Kotaro Yanagi

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Kotaro Yanagi (柳浩太郎, Yanagi Kōtarō^?) is a young Japanese actor who plays in various movies, dramas, and stage events. He's most commonly referred to as "Yanagi", although he sometimes shortens it to "Yana" or "Nagi.".

Yanagi

1 Statistics
2 Roles
3 Miscellaneous
4 Accident
5 Pictures
6 References
7 External links

[edit] Statistics

Yanagi was born on December 21, 1985, in Berlin, Germany however he is ethnically 100% Japanese. Yanagi stayed in Germany till he was 3 years old until he and his family moved to Japan where he attended kindergarten, Yanagi stayed in Japan until the first semester of elementary school however due to his fathers work he and his family moved to India. Until third grade, Yanagi stayed with his parents and attended a nearby school. However, from fourth to sixth grade he attended an American boarding school further away, which is where he learned English. Yanagi's family moved back to Japan where he finished school.

He is fluent in both English and Japanese. Fairly small for his age, Yanagi measures approximately 165 cm tall (about 5'4") and weighs 48kg (about 105 pounds).

[edit] Roles

Yanagi is a member of the young men's stage acting troupe, D-Boys, which plays in various skit-like performances. He acted in the web drama, Hice Cool!『冲绳男孩』, and had a supporting role in the movie Aa~! Izakaya Puroresu『あゝ！一軒家プロレス』, a wrestling film, as well as the drama Rocket Boys. He also acted in his D-Boys troupe's TV drama DD-Boys. His first major film role is as the otaku lead character in Chikan Otoko『痴漢男』, based off of a book by the same name. He has also acted in a short drama in 2007 named Puzzle『パズル』, where he played a prominant role with a couple of other D-boys. He also was the main character in a recent musical "Cooky clown" ミュージカル『Cooky Clown』and is also taking a part in "Out of Order"

His most famous role, however, is as Ryoma Echizen in the Prince of Tennis Musical series (based on the manga and anime series of the same name), specifically:

The Prince of Tennis Musical ミュージカル『テニスの王子様』
The Prince of Tennis Musical: The Special Match Fudomine SIDE (alongside fellow D-Boy Endo Yuuya, who also played Echizen)
The Prince of Tennis Musical: Dream Live 2nd (he again shared the role with Endo)
The Prince of Tennis Musical: The Imperial Match Hyotei Gakuen
The Prince of Tennis Musical: The Imperial Match Hyotei Gakuen in winter
The Prince of Tennis Musical: Dream Live 3rd

During his run in the musicals, he was able to work with fellow D-Boys members, Yuya Endo, Yuu Shirota, Masaki Kaji, Hiroki Suzuki, Osamu Adachi, Hirofumi Araki, and Masato Wada. On March 29th, 2006, Yanagi graduated from the role of Echizen after the last performance for Dream Live 3rd; since his graduation, the role of Echizen has been played by Doori Sakurada.

Yanagi also has one Idol DVD, "20-2 Eighteen," and a DVD/Photobook, "YA-NA-GI."

[edit] Miscellaneous

Yanagi's hobbies are hanging with friends and karaoke. His major skills, as he personally states, are "street dancing, lock dancing, and pantomime." His dream was to become a professional dancer, however his dancing skills were impeded by his injuries from his accident (see below).

[edit] Accident

After leaving a rehearsal for The Prince of Tennis Musical: The Special Match Fudomine,3 weeks before it was due to open, Yanagi was hit by a car. He had extensive damage to his body and vocal cords and was unconscious for two weeks. Doctors predicted he would be bedridden for the rest of his life. After waking up Yanagi weighed around 30kg and was unable to get up at all.

However Yanagi was able to make a miraculous recovery and is currently strong enough to act again, although he has difficulty with his dancing and singing. His recovery time prevented him from playing in that and the next 2 Prince of Tennis Musicals (in which he was replaced by Kimeru and Endo Yuuya, respectively).