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Nobuyo Oyama Does First Work Since Revealing Illness

Theater production company CORNFLAKES announced on Friday that voice actress Nobuyo Ōyama will play Monokuma in the Super Danganronpa 2 ~Sayonara Zetsubō Gakuen~ (Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair Academy) stage play. Oyama will make new recordings as Monokuma for the play.

The role will be Oyama's first work since her husband, actor Keisuke Sagawa, reported in May that she is suffering from dementia. Oyama's latest role before the play was Monokuma in the Danganronpa series of games and its 2012 TV anime adaptation Danganronpa The Animation. She also sang the anime's second opening theme "Monokuma Ondo."

Sagawa stated in May that Oyama is suffering from memory loss and said, "I don't know whether or not she remembers [voicing Doraemon]." The 78-year-old actor said his wife seems to have no memory of that part of her life.

Sagawa said that Oyama had begun to exhibit symptoms some time ago. Oyama suffered from cerebral infarction in 2008, but Sagawa had thought the symptoms of dementia were only the after-effects of the ailment. Currently, Oyama resides at home where she is nursed and assisted by her manager, her husband, and their housekeeper.

Despite his wife's condition, Sagawa noted that Oyama can handle voice acting work while looking at a script. Sagawa explained that while he told Oyama that she did not have to use Doraemon's voice, her voice "became Doraemon's voice naturally" when she recorded an introduction for a CD album.

Her agency, Actors Seven, stated that she needed to get her strength back before she returned to the public and her work.

Oyama was previously reported as 78 years old, but Sagawa officially announced that his wife is 81 years old. The voice actress's previously reported birthdate was October 16, 1936, but her real birthdate is October 16, 1933.

Oyama is best known for her work voicing the titular character of the Doraemon TV series and movies from 1979 to 2005, before new voice actors replaced many of the roles in the show. She also sang the "Doraemon no Uta" theme song for the show. She also voiced Kappei Jin in Muteki Chōjin Zambot 3, as well as the titular character in Hazedon.

The second Danganronpa play will run from December 3 to 13 at the Zepp Blue Theater Roppongi venue in Tokyo. An advance ticket lottery for the play will open on July 30 and run until August 9.

CORNFLAKES also announced that Takako Sasuga will reprise her role as Monomi from the Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair video game and Danganronpa anime. Sayaka Kanda who played Junko Enoshima in the first Danganronpa stage play last fall, will also have a special video role in the new play. The play will star Ryūsei Yokohama (pictured right) as Hajime Hinata.

Kei Horie is returning from the first Danganronpa stage play to serve as producer, and Masahiro Yoshida is producing the show with Pia's Seiichi Sometani. Fumiya Matsuzaki will take over as director, and Spike Chunsoft's Kazutaka Kodaka will once again direct the play's scenario. Masafumi Takada, the composer for the original Danganronpa 2 game, will compose the music.

Sources: Cinema Today, animeanime.jp, Livedoor News via Hachima Kikō (link 2)

Image © Spike Chunsoft Co.,Ltd./Hope's Peak Academy Drama Club