Takehito Koyasu

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Takehito Koyasu (子安 武人, Koyasu Takehito, born May 5, 1967) is a Japanese voice actor from Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan.^[5] He is affiliated with and representative of T's Factory, a voice acting agency he founded in October 1998.^[2][6] His son Kōki Koyasu (子安 光樹, Koyasu Kōki) is also a voice actor. Koyasu has taken over many of the characters played by Kaneto Shiozawa after his death.

When Koyasu was in junior high school, he, as an aspiring screen actor himself, was such a movie buff that he would watch movies every day without going to school. By chance, he saw the scene before Tetsurō Hoshino's departure in Adieu Galaxy Express 999 where a group of nameless soldiers take him on the 999 and send him on his way, and was impressed by it. This sparked his interest in voice acting, and since then it has been his policy to aim for "three-dimensional acting." After graduating from high school, he entered a training school.^[7] In 1988, he made his voice acting debut in Wowser, and in 1989, he played his first regular character as Gai, the King Yaksha in Legend of Heavenly Sphere Shurato. Although he was a regular character in the series, he was in the position of a villain whose inner workings were rarely discussed in the story, so it was difficult for Koyasu to grasp the role and he had to do several dozen retakes for a single line. He later said that although his name recognition as a voice actor had increased, he did not feel like he was doing his best.

Afterwards, Koyasu played the role of Minos in the OVA Aries released in 1990. The OVA was based on a fantasy manga of the same name that was being serialized at the time, and the voice actors for the main characters were to be decided by a magazine reader's vote. Since Koyasu had appeared in Shurato shortly before this, he had some recognition among the viewers, and he received the most votes for the role of Hades, the main character. However, at the time, Koyasu was still an unknown name in the voice acting industry, and the production members voiced their concerns about giving the lead role to a newcomer like Koyasu. As a result, the results of the readers' poll were rejected, and Koyasu was given the role of Hades' subordinate Minos, a role with little screentime.^[7]

In Tekkaman Blade, Koyasu played the main character's rival, Tekkaman Evil (Shinya Aiba). Koyasu himself has often said in interviews that this is his favorite character, and after a period of sluggish performance, he put his voice acting career on the line to play the role, which ultimately led to his recovery. He also said that when he was playing the character, he thought he was really great, but when he watched the footage again later in life, he thought he was terrible at it, which led him to believe he was making progress.^[7]

In the late 1990s, Koyasu worked on conceptualizing for the media franchise Weiß Kreuz. He also formed the voice acting unit "Weiß" consisting of voice castmates Shin-ichiro Miki, Tomokazu Seki and Hiro Yūki, and became the first male voice actor to appear on the cover of a voice acting magazine and the first voice actor to make a music clip. In 2000–2001, he was active in music under the name ZAZEL.^[8]

After working as a member of Production Baobab (1988–1998),^[9] Koyasu established his own representative office, T's Factory, in 1998. On May 5, 2020, on the occasion of his birthday, the official website and Twitter account of T's Factory were opened,^[10] and his profile was also released at the same time.

In 2020, Koyasu made his first appearance with his son, voice actor Kōki Koyasu, in an advertisement for Duel Masters.^[4] In April, he and Kōki teamed up for their own radio show, "Takehito & Kōki's KOYASU RADIO."^[11]

In 2021, he won the Best Actor in Supporting Role award at the 15th Seiyu Awards.^[12]

Koyasu's name "Takehito" comes from the fact that his birthday is on Children's Day. His motto is to "make two-dimensional into three-dimensional." His hobby is writing novels and he professes to like video games.^[1][6] He has played every game he has appeared in, but he is not very good at action or shooting games.^[6]

• 17 Sai no Hisoka na Yokujou, Takamura
• Anatolia Story Sound Theater 8, Ramses
• Ballettstar, Tachibana Miyuki
• Corsair, Yani
• Fire Emblem, Reimeihen & Shiranhen (Nabarl)
• Fruits Basket (1999), Ayame Sohma
• Fushigi Yūgi Genbu Kaiden, Urumiya
• GFantasy Comic CD Collection Fire Emblem: Ankoku Ryū to Hikari no Ken, Nabarl
• Hakushaku to Yōsei, Kelpie
• Hanazakari no Kimitachi e, Masao Himejima
• Hatoful Boyfriend, Shuu Iwamine
• Hello!! Doctor, Taku Kagami
• Himitsu no Kateikyoushi, Koki Amagata
• Katsuai series 1, Reiji Takami
• The King of Fighters Drama CDs, Yabuki Shingo
• Majin Tantei Nougami Neuro radio drama – Neuro Nougami
• Meine Liebe, Isaac Cavendish
• My Sexual Harassment series 2: Yume Kamoshirenai, young man
• Needless, Adam Blade
• Onmyouden no Tobira, Hotaru
• Otokonoko niwa Himitsu ga Aru, Shiratori
• Papa to Mira series 1: Kiss in the Dark, Takayuki Utsunomiya
• Papa to Mira series 2: Loving All Night, Takayuki Utsunomiya
• Papa to Mira series 3: Deep in the Forest, Takayuki Utsunomiya
• Pink na Chopin
• Punch Up!, Maki Motoharu
• Sex Pistols-Love Pistols, Madarame Yonekuni
• Requiem of the Rose King (2017), Warwick^[101]
• Suikoden, Gremio
• Superior, Kagami
• Tales of the Abyss, Jade Curtiss
• Target in the Finder, Asami Ryuichi
• The Epic of Zektbach～Masinowa～, Gijiri
• Vampire Knight, Headmaster Cross
• Ze, Moriya

• Official blog (in Japanese)
  • VELVET UNDER WORLD official page (in Japanese)
• Takehito Koyasu Archived 2016-08-11 at the Wayback Machine at GamePlaza-Haruka Voice Acting Database (in Japanese)
• Takehito Koyasu at Hitoshi Doi's Seiyuu Database
• Takehito Koyasu at Anime News Network's encyclopedia
• Takehito Koyasu at IMDb