Akira Kamiya
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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.
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. It is said that Kamiya is one of the highest paid voice actors in Japan and that his absence in recent projects may be purely due to budgetary reasons. With Kamiya's participation in the 2013 DD Hokuto no Ken anime (this time cast as Ryuken), any internet rumors of a falling-out with Tetsuo Hara would seem to be proven untrue.
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
DD Hokuto no Ken
- Ryūken (Kenjirō Kiryū)
- Rinzō Mamiya
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 Ryoma Nagare 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. He played the lazy, washed-up private detective Kogoro Mori (Richard Moore) in the long running Detective Conan anime until 2009.
- 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.
- He also sang a number of image songs for Hokuto no Ken - such as Kouya no Kaze, Ken Hokutosei, & Kareta Daichi (which played once time in HNK and another time in HnK 2).
- 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). He has also dubbed Matthew Broderick's role of Col. Robert Gould Shaw in the 1989 war movie, Glory
- In recent years, he has lectured at the Nihon Kogakuin Vocational School. Some of his students include Megumi Toyoguchi, Ryoko Shintani, and Ai Shimizu.
External links
- Tokyo Saeba (Japanese)
- Akira Kamiya at Anime News Network's Encyclopedia
- Akira Kamiya at the Internet Movie Database
- Kamiya Akira Fanclub - AKKIE CLUB (Japanese)
- Akira Kamiya convention appearances on AnimeCons.com