Anime Anime Global

August 26 is Okawa Genki-san’s birthday.

He made his debut as a voice actor in the 2000s. From the 2010s, he has been engaged in various media as a voice actor, such as anime, games, stage plays, etc.
He has been playing a role in a tokusatsu drama “Mashin Sentai Kiramager”, and serving as a radio presenter.

To celebrate his birthday, we conducted a readers’ survey, “Who is your favorite character played by Okawa Genki-san?”. There were 62 votes during the survey period from August 7 to 14.
For the gender ratio, the females were the majority with about 80% while the males were about 20%. For the age distribution, we received the majority of responses from readers of young ages: about 30% were teens, and about 35% were in their 20s.

■A variety of titles have ranked in from anime, games, tokusatsu, to stage-plays!

1st Place

1st place went to Nome Tatsuhiro from “B-PROJECT” Series. The support rating was about 37%.

Nome Tatsuhiro belongs to a unit called MooNs. The received comments include, “He is honest, compassionate, thoughtful about his friends, good at sports, and devoted to everything. Even though he seems to be a perfect guy, he isn’t used to be around women and is shy. I like the gap”, and “After I got to know Taiga-kun’s voice, I met this character. Although this character has a low voice and speaks in an abrupt manner, he is gentle and nice”.
Okawa-san attracted the fans in the live performances, and received comments like, “His acting in the live performances was so real that he just looked like the character himself. I like both his singing and acting!”.

2nd Place

2nd place went to Kirihara Akaya from “Musical: The Prince of Tennis”. The support rating was about 16%.

Kirihara Akaya is the ace player of the tennis club of Rikkaidai Junior High School. Multiple fans commented “This title introduced me to Okawa Genki-san.. Moreover, his acting that perfectly matches the character was popular, and the received comments include, “It is amazing that he is playing such a cute but fearful role with all his soul……”, “I was surprised when I saw Okawa-san playing Akaya that turned to a demon, and thought ‘He is possessed by Akaya!'”.

3rd Place

3rd place went to Mashin Jetter from “Mashin Sentai Kiramager”.

Mashin Jetter is a jet aircraft that the Black Kiramai Stone transformed into. The character’s innocent voice impressed the fans, and the received comments include, “I like the gap between Jetter-kun being cute and being reliable under serious situations. Thanks to this character, I started to think that I wanted to see more boys characters voiced by Genki-kun”. The characters from a tokusatsu drama also ranked in the top 3.

■Let’s introduce other comments!!
Fudou Myouou Boy / “Yo-kai Watch” Series
“It is one of the reasons that I can hear a little higher voice than the actual Okawa-san’s voice that is free, energetic, and innocent.”
Amamiya Henri / Game “Ikemen Live Koi no Uta wo Kimi ni”
“Henri-kun usually has a cute, bright, and dazzling smile, but sometimes shows an aspect that makes me care about him. Okawa-san’s singing voice expresses him power and kindness, and I got into him…!”

Rouffa / “Thousand Memories”
“It is no longer available, but I liked passionate and straightforward Rouffa. Although he looks great in any costume, my favorite is the one he wore for the New Year event.”

Morizono Okuto / “Gaku Ran Kageki: Teiichi no Kuni”
“His cuteness, fearfulness, and everything else was perfect for me. It was especially surprising that Genki-kun’s eyes conveyed Morizono-senpai’s feelings.”
He received some votes for the role in the stage play.

In this survey, characters from various genres such as games, stage-plays, and musicals, as well as anime, have ranked in.

■Overall Ranking

[Who is your favorite character played by Okawa Genki-san?]
1. Nome Tatsuhiro “B-PROJECT” Series
2. Kirihara Akaya “Musical: The Prince of Tennis”
3. Mashin Jetter “Mashin Sentai Kiramager”
4. Cat “Bungou to Alchemist – Gears of Judgment”
5. Himura Kira “Marginal#4 Kiss kara Tsukuru Big Bang”
5. Fudou Myouou Boy “Yo-kai Watch Shadowside”
7. Amamiya Henri “Ikemen Live Koi no Uta wo Kimi ni”
7. Garp Goemon “Welcome to Demon School! Iruma-kun”
7. Morizono Okuto “Gaku Ran Kageki: Teiichi no Kuni”

(Survey Period: August 7 – 14, 2021)

*This survey is intended to research the readers’ “interest in anime and characters today”. It is not intended to discuss the relative merits of each character nor work. I would be glad if this article can help you develop an understanding and interest in the anime and characters.