Voice actress Manaka Iwami announced on October 13 that she has married and given birth to her first child. She shared the news at the start of her radio program Tekuteku, and a handwritten note went up on her agency’s website the same day.
Iwami’s message says her partner is not a public figure. She explains that she held the announcement until she and her baby had settled into a stable routine, thanks the people who supported her through the pregnancy, and asks fans to keep backing her work. The note is dated October 13, 2026. The agency in question is Raccoon Dog, which has represented her for years.
A career built on a wide range of heroines
Iwami has worked steadily since the mid-2010s, and her role list reads like a survey of recent hits. She played Akane Kurokawa in Oshi no Ko, Mahiru Shiina in The Angel Next Door Spoils Me Rotten, Rice Shower in Umamusume: Pretty Derby, and Kou Reirin in Though I Am an Inept Villainess. Earlier parts include Tohru Honda in the 2019 Fruits Basket remake, Maquia in Maquia: When the Promised Flower Blooms, and Teresa Wagner in Tada Never Falls in Love. She also voices Amber in Genshin Impact and Umi Asanagi in I Made Friends with the Second Prettiest Girl in My Class.
Anime Corner readers voted her their top voice actor for Winter 2023, when she was on air as both Mahiru Shiina and Euphyllia Magenta in The Magical Revolution of the Reincarnated Princess and the Genius Young Lady. Two years earlier she placed first in the same outlet’s Spring 2021 poll for her work on Fruits Basket: The Final, Higehiro, To Your Eternity, and Blue Reflection Ray.
That range is the point. She moves between gentle leading girls and sharper supporting parts without much fuss, which is why she keeps showing up in casts for shows that have nothing else in common.
Why the announcement matters
Marriage and birth news from working voice actors is common in Japan, and it rarely signals a break from the job. Iwami’s message points the same way. She frames the update as a personal milestone and adds that she wants to keep growing as a performer, which suggests her schedule stays busy.
The way she shared it is worth noting too. Voice actors in Japan have slowly gained room to talk about their private lives on their own schedule, and Iwami did exactly that: a short radio mention, a written note, no press event, and a clear thank-you to the people who kept the work coming.
Fans of her recent roles can take the news at face value. Nothing in the statement hints at a slowdown, and the roles she is best known for are all established parts rather than open-ended commitments.
Between the radio mention and the note on Raccoon Dog’s site, the announcement also shows how much the framing of these moments has changed. Fifteen years ago a birth announcement from a voice actress often came as a brief line in a magazine, with no direct line back to the fans. Iwami got to say it herself.
For more recent voice-cast news, see our stories on the i☆Ris idol unit ending its run and the new Sgt. Frog reboot adding three cast members.
Source: Anime Corner
Featured image: Voice actress Manaka Iwami, via Anime Corner / Raccoon Dog.
