Bayonetta and Final Fantasy 14 Voice Actress Has Died

Voice actress Atsuko Satou, known professionally as Atsuko Tanaka, has died at 61. She leaves behind a massive legacy in video games, including numerous entries in the Final Fantasy and Bayonetta series.

Tanaka started voice acting in video games in the ’90s, with her first credited performance being the role of Lisa in the Japanese version of Night Trap, an interactive movie game for the Sega CD from 1992. Since then, she had played a wide variety of roles in over 160 games.

Atsuko Tanaka Passed Away From Undisclosed Illness

Tanaka passed away on August 20, aged 61. Her death was confirmed by her son, voice actor Hikaru Tanaka, on social media. Tanaka said that his mother passed away peacefully, succumbing to an illness that he would not disclose as per her wishes. Her battle with the mysterious illness lasted for nearly a year, Tanaka said. He also thanked his mother’s fans and colleagues for their support over the years, urging them not to forget “the characters that she poured her love into,” according to a machine translation of the recently shared statement.

Atsuko Tanaka leaves behind a legacy spanning four decades and multiple media formats, ranging from video games and movies to live-action and animated TV shows. The most recently released gaming project that she worked on was the Bandai Namco-published fighting game Jujutsu Kaisen: Cursed Clash, which hit the store shelves in February 2024. She also played Merlwyb Bloefhiswyn and Ultimecia in the Japanese versions of Final Fantasy 14 and Dissidia Final Fantasy, respectively. Her final performance will be released posthumously as part of #Compass 2.0: Combat Providence Analysis System, an anime based on a Japanese MOBA #Compass that is currently targeting a 2025 launch.

Machine Translation of Hikaru Tanaka’s Tribute to His Mother

Japanese gamers may also recognize Tanaka as Kaine from NieR and its remake, Cassandra Pentaghast from Dragon Age 2, Trish from the Devil May Cry franchise, or The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt‘s rendition of Yennefer of Vengerberg. She also played Dorothy Fisher in the 2016 3DS exclusive Detective Pikachu and Yodogimi in Nioh. Furthermore, she joined the Bayonetta franchise in 2014 as the titular heroine, whom she had portrayed in both the second and third mainline entries in the series. She also played Bayonetta in the Japanese versions of Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS and Wii U, as well as the Switch-exclusive Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.

More recently, Tanaka had a brief stint in Genshin Impact as the alchemist Rhinedottir. Aside from video games, she provided dubs for nearly 200 live-action TV series and lent her voice for over 200 anime shows, in addition to voice acting in 40 featured films. Aside from her son, Tanaka is survived by her sister and husband.

Final Fantasy

Final Fantasy is a sci-fi fantasy franchise created by Hironobu Sakaguchi and developed/owned by Square Enix. The series centers on role playing style games set in a science fiction and fantasy style worlds. The first game originally released in 1987 and since then, the franchise has spun off into other mediums like novels, CG films, and anime. The series has also branched into other video game genres including racing, fighting, rhythm, MMOs, and more.

Creation Year

1987

Developer(s)

Square Enix

Publisher(s)

Square Enix