Kunihiko Yasui
Kunihiko Yasui is an actor, born 1960.
If you watched much anime made between the mid-1990s and the late 2000s, you have heard Kunihiko Yasui without ever learning his name. Born in Nagoya in 1960 and signed to the agency 81 Produce, he has built the kind of career that holds the medium up: not leads, but the doctor, the priest, the store manager, the henchman, the monster of the week, delivered with enough weight that the lead has something to push against.
He works mostly in the low register and uses it two ways. There is the menace: Haruki Kusakabe in Martian Successor Nadesico, the Doctor in Hellsing, Priest Pario in Claymore, Berserker in Fate/Extra Last Encore, Retsu Kaioh in Baki the Grappler. And there is the comedy, which is the surprise, because he plays it completely straight: Papa PaRappa in PaRappa the Rapper, the store manager in Kaiji.
He is also a fixture of Japan's costumed hero shows, voicing villains in Denji Sentai Megaranger, Samurai Sentai Shinkenger, Juken Sentai Gekiranger and a Kamen Rider Agito film, which is a discipline of its own: performing through an actor in a rubber suit and making the two read as one creature. He narrates as well, most steadily for the NHK documentary series Document 72 Hours. Away from the screen, SNK recruited him for its King of Fighters image band, Band of Fighters, in the role of Iori Yagami.
Movies (6)
- Detective Conan: Episode One - The Great Detective Turned Small (2017)
- Kamen Rider Agito: Project G4 (2001)
- Martian Successor Nadesico: The Motion Picture - Prince of Darkness (1998)
- M.D. Geist II: Death Force (1996)
- Gatchaman OVA (1994)
- Butt Attack Punisher Girl Gautaman R: The Final Battle Between Love & Tragedy! (1994)
TV (23)
- Document 72 Hours (2006)
- Hakkenden: Legend of the Dog Warriors (1990)
- Baki the Grappler (2001)
- Kaiji (2007)
- Daa! Daa! Daa! UFO Baby (2000)
- Claymore (2007)
- New Cutey Honey (1994)
- Juken Sentai Gekiranger (2007)
- Samurai Sentai Shinkenger (2009)
- Denji Sentai Megaranger (1997)
- Hellsing (2001)
- Martian Successor Nadesico (1996)
- PaRappa the Rapper (2001)
- Fate/Extra Last Encore (2018)
- Stratos 4 (2003)
- Angel Links (1999)
- Gasaraki (1998)
- Ninja Resurrection (1998)
- Master of Mosquiton '99 (1997)
- Kurogane Communication (1998)
- Salaryman Kintaro (2001)
- Apocalypse Zero (1996)
- Bomberman B-Daman Bakugaiden (1998)
Where to start with Kunihiko Yasui
Begin with Martian Successor Nadesico. It is the best show on this list by some distance, a comedy about people making a mess of a war, and Kusakabe is the part that keeps yanking it back toward seriousness. Yasui plays him as a man who is right about almost everything and impossible to agree with.
For pure menace, Hellsing and Claymore are the two, both gothic and both humourless in a way that suits him. Baki the Grappler is where to hear him enjoying himself; the show is ridiculous and knows it.
Then the other half of the career. Kaiji is the great gambling anime and his store manager is a small, perfectly nasty piece of work. PaRappa the Rapper is the comedy end. Samurai Sentai Shinkenger and Juken Sentai Gekiranger are where the monster voices live, which is a craft in itself.