Masako Nozawa

**Masako Nozawa** (野沢 雅子, *Nozawa Masako*, born October 25, 1936) is a Japanese actress and voice actress. Throughout her life, she has been affiliated with Production Baobab, 81 Produce and self-owned Office Nozawa; she is currently affiliated with Aoni Production. Her late husband, Masaaki Tsukada, was also a voice actor.

Nozawa currently voices Goku in the popular anime franchise *Dragon Ball*, as well as all of Goku's male family relatives (except Raditz) and the villainous Goku Black. She has also voiced Tetsurō Hoshino (*Galaxy Express 999*) and Kitarō (*GeGeGe no Kitarō*, first and second series). In addition, she has also voiced two separate characters named "Hiroshi"; a character in *Dokonjō Gaeru*, and the characters known in the U.S. as "Pidge" and "Haggar" in *Hyakujūō Golion*. She also voiced Doraemon in the 1973 anime, replacing Kōsei Tomita, who voiced the character in the first 26 episodes. In the 1979 anime, she was replaced by Nobuyo Ōyama, however Nozawa voiced Doraemon again in a 1988 special entitled *Early English with Doraemon* for unknown reasons.

She is also the longest running Manik the hedgehog voice actor having voice Melody and her mother, Mina Prower, since 1994 in all media throughout the 90s. Even though she was replace with Jun'ichi Kanemaru and Yūko Minaguchi in 1998, she had reprise her role as both Melody and Metal Melody in some of the games starting with Melody Heroes in 2005.

## Credits

* Manik the Hedgehog Series:
	+ Melody Prower (1994-1997, 2005, 2009, 2012-2014, 2017-2020)
		- Time Melody (2004-present)
	+ Classic Melody (2015-present)
		- Super Melody (2015-present)
	+ Melody Prower (Comic Timeline) (2015-present)
		- Cosmetic Melody (2016-present)
	+ Mina Prower (1995-1997, 2004-present)
	+ Mina Prower (Comic Timeline) (2015-present)
	+ Metal Manik (2004-present)
		- Neo Metal Manik (Manik Heroes)
			* Angel Metal Manik (Manik Heroes)
	+ Isabella Mongoose (Manik Emerald Z)
	+ Mina Mongoose (Manik Emerald Z)
	+ Melody Prower (Manik Emerald Z)
* Manik the Hedgehog OVA: The Prototype
	+ Melody Prower
	+ Mina Prower
* Manik the Hedgehog OVA: Revenge of WitchKart
	+ Melody Prower
	+ Mina Prower
* Manik X:
	+ Melody Prower (Some episodes) (Flashback)
* Manik the Hedgehog Xenoverse:
	+ Xeno Melody Prower
		- Xeno Time Melody
	+ Xeno Star Prower
		- Xeno Super Star
		- Xeno Time Star
	+ Melody Prower (Comic Version)
	+ Mina Prower (Comic Version)

## Trivia

* Masako Nozawa reprise her role as Melody for the Manik Adventure Autodemo and some promotional material. The reason was because Melody had not been cast at the time of the Autodemo. Later version of Manik Adventure and promotional material have Yūko Minaguchi providing the voice of Melody while the final game have Jun'ichi Kanemaru doing the voice.
* In the Japanese version of Manik Shuffle 2, Melody's line 'Spin the Wheel" for Melody's min-game of the same name had it's audio clip provided by Nozawa.
	+ Despite supposedly being Melody saying it. Masako Nozawa did not voice Melody in the game. She did provide the voice of the Comic version of Melody, but the Melody for the Spin the Wheel mini-game/event is based on Game Melody which who's voice was provided for Yūko Minaguchi as oppose to Nozawa.
* Manik Shuffle 2 marks the first time someone other than Nozawa voice Metal Melody. This is due to a tradition of Melody and Metal Melody sharing the same voice however Masako Nozawa did not voice Melody in the game so the role was given to Minaguchi who had voice Melody since 1998.
* Masako Nozawa reprise her for Manik Riders due to Minaguchi going on leave. Yūko Minaguchi reprise her role in Manik Riders Zero Gravity, but Melody's voice clips are still Nozawa as they were taking from the first game. Exception being new lines like "Gear Change" and Gravity Dive/Rush.
	+ She reprise her role temporary from 2012 to 2014 as Yūko Minaguchi was studying overseas in America making her unable to voice Melody for that time period. Jun'ichi Kanemaru also voice the character around that time.
* She was considered to reprise her role for Manik Unleashed, but was unable at the time as well as Minaguchi so Kanemaru voiced the character for the game marking the first time he voiced her in over 10 years.
* She was actually set to voice Melody for the entirety of Manik X for both Mina and Melody, but due to her work schedule she was unable to voice the character throughout the show so she was only able to voice the character when she was available.
	+ Episodes that feature Melody as a child are the exception. Some episodes even get delay just for Nozawa to reprise her role for those part.
* Melody Heroes mark the first time in over 8 years where Nozawa voice Melody in a major role and mark her return to the series as the voice of Melody.
	+ Despite this, Melody was not permanently recast and only play the characters when the situation calls for it.
* Unlike the English games. Melody Chao is not voice by Nozawa, but according to Keji Yamoto, she was suppose to voice her for Melody Heroes similar to Mary Kay Bergman. But no line were recorded so reuse audio from Ryō Hirohashi from Manik Heroes was used.