Kenichirou Matsuda

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]