Masako Nozawa, a voice actress born October 25, 1936 in Tokyo, is most famous as Son Goku (and all other males in Goku's family, except for Raditz), in the Dragon Ball franchise. She usually played the Adorably Precocious Child during most of her career. These days, she plays usually the Cool Old Lady or mother, though, as well as the Narrator...
But for the most part, it would be reprising Goku, the role that pretty much established herself as one of the legendary voice actors in the business. She has stated that she will continue to reprise Goku and family in any Dragon Ball media until her death (considering Dragon Ball's status, that is one hell of a ballsy move for someone her age). As a result of this she's earned two Guinness World Records: after the release of Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2, she was honored as the "voice actor who voiced the same character in a video game for the longest period" and "longest video game voice acting career." She was certified on October 25, 2016, at which point she had voiced Goku in Dragon Ball video games for 23 years and 218 days.
Nozawa set up her own talent agency, Office Nozawa, in 2006, and was married to fellow voice actor Masaaki Tsukada until his death in 2014.
Notable roles by Masako Nozawa:
- The Commissar in Final Fantasy Type-0.
- Cyclaminos in Super Robot Wars 30
- Dalton in La Seine No Hoshi.
- Doraemon in the first Doraemon series (replacing Kousei Tomita).
- Young Nobisuke in Doraemon: Nobita and the Island of Miracles ~Animal Adventure~.
- Doug Funnie (Billy West) in the Japanese dub of Doug.
- Dina Byrnes (Blythe Danner) in the Japanese dub of Meet the Parents and its respective sequels.
- Dorm Mother in Hells
- Enma-kun in the 1973 Dororon Enma-kun anime.
- Esteban in The Mysterious Cities of Gold.
- Genta in Daimos
- Guilmon and his evolved forms (Dukemon below inclusive) and The Narrator in Digimon Tamers and Digimon Adventure: (2020).
- Dukemon in Digimon X-Evolution and Digimon Data Squad.
- Gran Crood (Cloris Leachman) in the Japanese dubs of The Croods and The Croods: A New Age
- Hayato in Flying Phantom Ship (Flying Ghost Ship)
- Herself in Seiyu's Life!.
- Hina Urashima in Love Hina.
- Hiroshi Suzuishi and Honerva in GoLion.
- Hiroshi in Dokonjou Gaeru.
- Hisui (Harriet) in Pokémon: The Power of Us.
- Ishishi in Kaiketsu Zorori.
- Jim Hawkins (child) in Treasure Island (The Anime)
(1987 compilation movie only, in the original 1978 TV series he's voiced by Mari Shimizu) - Kinta in Mirumo de Pon!.
- Kintaro in Urusei Yatsura.
- Kitaro in the first two Gegege No Kitaro series.
- She later reprised her role in Hakaba Kitarō, a more faithful adaptation of the original manga.
- She plays Daddy Eyeball (Kitaro's father) in the 2018 series.
- Doctor Kureha in One Piece.
- Masamune (Morrison) in Pokémon.
- Mirai in Zanki Zero
- Mr. Frills in Nichijou.
- Oreana and Kinta in Combattler V
- Old Woman (Impa) in The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword.
- Polly Harrington from The Story of Pollyanna, Girl of Love.
- Princess Ozma in the 1986 The Wonderful Wizard of Oz anime.
- Rascal from Rascal the Raccoon.
- Sanae Yukishiro (Honoka's grandmother) in Futari wa Pretty Cure.
- Shen-Long Belvedere in E's Otherwise
- Sister Corn in PaRappa the Rapper
- Son Goku/Gokuunote , Son Gohannote , Bardock, Son Gotennote , Vegetto/Vegitonote , Gogeta note , Gotenks note , Tullece/Turles, Goku Black in the Dragon Ball franchise.
- Including Dragon Ball Z Kai, which re-recorded the voices.
- Tetsurō Hoshino in Galaxy Express 999.
- T0-B1 in Star Wars: Visions (T0-B1)
- Willy in Maya the Bee (1975-1982)note
- Wukong (Spike Spencer) in the Japanese dub of League of Legends, which is pretty much an actor allusion to the above roles in Dragon Ball.note
