Houko Kuwashima

Although a shy kid, she was interested with acting as an escapism from her real self, especially when she saw the musical and television dramas at the Shiki Theatre Company.[4] Every time there were four seasons on local performances, it was almost like getting tickets for the parents and putting the heat that would go to see them in the family.

While in elementary school, Kuwashima watched Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind while dreaming to become a voice actress. She wrote in a graduation collection, saying: "I want to make the child's voices in the anime project of Hayao Miyazaki." She learned that there is no drama club neither stage plays at the cultural festival at junior high school. At Iwate Prefectural Kurosawajiri North High School, she attended a correspondence course at Katsuta Voice Academy. The voice was blown to the cassette tape, and was corrected by voice actor Hisashi Katsuta who was a director.[4] However, attendance at the time of advancement was insufficient, and from the third year it was transferred to Iwate Prefectural Forest Mausoleum High school.

After graduation, she moved to Tokyo to become a voice actress. She entered Aoiso in 1994. In auditions after graduation, about 20 out of 71 people have passed the exam and belong to the Aoni Production's agency profile.[4] She made her debut in the 1995 anime series Sailor Moon S. In 1996, the anime series Martian Successor Nadesico gained the role of heroine Yurika Misumaru and gained popularity. The same year, her younger brother passed the University of Tsukuba. She played Shiro Bonn in Bomberman B-Daman Bakugaiden and Maron Kusakabe in Phantom Thief Jeanne. In 2010, Kuwashima was appointed as a cultural ambassador of Iwate Prefecture.[5]

• Official agency profile (in Japanese)
• Houko Kuwashima at Anime News Network's encyclopedia
• Houko Kuwashima at IMDb
• Houko Kuwashima at the Japanese Movie Database (in Japanese)