Takako Sasuga (貴家 堂子, Sasuga Takako; February 4, 1936 – February 5, 2023) was a Japanese voice actress.
Her most notable voice roles are as Tarao Fuguta in Sazae-san, Akubi in The Genie Family, and Hajime-chan in Tensai Bakabon.
She is also well known for voicing Usami/Monomi in the Danganronpa franchise.
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Biography
Sasuga was born and raised in Tokyo Prefecture in a family that runs a hospital. Her career began after high school when, because she did not want to practice cooking and cleaning ready for bridal training, a friend invited her to audition for a radio drama, which she passed and made her debut.
Sasuga then experienced opposition from her parents and actual marriage, and considered retiring from her career several times, but continued to work, as she had never lost any regular appearances since her debut.
Sasuga specialized in playing the roles of infants and young girls, taking advantage of her cutie voice. Because most of these roles were performed with her natural voice, a recording staff member once told her, "You can't play adult roles," which troubled her for a time, but this became an opportunity for her to master such roles. In 2012, she said in a conversation, "My voice is weird. The truth is, I am not good at listening to my voice, but I am responsible for the work I perform in and I always check them out".
In 1961, she took on the role of dubbing Jay North's Dennis Mitchell in the Japanese dub of Dennis the Menace, which became her breakout role. As such, she dubbed for the same role in the 1993 film by John Hughes.
In 1969, Sasuga was cast as Sazae-san character Tarao Fuguta, the son of the titular character Sazae. It became her signature character role and she continued to voice the role without ever being replaced. In 2011, she, Midori Katō (Sazae), Miyoko Asō (Fune), and Ichirō Nagai (Namihei) were awarded the Merit Award at the Tokyo Anime Awards for their long running roles on Sazae-san since the beginning of the show's broadcast, and in 2019, she was recognized by the Guinness World Records alongside Katō for having the "longest career as a voice actor for the same character of an animated TV series" record.
In 2012, she played the role of Usami/Monomi in Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair. This was the first time in her career that she appeared in a video game.
Death
Sasuga died on February 5, 2023, at the age of 87. The cause of death was undisclosed, but she was not ill and died suddenly in good health. Her posthumous work was Sazae-san, which was recorded as usual three days before her death and was broadcast on February 26.