Voice actress Megumi Nakajima appeared as a guest on the Nekojita Showroom online show on Tuesday, where she revealed why she went on a three-year hiatus from music after her iconic role as Ranka Lee on Macross Frontier .

"It was because I had no expectations of myself," she explained. "I had such little confidence in myself that I thought of quitting around the time the Macross Frontier TV series ended. Ranka Lee suited me, so I had fun playing as her, but people also equated me with her. I couldn't see myself casting that role aside and becoming ' Megumi Nakajima .'

"I was around 18 or 19, and I thought that I'd already hit my peak and there was nowhere to go except downhill. When the TV broadcast started, I thought that I had to move on from voice acting and live a different life. But around halfway through the broadcast, I was told that there would be a film, and that it would take two years. So I kept going, thinking I could hang on till then.

"When the films ended, I'd been active as a voice actor for three years, and even then, I still had no worth as a voice actor in my own right. When I reached 20, I realized that I had nowhere to go. All those songs I sang all those activities I did, none of it suited me. Knowing that was what broke my heart.

"For that final year I felt like I was steadily becoming more broken. But nobody told me that I wasn't good enough. In fact, I felt worse because everyone around me was so kind. It felt like everyone was standing on tiptoes around me, and I couldn't handle it. I was very negative about it. In the first place, I applied for Stardust Promotion without realizing what a big deal it is. The whole time I was wondering when I'd be told that I wasn't needed. I've been like that since middle school."

Macross Frontier (2008) was Nakajima's first major voice acting role, which she landed after winning a nationwide singing and acting audition. Since then, she has voiced a number of anime characters, including Cure Lovely from HappinessCharge PreCure! . In 2016, she returned from her musical hiatus. She has since sung the ending theme for the Fuuka television anime series and the second ending theme for Kakuriyo -Bed & Breakfast for Spirits-

Source: Nekojita Showroom (January 8, 2019) via Yara-on!