Kenichirou Matsuda

Kenichirou Matsuda (Japanese: 松田 健一郎, Hepburn: Matsuda Ken'ichirō; born 22 January 1978) is a Japanese voice actor from Saitama Prefecture, affiliated with Arts Vision.^[1] He is known for starring as Batou in Ghost in the Shell: Arise, Vainney Halter in Clockwork Planet, Jacques Yvain in RErideD: Derrida, who leaps through time, Thors in Vinland Saga, Gordon Agrippa in Black Clover, Arnold in Magatsu Wahrheit: Zuerst, Miles Morgan in Engage Kiss, the narrator and Bond Forger in Spy x Family, Richard Parker in Highspeed Etoile, and Marcella Nuvolari in Dahlia in Bloom.

Kenichirou Matsuda
松田 健一郎
Born	(1978-01-22) 22 January 1978 (age 47) Saitama Prefecture, Japan
Occupation	Voice actor
Notable work	Ghost in the Shell: Arise as Batou Clockwork Planet as Vainney Halter Vinland Saga as Thors Black Clover as Gordon Agrippa Magatsu Wahrheit: Zuerst as Arnold Engage Kiss as Miles Morgan Spy x Family as the narrator and Bond Forger Highspeed Etoile as Richard Parker

Biography

Kenichirou Matsuda, a native of Saitama Prefecture, was born on 22 January 1978.^[1][2] As an elementary school student, he learned about voice acting after hearing his two older sisters were interested in such a career, but stopped watching anime because he thought it was "something for kids to watch", so he instead wanted to be a baseball player or a police officer.^[3] During his early adulthood, he attended a legal vocational school with the goal of becoming a civil servant, but dropped out after not being able to keep up with a higher class he was moved into.^[3] Enrolled into the Japan Narration Acting Institute [ja],^[1][3] he considered quitting after three years and a third failed audition, but instead continued, and the following year he was accepted into Arts Vision.^[3]

In February 2013, it was announced that he would voice Batou in Ghost in the Shell: Arise.^[4] Jaclyn Appelgate of Comic Book Resources said Matsuda "captures Batou's rough personality and does especially well with expressing the character's rage".^[5] He later reprised his role in the 2015 movie Ghost in the Shell: The New Movie,^[6] and he later starred as Vainney Halter in Clockwork Planet and Jacques Yvain in RErideD: Derrida, who leaps through time.^[7][8]

In February 2019, Matsuda was cast as Thors, a major character in Vinland Saga.^[9] Regarding his performance of Thors, Appelgate said "Kenichiro may have not had many lines with Thors since the character is a man of few words, but the voice actor managed to balance Thors' strong appearance with his massive compassion, using a deep masculine voice with soft undertones."^[5] He later starred as Arnold in Magatsu Wahrheit: Zuerst and Miles Morgan in Engage Kiss.^[10][11]

Matsuda originally considering retirement after several unsuccessful auditions, but in April 2022, he began voicing the narrator of Spy x Family, and in October 2022, he started voicing main character Bond Forger.^[12][13] Matsuda uses several different barks to express Bond's emotions, with different ones to express happiness and sadness.^[12] Appelgate said of his performance of Bond: "when it comes to how the dog sounds when he does open his mouth, Kenichiro adds a nice, subtle layer of charm to this gentle giant with his iconic "borf" speech."^[5] In 2024, he starred as Richard Parker in Highspeed Etoile and Marcella Nuvolari in Dahlia in Bloom.^[14][15]

Filmography

Animated television

Year	Title	Role(s)	Ref
2007	Darker than Black		[1]
2007	Moribito: Guardian of the Spirit		[1]
2013	Ghost in the Shell: Arise	Batou	[4]
2014	D-Frag!	Hiroshi Nagayama	[16]
2014	Dramatical Murder	Mink	[17]
2014	Marvel Disk Wars: The Avengers	The Hulk	[18]
2016	Reikenzan: Hoshikuzu-tachi no Utage	Iemoto	[19]
2016	Soul Buster	Wei Yan	[20]
2017	Black Clover	Narrator, Gordon Agrippa	[1][21]
2017	Clockwork Planet	Vainney Halter	[7]
2017	ēlDLIVE	Riggs	[22]
2017	Kino's Journey	Riku	[23]
2017	Marvel Future Avengers	The Hulk	[24]
2018	Conception	Shangri-la	[25]
2018	RErideD: Derrida, who leaps through time	Jacques Yvain	[8]
2019	Kemono Michi: Rise Up	Wolfgang von Kraftman	[26]
2019	Kengan Ashura	Hollis Kure	[27]
2019	Kochoki	Hayashi Hidesada	[28]
2019	Vinland Saga	Thors	[9]
2020	Healin' Good Pretty Cure	Teruhiko Hiramitsu	[29]
2020	Magatsu Wahrheit: Zuerst	Arnold	[10]
2020	My Hero Academia	Yū Hōjō	[30]
2020	The Day I Became a God	Raita Oguma	[31]
2021	Bakuten!!	Shūji Mabuchi	[32]
2021	Kingdom	Kaioku	[33]
2021	Rumble Garanndoll	Ukai	[34]
2021	Shaman King	Luchist	[35]
2022	Engage Kiss	Miles Morgan	[11]
2022	Spy x Family	Narrator, Bond Forger	[13]
2022	The Genius Prince's Guide to Raising a Nation Out of Debt	Bartholorush	[36]
2022	Tribe Nine	Roku Saigo	[37]
2023	Dog Signal	Woolson	[38]
2023	The Faraway Paladin	Gelrays	[39]
2024	The Unwanted Undead Adventurer	Clope	[40]
2024	Dahlia in Bloom	Marcella Nuvolari	[15]
2024	Highspeed Etoile	Richard Parker	[14]
2024	Quality Assurance in Another World	Sumida	[41]
2024	Tower of God	Kosuke/Kang Horyang	[42]
2025	Übel Blatt	Geranpen	[43]
TBA	The Frontier Lord Begins with Zero Subjects	Dias	[44]

Animated film

Year	Title	Role(s)	Ref
2015	Ghost in the Shell: The New Movie	Batou	[6]
2015	Sleep Tight My Baby, Cradled in the Sky	Yasunori Shionoha	[45]
2017	Blade Runner Black Out 2022	Iggy	[46]
2017	Mobile Suit Gundam Thunderbolt: Bandit Flower	Bull	[47]
2019	Human Lost	Shibuta	[48]
2022	Touken Ranbu: Hanamaru: Setsugetsuka	Nenekirimaru	[49]
2022	The First Slam Dunk	Chuichirou Noma	[47]
2024	Dead Dead Demon's Dededede Destruction	Takarada	[50]

Original video animation

Year	Title	Role(s)	Ref
2016	Mobile Suit Gundam: The Origin	Ortega	[51]

Video games

Year	Title	Role(s)	Ref
2012	Street Fighter X Tekken	Raven, Jack-X	[47]
2019	Our World is Ended	Shiro Deguchi	[52]
2019	Life Is Strange 2	Jonathan Merrill	[53]
2025	Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves	Marco Rodrigues	[54]

Dubbing

• The Beckoning Silence (Toni Kurtz (Roger Schäli))^[55]
• BlacKkKlansman (Detective Ron Stallworth (John David Washington))^[56]
• Blood Ties (Chris Pierzynski (Clive Owen))^[57]
• Deep Blue Sea 3 (Eugene Shaw (Emerson Brooks))^[58]
• Doomsday (Sergeant Norton (Adrian Lester))^[59]
• Fast & Furious (Roman Pearce (Tyrese Gibson))
• Fireproof (Wayne Floyd (Stephen Dervan))^[60]
• Jersey Boys (Nick Massi (Michael Lomenda))^[61]
• The Maze Runner (Alby (Aml Ameen))^[62]
• The Night Before (Chris Roberts (Anthony Mackie))^[63]
• The Perfect Host (Detective Morton (Nathaniel Parker))^[64]
• Rogue Hostage (Kyle Snowden (Tyrese Gibson))^[65]
• Young Justice, Kaldur'ahm