Image via Netflix
The president of the Tokyo Actor's Consumer's Cooperative Society, an agency set up by voice actors in Japan for voice actors, announced today that legendary voice actor Motomu Kiyokawa passed away on August 17 at the age of 87 years old from pneumonia. Kiyokawa was best known as the voice of Kozo Fuyutsuki in the Evangelion franchise and working closely with Hideaki Anno on Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water and Kare Kano.
Photo from Motomu Kiyokawa's official agency profile
Motomu Kiyokawa was born in Kanagawa Prefecture on April 9, 1935. In 1957, he entered the Haiyuza Theatre Company training program and while performing on stage, he also took up voice acting. He made his debut as a Japanese dub actor for the hit 1960s US TV show Combat! as a way to pay for his theater adventures.
Kiyokawa’s first anime role was in the anime adaptation of Osamu Tezuka’s Big X manga series. Other prominent roles from early anime days include Tem Ray in Mobile Suit Gundam. His first major role was in Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water as Gargoyle then quickly followed by Fuyutsuki in Neon Genesis Evangelion.
Since then, Kiyokawa has voiced a range of roles including Tippy in Is the Order a Rabbit?, Miklotov McMahon in Re:ZERO -Starting Life in Another World-, Yoichiro in Golden Kamuy and many more. He was also the Japanese voice of Eggman in the Sonic the Hedgehog franchise, inheriting the role from Chikao Ohtsuka who passed in 2015.
A private funeral for Kiyokawa was held with close relatives under the wishes of his family.
Source: Oricon
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Daryl Harding is a Senior Japan Correspondent for Crunchyroll News. He also runs a YouTube channel about Japan stuff called TheDoctorDazza, tweets at @DoctorDazza, and posts photos of his travels on Instagram.
Source: Latest in Anime News by Crunchyroll!
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