The fall 2024 anime season is starting to air one after another. This year too, there are plenty of popular original works, sequels to popular series, and anime adaptations of popular original works.
What particularly caught my attention was that “this fall, voice actor Akira Ishida will be playing a lot of shady roles.” The works and roles are introduced below. Once you realize the deep charm that “shadyness” contains, you will definitely be captivated!
*Due to the nature of the characters introduced in the following text, there may be spoilers for those who have not yet watched the series. Please be careful when reading on.
The anime “I’d Rather Be Someone Else in the Next Life” is a yakuza love comedy currently being serialized in Kodansha’s “Afternoon” magazine by author Asuka Konishi.
This is a “gang entertainment” story that is full of thrills and crazy love and hate, centering on Somei Yoshino, the granddaughter of the boss of the Somei-gumi, a direct descendant of the Kansai region’s largest gang, the Kirigaya-gumi, and Miyama Kirishima, the grandson of the head of the Miyama-ikka, a direct descendant of the Kanto region’s largest gang, the Tokusa-kai. It has gained overwhelming support, especially from female readers.
Ishida plays the role of Kirishima, who becomes the fiance of the main character, Yoshino. He is a good-looking man who excels in both academics and sports, and has a friendly personality that makes it hard to believe he is from a yakuza family. He is popular at school… but that is only his public face.
In the first episode, he beats up the delinquents who are bothering Yoshino with a smile. He also tells Yoshino that she is “more normal than I thought” and “I’m bored of her,” and then he presses her, asking her to “sell her body for money.”
Although he appears to be a refreshing young man, Kirishima is actually a dangerous person who has no interest in others and will stop at nothing to achieve his goals, sending shivers down the spine of viewers. On social media, people commented that Ishida is the voice of the character, saying things like, “This is the best of Ishida’s voice!”, “He’s really good at playing the role of a bad guy lol,” and “I love Kirishima so much.”
The TV anime “I’d Rather Be Someone Else in the Next Life” will start airing on TOKYO MX and other channels every Monday from 11pm.
“Natsume’s Book of Friends: Urushi” is the seventh season of “Natsume’s Book of Friends” and the latest TV anime series.
It is a strange tale of an ayakashi contract based on the manga by Yuki Midorikawa, which has sold over 17 million copies in Japan and is currently being serialized in Hakusensha’s “LaLa”.
The story follows Natsume Takashi, a boy who has been able to see youkai since he was a child, as he inherits his grandmother Reiko’s legacy, the “Book of Friends.” Together with his self-proclaimed bodyguard, Nyanko-Sensei, he returns the names of the youkai whose names are bound to it, and experiences encounters and partings with them.
Ishida plays the role of Natori Shuichi in this film. Natori is a popular actor on the surface, but behind the scenes he is a character who makes a living exorcising monsters. He is a good friend of Natsume, who can see monsters just like him, and he watches over Natsume, worried about him as he walks a different path from him.
… was the text written in the official character introduction. Like Kirishima, Natori is handsome, smiling, and can be consulted about youkai, so he is thought to be a reliable person, but in reality, Natsume and Nyanko-sensei think he is a “shady man.”
Indeed, when Natsume revealed the details of the Book of Friends to Natori, I was taken aback when he muttered, “I wish we’d just burn such a dangerous thing.”
Furthermore, there is a scene where Seiji Matoba tears up the letter addressed to Natsume… The depiction of his actions, which makes it unclear what he is thinking, makes him seem suspicious.
The TV anime “Natsume’s Book of Friends: Urushi” is broadcast on TV Tokyo every Monday from midnight.
Although it is not an anime, the currently popular movie “The Birth of Kitaro: The GeGeGe Mystery – Real Version” also features a mysterious character played by Ishida, so let me introduce it to you.
“Kitaro Birth: The Gegege Mystery” is a film that was released in 2023 to commemorate the 100th anniversary of Shigeru Mizuki’s birth, depicting the story of Kitaro’s fathers being told for the first time. When it was released in November 2023, it became a hot topic due to the encounter between Kitaro’s father, the former Medama Oyaji, and Mizuki, the sadness of the fate the two faced, and the intensity of the battle scenes.
The “real version” is the “true version” that the production team originally envisioned, with 327 retakes added and the sound re-dubbed.
Ishida plays Nagata Genji, the mayor of Nakukura Village, where the protagonist Mizuki and Kitaro’s father visit. Genji is gentle and well-mannered, and has earned the trust of the villagers. However, this is also his “public face”…
In reality, he is the leader of the Uraki-shu, a group of outlaws who were excommunicated by the Kido-shu for using forbidden magic. He is an expert in sorcery that is involved with the Ryuga clan’s evil deeds, and he uses his powers to kidnap members of the ghost tribe, including Kitaro’s father’s wife, one after another. The secret medicine “M” developed by Ryuga Pharmaceuticals, which is run by the Ryuga clan, was created based on this.
Zeros from “Slayers” and Hyotsuki from “Dr. Stone”… Is it true that there is no character who will not disappoint when combined with “a character with squinting eyes and Akira Ishida”…?
He’s gone beyond being shady, he’s actually a madman. Regulus Corneas, played by Ishida, also appeared in the new series “Re:ZERO -Starting Life in Another World-” that started this fall.
He is the Archbishop of the Witch’s Cult’s Sin of Greed, and is a character who takes any woman he likes as his wife, surrounding himself with many beautiful women and creating a harem. Of course, he has no regard for their wishes.
In the previous episode, Emilia was finally taken away as his wife. Will Subaru be able to get her back?
The third season of “Re:ZERO − Starting Life in Another World” will begin airing every Wednesday on AT-X, TOKYO MX, and other channels. It is currently available for pre-airing and first-time streaming on ABEMA and d Anime Store.
As well as the developments and characters’ exploits in “Re:Zero,” “I Want to Be Someone Else in the Next Life,” and “Natsume’s Book of Friends,” we can’t help but pay attention to the future works that Ishida will appear in and the characters he will play, wondering, “Are there hidden sides to this?”
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