Takahiro Sakurai


Takahiro Sakurai is a Japanese voice actor. He was a member of 81 Produce. He and Kenichi Suzumura are affiliated with INTENTION in July 2014.
Many of his roles are handsome men. However, he has also voiced reluctant heroes as well as the occasional villain. Sometimes, he is also typecast to play angsty or arrogant young men. He starred in the gag anime Osomatsu-san as the titular character of Osomatsu. He also provided the voice of Edward Cullen in the Japanese dub adaptation of the Twilight Saga films.

Notable works

One of Sakurai's early works is Mega Man X. Sakurai said he enjoyed voicing X across the crossover Project X Zone as he remembered X's thoughts. Sakurai described X as a serious character who "hesitates and agonizes, but always keeps fighting. He recalls experiencing multiple sad feelings when acting as X. Similar to his experience when playing the Mega Man X games from the Super Nintendo he looked forward to the crossover due to his interactions with other famous characters."
In 2005, Sakurai debuted as Cloud Strife. Teruaki Sugawara, the voice director behind Kingdom Hearts, recommended Sakurai director Tetsuya Nomura for the role. During recording of the 2005 film Final Fantasy VII Advent Children, Sakurai was told that "o matter what kind of odds are stacked against him, Cloud won't be shaken." Sakurai says that while he recorded most of his work individually, he performed alongside Ayumi Ito, who voiced Tifa, for a few scenes. These recordings left him feeling "deflated", as the "exchanges he has with Tifa can be pretty painful", Sakurai commenting that Cloud—whom he empathized with as his voice actor—has a hard time dealing with straight talk. Sakurai says that there were scenes that took over a year to complete, with very precise directions being given requiring multiple takes. While recording , Sakurai felt that Cloud, though still introverted, acted more like a normal teenager, and modified his approach accordingly. Sakurai has come to regard Cloud as an important role, commenting that Cloud reminds him of his own past, and that, as a Final Fantasy VII fan himself, he is happy to contribute.
Other notable works involves is Haseo, a character who appears in multiple works based on the media .hack. CyberConnect2 CEO Hiroshi Matsuyama gave multiple directions to Sakurai for the .hack//G.U. Trilogy film, including how he should act in a scene like he was throwing up due to his large amount of yells. In the first Seiyu Awards, Sakurai was a nominee in the category "Best Leading Actor" for his role as Haseo in .hack//Roots but lost to fellow Code Geass voice actor Jun Fukuyama for his portrayal of Lelouch vi Britannia. In the 2007 Seiyu Awards, Sakurai was also a nominee in the category "Best Actors in supporting roles" for his portrayal as Suzaku Kururugi from Code Geass, but lost to Akira Ishida and Kouki Miyata.
One of Sakurai's most famous works in anime is Shogo Makishima, an antagonist from the series Psycho-Pass. Sakurai retrospectively had no idea what to think about his character until he read the script for the series' finale. He found himself liking the character to the point he still felt Makishima was not dead. In an official Noitamina poll, Makishima was voted as the best character voiced by Sakurai and ranked second in the category "Mister Noitamina." Sakurai was also praised by Rebecca Silverman from Anime News Network for his role as Makishima as he makes a "creepily soothing tone."

Filmography

Television animation

OVA/ONA/Films

Unknown date

Video games

Live-action