Veteran voice actor in the anime industry Eiji Yanagisawa, who voiced in the likes of ‘Naruto‘, ‘Gundam Seed‘, and ‘The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya‘, has died at 57.
His agency, Production Baobab, announced the news. According to the statement, Yanagisawa left the world due to a brainstem hemorrhage. In a touching message, the agency expressed its sincere gratitude to everybody who supported Yanagisawa throughout his career.
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“We would like to express our deepest gratitude for the kindness shown to us during Yanagisawa’s lifetime,” the message read. “The wake and funeral were held only for close relatives. We apologize for the delay in reporting this news due to the wishes of the bereaved family.”
Yanagisawa was born in Tokyo, Japan. This prolific voice-acting career spanned many iconic characters in some of the beloved anime ever made.
The ones Eiji Yanagisawa was most famous for, however, were the lines of Genzo in ‘Naruto’, Professor Ulen Hibiki from ‘Mobile Suit Gundam Seed’, and Okabe-sensei in ‘The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya’. However, aside from these few notably great performances, he did numerous other anime voice roles: ‘Code Geass, Genshiken, Digimon Frontier, Black Jack, Arc the Lad’, ‘Orphen’, and ‘Samurai Champloo’.
He also did game and direct-to-video dubs. Notable credits include voicing for characters in ‘Naruto: Ultimate Ninja’ and ‘Tales of Zestiria’. Yanagisawa also did Japanese language dubs for famous Western movies and television series: ‘Lethal Weapon 3’, ‘Stargate Atlantis’, ‘Platoon’, and both ‘CSI: NY’ and ‘CSI: Miami’. Eiji Yanagisawa will always be an unforgettable name for all the fans as well as people in the entertainment world. He voiced many characters and brought them to life. His legacy will never die.