Hideyuki Tanaka
Hideyuki Tanaka is an actor, born 1950.
Hideyuki Tanaka trained at the Toho Gakuen School of Music and has been attached to Aoni Production through a career our records date from 1978 to 2024. He is described as an actor, voice actor and narrator, and that last word is not a footnote.
Listen to the Saint Seiya franchise and you are listening to him. He narrated the 1986 series and the 1987 film, and he was still narrating in Soul of Gold (2015) and Knights of the Zodiac (2019), while voicing Leo Aiolia inside the same stories. Thirty-three years as one franchise's voice of god is a career on its own.
He also owns a specific niche: fathers. Kou's father in Blue Spring Ride, Suneo's father in a Doraemon film, Mr. Honekawa in Doraemon, Fujitaka Kinomoto in Cardcaptor Sakura, and Yusaku Kudo in the Detective Conan films, a role that also lets him play Sherlock Holmes in The Phantom of Baker Street. It is a register that needs warmth without weight, and he has it.
The rest is range. Donquixote Doflamingo in One Piece, Grimmer in Monster, Slayn in Record of Lodoss War, Makimura in City Hunter, Brau1589 in Pluto (2023), Beast in the 2011 X-Men anime, Shin Hayata in Ultraman (2019), and live action too, in The Red Spectacles (1987). Wikipedia adds Dokaben, Kinnikuman, Captain Tsubasa, Touch, Transformers: Victory, game work including Metal Gear, and the current voice of Zoffy in the Ultra Series.
Movies (75)
- Paprika (2006)
- Detective Conan: The Phantom of Baker Street (2002)
- Doraemon: Nobita's Dinosaur (2006)
- One Piece: Clockwork Island Adventure (2001)
- Detective Conan: The Million-Dollar Pentagram (2024)
- Saint Seiya: Evil Goddess Eris (1987)
- Cardcaptor Sakura: The Sealed Card (2000)
- Cardcaptor Sakura: The Movie (1999)
- Ultraman Geed the Movie: Connect! The Wishes!! (2018)
- Crayon Shin-chan: Great Adventure In Henderland (1996)
- X: The Movie (1996)
- The Five Star Stories (1989)
- Colorful (2010)
- Slam Dunk 2: National Tournement (1994)
- One Piece Episode of Sabo: The Three Brothers' Bond - The Miraculous Reunion and the Inherited Will (2015)
- Urusei Yatsura: Beautiful Dreamer (1984)
- Origin: Spirits of the Past (2006)
- City Hunter the Movie: Angel Dust (2023)
- Ultraman Zero: The Revenge of Belial (2010)
- Detective Conan: Episode One - The Great Detective Turned Small (2017)
- Battle Royale High School (1987)
- Ultraman Mebius & Ultra Brothers (2006)
- Legend of the Galactic Heroes: Overture to a New War (1993)
- Riding Bean (1989)
- Love Me, Love Me Not (2020)
- The Red Spectacles (1987)
- Harmagedon (1983)
- Yona Yona Penguin (2009)
- Digimon X-Evolution (2005)
- Space Runaway Ideon: Be Invoked (1982)
TV (94)
- Doraemon (2005)
- Sazae-san (1969)
- Chiisana Tabi (1983)
- One Piece (1999)
- Monster (2004)
- Cardcaptor Sakura (1998)
- Saint Seiya (1986)
- Saint Seiya: The Hades Chapter (2002)
- NANA (2006)
- Toriko (2011)
- City Hunter (1987)
- The aquatope on white sand (2021)
- Maison Ikkoku (1986)
- Penguindrum (2011)
- The Piano Forest (2018)
- World Trigger (2014)
- PLUTO (2023)
- Future Boy Conan (1978)
- Master Keaton (1998)
- Powerpuff Girls Z (2006)
- Cackling Kitarou (2007)
- Magic Knight Rayearth (1994)
- SAINT SEIYA: Knights of the Zodiac (2019)
- ULTRAMAN (2019)
- Touch (1985)
- Dokaben (1976)
- Gaiking: Legend of Daiku-Maryu (2005)
- Princess Sarah (1985)
- Akagi (2005)
- Pro Golfer Saru (1985)
Where to start with Hideyuki Tanaka
Anyone with a passing knowledge of anime has already heard him, usually without checking who it was. One Piece is where most of that happened, as Donquixote Doflamingo, though a thousand-episode series is a demanding place to start.
Monster is the better drama and the better use of him, a patient adult thriller with none of the shouting the medium is caricatured for. Paprika is the most beautiful thing on the list and asks for one evening rather than one year.
For the narration, go to Saint Seiya and hear the voice that framed a franchise for three decades. Cardcaptor Sakura is the warm domestic register, City Hunter and Record of Lodoss War are the 1980s and 1990s picks for anyone building a history, and PLUTO is the recent, best-produced entry point of the lot.
Saint Seiya and the long-running shonen
Saint Seiya has been running in one form or another since 1986 and he has been there throughout, across the original run, the Hades chapter and the modern revivals. One Piece is the other enormous credit.
The films worth watching
The feature work is where the quality is. Paprika is the Satoshi Kon and one of the best animated films ever made, Monster is the great psychological thriller, and Pluto is the recent prestige adaptation of Tezuka.
The gentler work
Not everything is warriors shouting. Cardcaptor Sakura and its films are among the softest things in the medium, and Future Boy Conan is early Miyazaki television that still holds up completely.