Toru Ohira
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Toshiyuki Morikawa never told you how he described your father, All The Tropes. |
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Who else has the privilege of dubbing over Darth Vader, Brian Blessed and Superman? Toru Ohira, that's who!
Toru Ohira is a seiyuu and actor who has been with anime since the beginning. Literally. Beginning in the early 60s as a narrator, most of his modern roles have him pigeonholed as characters with short tempers, usually of the hammy (and corpulent) variety. One exception is his performance as the dub voice of Darth Vader in the most recent (2004–present) Star Wars movies and edits along with Soulcalibur IV, although needless to say, he makes Vader in Japanese sound rather hammy (and corpulent).
As far as Western counterparts go, although Toru Ohira's most famous role was originated by James Earl Jones, his career appears to have more in common with that of Fred Tatasciore or Brian Blessed himself. (Sorry, Wakamoto).
Other important roles include:
- Ambassador Magma- Goa, both body and voice
- Various Disney shorts and the Kingdom Hearts series - Pete and Julius.
- The Genie Family (Bob in a Bottle) and Tatsunoko vs. Capcom (Japan only) - Hakushon Daimao.
- One Piece- Gaimon
- Narrator for many sentai series, and played 1 Big Bad.
- Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace - Boss Nass, actually his first Star Wars role - dubbing over Brian Blessed! (See above.)
- Superman - Jor-El (Marlon Brando). Also voiced Superman himself in the Superman Theatrical Cartoons.
- Dub voice for Homer Simpson and Fred Flintstone. D'oh! (Not modified into 'Shimatta Baka ni!'[1])
- ↑ This is what Homer translated "D'oh" as when speaking Japanese in the original English version of "Thirty Minutes Over Tokyo".