Rica Matsumoto

Rica Matsumoto (松本 梨香, Matsumoto Rika?, born November 30, 1968) is a Japanese voice actress and J-pop singer who was born in Yokohama, Japan. Her name is also sometimes romanized as Rika Matsumoto. She was one of the original members of the popular vocal group JAM Project. After the way of the stage, she embarked on voice acting and a singing career. The most popular role by Rica is Satoshi (Ash Ketchum), the main character of the anime series Pokémon (Pocket Monsters). She especially likes to take on roles for young boys.



Matsumoto is another widely-heard voice artist, both in her music recordings and her work in anime, where she has had lead or supporting roles in dozens of series. She has also had a radio show in Japan and does some dubbing work for translations of American films and TV series into Japanese. While she is still active in voice acting, her major performance now is with the group JAM Project, which performs songs for and from anime; one of their famous performances was a 24-hour marathon during which members of the group sang excerpts from one thousand anime songs. Matsumoto's CD "Mezase Pokémon Master" (Pokémon Japanese theme song) has sold over 1.85 million copies in Japan.

Since April 7, 2008, she announced that she was taking time off from JAM Project as well as her solo work. She then resumed when she and Megumi Toyoguchi sang the 3rd OP of Pokémon Diamond and Pearl but has no plans on going back to the group.

These are a few of her songs. Sorry, they're all from Pokemon ATM. Well, all but one.

Mezase! Pokemon Master


Mezase! Pokemon Master - Live Version (not the best audio quality)


OK


Spurt!


High Touch - sung together with Megumi Toyoguchi (voice of Hikari / Dawn)


Alive A Life - can you guess which series, lol?