Kaoru Umeda

Kaoru Umeda
Data
Type	Ally
Gender	Female
Age	9
Family	Unnamed father Unnamed mother Toru Umeda (older brother)
Affiliation	Gen Otori Momoko Yamaguchi Takeshi Nomura
First Appearance	Ultraman Leo episode 1 "The Day When Ultraseven Dies, is the Day when Tokyo Sinks!"
Latest Appearance	Ultraman Leo episode 40 "The Terrifying Saucer Creature Series! - MAC Annihilated! The Flying Saucer is Alive!"
Portrayed by	Miina Tominaga

Kaoru Umeda is one of the supporting characters in Ultraman Leo.

History

Ultraman Leo

Kaoru and her older brother Toru had been living with their father ever since their mother died. One day while they went out of the Jonan Sports Center, Alien Tsuruk appeared and killed their father, leaving them orphaned. A MAC member Suzuki, a married man, had hoped to foster the orphaned siblings until he was also murdered by the same alien. In the end, Momoko Yamaguchi, Gen’s lover, took care of them and acted as a mother/older sister figure to them.

Like Toru, she regards Momoko and Gen as her relatives, but she often misses her mother, who passed away due to illness. She was almost lured into the world in the mirror by Alien Mazaras, who assumed the appearance of her mother. ^{Haunted! Devil in the Mirror}

In episode 40, she was attacked by Silverbloome while shopping in a department store in Shinjuku with Momoko and Takeshi. She died after being buried in a collapsed building which was also consumed by the saucer monster. ^{The Terrifying Saucer Creature Series! - MAC Annihilated! The Flying Saucer is Alive!}

Gallery

Ultraman Leo

Portraits of Kaoru and Momoko

Miscellaneous

Trivia

• Aside from Dan Moroboshi, Kaoru is the only one to call Gen Otori by his given name Gen instead of his surname like other people. Unlike Dan however, she only calls Gen "Gen-niichan" (Japanese for big brother) once in episode 22. ^{The Leo Brothers vs the Monster Brothers}
• Miina Tominaga, who portrayed Kaoru, later became active in the voice acting industry and made her return to the Ultraman series in 2018, voicing Booska in Ultraman R/B.
• In 2018, she attended the Ultraman Leo Blu-ray Box Premium Event as a guest, where she reunited with fellow series cast Ryu Manatsu and Kohji Moritsugu. During the event, Tominaga shared behind-the-scenes stories from her time on the series.
  • At the time of filming, Tominaga was only 7 years old. She referred to Manatsu as “Manatsu no Onii-chan” ("Manatsu big brother") and often played with him during breaks in filming. She was well-loved by her co-stars and the staff, which made her look forward to going to the set every day.
  • In special-effects series, the live-action and special-effects are usually filmed separately. However, Tominaga often visited the special-effects stage during breaks in the live-action filming and even had the chance to see the miniatures of buildings that were being used for production.
  • One memorable event she recalled was filming episode 37, "Haunted! Devil in the Mirror," at the Tottori Sand Dunes. During the outdoor shoot, Tominaga sang an original song she had written while in the location vehicle. Her original song, "Dai no Ji no Uta" ("The Song of the Big Letter"), was used by the production team and later became the theme song for Kaoru.