Sad news for fans of Japanese voice actors. According to an announcement by his agency Air Agency (thanks, Oricon!), voice actor Keiji Fujiwara died on April 12, 2020. He was 55 years old. The cause of death was cited as cancer. His most recent role was that of Reno in Final Fantasy VII Remake.
Born October 5, 1964, Keiji Fujiwara had a long career in voice acting, voicing dozens of characters across animation, film, and video games since 1991. In Japan he’s best known as Crayon Shin-chan‘s Hiroshi, a role he covered until 2016, when he went on hiatus to undergo treatment for a then-unspecified medical condition. In 2006, he founded his own talent agency, Air Agency, and worked as its representative director until his death.
Other prominent supporting roles for Keiji Fujiwara include Fullmetal Alchemist‘s Maes Hughes, Hunter X Hunter‘s Leoris, Kingdom Hearts‘ Axel, Gundam 00‘s Ali Al-Saachez, Granblue Fantasy‘s Eugen, Final Fantasy XV‘s Ardyn Izunia, and Final Fantasy VII‘s Reno. He also played lead charaacters, as Haku in Utawarerumono: Mask of Deception and its sequel, Mask of Truth. He also was involved in Japanese-language dubbing roles and was the voice of Tony Stark in Marvel Studios’ Avengers films and Booker DeWitt in Bioshock Infinite.
