When I began to religiously watch anime like it was a part of my everyday diet, I also began to become accustomed to recognizing certain voices among certain anime roles. This character's voice probably sounded like another character's voice from another anime, this cat sounds awfully familiar to the rat from there, this guy sounds like such and such... and so on. Among the large sea of anime voice roles, I'm not surprised that that of the one and only Kenichi Suzumura-sama stood out against them all. I can undoubtedly say that I had been drawn exclusively to it like first love. I began to extensively "research" the many possible characters wherein this particular male seiyu had lent his talents.
Yea, I'm a bit of a fangirl, you could say. I find, I love, I obsess, I cling...
Often referred to as "Suzuken" by many (myself included), Kenichi Suzumura is a very well known male voice actor from the Osaka Prefecture. Currently, according to Anime News Network (ANN), Suzuken has 102 voice roles credited to his name and had won the "Best Radio Personality" in 2008 (per wikipedia).
Other info on Suzumura-sama includes birthdate, affiliation, friends, team members, etc, etc, etc...
But I won't mention too much of it here, lest I sound like a creepy stalker.
I was also very excited to learn that Suzuken participated in many anime theme songs, most recently the Bus Gamer first episode ending theme, Train. Other songs include the image/character songs for some of his roles such as Bokura no Love Style with Yoshinori Fujita for the Hitachiin twins of Ouran Host Club fame, and Primal Innocense per Shinn Asuka of Gundam Seed Destiny.
- credit Kenichi Suzumura @ wikipedia
- credit Kenichi Suzumura @ Anime News Network
Literally, as professional voice actors, it isn't wrong to say that they can be associated with many, many different faces in the anime world. Today I'm a psycho killer, tomorrow I'm a king. They're like live action actors, but they get to change appearances in more ways than just putting on make-up and getting a face-lift.
I could list all the Suzuken roles if I wanted to:
- Shinn Asuka from Gundam Seed Destiny
- Hikaru Hitachiin from Ouran High School Host Club
- Kamui Shiro from X
- Chika Akatsuki from Zombie-Loan
These are only few of his more well-known ones as a main character. But of course, wiki and ANN have already done an excellent job detailing each, big and small, and so I won't repeat their work. Yeah, this post is already long enough as is...
As Part 1 of my "Worship Suzuken-sama (Really Now Fangirl Much?)" feature, however, I will share a few of the roles that I have already seen and that I found to be some of my favorite ones.
***
Rakushun -- Twelve Kingdoms
To begin with, I have a very, very soft spot in my heart for this furry little hanjyuu who is half-rat and half-human. Although by no means a bishounen or even a very popular role, Rakushun had easily become one of my favorite characters from Twelve Kingdoms, even before I realized who the seiyu for him was. Though in watching Twelve Kingdoms, I quickly discovered that the wisdom entranced, caring voice of Rakushun belonged to Kenichi Suzumura. And through knowing this, I slowly began to learn the other various anime roles Suzuken has been involved in.
One could say that Rakushun was the catalyst to my "Suzuken-sama Worship," among all things anime.
Besides being a wonderfully created character amidst all the complexities and chaos of Twelve Kingdoms, Rakushun's personality, niceties, and friendship-love for the main protagonist, Youko, was magnificently brought to life by the voice behind the character. Suzuken has a talent for portraying a very wide array of different characters.
Rakushun allowed for a much calmer, more level-headed, kind-hearted, wisdom-infused, extra hyphenated double-good description of a Suzuken voice than many of his other roles. Granted Rakushun hit the preaching meter quite consistently, he didn't go overboard and make me go spit barbeque on the poor rat. Otherwise, we wouldn't be seeing this post, period... though I've no doubt that Suzuken-sama may indeed find another way into my heart. (Ahh... I think I've hit the pentacle of otaku-ness.)
Overall, Rakushun is an all-around lovely role and I'm glad that it was through him that I discovered the greatness of Suzuken-san. One of the greatest things about watching anime, I found, is hearing one of your favorite voices all over the place in every way, shape, and form. It's like being on a natural high... or the like.
Hikaru Hitachiin -- Ouran High School Host Club
Of all the Suzuken roles I've seen thus far, this has to be one of his most celebrated. No matter where I go that Kenichi Suzumura is mentioned, not far behind will I also see the words "Love Hikaru!" or "Kyaa! Hikaru!" or "Hikaru is my favorite twin!" and the like. Though I do not deny that Hikaru is a very good-looking bishounen in the world of shoujo manga and anime, I really think that his fans love him more due to his devilish personality than his looks (otherwise, they'd probably love his younger twin, Kaoru just as much).
In reality, I also think this has much to do with Suzuken.
Having Suzuken voice the playful, "wild type," teasing young Hikaru Hitachiin makes the elder twin even more enticing than he already is. Sure, he has to share fifty percent of his lines with Yoshinori Fujita, the seiyu of younger twin Kaoru, but somehow, because of development, character, and simple individual charm, Hikaru tends to stand out more than Kaoru. There could also be an older brother complex floating around since those are popular nowadays.
Then again, who am I kidding? Between one twin or the other, no matter how many times I've seen the darned anime, I still can't tell them apart when they're wearing the exact same uniform. The voices I distinguish well, but aside from that, those two really do live in the same world of evil of whence they came and act like the same entity when called for. Even if Haruhi does claim that Hikaru is one level meaner than Kaoru, the question is really, how much is one level and how mean is Kaoru as compared to the average normal high school boy?
Moving along... Hikaru, of course, cannot be without Kaoru, and the two seiyu collaborate as if they'd always been twin brothers rather than just doing their duty as a voice actor. This turns the twins into a very lovable single unit and as a whole are very hard to resist in terms of their "type" of host.
Truth be told, Ouran was probably the very first place that I heard Suzuken's voice. But at the time, I had just gotten into anime and really didn't give a hoot about the voices. In fact, the only voice I was familiar with in this series was that of Maaya Sakamoto (who took on the role of Haruhi quite wonderfully), because I'm a fan of her music.
Hikaru is by no means my favorite Ouran character. In fact, I never really liked the cheeky little bastard.
In fact, I'm a Kyouya Ootori fangirl all the way and every time he schemes or smiles or talks or pushes his glasses up or looks at the fourth wall or schemes or does something surprisingly non-egoist or... well no matter what he does, I sigh like an obsessed otaku (which I am). He's hot and he's intelligent and he can make any girl swoon... but this isn't the place for his worshipping since he's not voiced by Suzuken.
Call it bias or call it favoritism, but Hikaru is my favorite of the twins and my third favorite Host Club man. As opposed to many traditional fangirls out there, I'm not too drawn towards ditzy blondes with a heart of gold, taciturn good guys with loyal to best friend and master tendencies, nor even the sacrificing and more insightful younger twin brother with a good heart type. I'm also kind of turned off by loli-shotas, but really, who doesn't like Honey-senpai?
Suzuken's participation has a great deal to do with why I like Hikaru. BUT, I admit wholeheartedly that in recent chapters of the Ouran manga, I've grown to love Hikaru and respect him more. Completely unrelated to Suzuken, Hikaru is starting to grow on me because of his newly found sense of maturity. His heartwarming speech to Kaoru about the two of them being twins was absolutely lovely.
Sadly with no tie to Suzuken-sama... I'm feeling a little traitorous.
Lavi -- D.Gray-man
My love for Lavi is a very special case. As a character, he isn't outstandingly unique and he isn't even really that popular. Lavi is a supporting character in this adventure anime and places maybe second or third in popularity following Allen Walker or even Kanda. But nothing at all will change the fact that it was because of Lavi that I even considered watching D.Gray-man at all.
I wasn't very aware of the story of D.Gray-man and I could really care less about the too-nice Allen Walker and his tragic past and his curse and his "wah-wah, Shishou is an ass but he taught me how to use my weapon" sob story. Okay, so he's never really sobbing and instead just radiates a very evil, akuma worthy aura; but I paraphrase.
Anyway, for the first thirteen episodes of D.Gray-man, I crunched until the beloved voice of my Suzuken-sama could be heard -- for the first time in episode twelve at the very, very end. I was a very happy fangirl.
(I would like to emphasize at this time that after watching twenty episodes of this series, I grew to love it and all the other characters. D.Gray-man, for me, is no longer only about Kenichi Suzumura's voice. Oh yeah and Allen-kun has grown quite well and somehow I feel that after his little transition, he's a bit more mature and a bit... hotter? Makes me almost wanna pull a Road Camelot on him... almost, but not quite there. -_- Again with those traitorous feelings.)
But I digress... Lavi's character design and character biography was very agreeable in terms of my likes and dislikes. I knew that I would fall for Lavi before he even showed up in the series, and when he finally did... well, I swooned.
As far as character goes, Lavi is a pretty ideal hero. He's highly intelligent, has an outstanding memory like a recorder, and he's a strong warrior as an exorcist. Although his involvement with the Bookman clan calls for complete detachment from personal emotions, his tendencies to cherish his friends of the Dark Order can be very endearing, especially the extra care and kindness he sets into watching over the welfare of Allen, Lenalee, and even Krory. His somewhat one-sided closeness to Kanda is adorable, always addressing the latter as though they've always been best friends even though Kanda seems quite indifferent.
Voiced by Suzuken, Lavi's character is brought about with all the playfulness, wisdom, optimism, experience, and distress and caring that makes Lavi so likeable as he develops throughout the series. Through Lavi, I've discovered that Suzuken has some of the most adorable vocal gestures in his laughing, his snickering, his scoffing, his teasing voice, and even his sighs and breaths of relief.
And now as a new climax of the storyline is taking place, Lavi's character is revealed to have a darker personality in the past that I have yet to see for myself. This detail in itself turns Lavi from a simple sidekick supporting character into one with more depth than expected. I look forward to seeing this new development even if it's a small one; although even without an intriguing past, Lavi has always proven to be a very well-rounded character. After all, as Renge-sama of Ouran fame has mentioned, women can be suckers for the traumas of men. Having a shadowy past can make such a likable character even more irresistable.
Zack Fair -- Final Fantasy VII
I'm actually an avid Cloud Strife fan (he who is voiced by Takahiro Sakurai who has partnered with Suzuken on many occasions in other anime). Cloud is especially hot in Advent Children. And who wouldn't love Cloud Strife? He's very hot, he's very reluctantly heroic, he's very mysterious, he's very aloof, and he is extremely meloncholic. I'm not being sarcastic at all. Each and every one of these qualities, while annoying and aggravating for most men, are absolutely attractive for Cloud Strife. He's wonderful! I'm in love with him. Having a tousled head of blonde hair and an outstanding cape/jacket-completely black outfit makes him even more delectable.
BUT... I digress. This post is about Kenichi Suzumura and not Cloud Strife.
Suzuken's role in the Final Fantasy VII franchise is none other than the great Zack Fair, who had absolutely little to no screen time in the excellently produced CG movie Advent Children. Imagine my fangirl surprise and excitement when I realized that Suzuken was actually featured in one of my all-time favorite animated movies -- I had no idea that he even participated in it until one day when I was browsing his info page on wikipedia (probably for the thirtieth time... and here I redeem myself as a Suzuken fangirl).
And then imagine my ecstasy when I found Last Order to be exclusively a retelling of certain parts of the FFVII game when Zack Fair was the hero and poor Cloud was merely a catatonic blur.
Somehow, I never really pictured Zack Fair with the boyish, cool, smooth voice of Kenichi Suzumura. His looks and his background as a SOLDIER gave off a rougher appearance than the voice of Suzuken would suggest. And yet, while watching Last Order, I somehow became able to grasp the connection between voice and person. Suzuken was able to make it happen, getting rid of that playfulness, preachiness, and boyishness that some of his other characters have. With Zack Fair, he presented a voice with coolness, smugness, authority, and quite the manliness as well. He brought Zack Fair to life like no one else could. It was wonderful and I found myself wishing that he hadn't died so early on in the storyline.
Zack Fair is somewhat of a tough guy and I had a great time watching an OVA dedicated solely to him. It was great how he had so easily taken on the duty of watching over cloud, saving Tifa's life, and sacrificing himself to save Cloud.
Though a small role, I believe that this is one of Suzuken's best. In full, he was able to bring out the entirety of Zack Fair's person within the few seconds of his screen time in Advent Children coupled with the twenty-minute time frame of Last Order.
***
While these aren't the only Suzuken roles I've been exposed to, these are the particular ones that I actually liked. Others I've seen include Kairi Okayasu from Peach Girl, Ayumu Narumi from Spiral, and Ginshu from Amatsuki. Others I've caught snippets of, but haven't exactly seen the entirety of the series to judge the character. But none of them have been able to stand out like the aforementioned four roles I've talked about.
In the near future, my goal is to completely review each and every one of the Suzuken roles (yes, this is how much I like this guy) and decide for myself which of his voice roles I like the most. Some of his roles, I have some reservations about watching because of negative reviews (about the character alone and not of Suzuken's participation, thankfully).
Shinn Asuka is known as the worst possible main protagonist in Gundam history and the most disliked Suzuken role mainly because the character is highly detestable as a person.
On the other hand, I've read good news about Isumi Shinichiro from Hikaru no Go and have already taken a liking to him. I've been exposed to Mikiya Kokuto of the Kara no Kyoukai storyline and found him to be rather likable, though since he was pretty much unconscious during the majority of the first movie, I have little to say about him.
Kenichi Suzumura is undoubtedly an amazing seiyu, bringing a wide variety of characters to each of his voice roles. He is capable of playfulness, charm, coolness, wisdom, and can voice immensely realistic emotion in his characters. Aside from that, his voice is absolutely attractive and sexy. There's this IT factor that make for well-liked actors, singers, and all sorts of performers. As a seiyu, Suzuken definitely has that very IT factor that makes him so charming with just a simple voice role.
And so with this, the mere Part 1, of my "Suzuken-sama Worship" concludes with the promise of a follow-up post when I feel I have more new knowledge and opinions to share.
Fangirl-ing Suzuken-sama is indeed fun. Even though some of his roles aren't my absolute favorite within the anime/movie/storyline itself, there is no doubt that he is my absolute favorite male seiyu.
Yea, I'm a bit of a fangirl, you could say. I find, I love, I obsess, I cling...
Often referred to as "Suzuken" by many (myself included), Kenichi Suzumura is a very well known male voice actor from the Osaka Prefecture. Currently, according to Anime News Network (ANN), Suzuken has 102 voice roles credited to his name and had won the "Best Radio Personality" in 2008 (per wikipedia).
Other info on Suzumura-sama includes birthdate, affiliation, friends, team members, etc, etc, etc...
But I won't mention too much of it here, lest I sound like a creepy stalker.
I was also very excited to learn that Suzuken participated in many anime theme songs, most recently the Bus Gamer first episode ending theme, Train. Other songs include the image/character songs for some of his roles such as Bokura no Love Style with Yoshinori Fujita for the Hitachiin twins of Ouran Host Club fame, and Primal Innocense per Shinn Asuka of Gundam Seed Destiny.
- credit Kenichi Suzumura @ wikipedia
- credit Kenichi Suzumura @ Anime News Network
Literally, as professional voice actors, it isn't wrong to say that they can be associated with many, many different faces in the anime world. Today I'm a psycho killer, tomorrow I'm a king. They're like live action actors, but they get to change appearances in more ways than just putting on make-up and getting a face-lift.
I could list all the Suzuken roles if I wanted to:
- Shinn Asuka from Gundam Seed Destiny
- Hikaru Hitachiin from Ouran High School Host Club
- Kamui Shiro from X
- Chika Akatsuki from Zombie-Loan
These are only few of his more well-known ones as a main character. But of course, wiki and ANN have already done an excellent job detailing each, big and small, and so I won't repeat their work. Yeah, this post is already long enough as is...
As Part 1 of my "Worship Suzuken-sama (Really Now Fangirl Much?)" feature, however, I will share a few of the roles that I have already seen and that I found to be some of my favorite ones.
***
Rakushun -- Twelve Kingdoms
To begin with, I have a very, very soft spot in my heart for this furry little hanjyuu who is half-rat and half-human. Although by no means a bishounen or even a very popular role, Rakushun had easily become one of my favorite characters from Twelve Kingdoms, even before I realized who the seiyu for him was. Though in watching Twelve Kingdoms, I quickly discovered that the wisdom entranced, caring voice of Rakushun belonged to Kenichi Suzumura. And through knowing this, I slowly began to learn the other various anime roles Suzuken has been involved in.
One could say that Rakushun was the catalyst to my "Suzuken-sama Worship," among all things anime.
Besides being a wonderfully created character amidst all the complexities and chaos of Twelve Kingdoms, Rakushun's personality, niceties, and friendship-love for the main protagonist, Youko, was magnificently brought to life by the voice behind the character. Suzuken has a talent for portraying a very wide array of different characters.
Rakushun allowed for a much calmer, more level-headed, kind-hearted, wisdom-infused, extra hyphenated double-good description of a Suzuken voice than many of his other roles. Granted Rakushun hit the preaching meter quite consistently, he didn't go overboard and make me go spit barbeque on the poor rat. Otherwise, we wouldn't be seeing this post, period... though I've no doubt that Suzuken-sama may indeed find another way into my heart. (Ahh... I think I've hit the pentacle of otaku-ness.)
Overall, Rakushun is an all-around lovely role and I'm glad that it was through him that I discovered the greatness of Suzuken-san. One of the greatest things about watching anime, I found, is hearing one of your favorite voices all over the place in every way, shape, and form. It's like being on a natural high... or the like.
Hikaru Hitachiin -- Ouran High School Host Club
Of all the Suzuken roles I've seen thus far, this has to be one of his most celebrated. No matter where I go that Kenichi Suzumura is mentioned, not far behind will I also see the words "Love Hikaru!" or "Kyaa! Hikaru!" or "Hikaru is my favorite twin!" and the like. Though I do not deny that Hikaru is a very good-looking bishounen in the world of shoujo manga and anime, I really think that his fans love him more due to his devilish personality than his looks (otherwise, they'd probably love his younger twin, Kaoru just as much).
In reality, I also think this has much to do with Suzuken.
Having Suzuken voice the playful, "wild type," teasing young Hikaru Hitachiin makes the elder twin even more enticing than he already is. Sure, he has to share fifty percent of his lines with Yoshinori Fujita, the seiyu of younger twin Kaoru, but somehow, because of development, character, and simple individual charm, Hikaru tends to stand out more than Kaoru. There could also be an older brother complex floating around since those are popular nowadays.
Then again, who am I kidding? Between one twin or the other, no matter how many times I've seen the darned anime, I still can't tell them apart when they're wearing the exact same uniform. The voices I distinguish well, but aside from that, those two really do live in the same world of evil of whence they came and act like the same entity when called for. Even if Haruhi does claim that Hikaru is one level meaner than Kaoru, the question is really, how much is one level and how mean is Kaoru as compared to the average normal high school boy?
Moving along... Hikaru, of course, cannot be without Kaoru, and the two seiyu collaborate as if they'd always been twin brothers rather than just doing their duty as a voice actor. This turns the twins into a very lovable single unit and as a whole are very hard to resist in terms of their "type" of host.
Truth be told, Ouran was probably the very first place that I heard Suzuken's voice. But at the time, I had just gotten into anime and really didn't give a hoot about the voices. In fact, the only voice I was familiar with in this series was that of Maaya Sakamoto (who took on the role of Haruhi quite wonderfully), because I'm a fan of her music.
Hikaru is by no means my favorite Ouran character. In fact, I never really liked the cheeky little bastard.
In fact, I'm a Kyouya Ootori fangirl all the way and every time he schemes or smiles or talks or pushes his glasses up or looks at the fourth wall or schemes or does something surprisingly non-egoist or... well no matter what he does, I sigh like an obsessed otaku (which I am). He's hot and he's intelligent and he can make any girl swoon... but this isn't the place for his worshipping since he's not voiced by Suzuken.
Call it bias or call it favoritism, but Hikaru is my favorite of the twins and my third favorite Host Club man. As opposed to many traditional fangirls out there, I'm not too drawn towards ditzy blondes with a heart of gold, taciturn good guys with loyal to best friend and master tendencies, nor even the sacrificing and more insightful younger twin brother with a good heart type. I'm also kind of turned off by loli-shotas, but really, who doesn't like Honey-senpai?
Suzuken's participation has a great deal to do with why I like Hikaru. BUT, I admit wholeheartedly that in recent chapters of the Ouran manga, I've grown to love Hikaru and respect him more. Completely unrelated to Suzuken, Hikaru is starting to grow on me because of his newly found sense of maturity. His heartwarming speech to Kaoru about the two of them being twins was absolutely lovely.
Hikaru actually said these words. I'm so proud of him, and extremely impressed. And also kind of wondering what kind of hair-dye he bought and whether it was laced. Of course, I do not refute Hikaru's tendencies to glomp or pamper his little brother. It's very sincere, very beautiful and this is why I'm loving Hikaru so much now."Kaoru, we are twins. Isn't it an incredible gift? Normal people can only face their future alone... You and I can fact it together. We aren't depending on each other. From now on, we'll influence each other... it would be good if we could stimulate each other. If we don't forget this, then for sure, a future twice as fun than normal people's awaits us!! That's why we'll always stay together even after this. Because we can't do otherwise. You didn't know that this is why twins are born, right?"
Sadly with no tie to Suzuken-sama... I'm feeling a little traitorous.
Lavi -- D.Gray-man
My love for Lavi is a very special case. As a character, he isn't outstandingly unique and he isn't even really that popular. Lavi is a supporting character in this adventure anime and places maybe second or third in popularity following Allen Walker or even Kanda. But nothing at all will change the fact that it was because of Lavi that I even considered watching D.Gray-man at all.
I wasn't very aware of the story of D.Gray-man and I could really care less about the too-nice Allen Walker and his tragic past and his curse and his "wah-wah, Shishou is an ass but he taught me how to use my weapon" sob story. Okay, so he's never really sobbing and instead just radiates a very evil, akuma worthy aura; but I paraphrase.
Anyway, for the first thirteen episodes of D.Gray-man, I crunched until the beloved voice of my Suzuken-sama could be heard -- for the first time in episode twelve at the very, very end. I was a very happy fangirl.
(I would like to emphasize at this time that after watching twenty episodes of this series, I grew to love it and all the other characters. D.Gray-man, for me, is no longer only about Kenichi Suzumura's voice. Oh yeah and Allen-kun has grown quite well and somehow I feel that after his little transition, he's a bit more mature and a bit... hotter? Makes me almost wanna pull a Road Camelot on him... almost, but not quite there. -_- Again with those traitorous feelings.)
But I digress... Lavi's character design and character biography was very agreeable in terms of my likes and dislikes. I knew that I would fall for Lavi before he even showed up in the series, and when he finally did... well, I swooned.
As far as character goes, Lavi is a pretty ideal hero. He's highly intelligent, has an outstanding memory like a recorder, and he's a strong warrior as an exorcist. Although his involvement with the Bookman clan calls for complete detachment from personal emotions, his tendencies to cherish his friends of the Dark Order can be very endearing, especially the extra care and kindness he sets into watching over the welfare of Allen, Lenalee, and even Krory. His somewhat one-sided closeness to Kanda is adorable, always addressing the latter as though they've always been best friends even though Kanda seems quite indifferent.
Voiced by Suzuken, Lavi's character is brought about with all the playfulness, wisdom, optimism, experience, and distress and caring that makes Lavi so likeable as he develops throughout the series. Through Lavi, I've discovered that Suzuken has some of the most adorable vocal gestures in his laughing, his snickering, his scoffing, his teasing voice, and even his sighs and breaths of relief.
And now as a new climax of the storyline is taking place, Lavi's character is revealed to have a darker personality in the past that I have yet to see for myself. This detail in itself turns Lavi from a simple sidekick supporting character into one with more depth than expected. I look forward to seeing this new development even if it's a small one; although even without an intriguing past, Lavi has always proven to be a very well-rounded character. After all, as Renge-sama of Ouran fame has mentioned, women can be suckers for the traumas of men. Having a shadowy past can make such a likable character even more irresistable.
Zack Fair -- Final Fantasy VII
I'm actually an avid Cloud Strife fan (he who is voiced by Takahiro Sakurai who has partnered with Suzuken on many occasions in other anime). Cloud is especially hot in Advent Children. And who wouldn't love Cloud Strife? He's very hot, he's very reluctantly heroic, he's very mysterious, he's very aloof, and he is extremely meloncholic. I'm not being sarcastic at all. Each and every one of these qualities, while annoying and aggravating for most men, are absolutely attractive for Cloud Strife. He's wonderful! I'm in love with him. Having a tousled head of blonde hair and an outstanding cape/jacket-completely black outfit makes him even more delectable.
BUT... I digress. This post is about Kenichi Suzumura and not Cloud Strife.
Suzuken's role in the Final Fantasy VII franchise is none other than the great Zack Fair, who had absolutely little to no screen time in the excellently produced CG movie Advent Children. Imagine my fangirl surprise and excitement when I realized that Suzuken was actually featured in one of my all-time favorite animated movies -- I had no idea that he even participated in it until one day when I was browsing his info page on wikipedia (probably for the thirtieth time... and here I redeem myself as a Suzuken fangirl).
And then imagine my ecstasy when I found Last Order to be exclusively a retelling of certain parts of the FFVII game when Zack Fair was the hero and poor Cloud was merely a catatonic blur.
Somehow, I never really pictured Zack Fair with the boyish, cool, smooth voice of Kenichi Suzumura. His looks and his background as a SOLDIER gave off a rougher appearance than the voice of Suzuken would suggest. And yet, while watching Last Order, I somehow became able to grasp the connection between voice and person. Suzuken was able to make it happen, getting rid of that playfulness, preachiness, and boyishness that some of his other characters have. With Zack Fair, he presented a voice with coolness, smugness, authority, and quite the manliness as well. He brought Zack Fair to life like no one else could. It was wonderful and I found myself wishing that he hadn't died so early on in the storyline.
Zack Fair is somewhat of a tough guy and I had a great time watching an OVA dedicated solely to him. It was great how he had so easily taken on the duty of watching over cloud, saving Tifa's life, and sacrificing himself to save Cloud.
Though a small role, I believe that this is one of Suzuken's best. In full, he was able to bring out the entirety of Zack Fair's person within the few seconds of his screen time in Advent Children coupled with the twenty-minute time frame of Last Order.
***
While these aren't the only Suzuken roles I've been exposed to, these are the particular ones that I actually liked. Others I've seen include Kairi Okayasu from Peach Girl, Ayumu Narumi from Spiral, and Ginshu from Amatsuki. Others I've caught snippets of, but haven't exactly seen the entirety of the series to judge the character. But none of them have been able to stand out like the aforementioned four roles I've talked about.
In the near future, my goal is to completely review each and every one of the Suzuken roles (yes, this is how much I like this guy) and decide for myself which of his voice roles I like the most. Some of his roles, I have some reservations about watching because of negative reviews (about the character alone and not of Suzuken's participation, thankfully).
Shinn Asuka is known as the worst possible main protagonist in Gundam history and the most disliked Suzuken role mainly because the character is highly detestable as a person.
On the other hand, I've read good news about Isumi Shinichiro from Hikaru no Go and have already taken a liking to him. I've been exposed to Mikiya Kokuto of the Kara no Kyoukai storyline and found him to be rather likable, though since he was pretty much unconscious during the majority of the first movie, I have little to say about him.
Kenichi Suzumura is undoubtedly an amazing seiyu, bringing a wide variety of characters to each of his voice roles. He is capable of playfulness, charm, coolness, wisdom, and can voice immensely realistic emotion in his characters. Aside from that, his voice is absolutely attractive and sexy. There's this IT factor that make for well-liked actors, singers, and all sorts of performers. As a seiyu, Suzuken definitely has that very IT factor that makes him so charming with just a simple voice role.
And so with this, the mere Part 1, of my "Suzuken-sama Worship" concludes with the promise of a follow-up post when I feel I have more new knowledge and opinions to share.
Fangirl-ing Suzuken-sama is indeed fun. Even though some of his roles aren't my absolute favorite within the anime/movie/storyline itself, there is no doubt that he is my absolute favorite male seiyu.
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