Anime Anime Global

Nov. 24 is Ootsuka Akio's birthday.

Since the 1980s, Ootsuka Akio has been active as a voice actor. Including anime, he is also popular for his dubbings for games and films. He has been awarded the Tomiyama Kei award which is only given to those who have promoted the profession of voice-acting, at the 9th voice actor awards.
In 2019, he has played the role of main characters in various anime such as, "GeGeGe no Kitarou", "Psyco-Pass 3", "Carole & Tuesday", and "Code Geass: Lelouch of the Re;surrection".

Here at Anime! Anime! we had a survey to celebrate the birthday of Ootsuka Akio, asking readers "Who is your favorite character voiced by Ootsuka Akio?" The survey was conducted from Nov. 10 to Nov. 17 with a total of 87 respondents.
The male to female ratio leaned towards males with 65% male to 35 % female. The respondents were from various age groups, with about 25% being 19 or younger, 35% being in their 20s, and 15% being in their 30s.

■Snake from "Metal Gear Solid", the protagonist of a game series was at the top!
The most popular character was Solid Snake from "Metal Gear Solid" receiving about 17 % of the vote. Snake is an ex-member of the special forces team FOXHOUND. He is a professional in undercover operations.
Many comments such as, "He has many memorable lines such as 'Kept you waiting, huh?', 'Pretty good', etc. Ootsuka Akio-san's voice adds to his coolness.", "Ootsuka Akio-san is the only one that can pull off that undercover character." pointing out how well suited his role was. There was also a respondent commenting on a different "Snake" saying, "I especially like Naked Snake from 'Metal Gear Solid 3'. That very hero-like (sometimes odd) behavior is unbearable."
This year we included characters from works other than anime. This brought the protagonist of a popular game to the top.

The 2nd most popular was Black Jack from "Black Jack", keeping his position from last year receiving 15% of the vote.
The medical genius Black Jack received comments such as, "Ootsuka-san is the only one who can portray Black Jack, a character with gentleness hiding under strictness.", "Ootsuka Akio-san's low pitch voice highlights his calmness while hiding his emotions."
There were respondents who liked the comical figure in the TV series saying, "The conversation between Pinoko and him was heartwarming and I adored how they conducted medical operations together." and others recommending the OVA version where he is always cool.

3rd place was Rider from "Fate/Zero" also keeping his position with about 10% of the votes.
The legendary Heroic Spirit Rider summoned in the 4th Holy Grail War is a broad and open-minded character just as the comments such as, "I love that dynamic voice.", "His way of life is so awesome!". He has high popularity even among the characters that are "King of kings full of dignity, pursuing domination". He also became a topic among the fans for appearing in "The Case Files of Lord El-Melloi II" which was released this year.

■Here are some other comments!
"The creepy laugh 'Zehahahahaha' is awesome" and "YamiYami no Mi can only be handled by Blackbeard." for Marshall D. Teach from "One Piece".
"He has an evil presence with belief and aesthetics for his man-slaying-way even for playing a role that kills for fun." for Udou Jin-e from "Rurouni Kenshin".

There were votes for the surprising animal characters with comments such as, "I like the relaxing feeling I get from the character" for Lion-Senpai from "African Office Worker" and "The gap of the cute appearance and the deep voice is great." for Nyanko Big from "Tada Never Falls in Love".

The characters with a vintage attraction were highly ranked on this list. However, there are also non-human characters ranked in such as Moominpapa from "Moomin". The results make us realize how diverse his roles have been.

■Top 10
"Who is your favorite character voiced by Ootsuka Akio ver.2019"
1. Solid Snake "Metal Gear Solid" series
2. Black Jack "Black Jack"
3. Rider (Iskandar) "Fate/Zero"
4. Hoshina Youichi "Star Twinkle PreCure"
5. Ultraman Powered "Ultraman Powered"
6. All for One "My Hero Academia"
6. Batou "Ghost in the Shell" series
6. Marshall D. Teach (Blackbeard) "One Piece"
9. Kashimura Zouroku "Alice & Zorouku"
9. Moominpapa "Moomin"
9. Yamada Denzou (2nd) "Nintama Rantarou"
9. Lion-senpai "African Office Worker"

(Votes Accepted from Nov. 10 to Nov. 17, 2019)