Rica Matsumoto, born on November 30, 1968, in Yokohama, Japan, is a Japanese actress, voice actress, and singer. She began her career with early stage work before transitioning into both voice acting and singing. Her breakthrough role was voicing Satoshi (Ash Ketchum) in the anime series Pokémon, which became one of her most notable achievements. Matsumoto also voiced Ryo Bakura in Yu-Gi-Oh!, Midori Kodama in Azuki Chan, and Aoi Futaba in You're Under Arrest. Her music career started with the release of albums such as クラスター (1993) and 華の宴 (1993), followed by Destiny (1995). She contributed to the Japanese Pokémon anime's opening songs, including "めざせポケモンマスター" (1997). In 2008, Matsumoto took time off from JAM Project, an anison band she co-founded. She has also had a radio show in Japan and performed some dubbing for translations of American films and TV series into Japanese. Throughout her career, Matsumoto released multiple albums and singles, including RICA the BEST (2001) and "めざせポケモンマスター - 20th Anniversary" (2017).
