Japanese animation has lost a pillar of the voice acting community today. Keiji Fujiwara who had been up against cancer and while he had gone on a health-related hiatus in 2016, he gradually returned the following year so its uncertain whether this was related to the cancer or not.
Fujiwara lent his voice talents to a variety of recognizable roles and his voice is known by anime subtitle fans for many of them such as the fan-favorite character of Maes Hughes from Fullmetal Alchemist or ACDC from Jojo's Bizarre Adventure. He also voiced in other anime titles such as Crayon Shin-chan. Death Note, Hunter x Hunter, and Eureka 7 to name a few.
The voice actor contributed to multiple Final Fantasy titles such as Final Fantasy: Advent Children, Final Fantasy XV, and Kingdom Hearts. What's possibly the most disheartening is that Fujiwara reprised his role of Reno in the Final Fantasy 7 Remake which just released several days ago, so it's unfortunate that he won't get to see the length of its success.
Without a doubt he is one of the more recognizable voices in the game, but despite all of his video game and anime roles, one of his biggest was a film role as Fujiwara actually starred as the Japanese version of Tony Stark in The Avengers. But what do you guys think? Which of these roles are you most familiar with? Let us know in the comments!
Fujiwara was the Founder and Representative of Air Agency talent management agency from 2006 until his passing.