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Voice Actress & Former Idol Rumi Shishido to Make TV Appearance for 1st Time in 20 Years

Singer, former idol, and voice actress Rumi Shishido announced on her official blog on Friday that she will be making an appearance on TV for the first time in almost 20 years. Shishido will be appearing on Nihon TV's Ichiban Song Show variety program on Wednesday at 7 p.m. JST. Also appearing on the program is comedian Nozomu Iwao, who Shishido says she once professed her love to.

“I was so excited to meet the person I had always wanted to meet for so long. I told Iwao I loved him. I got looked at weirdly, though,” she joked after the recording of the program.

Shishido debuted as an idol in 1989 after being chosen out of approximately 85,000 candidates in Lotte's “You're Lotte's Commercial Girl” audition. She debuted as a singer under the CBS Sony label with her “Cosmic Rendezvous” song. In two years, Shishido released seven singles and two albums. However, in 1992, Shishido broke her contract with her agency and left the idol scene behind. In 1995, she was invited to audition for the role of Mikako Kōda in the anime adaptation of Ai Yazawa's Neighborhood Story after the producer heard one of her songs from her idol days. Not only did she get the role, she also debuted as a film actress in the 2006 live-action adaptation of Yazawa's NANA manga. Her 20th anniversary concert in 2010 was streamed on Ustream, and broke the world record for the largest amount of viewers at one moment.

Rumi Shishido is mostly likely best known for her role as magical girl Onpu Segawa in the Ojamajo Doremi anime. She also played Diana in the Jewelpet franchise, Rosemary Applefield in Ashita no Nadja, and Reira in Konjiki no Gash Bell!!. Her most recent role in anime is the role of mysterious idol Juné Amō in Pretty Rhythm Rainbow Live (the voice actress can be seen with the plushie of her character's partner Starn at right).

Source: Yahoo! Japan