Akira Kamiya
Akira Kamiya (神谷 明 Kamiya Akira, born September 18, 1946) is a veteran seiyū who was born in Yokohama, Kanagawa. He has been represented by Theater Echo, Aoni Production, and others. He is currently represented by Saeba Shoji.
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Besides Kenshirō, he was also famous for voicing the title characters of two other hit '80s anime: Kinnikuman and City Hunter.
For some reason, he has not been voicing Kenshirō for the 21st century Hokuto no Ken anime. (He is also no longer playing Kinnikuman.) Because he was one of the founders of Coamix with Tetsuo Hara and Tsukasa Hojo, it seems even more strange that he is not involved. He has reprised the role of Ryō Saeba for the City Hunter sequel Angel Heart, however.
Roles
Hokuto no Ken (TV anime
Hokuto no Ken (1986 movie)
Hokuto no Ken 2
Fist of the North Star
- Kenshirō (Japanese dub)
Souten no Ken Audio Drama
Career
Kamiya made his debut on Mahou no Mako-chan in 1970 while working for Theater Echo. He went on to have a regular role on Akaki Chi no Eleven as Sasuke Yatsume and later co-starred with Kei Tomiyama in Fushigi na Merumo.
In 1973 he played the title character in Babel II, and then went on to play the lead role in many Super Robot anime, such as Nagare Ryou in Getter Robo, Akira Hibiki in Yuusha Raideen, Jimmy Orion in Mechander Robo, and Takuma Ichimonji in Wakusei Danguard Ace. Because of his tendency to shout dramatically, he earned the nickname Sakebi no Kamiya (叫びの神谷 Sakebi no Kamiya, Screaming Kamiya).
Kamiya has also played many playboy lady-killer types, including pretty-boy pitcher Satoru Satonaka in Dokaben, Godai's tennis-coach rival Shun Mitaka in Maison Ikkoku, and the rich and arrogant Shinnosuke Kazamatsuri in Yawara!. In addition to this he has also played goofier roles, like Tosaka-senpai in Kyuukyoku Choujin R and Nyarome in Mouretsu Atarou. Currently, he is playing the lazy, washed-up private detective Kogoro Mori (Richard Moore) in the long running Detective Conan anime.
The 1980s would see a string of memorable performance from Kamiya, including Shutaro Mendou in Urusei Yatsura, Suguru Kinniku in Kinnikuman, Kenshiro in Hokuto no Ken (Fist of the North Star), Roy Focker in Super Dimensional Fortress Macross and Ryo Saeba in City Hunter.
Apart from anime, Kamiya has done some dub work, most notably dubbing Pierce Brosnan in Remington Steele and 2 James Bond movies (Goldeneye and Tomorrow Never Dies).
In recent years, he has lectured at the Nihon Kogakuin Vocational School. Some of his students include Megumi Toyoguchi, Ryoko Shintani, and Ai Shimizu.