりさんがラジオ深夜便に出演したときの本人談です。

— ΗΚΝ⋈サザエさんじゃんけん研究所 (@jq1hkn) November 18, 2019

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