Mutsumi Tamura

Mutsumi Tamura (田村 睦心) is a Japanese voice actress. She is the voice actress for the character Ermes Costello in JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Stone Ocean.

She is also well known for her roles as Kobayashi in ', Sonya in ', young Kakashi Hatake in ', Koshiro Izumi in ', Hiro Amanokawa in ', Sayaka Kanamori in ', and Lute in .

Biography
Mutsumi Tamura was born in Aomori Prefecture, Japan, before moving to where she spent most of her childhood in. Growing up, Tamura expressed interest in voice acting around 3rd to 4th grade after seeing the voice actors' profiles from the  TV anime. She was also a fan of the  TV anime. According to Tamura, it was during her high school years when she fully decided to become a voice actress after her drama club coach refused to cast her in male roles. She later attended Japan Narration Acting Institute during her third year high school to pursue a career in voice acting. While attending classes, she worked part-time jobs in order to afford school expenses.

Tamura debuted in 2007 as a young Kyosuke Tsutsumi in the TV anime adaptation of . She eventually landed the titular role for  before her breakthrough role as Kobayashi in Miss Kobayashi's Dragon Maid.

Aside from voice acting, Tamura also has a certificate for teaching classes specializing in calligraphy.

JoJo's Bizarre Adventure
Tamura became a fan of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure in middle school during the serialization of Stone Ocean. According to Tamura, after seeing the female characters in the story, she aspired to play empowering roles like them ever since. Like fellow voice actress Mariya Ise, voice actress for F.F., she had also auditioned in the previous seasons of the TV anime only to come up short every time. She had expressed her extreme eagerness in getting the role of Ermes Costello during her audition, to the point that she would repeatedly ask her agent for any news about the Stone Ocean anime adaptation. About a year before she auditioned, she climbed Mt. Fuji and made a wish to play as Ermes. When she submitted the tape audition, she also tried playing as Jolyne, but didn't think she sounded cute enough. She later received a call from her manager saying she got the part for Ermes Costello.

Tamura finds the role of Ermes to be fun and challenging because of the scenes where Ermes gets beaten up as well as her inner monologues. Fairouz Ai, who voices Jolyne, looks up to Tamura for inspiration as the more experienced voice actor and compares her presence to Ermes. Alongside Ise, the three of them wore matching hair glitter during the Stone Ocean anime information reveal.

Trivia

 * When asked to describe her role in one kanji, Tamura said that the kanji for compassion (情) would be the most fitting for Ermes because of her compassion and willingness in helping Jolyne despite not having met each other until the beginning of the story.
 * One of Tamura's favorite characters is "the first eccentric person that Ermes encounters in prison after Jolyne". Not only did she find the character's crazed personality awesome, but also the voice actor for the role. According to her, the episode which the character first appears is also the director's favorite episode.
 * During the Stone Ocean program in the Netflix Festival Japan 2021 event, Fairouz Ai recommended Pearl Jam for Tamura if she were to have a Stand because of its ability to heal people through cooked meals.
 * Tamura states Narciso Anasui's costume as her favorite among the JoJo characters because of the fishnets and shoe soles that "exposes his skin in a sexy way".
 * A scene that impressed Tamura was F.F. and Jolyne's game of catch after their battle against each other, saying that despite the fact that not much time has passed since they fought, they were still able to get along with each other. She also finds it heartwarming how F.F. tries to be human when drinking water and throwing the ball.