Fans around the world were shocked when Bulma voice actress Hiromi Tsuru passed away suddenly in November from aortic dissection. Her family held a private funeral followed by a memorial service where hundreds gathered to pay their respects. Among the mourners were her cast mates from the Dragon Ball and Anpanman anime series, Mayumi Tanaka (Krillin), Keiko Toda (Anpanman), Miina Tominaga (Rollpanna), Ryusei Nakao (Baikinman/Freeza), Masako Nozawa (Goku), Tohru Furuya (Yamcha), Ryo Horikawa (Vegeta), Kouichi Yamadera (Beerus), Naoko Watanabe (Chichi), TARAKO, and Yoko Oginome.

Approximately 400 mourners came to pay their respects to Tsuru, whose picture was set among 4,000 flowers, seven Dragon Ball balloons, and her beloved characters while the ending theme to Dragon Ball played in the background. Masako Nozawa, visibly upset, gave a speech as representative of the visitors.

"The seven Dragon Balls are here and are said to be able to do anything, right? But it was useless this time, I'm sorry," she said. "I still don't know what happened, and I wish I could have asked her 'what's wrong?' But it seems Hiromi, without bothering anyone, has gone on to a world where we can't follow. But, there are many friends there. I don't want to say this but, Hiromi, please watch over our world. Goodbye."

Ryusei Nakao added that working on Anpanman will be difficult without the voice of Dokin-chan there. "Although it will be hard, I will keep trying my best. Please keep watching the show." He then continued in the voice of his character Baikinman, although his voice cracked while saying, "Dokin-chan! Bye bye king!"

Source: Mainichi Shimbun's Mantan Web