Showtaro Morikubo
Shotaro Morikubo (森久保 祥太郎, Morikubo Shōtarō?, born February 25, 1974) is a Japanese voice actor, and singer who has voiced characters in anime, drama CDs and video games. According to the Anime News Network and as of July 8, 2006, Morikubo has about 55 voice role credits under his name. He was formerly affiliated with I'm Enterprise.
He was born in Hachiōji, Tokyo. Morikubo dropped out of Tama Art University. He has released song singles, a CD album and a concert DVD.
On February 22, 2007, Morikubo married fellow voice actress Yū Asakawa. However, Asakawa announced in her January 14, 2009 blog entry that the two have divorced. Exact dates of the divorce are undisclosed.
His field of interests are playing the guitar, singing, and skiing.
Notable voice roles
CD albums
Zui (髄?, lit. marrow) is a solo album by Showtaro Morikubo that was released in 2001, and has ten tracks and one single: "The Answer". Both "The Answer" and "Moon Light" were big hits, being used in the video game series Rockman X, as the opening themes to Rockman X6. The concert for this album was entitled "Showtaro Morikubo Live House Tour '01~臆病者のG行為~". The final touring of this concert was taped and sold on DVD, which also includes the promotional video for "The Answer".
- Build Up!!! [鍛]
- Power
- G行為 (G Kōi)
- 身体検査 (Karada Kensa)
- Rainy Day
- The Answer
- Hedgehog Peter
- 臆病者 (Okubyō Mono)
- Moon Light
- End of the Sky
Hard Spirit is the album released from one of his most popular voice actor units, Heart-beat, where he paired up with the voice actor Hiroki Takahashi. The singles released for this album were "Shootin' Stars" and "Continued". This album was also featured in his first live action movie (appearing in, not voice acting for), "Cross Chord". While this is an album with Takahashi, each of them had two solo songs. Morikubo sings alone in "Hurry Up Drive" and "Change or Never change", and Takahashi's solos are "Thanks for..." and "Believe me".
- Cross Chord
- Shootin' Stars (Movie Version)
- Continued (Movie Version)
- Hurry Up Drive
- Change or Never Change
- Thanks for...
- Believe Me
- Shootin' Stars (Single Version)
- Continued (Single Version)
Notable songs
- "Moon Light", used in Rockman X6 as the main opening theme.
- "The Answer", used as a second opening theme for the aforementioned game.
- "Lazy Mind", used as the ending theme for Rockman X7. It is still heard in the English release of the game, but is instrumental only.
- "Begin the Try", used as the second ending theme to the anime Rockman.EXE.
DVD
- Showtaro Morikubo Okubyō Mono no G Kōi Live House Tour '01
- Cross Chord (Volumes 1-3)
Details
Music career
- He has his own band, Mosquito Milk, that performed the themes "Monkey" and "Mizu no Naka" as the opening and ending themes to the original Japanese version of Rockman X5.
- He is a member of the popular voice actor unit, An's All Stars (with Hideo Ishikawa), playing guitar and doing vocals as a duet in songs with Ishikawa. This band has had its own albums, singles, anime themes, and radio shows. Their latest songs are "Omomuku Mama ni..." and "You are My Sky, You Are My Ocean...", featured in the Last Escort - Shinya no Kokucho Monogatari drama CD.
- He is also a composer, and has written such songs as "I.D.E.A. ~Boku wa Mainichi, Yume o Miru~" (performed by RoST) for Rockman X6, and "Oh! Enka!" (performed by Junko Takeuchi) for Naruto.
- He produced and wrote the lyrics for his songs from his solo album almost entirely himself, and he also wrote the lyrics and music to, and sang, a track from the movie Cross Chord.
- He put together entirely, and sang, the two vocal songs, "Kiri no Mukō de" and "Mezametara...", for the soundtrack to the anime Ururun.
- In Bakuman, his character Koogy sang a Japanese-language version of Vamps' "Get Up". On February 23, 2010, an actual single was released of this song, with the B-sides being; a Japanese-language version of Vamps' "Euphoria", and instrumental versions of each song.
Career in anime
- He has worked alongside Takahiro Sakurai in several anime.
- In the 2001 anime series Cyborg 009, Morikubo voices Cyborg 002 and Sakurai voices Cyborg 009.
- In Final Fantasy VII Advent Children, Morikubo voices a major antagonist, Kadaj, while Sakurai voices the protagonist, Cloud Strife.
- In Zatch Bell!, Morikubo voices Haruhiko while Sakurai voices Kiyomaro Takamine.
- In Prétear, Morikubo voices Gō while Sakurai voices Sasame.
- In D.Gray-Man, Morikubo voices an antagonist named Jasdero while Sakurai voices one of the protagonists, Yuu Kanda.
- In Naruto: Shippūden, Morikubo voiced Shikamaru Nara, a side protagonist while Sakurai voiced Sasori, an antagonist.
- He was succeeded by Sakurai as the voice actor of Mega Man X from Mega Man X8 onwards.
- He has voiced at least 2 roles whereby his character is associated with lightning. One is Thor in Matantei Loki Ragnarok; another is Amano Ginji in Get Backers and Kagami Kyoji in GB.
- He has also worked alongside Kentaro Ito in at least two productions whereby their characters are linked. On top of that, both voice actors hailed from the same city and were of the same age, with less than two months' difference between their birthdays.
- In the Hana-Kimi drama CDs, their characters are roommates and close friends. (Shotaro voices Shuichi Nakatsu, and Kentaro voices Taiki Kayashima.)
- In Naruto, their characters are members of the same team. Also, Shikamaru (Showtaro) frequently expresses his confidence in Choji (Kentaro). Another coincidence is that in Hana-Kimi, Shotaro voices the glutton out of the pair; in Naruto, that role is reversed, as Chōji is the one who eats a lot.
- He succeeded Kentaro Ito as the voice actor of Mega Man X from Mega Man X5 up to Mega Man X7.
- He is the producer for the anime Oni-girl.
- He once pursued becoming a professional athlete with tennis, but an injury led him to coaching instead. His hobby of tennis caused him to aim for a role in The Prince of Tennis (Which he now voices Akaya Kirihara). Shortly afterward, he started his voice actor career through Sigma Seven for a short while until opting to work unrepresented by a third party. (He now works under the VIMS agency.)
- His voice actor career kicked off around 1996.
Family
- He grew up mostly with his father and has a younger sister, currently entering her teen years, whom he respects much.
- Some of his most memorable childhood moments are of the times he spent with his cousins during the summer, and when he'd go skiing with his father.
External links
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| Name |
Morikubo, Showtaro |
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| Short description |
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| Date of birth |
February 25, 1974 |
| Place of birth |
Hachiōji, Tokyo, Japan |
| Date of death |
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