Quick Facts
Biography
Tomo Sakurai (櫻井 智, Sakurai Tomo, born Tomoe Hatta (八田 友江, Hatta Tomoe), September 10, 1971 in Ichikawa, Chiba) is a Japanese former voice actress and idol singer. Sakurai was a member of I'm Enterprise. She announced her retirement on September 1, 2016.
Legacy
Debut
At the age of 14, Sakurai debuted as a sub-member for "Kiss Fairlies," a group that worked as campaign girls for the local Kijima Motorcycle Racing Team. All members were over 15 years old, aside from Tomo.
In age of "Lemon Angel"
At 17, she joined the idol pop unit, Lemon Angel, a counter project of Cream Lemon coordinated by the same company that produced "Kiss Fairlies". The project contained comic, animated, and idol pop units. The unit played themselves in Midnight Anime Lemon Angel. She released 5 albums during her time in Lemon Angel.
After Lemon Angel
Sakurai joined a new video game idol unit and released one album with this unit. After leaving, she focused her career to mainly voice acting work.
Retirement
On September 1, 2016, Sakurai announced her retirement from her professional voice acting career on her official blog post titled "Arigato/Thank You."
She explained the reason as: "I used to have a strong vocal cord that couldn't be broken and became stronger even after singing for hours. But recently, I have realized it's becoming more and more difficult for me to use my important voice as an actress. I know it's a natural thing as time goes by, but I myself can't accept the change, then I understand it's almost the time to retire."
Filmography
- Marin in Akazukin Chacha
- Codemaster Amzen in Chaotic
- Shayla Shayla in El Hazard
- Mylene Jenius in Macross 7
- Emma Granger in Super Dimension Fortress Macross (PlayStation 2 game)
- Lena Sayers in Mai Otome
- Makimachi Misao in Rurouni Kenshin
- Kamiya Kaoru in Rurouni Kenshin (audio drama)
- Meimi a.k.a. Saint Tail in Saint Tail
- Chigusa Sakai in Shakugan no Shana
- Sara in Shamanic Princess
- Doll Licca in Super Doll★Licca-chan
- Mizuchi Saio in Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters GX
- Azusa Miura in iDOLM@STER: XENOGLOSSIA
- Karin Son in Voltage Fighter Gowcaizer (OVA and game)
- Asuka Sora in The World God Only Knows
- Shirona in Pocket Monsters: Diamond and Pearl and Pocket Monsters: Best Wishes! Season 2
- Hinowa in Gintama
- Yumemi in Tengai Makyō: Daiyon no Mokushiroku