"Gegege no Kitaro's" Miyuki Sawashiro Takes a Maternity Leave

For this summer season, voice actress Miyuki Sawashiro will be taking a before-and-after childbirth maternity and childcare leave.

The actress made this announcement via an official statement through her agency, Aoni Production. She also relayed her thanks to her fans for their continued support and asked them not to worry because she aims to return to work soon.

For those who may not be familiar, Miyuki Sawashiro is a voice actress who began her career in 1999. The voice actress has played many prominent roles including as Beelzebub in “Beelzebub”, Celty Sturluson in “Durarara!!”, Kurapika in “Hunter x Hunter”, and Fujiko Mine in later installments of “Lupin the Third.”

This year she played in the anime series, “Devil’s Line”, “Wotakoi: Love is Hard for an Otaku” as Juliana Lloyd and Hanako Koyanagi respectively. Currently, the actress is playing the role of Kitarou in the latest installation of “Gegege no Kitarou.”

On that note, the official website of the series has announced that Sawashiro will continue in the role of Kitaro for the immediate future. And any changes to the role will be announced as soon as plans for them are confirmed.

This year’s installation of “Gegege no Kitarou” was released in April and has currently released it’s 13th episode. The series is directed by Kouji Ogawa and has Hiroshi Ohnogi as its series composer.

As for the cast, other than Sawashiro, it includes:

Bin Shimada as Konaki Jijii and Nurikabe
Yukiyo Fujii as Mana Inuyama
Kappei Yamaguchi as Ittan Momen
Masako Nozawa as Medama Oyaji
Mayumi Tanaka as Sunakake Baba
Toshio Furukawa as Nezumi Otoko
Umeka Shouji as Neko Musume

The story of the series sets in modern times wherein the people have all but lost their belief in youkai. That does not mean, however, that supernatural events do not occur. While the people panic and try to explain the strange occurrences, there is someone who is not panicking. Mana Inuyama, a young girl who with the help of her neighbor, contacts Kitarou and ends up entering the world of youkai.

“Gegege no Kitarou” is a supernatural series that had its start in the 60’s as a manga by Shigeru Mizuki. It has had multiple adaptations including anime, live action, and video games and is best known for its popularization of the folklore creatures known as yōkai, a class of spirit-monster.

Source: Crunchyroll News