Happy 72nd birthday to Toru Furuya, who provided the voice of such iconic characters as Amuro Ray from Mobile Suit Gundam, Yamcha from Dragon Ball Z, and Tuxedo Mask from Sailor Moon. Let’s celebrate his amazing career in this blog post!
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How Did Toru Furuya Become Japan’s Most Famous Voice Actor?
Toru Furuya — also written Tōru or Tooru — has really led a blessed life. Raised as a child actor in a theater troupe, he was chosen to play the lead role in the influential baseball anime Giants no Hoshi. During university, he started a circle of young voice actors that included Toshio Furukawa (later voice of Vegeta) and Akira Kamiya (who did a ton of major roles from City Hunter’s Ryo Saeba to Roy Fokker from Macross). They helped turn voice actors into celebrities in the anime industry, rather than anonymous voices behind the mic.
When Furuya landed the role of Amuro Ray for the brand-new Mobile Suit Gundam series in 1979, he didn’t just land an important role. He helped define what anime could be for an entire generation of fans, both inside Japan and around the world. Gundam wasn’t just another giant robot anime about a kid who can call a giant robot friend to fight his battles for him. The new “Real Robot” genre was gritty, realistic, and had lots of “space politics” to make the world more real.
Toru Furuya’s Fall from Grace
His illustrious career came to a screeching halt when it became known that Furuya had been in a 4-year affair with a female fan. Even worse, he got her pregnant and pressured her to have an abortion, and (according to his apology letter) raised his hand in violence against her once. As I wrote in my blog post at the time, Japanese society is quite unforgiving when it comes to celebrities who are caught in extramarital affairs, and there were bound to be consequences for his career.
Because of the scandal, Furuya’s voice work went on hiatus, and the roles of Sabo from One Piece and Rei Furuya from Detective Conan were recast. His wife, former seiyuu Satomi Majima, has remained with him despite the scandal.
Now let’s check out Toru Furuya’s most iconic voice roles!
Amuro Ray Made Toru Furuya a Legend
Before we had Shinji whining about not wanting to get in the robot, we had Amuro, a reluctant hero who was called to fight for the Federation against the Zeon Empire. Whenever he got too sulky, a good “Bright slap” would fix everything.
Tuxedo Mask Swept Sailor Moon Fans off Their Feet (Even Though He Didn’t Do Anything)
Another legendary role Toru Furuya landed was Mamoru Chiba, aka Tuxedo Mask from Sailor Moon. This useless hero would arrive at the perfect moment to drop his cool line, then dash off into the night again.
Sabo Gave One Piece Fans a Gundam-Sized Surprise
One role many fans will be familiar with is Sabo, Luffy, and Ace’s long-lost brother. It must have been such a thrill for fans to hear Japan’s most famous voice actor in such a famous anime. Sadly, Furuya had to step away from this role due to his marital scandal. He was replaced by Miyu Irino, who voiced Sugiwara in Haikyuu!
A Character Literally Made for Furuya
Detective Conan creator Gosho Aoyama has been a lifelong fan of Gundam, and wanted Toru Furuya to do a voice in his show. So he created the character Rei Furuya, who works undercover as Toru Amuro, and had the voice actor pretty much play himself. This was another role Furuya had to give up after the scandal broke. He was replaced by Takeshi Kusao (Hanamichi Sakuragi from Slam Dunk).
(It actually took me quite a while to find a clip of this character with Toru’s voice in it. I wonder if the rights holders of the anime scoured YouTube to remove any trace of Toru Furuya doing this voice, because of the scandal.)
Yamcha Got No Respect
Another huge role Furuya played was Yamcha in Dragon Ball Z, who always provided the perfect comic relief in each episode.
We’ll Never Forget Toru Furuya’s Voicing of Pegasus Seiya
Then there was Pegasus Seiya from the outstanding Saint Seiya, aka Knights of the Zodiac. The character started the grand tradition of “the main character is kind of a weak-ass, needing to be saved by every other character.”
Kyosuke from Kimagure Orange Road: the Anime That Taught Me Japanese
Finally, Toru Furuya’s most important role to me: Kyosuke Kasuga from Kimagure Orange Road. This was my favorite anime back in university, and I basically taught myself Japanese so I could understand the show. (We didn’t have English subtitles back in those days.) Kyosuke is an esper who had superpowers, but the whole show is really about a love triangle between two girls, Madoka and Hikaru. I’m super thankful to this anime for teaching me Japanese!
Thanks for reading this blog post about the glorious career of Toru Furuya, one of the most successful voice actors in the history of anime. What was the first character voiced by him that you encountered as an anime fan?
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