(born March 25, 1982) is a Japanese actor and singer. He played Takashi Kawamura in ''

The Prince of Tennis is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Takeshi Konomi. The manga was serialized in Shueisha's ''Weekly Shōnen Jump'' from July 1999 to March 2008, with its chapters collected in forty-two ''tankōbon'' volumes. ...

'' musical series,

Tenimyu , also known as for short, is a series of live action stage musicals directed by Yukio Ueshima based on the manga series ''The Prince of Tennis'' created by Takeshi Konomi and serialized by Shueisha in ''Weekly Shōnen Jump''. The first music ...

and the live film adaptation.

Career

Kotani played a

transvestite Transvestism is the practice of dressing in a manner traditionally associated with the opposite sex. In some cultures, transvestism is practiced for religious, traditional, or ceremonial reasons. The term is considered outdated in Western c ...

in ''TKO Hip Hop''.TKO HIPHOP official website
Kotani portrayed Takashi Kawamura, the soft-spoken, dual-personality 3rd year regular of

Seigaku ''The Prince of Tennis'' manga and anime series has a large cast of fictional characters created by Takeshi Konomi; many have appeared in the musical and film adaptations. The cast of the series is largely made up of the members of the various ...

Middle School's tennis club, in ''The Prince of Tennis'' musicals,

. From 2005 to 2006, he was the fourth actor to play Kawamura as a member of the second-generation Seigaku cast. He made his debut as Kawamura on January 8, 2005 in the ''Side Yamabuki'' performance in

Osaka is a designated city in the Kansai region of Honshu in Japan. It is the capital of and most populous city in Osaka Prefecture, and the third most populous city in Japan, following Special wards of Tokyo and Yokohama. With a population of 2. ...

. That same year, his role as Kawamura carried into the live adaptation film of the manga. On March 29, 2006, in the ''Dream Live 3rd'' Live concert, Kotani, along with the majority of the Seigaku cast, graduated from their roles. Kotani carried his role from the musicals to the live-adaptation film of ''The Prince of Tennis''. He reprised his role in the movie. ''The Prince of Tennis'' was released on May 13, 2006 and opened in the tenth spot of the Japanese box office. Kotani starred in the made-for DVD release

tokusatsu is a Japanese term for live action film or television drama that makes heavy use of practical special effects. ''Tokusatsu'' entertainment mainly refers to science fiction, War film, war, fantasy, or Horror film, horror media featuring such te ...

series, ''ZanSaber'', as a tokusatsu hero. ''ZanSaber'' was released on November 18, 2006. Kotani's next project was filming for the made-for DVD release movie, ''Boys Love'',''Boys Love'' Official Blog
which co-starred

Takumi Saito is a Japanese actor and filmmaker. He directs films under his birthname, , spelled differently in Kanji but pronounced the same. Early life and work Saitoh was born on August 22, 1981, in Minato, Tokyo. Saitoh's father worked in the film in ...

. Kotani plays Mamiya Taishin, a magazine editor who meets high-school model, Kisaragi Noeru (Takumi), during a magazine interview. ''Boys Love'' was released on November 24, 2006. In 2007, Kotani took the lead in the theatrical edition of ''Boys Love'', which shared only its title with the 2006 movie, and featured a new story and cast. Kotani portrayed Aoi Kairu, a young teacher at an all-boys boarding school, who discovers that his new student, Sora Amakami (Atsumi Kanno) is the boy with whom he recently had a sexual encounter. The movie costarred Yuuki Kawakubo and, in smaller roles,

Toru Baba TORU or Toru may refer to: *TORU, spacecraft system *Toru (given name), Japanese male given name *Toru, Pakistan, village in Mardan District of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan *Tõru Tõru is a village in Saaremaa Parish, Saare County in western Est ...

and

Renn Kiriyama is a Japanese stage and television actor from Yokohama. His debut role was as Bunta Marui in ''The Prince of Tennis'' musical '' Absolute King Rikkai feat. Rokkaku ~ First Service''. Kiriyama is also known for his role in Shotaro Hidari, the ma ...

. In 2007, Kotani appeared in the film, ', the live-action adaptation of the 1982 to 1988 manga series, ''Aratanaru Shobaku'' by Satosi Yoshida. The film was released in April 2007. Kotani acted alongside

Yuu Shirota is a Japanese-Spanish actor and singer, most known for his role as Kagurazaka Makoto in the Japanese television drama live action adaption of ''Hanazakari no Kimitachi e, Hana-Kimi'', Kunimitsu Tezuka in the ''Tenimyu, Prince of Tennis Musicals' ...

Masaki Kaji is a Japanese actor and singer. He is known for his role as Takeshi Momoshiro in the ''Prince of Tennis'' musical series, ''Tenimyu'', and the The Prince of Tennis (film), live film adaptation. He was also part of a young men's stage acting trou ...

, Kousuke Kujirai and

Kenta Kamakari is a Japanese actor, voice actor and singer, famous for his role as Ryo Shishido in the '' Prince of Tennis Musical''s. He was hospitalized on April 21, 2007 and was unable to play the role of Minami Itsuki in ''Musical Air Gear'' vs. Bacchus S ...

. Kotani is a member of +Plus, a

J-pop J-pop ( ja, ジェイポップ, ''jeipoppu''; often stylized as J-POP; an abbreviated form of "Japanese popular music"), natively also known simply as , is the name for a form of popular music that entered the musical mainstream of Japan in the 1 ...

band that does opening and ending songs for anime. Their latest anime was ''Hitman REBORN''. +PLUS released four albums.

Personal life

Kotani began dating former

Morning Musume , formerly simply and colloquially referred to as , are a Japanese girl group, holding the second highest overall single sales (of a female group) on the Oricon charts as of February 2012, with the Oricon record of most top ten singles with an ...

member

Risa Niigaki is a Japanese actress and singer. She was a fifth-generation member of the Japanese pop group Morning Musume. She joined Morning Musume in 2001 along with 3 others- Ai Takahashi, Asami Konno and Makoto Ogawa. She grew up in Yokohama after movin ...

after they starred in the stage play ''

Absolute Boyfriend is a six-volume manga series by Yuu Watase, first serialized in ''Shōjo Comic''. Chuang Yi licensed it for an English language release in Singapore, with the first volume released in March 2005. Viz Media licensed the series for an English ...

'' in 2013. After two years of dating, they married on July 11, 2016. On January 6, 2018, their blogs announced that they were filing for divorce.

Discography

2007 – "Going to the Road" was his first solo single, that also included "Irotodori no Sekai".

Filmography

Theatre

*2003 – 年秋公演「ANGEL29X99」にて客演ANGEL

Musicals

TENIMYU: THE PRINCE OF TENNIS MUSICAL SERIES (as Takashi Kawamura) *''The Prince of Tennis Musical'': Side Yamabuki feat. St. Rudolph (In Winter of 2004–2005) *''The Prince of Tennis Musical'': Dream Live 2nd (2005) *''The Prince of Tennis Musical'': The Imperial Match Hyotei Gakuen (2005) *''The Prince of Tennis Musical'': The Imperial Match Hyotei Gakuen in Winter (In Winter of 2005–2006) *''The Prince of Tennis Musical'': Dream Live 3rd (2006)

Awards

1999 JUNON SUPER BOY Contest – 5th Place

References

* Wikipedia Japanese article on 小谷嘉一

External links

Kotani's Official Blog

Kotani's official website
* *
Kotani's Personal Blog
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kotani, Yoshikazu 1982 births Living people Japanese male actors