Popular Anime Featuring Mayumi Tanaka

Key Takeaways

• Mayumi Tanaka, known for voicing Luffy, has also portrayed iconic characters in Dragon Ball, Sailor Moon, and Yu Yu Hakusho.
• Tanaka’s versatile voice talents shine in roles like Pazu from Laputa: Castle in the Sky and Turbo Granny from DanDaDan.
• From her early performances in Urusei Yatsura to recent roles like Phyllis in The Ancient Magus’ Bride, Tanaka’s career spans diverse characters.

The protagonist of One Piece, Monkey D. Luffy, is undoubtedly one of the most recognizable anime characters in the entire world. This can be chalked up to several different reasons, one of them being his unique voice in the Japanese version, in which he is portrayed by the legendary Mayumi Tanaka.

She is a talented and seasoned voice actress who has not only been voicing Luffy for more than 27 years but has also lent her voice to countless other characters before One Piece began airing. It’s most likely that One Piece fans have heard Mayumi Tanaka’s voice in other shows, and the following performances are some of the most notable examples.

1 Dragon Ball

As Krillin And Yajirobe

As extensive as her role as Luffy has been, it isn’t even what put Mayumi Tanaka on the map. Dragon Ball fans most likely remember her voice from two of her most important and iconic roles: Krillin and Yajirobe. These are different but equally fun performances, and the voice that she would later use for Luffy can be heard slightly in both of them.

Needless to say, Tanaka has been of extreme importance to the Dragon Ball franchise, as she has been voicing these two characters for over 38 years, even longer than her tenure as Luffy (although she hasn’t returned to voice Mini Krillin in Dragon Ball DAIMA).

2 Sailor Moon

As Robert

Sailor Moon is yet another massively popular and influential anime series that was animated by Toei Animation. But even though Mayumi Tanaka usually portrays main or secondary characters, this time around she was brought in to voice Robert, a boy who only appears in episode 143 of the show.

Regardless of his brief appearance, Tanaka still gave it her all. Robert is quite different from her usual masculine roles, as he is not as comedic and simple-minded as someone like Luffy or Krillin. At the end of the day, this means that she managed to make appearances in three of Toei’s biggest shows: Dragon Ball, Sailor Moon, and One Piece.

3 Urusei Yatsura

As Ryūnosuke Fujinami

Most anime fans are familiar with the most recent animated adaptation of Urusei Yatsura that aired back in 2022. But, considering that the original manga came out in 1980, it should be no surprise that it already got an earlier adaptation in 1981, in which Mayumi Tanaka voiced Ryūnosuke Fujinami, one of the series’ major characters.

Her performance as Fujinami is particularly fascinating because it’s completely different from the two types of characters she usually portrays: young boys and old women. Instead, Ryūnosuke Fujinami is a young woman, and she sounds like one, which means that it’s most likely Tanaka used her regular voice more often for her. After all, she would have been 26 years old around that time.

4 Yu Yu Hakusho

As Koenma

Dragon Ball and One Piece are not the only classic action shōnen anime in which Mayumi Tanaka got to display her talents. In 1992, she made her debut as the character Koenma in Studio Pierrot’s animated adaptation of Yu Yu Hakusho, another classic performance that cemented her as an icon among fans of the genre.

Koenma has two different forms: A baby form (which sounds like Luffy’s Chibi Gear 3 form) and a teenage form (which sounds like a calmer version of Luffy). This is a fun character quirk that has let Tanaka show off her extensive and impressive range. And since Koenma is the ruler of the Spirit World, she was able to voice him for a very long time.

5 Laputa: Castle In The Sky

As Pazu

Of course, Mayumi Tanaka has excelled at voicing multiple iconic characters on several TV shows, but she has also worked on a fair share of feature films (and not just movie adaptations of big series like Dragon Ball and One Piece). One of her most important roles was Pazu, one of the main characters of Hayao Miyazaki’s second movie, Laputa: Castle in the Sky.

As always, Tanaka did an incredible job as Pazu, a young and energetic boy with a heart of gold. Considering that she began voicing Krillin around the same time, it seems that both roles inadvertently defined Tanaka’s career, and it can be said that she would’ve never voiced Luffy if it wasn’t for these two amazing performances.

6 Gegege no Kitaro

As Sunakake-Babaa

Most of Mayumi Tanaka’s non-Luffy roles happened before One Piece began airing, as this long and popular anime has most likely kept her extremely busy, especially when taking supplemental material (like films, video games, commercials, etc.) into account. However, she has still managed to occasionally pop up in other shows, with one of the most prominent being the 2018 version of Gegege no Kitaro, in which she voices Sunakake-Babaa.

Since she’s in her 60s now, Tanaka has taken advantage of her age and experience and began voicing older women. As a result, her performance as Sunakake-Babaa is both charming and funny. She stands out as this yokai who is also Kitaro’s advisor and the manager of Yōkai Apartments. The animators even included a familiar straw hat right next to her in one scene, which most likely is a fun little nod to Tanaka’s most iconic role.

7 The Ancient Magus’ Bride

As Phyllis

• Release Date: October 7, 2017
• Genre(s): Dark Fantasy, Mystery, Supernatural
• Studio: Wit Studio, Studio Kafka
• Creator: Kore Yamazaki

Nowadays, Mayumi Tanaka may specialize in voicing older women in anime, but this doesn’t mean that they always have to be comedic or lighthearted characters. Around the same time in 2018, she popped up in another popular modern show, The Ancient Magus’ Bride, where she voiced Phyllis.

Phyllis is a faceless witch who is also the leader of an entire coven, which means that she’s never put in over-the-top, comedic situations like Tanaka’s other characters. With this surprising performance, Tanaka has proven that she can seamlessly switch into darker and more serious roles when it’s required.

8 DanDaDan

As Turbo Granny

DanDaDan’s Turbo Granny feels like the epitome of Mayumi Tanaka’s entire career as a voice actress, because she simultaneously represents the two types of character she always excels at. Turbo Granny is first introduced as a powerful vengeful spirit who manages to come off as very creepy, despite her foul mouth.

But later on in the show, Seiko Ayase seals her inside a stuffed cat doll, which is where the more comedic side of the character comes out. This new version of Turbo Granny sounds a lot more like Monkey D. Luffy, but Tanaka still managed to give it its own identity. Overall, Turbo Granny is definitely one of her best performances and it demonstrates her incredible vocal range. In Episode 1, she shared the screen with the Serpo Aliens, who are voiced by Mayumi Tanaka’s colleague and Roronoa Zoro’s voice actor, Kazuya Nakai.