Kumiko Watanabe (渡辺 久美子, Watanabe Kumiko; born October 7, 1965) is a Japanese voice actress.
Her most notable voice roles include the eponymous protagonist of the Klonoa franchise, the titular character of the Sgt. Frog franchise, Shippō in InuYasha, Mother in the Atashin'chi series, and Regina in DokiDoki! PreCure. She was married to Kōji Tsujitani.
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Biography
Watanabe was born on October 7, 1965 in Chiba Prefecture, Japan.
Her awareness of becoming a voice actress was sparked by applying for the voice acting contest of the Space Warrior Baldios theatrical version. Although she was not chosen, making it into the final 30 for the studio audition out of the large number of applicants gave her the confidence to think, "Maybe I'm suited for voice acting work".
After attending the Japan Narration Actor Institute, she joined Arts Vision.
At a point she thought she might not be suited to be a voice actress, deciding, "I'll pay and study here for about a year, and the moment I realize the agency has no intention of promoting me or that I lack the real ability, I'll quit." However, back then Arts Vision had no young actors who could voice young boy roles, so she kept getting called for auditions, leading to her first regular role as Jun Yamano in Ronin Warriors, and her first starring role as Kouta Hoshikawa in Brave Exkaiser.
On July 20, 2012, Watanabe announced on her personal blog that she had married voice actor Kōji Tsujitani.
She officially transferred from Arts Vision to Sigma Seven on February 1, 2018. Later that same year on October 17, her husband Tsujitani suddenly died of a stroke at the age of 57.
In 2023, she officially took over the role of Hanako Hanazawa in the Sazae-san television anime series from Keiko Yamamoto.
