Rica Matsumoto

Rica Matsumoto (松本 梨香, Matsumoto Rika, born November 30, 1968) is a Japanese actress, voice actress and singer who was born in Yokohama, Japan. Her name is also sometimes romanized as Rika Matsumoto. She was one of the founders of the anison band JAM Project. After early stage work, she began both voice acting and singing careers. Her most notable role is Satoshi (Ash Ketchum in English translations), the original main character of the anime series Pokémon. Other notable roles include Ryo Bakura in Yu-Gi-Oh, Midori Kodama in Azuki Chan, and Aoi Futaba in You're Under Arrest. Matsumoto also performs the songs for many of the openings for the Japanese Pokémon anime. Matsumoto 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. In April 2008, she announced in she was taking time off from JAM Project to focus on her solo work. ()