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Rica Matsumoto Says She Earned No Royalties From Iconic Japanese Pokémon Theme Song
posted on by Kim Morrissy
Voice actress and singer Rica Matsumoto revealed on the Hakken! Girigiri no Giri variety show on Wednesday that she has earned no royalties from singing "Mezase Pokémon Master," the iconic first Japanese opening theme song of the Pokémon anime. Instead, she signed a contract that earned her a flat fee of 100,000 yen (approximately US$771 in today's currency) per song.
"Mezase Pokémon Master" has sold approximately 2 million copies through various CD releases since its debut in 1997.
Nevertheless, Matsumoto said that she is not struggling to make ends meet because she gets a lot of work doing narration, anime voice acting, and dubbing for foreign films.
Matsumoto is perhaps best known as the voice of Satoshi, the Japanese name of the character Ash Ketchum in the Pokémon anime. She has also performed theme songs for many of the Pokémon anime films and series. Matsumoto is also one of the founding members of the JAM Project band. Matsumoto has also voiced roles in such anime as Yu-Gi-Oh!, You're Under Arrest, and Outlaw Star, among others.
Source: Sponichi via Otakomu, Yahoo! News
