AstroBoy Online Forums

No, she's still alive and active. [url]https://ja.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/清水マリ[/url]

Although, it does appear that she is slowing down due to her age (79). As far as I read, the last piece of voice acting she did was in 2004 and that was for Black Jack.

Which is interesting considering that Nozawa is the same age and still working...

I... can't read that. You do know that, right?

I could have sworn that I read that she passed away, though. If she's only 79, and she was the original VA for Atom since the beginning (so far as I know) all the way up to the 80's (and she apparently did Mars' voice, as well), then how young was she when she first got the job? I realize that I could probably just count back, but uh... I really... can't. Do that...

(iirc, a friend told me that the guy that did Cobalt's voice was 17 at the time, a factoid that I happen to find both fascinating and amusing.)

Mari Shimizu is indeed still alive, and actually still looks pretty well. She's 79 now, but was 26-30 when she voiced Atom in the 1963 series, and was 54 and 55 when she voiced Atom in the 1980 series. She also voiced Mars in Jetter Mars back in the 1970s.

http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/encyclopedia/people.php?id=7690

Picture of her from March 15 of this year:
https://twitter.com/Hiroakitake/status/709759234653564928

They also got a new voice actress for Atom in the Japanese version of Little Astro Boy, but that one makes sense in my mind since Atom appears younger in that series (that voice actress is Rie Murakawa if you're curious).

Says she was also Atom's voice (well Adamu anyway) in Marine Express.

The little short they made showcases the technology really well. Good way to make an ad, I think, to disguise it as entertainment!

Oh yeah, I forgot about Adam.