Yurika Endo, the voice actress of BanG Dream!’s Lisa Imai and Tenshi no 3P!’s Nozomi Momijidani, has announced that she will retire from the entertainment industry at the end of May 2018. Her label Swallow announced this news on 17 December 2017.

Included in the announcement is a comment from Endo, ‘To everybody who always supported me. I deeply apologize to surprise you with such a sudden announcement.’

She followed on to explain her reasons, ‘The moments where I feel like my body can’t keep up with the situations increase and my physical condition gets worse. I want to give 120% of my power to the characters and works I am involved with, but since I can’t seem to keep up with it, the days I had to worry continued. I have thought a lot and talked to many people about my problem, but this time I have chosen to retire and to keep moving forward while looking into the future.’

Furthermore, on the official website of BanG Dream! one can find a note about her character Lisa Imai, ‘Regarding future activities, the office has made a bitter decision for the project, but we will cast a new person after she retires. Within the game and for future songs we will change the cast. From 13 May onwards, we are planning to replace everything step by step.’

On the website of the Onsen Musume project, where Endo was cast for Mitsuki Gero, was the comment, ‘We have received information of Yurika Endo’s retirement. On 24 December 2017, her activities as Mitsuki will end after the concert for Onsen Musume/SPRiNGS. Since the announcement of the project, Endo was very active as a part of Onsen Musume/SPRiNGS, so it is sad to see her leave, but we hope the remaining period and the time after that will be successful as well.’

Even though the announcement came suddenly, fans on Twitter were fast to post heartfelt messages with the hashtag #YurishiiArigato: ‘I will always have you in my heart, Yurishii! Thank you for your hard work!’

Other supportive messages for her included, ‘Even if you chose a different path, I will keep supporting you! Thank you for breathing life into Lisa!’, ‘I am supporting you from the bottom of my heart and hope you have a wonderful life. Make the flowers bloom until the day has come and you will choose a different way.’

source: https://animeanime.jp/article/2017/12/18/36285.html