All The Announcements from Anime NYC 2024

Toshio Furukawa Still Can't Believe He's Piccolo

ANN's coverage of Anime NYC 2024 sponsored by Yen Press and Ize Press!

Toshio Furukawa has been in voice acting since he graduated college at the suggestion of his boss at a theater company. Starting off performing dubs of American TV shows (his first role was a bit part in the 1965-74 ABC series The F.B.I.), he'd find decades of success voicing anime characters.

At his spotlight panel on Sunday at Anime NYC 2024, Furukawa went through an extensive slideshow of anime characters he's voiced, often performing lines or sharing tidbits of information. The list included Ataru Moroboshi from Urusei Yatsura, Asuma Shinobara from Patlabor, Kai Shiden from Mobile Suit Gundam, Shin from Fist of the North Star, Joujou Takeru from Magnerobo Ga-Keen (one of his first roles — “maybe you guys don't know that one”), Misao Yamamura from Case Closed/Detective Conan, Rat Man from GeGeGe no Kitarō, Professor Ochanomizu from Pluto (one of the only times he's played an older character), Mephisto 2 and 3 from Akuma-kun (playing both a father and son) and Hantengu from Demon Slayer (his easiest character to voice, often only requiring a single sound in an entire session).

But of course, two of Furukawa's characters dominate above the rest in terms of worldwide fandom recognition: Piccolo in the Dragon Ball franchise and Portgas D. Ace in One Piece. The former is Furukawa's favorite character — he has a collection of over 3,000 figurines of the Namekian in his house! Introduced as a villain, Piccolo wasn't initially one of the more popular Dragon Ball characters, but by the time Piccolo was training Gohan in Dragon Ball Z, the fan mail started pouring in for Furukawa. Yet he still can't understand why he got in the role.

Getting cast as Piccolo, Furukawa said, was the biggest surprise of his career "because the production wanted me to use my lower level voice, and I have a high-pitched voice compared to other male voice actors, and I wondered why they picked me.” He repeatedly tried to lower his voice, eventually reaching a point where he had to give up and say, “This is the best I could do.” The production team responded, “Just go with that.”

Ace's role offered Furukawa an opportunity to demonstrate his broader range. The actor describes the character as having “two opposite essences,” “When the character talked to Shirohige, the second commander, [he sounded like] a strong manly man. On the other hand, when the character talked to Luffy, I wanted to bring up the gentle side of the character.” He demonstrated to the crowd how a line reading could start with “manly intention” before ending the sentence “soft,” demonstrating a balance of toughness and gentleness.

Furukawa also performed lines from Ace's death scene. He said he had to stop his initial recording because everyone around him, including Luffy voice actress Mayumi Tanaka, was crying. During the fan questions portion of the panel, someone asked if Ace's death was a callback to Piccolo's sacrifice in the Saiyan Saga. The actor noted both characters get holes in their bodies and observed, “I play so many characters that die.”

Asked about the differences between voice acting now and when he got started, Furukawa noted that digital technology has made recordings faster and that as voice actors became more popular, studios see it less as a behind-the-scenes role and more as something where actors became more central to publicity. Doing publicity at American conventions makes Furukawa particularly happy, saying, “At the moment I enter the stage, [American fans] scream, and there's no hiding emotion whatsoever… [I] feel like I'm a celebrity.”

Furukawa thinks the global success of One Piece and Dragon Ball Z is due to how they share a “strong essence of dreams, adventure, and friendship.” He's made it a personal goal to “become a bridge between Japanese pop culture and the world,” as well as to train the next generation of voice actors. The Anime NYC crowd got a taste of some training, practicing Piccolo's “Makkankosappo” and Ace's “Shiken” alongside the actor.