Mari Shimizu note (Born June 7th 1936) was a stage actress personally scouted by Osamu Tezuka to perform the voice role of Astro Boy for her experience in portraying a stage version of the principal role, Pinocchio back when she was still a child actress; which the character of Astro Boy was inspired by.
As Astro Boy gained success, she eventually became a Production Posse for Mushi Productions, and caught herself amongst the dawn of Japanese animation and mainstream voice acting. Partaking in roles of many classics from Humanoid Monster Bem, Attack No. 1, Ikkyu-san
, Candy Candy, to Doraemon. Her forte is mainly children and mother characters.
Starting from the 1980's, Shimizu moved out of the front lines of voice acting and became an active performing arts instructor to this day.
Shimizu was awarded “The Synergy Award“ note for Astro Boy (Astro Boy) at the 3rd Annual Seiyuu Awards in 2009, and was one of three recipients awarded the “Lifetime Achievement Award” of the 11th Annual Seiyuu Awards in 2017.
In one interview, she revealed she had ties with voice actress Megumi Ogata, indicating the actress and her daughter were high school classmates.
Roles of Mari Shimizu:
- Astro Boy/Tobio Tenma of Astro Boy (1963 note , 1980 TV Series note , and all voiced appearances prior to the 2003 series; since retiring from the role in 2003, Makoto Tsumura note , Aya Ueto note , Rie Murakawa note and Romi Park note have taken on the role of Astro in the years since)
- Adam in Undersea Super Train: Marine Express (who's just Astro in an Alternate Universe)
- Bero in Humanoid Monster Bem (1968 TV Series)
- Jetter Mars in Jetter Mars
- Jim Hawkins (child) in Treasure Island (The Anime) (TV series only, in the 1987 compilation movie he's voiced by Masako Nozawa)
- Kira in Galaxy Express 999 (1978 TV series)
- Tomiko Shimamoto in Attack No. 1
- Patty in Triton Of The Sea
- Prince Alor in GoLion
