Monday, January 7, 2013

Behind the Drums: Narahashi Miki


Narahashi Miki (ならはしみき, born January 25, 1960) is a female voice-actor and narrator from Tokyo, and is associated with the Japanese talent agency Arts Vision. Although her real face may not be instantly recognizable, her voice definitely is; she is the second person to provide the voices to both Don-chan and Kat-chan, the main characters of Taiko no Tatsujin, from the inception of the second graphics engine (Taiko PS2 Godaime onwards). The first voice actor was Fushigi Yamada (山田ふしぎ), who gave both our cute little drums a much squeakier voice before Miki took up the job.

She's quite an active worker, and has been the voice of many anime characters since 1983, most prominently Misae (and various other side characters) from Crayon Shin-chan and tons of characters from Chibi Maruko-chan. Needless to say most of her work gravitates towards anime aimed at the younger age group. Besides voicing Don and Kat, she is currently active as a speaker/lecturer for techniques in acting and voicing.

In terms of songs, all theme songs with Don-chan and Kat-chan in it from PS2 5 onwards are sung by her, all with that characteristic cute voice we have all grown accustomed to.

Namco Original
  • Onpu no Uta (音符のうた)
  • Kyou no Gohan wa Taiko Mori! (今日のご飯は太鼓盛り!)
  • Ta ko ta i ko (タ・コ・タ・イ・コ)
  • Katsu to Mariko no Ekaki Uta (かつとマリ子の絵かきうた)
  • Noshi Maite, Taiko Para!(のし巻いて、太鼓っパラ!)
  • Kumo Made Todoke! (くもまでとどけ!)
  • Happy de Rippa! (ハッピーでリッパ!)
  • Lalala Happiness (ららら☆ハッピネス)
  • Popcorn Parade (ポップコーン★パレード)
  • Momoiro Taiko Paradise (ももいろ♪太鼓パラダイス)
  • Dokidoki Don-chan Sawagi (どきどき☆どんちゃん騒ぎ)
  • Atsumare Taiko Matsuri (あつまれ☆太鼓まつり!)
  • Morimori☆TokumoRhythm♪ (もりもり☆特盛リズム♪)
Back to Others page