is a Japanese

voice actor Voice acting is the art of Acting, performing a character or providing information to an audience with one's voice. Performers are often called voice actors/actresses in addition to other names. Examples of voice work include animation, animated, ...

and singer. He joined 81 Produce in 2003. He voiced Hayato Kazami in '' Future GPX Cyber Formula'', Ryo Akiyama in ''

Digimon Tamers is a Japanese anime television series and the third television series in the ''Digimon'' franchise, produced by Toei Animation. The series takes place in a new setting separate from the preceding series, '' Digimon Adventure'' and ''Digimon ...

'' and has been the voice of

Sonic the Hedgehog is a video game series and media franchise created by the Japanese developers Yuji Naka, Naoto Ohshima, and Hirokazu Yasuhara for Sega. The franchise follows Sonic the Hedgehog (character), Sonic, an anthropomorphic blue hedgehog who battle ...

in the eponymous series since 1998. He came in eighth in the Seiyū Grand Prix in 1994.

Career

While studying child psychology, Kanemaru worked part-time at the Far East Network in Yokota Air Base, and at a department store as a studio DJ in

Shinjuku , officially called Shinjuku City, is a special ward of Tokyo, Japan. It is a major commercial and administrative center, housing the northern half of the busiest railway station in the world ( Shinjuku Station) as well as the Tokyo Metropol ...

. He joined in the dubbing session for ''

Urusei Yatsura is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Rumiko Takahashi. It was serialized in Shogakukan's ''Weekly Shōnen Sunday'' from September 1978 to February 1987. Its 366 individual chapters were collected in 34 ''tankōbon'' volum ...

''. He later took part in several of

Fuji TV JOCX-DTV (channel 8), branded as or , is a Japanese television station that serves the Kantō region as the flagship (broadcasting), flagship station of the Fuji News Network (FNN) and the Fuji Network System (FNS). The station is owned-and- ...

's Saturday evening shows such as '' High School! Kimengumi'', '' Tsuide ni Tonchinkan'', and ''Meimon! Dai San Yakyūbu''. At the time, he was employed by Beniya 25-Ji and Dojinsha Production. He got his first lead role in 1991's '' Future GPX Cyber Formula'', where he played Hayato Kazami. He found out about it the day before the recording, when he heard an answering machine on his trip, and rushed home to read the script on the day of the recording. When he appeared in ''Cyber Formula'', he was also working as an English tutor, and one of his students' parents leaked information about him, causing a huge commotion in the adjacent shopping district as anime fans rushed to the place where he was teaching. During the dubbing of an American television sitcom ''

Growing Pains ''Growing Pains'' is an American television sitcom created by Neal Marlens that ran on ABC for seven seasons from September 24, 1985, to April 25, 1992. The series follows the misadventures of the Seaver family, including psychiatrist and fathe ...

'', a SEGA official who came to look for the role of Sonic heard Kanemaru's performance in the waiting room and cast him for the role starting from '' Sonic Adventure''. This established a role for Sonic, who could freely switch between English and Japanese, and also led to Kanemaru's role. His performance in the ''Sonic'' series also led to offers from

Disney The Walt Disney Company, commonly referred to as simply Disney, is an American multinational mass media and entertainment industry, entertainment conglomerate (company), conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios (Burbank), Walt Di ...

to record children's programs. For the live-action film adaptation for the ''Sonic'' series, Kanemaru was replaced by Taishi Nakagawa. At the time the film was released, Kanemaru took to Twitter to express his thoughts and support the crew for the film. In an interview with Animate Times in 2016, Kanemaru recalled that ''Cyber Formula'' helped him get used to singing, as the series had monthly album releases at the time. He was the first in the voice acting industry to be allowed to cover " Ue o Muite Arukō" and recorded it with an

a cappella Music performed a cappella ( , , ; ), less commonly spelled acapella in English, is music performed by a singer or a singing group without instrumental accompaniment. The term ''a cappella'' was originally intended to differentiate between Rena ...

chorus. On his 1993 album ''Inspired Colors'', he also wrote and composed the song "12-Gatsu no Fairy Tale", as well as English covers of " Video Killed the Radio Star" and Kazumasa Oda's " Love Story wa Totsuzen ni" under the title "suddenly" (using the lyrics from Rita Coolidge's version). He has also tried his hand at standard jazz and has performed several live shows with several fellow voice actors, and his jazz numbers mixed with English and Japanese lyrics written himself are well received by all ages.

Filmography

Anime series

Anime films

Video games

Radio

Music CDs

Drama CDs

Tokusatsu

Dubbing

References

External links

*
81 Produce profile

Jun'ichi Kanemaru
at Ryu's Seiyuu Info * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Kanemaru, Junichi 81 Produce voice actors Living people Japanese male video game actors Japanese male voice actors Japanese male singer-songwriters Male voice actors from Yamanashi Prefecture Singers from Yamanashi Prefecture 20th-century Japanese male actors 20th-century Japanese male singers 20th-century Japanese singers 21st-century Japanese male actors 21st-century Japanese male singers 21st-century Japanese singers Year of birth missing (living people)