After graduating from high school, she moved to Tokyo and enrolled in the voice acting course at Yoyogi Animation Academy. When she was in high school, she was a member of the Manga Research Club and participated in the Manga Nationals, where she directly appealed to Kazuhiko Shimamoto, a judge from her hometown, that she wanted to be a voice actor. She loved reading and illustrations to begin with, especially those of Mutsumi Inomata, and her desire to become a voice actress was directly triggered when she bought and listened to the drama CD CD Theater Dragon Quest, whose jacket illustration was done by Inomata, at a bookstore. One of the activities of the book committee was to hold a picture-story show competition in the audio-visual room, and when the students saw her picture-story show, they were delighted. She loved to read to others, and would give picture story shows to the younger students in the morning before the homeroom teacher came to the classroom.
When Tanaka was in elementary school, she was a member of the book club.