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Precure, Utano☆Princesama VA Yuka Imai Announces Marital Separation
posted on by Lynzee Loveridge
Voice actress Yuka Imai, the voice behind Ai-chan in Glitter Force Doki Doki and Tomochika Shibuya in the Utano☆Princesama male idol franchise, announced she has separated from her husband in a blog post on Tuesday. In the post, Imai goes into great detail discussing the events leading up to her martial separation, most of which she claims center around her husband's reaction to their child's disability diagnosis.
In the post, Imai states that she has been living as a single mother for the last few months. She identifies her husband as someone that works within the same industry as her and that the reason she agreed to marriage is because she was foolish and inexperienced and he was reliable. She says that her husband taught her a lot about the voice acting industry when she was new and that she was happy that she could depend on him.
However, she says this changed after her son was diagnosed with pervasive developmental disorder (PDD). According to the National Institute for Neurological Disorders and Stroke, PPD is a term for disorders "characterized by delays in the development of socialization and communication skills," such as autism, Asperger's Syndrome, Childhood Disintegrative Disorder, and Rett's Syndrome. Imai writes that after the diagnosis, her husband began avoiding them.
"It's been I don't know how many years since he brought our son to a restaurant or local park," she wrote.
Meanwhile, Imai's physical condition during pregnancy and after childbirth wasn't great. She wrote that her own health difficulties helped her understand her son's obstacles and she began to confront those obstacles alone.
Imai characterized her son as entering his "rebellious" phase. She says her husband stays home "doing nothing" five days a week and has done so for several years. Imai is now in the process of getting a divorce and says her husband will not help take care of their son after divorce, even though she has begged him to do so.
Throughout the post, Imai discusses her personal feelings including anger towards her husband and men in general, loneliness in attempting to overcome these challenges, and lingering resentment that she cannot pursue work to her full ability because of her child's needs. She had previously taken a hiatus from work to care for her son last year following his diagnosis.
"God doesn't give us trials we can't overcome," Imai wrote. "but it feels like I'm doing my best everyday to fight against these feelings of loneliness."
The other day, the family had to call a police officer for the first time after their son had left and wasn't found near their home. The neighborhood, including Imai's landlords and a passerby, began searching for him. He was found near his favorite local rental shops around 8:30 PM. Imai broke down in tears when he was located.
Imai concludes her post with the difficulties mothers of children with developmental disabilities face, the struggles of single parents, and hardships placed on men to be breadwinners instead of focusing on wife and husband partnership when it comes to child-rearing.
