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November 25 is Nakai Kazuya’s birthday.

Nakai Kazuya debuted in the 1990s. At the 5th Seiyuu Award, he won the Supporting Actor Award. He is widely active in anime, games, tokusatsu, dubbing, etc., and is also a narrator for a variety of programs and shows.
In 2020, he appeared in many titles, including “Fire Force: Season 2” and “Ahiru no Sora”. His appearances in 2021 in “Gintama: THE FINAL” has also been announced.

Here at Anime! Anime!, to celebrate Nakai Kazuya’s birthday, we conducted the same reader survey as last year’s , “Who is your favorite character played by Nakai Kazuya?”. We received responses from 196 people during the survey period from November 11 to November 18.
The male-female ratio is about 20% for males and about 80% for females. About 30% of the age group were minors, and about 40% were in their 20s.

■ Hijikata Toshiro from “Gintama” is topping the list for the third consecutive year
1st place
1st place goes to Hijikata Toshiro from “Gintama” with an approval rating of about 40%.

Many readers pointed out the variety of acting, “Thanks to Nakai-san’s cool acting, sloppy behavior, such as moe lines and stupid jokes becomes bearable.”, “Along with his coolness as a leader of Shinsengumi, there is a gap of stupidity in his fight with Gintoku about mayonnaise.”, and “Hijikata-san is serious, and Hijikata-san is funny. It is amazing how Nakata-san can perform both sides of him so smoothly!”
There are also comments about difficult-to-perform episodes, “When they switch bodies with Gin-san, I was surprised that the voice was his but the tone and characters were a complete copy of Gin-san.”

A popular character who is expected to play an important role in “Gintama: THE FINAL” has been shining at the top for three consecutive years.

2nd place
2nd place goes to Zoro from “One Piece” with an approval rating of about 27%, the same as last year.

Readers commented, “His low voice sounds good for a modern fashionable swordsman”, “Nakai’s voice is perfect for Zoro’s funny voice!”, and “It is no exaggeration to say that he is the best swordsman in the world. He is a swordsman of the three-sword style, but he has a weakness of lack of direction and is easy to get close to.”
Since it is a long-term series that has been broadcast since 1999, many people said, “I learned about Nakai-san because of Zoro’s role”. Some fans commented about how their impression changed through the years, “I used to like him as an older brother, but now I’m the older one, and I think he is cute.”

3rd place
3rd place goes to Masamune Date from “Sengoku Basara” with an approval rating of about 5%, which also the same ranking as last year.

Readers pointed out the difference of the character from his historical prototype, “I like the dynamic character setting that symbolizes the chaos of “Sengoku Basara”, such as the six-claw style that handles six Japanese swords at the same time and the English speaking.” The simple way he speaks also gained popularity, “The pronunciation is the coolest! It’s a role that only Nakai-san can handle.”, and “The lines mixed with English are stylish.”

■Let’s introduce other comments!

About Sakurabi Akutaru from”Fire Force”, “I love how he can be kind and cool, doing something comical, and it feels like real Nakai-san!”
About Roman from “Bakumatsu Gijinden Roman”, “I like his look in the OP anime, where he is illuminated by candlelight and has a crisp look and the way he is saying, ‘Large board behavior!”‘, when reading the subtitle.”

About Zapp Renfro from “Blood Blockade Battlefront”, “I’m going to love him more and more because it’s a character that I can’t hate even though he’s clearly trash. I don’t want him to be my boyfriend (laughs)”
About Sakai Hitoshi from “Ghost of Tsushima”, the main character of a popular game released this year, “The determination and conflict to live without the honor of the samurai to protect Tsushima was further enhanced by Nakai-san’s performance and remained in my heart.”

In the 2020 version of the survey, multiple characters handling swords such as samurai and swordsmen are ranked in. The result is a gathering of characters from a wide range of titles, from national anime that everyone knows to the latest work currently being broadcast.

■ Top 10 rankings
“Who is your favorite character played by Nakai Kazuya? 2020 Ver.”
1st place Hijikata Toshiro “Gintama”
2nd place Zoro Roronoa “One Piece”
3rd place Masamune Date “Sengoku Basara”
4th place Imayoshi Shoichi “Kuroko’s Basketball”
5th place Akitaru Sakurabi “Fire Force”
6th place Ultraman Max “Ultraman Max”
6th place Zapp Renfro “Blood Blockade Battlefront”
8th place Sakai Hitoshi “Ghost of Tsushima”
9th place Gull / Wolf Blue “Space Squadron Kyuranger”
9th place Shibusawa Tatsuhiko “Bungo Stray Dogs: Dead Apple”
9th place Onishi Hyakume “xxxHOLiC”
9th place Fukumoto “Joker Game”

(Survey period: November 11 to 18, 2020)