Kikunosuke Toya

is a Japanese voice actor and singer affiliated with Sony Music Artists. After spending some time doing comedy, drama, and piano as a high school student, he won the Special Award at Sony Music Artists' 6th Anistoteles' audition in 2017, and he made his debut in 2022 as Denji, the main character of the anime '' Chainsaw Man''. He has starred as Akira Kiyose in Sony Music Entertainment Japan's ''UniteUp!'' project, Donny in ''Four Knights of the Apocalypse'', Mikoto Yuzuki in '' The Yuzuki Family's Four Sons'', and Fubuki in '' The Elusive Samurai''. In 2024, he won the Best New Actor Award at the 18th Seiyu Awards.

Early life

Toya, born on November 30, 1998, is a native of Tokyo and of Kanagawa Prefecture. Toya has an older brother and older sister. As a young child, he lived for years in Thailand due to his parents' work. He began playing the piano at the age of three, and he was invited to accompany a chorus competition while in junior high school due to his skills and once unsuccessfully auditioned to play jazz piano for a school club. While in high school, he posted covers on YouTube and Nico Nico Douga, was the keyboardist of an all-male Princess Princess cover band, and was part of a volunteer comedy group who performed at school festivals and graduation parties.

Career

After spending some time in a high school drama club, he was offered both a lead role and the opportunity to be screenwriter and director for a school festival class play. Auditioning for several comedians' offices and training schools, and going to acting workshops, he learned that he could make people laugh through acting, so he decided to pursue acting. In October 2017, when he was 18 years old, he won the Special Award at Sony Music Artists' 6th Anistoteles' audition; he had been inspired to participate by Inori Minase's win of the Anistoteles' Grand Prix. He subsequently decided on a career in voice acting. Afterwards, in 2019, he was part of the first graduating class of Megumi Ogata's private acting school Team BareboAt, which opened in the same year.

In October 2018, Toya was cast in DMM Games' ''Wind Boys!'' project. In 2019, he appeared in the music video for 's song "Fetish!". In 2022, he starred in his first main role as Denji in the anime '' Chainsaw Man'', with Ogata herself giving him words of encouragement. In his Anime News Network review for "Rescue", the fourth episode of ''Chainsaw Man'', James Beckett praised Toya's performance as Denji, saying that Toya "nail dDenji's particular mix of ferocity, mania, and brazen idiocy".

He stars as Akira Kiyose in Sony Music Entertainment Japan's ''UniteUp!'' project, and in addition to reprising his role in the anime and being part of the tie-in trio unit Protostar, he sang the anime's theme song "Unite Up!" alongside the rest of the cast. He also starred as Donny in ''Four Knights of the Apocalypse'', Mikoto Yuzuki in '' The Yuzuki Family's Four Sons'', and Fubuki in '' The Elusive Samurai''. In November 2023, he was a guest at the North American premiere of ''Four Knights of the Apocalypse'' at Anime NYC 2023.

In 2024, Toya won the Best New Actor Award at the 18th Seiyu Awards. He will star as Minoru Kudou in the third season of '' The Irregular at Magic High School'' and Hadis Teos Rave in ''The Do-Over Damsel Conquers the Dragon Emperor''.

Filmography

Animated television

Video games

Dubbing

*'' Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem'' (Michelangelo)

Awards

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Toya, Kikunosuke
1998 births
21st-century Japanese male actors
21st-century Japanese male singers
21st-century Japanese singers
Anime singers
Japanese male pop singers
Japanese male video game actors
Living people
Male voice actors from Kanagawa Prefecture
Male voice actors from Tokyo
Seiyu Award winners
Singers from Kanagawa Prefecture
Singers from Tokyo