Seiyuu Digest #7 – Yuki Fujiwara

Yuki Fujiwara, a Jack-of-all-trades type of actor that, despite having some popular characters under his belt, has never been acclaimed.

Yuki Fujiwara

KANJI: 藤原祐規

BORN: April 24, 1981

OCCUPATION: seiyuu, stage actor, singer

HEIGHT: 176cm

Fujiwara was born in Mie on April 24, 1981. He’s represented by Amuleto, a talent agency primarily focused on stage acting.

Although an actor through and through, Fujiwara has delved into the voice acting industry and was pretty active from 2006 to 2012.

Since then, he’s focused on stage plays but still gets the occasional role in anime or in otome games/drama CDs.

Note: This article is undergoing a deep update. There may be some information missing.

 Seiyuu

Fujiwara, whose original dream was to be a plane pilot but due to his poor eyesight, had to pursue his second dream, being a seiyuu.

He debuted at the early age of 21 and in that same year he already had a minor role, with little importance, in the anime titled Whistle! as Mukaiyama Tomoyuki, it was only in 2006 that he would hit the jackpot with his role in Katekyo Hitman Reborn! as Belphegor.

Even though this role was supposed to be a secondary one it had lots of importance and it was this role that made it possible to turn the attention to the seiyuu behind the voice of Belphegor, which was good because it made people realize that the, until the date, unknown seiyuu Yuki Fujiwara has talent and knows how to do his job well.

He’s the type of seiyuu that certainly has the skills and the talent to be on the same page as some top tier seiyuu, but unfortunately, he isn’t in that many anime, a shame for him that could gain more experience and also for those of you that really like him, to see him “in action” in more anime instead of his occasional appearance.

In 2012 he had yet another big opportunity to shine, working side by side with famous names like Takahiro Sakurai, Jun Fukuyama, Hiroshi Kamiya, and also with Mamoru Miyano, in the anime Shirokuma Cafe as the Anteater and Fusao Yamaarashi, both were supporting roles but once again had its importance in the story.

Last year Fujiwara had a role in the famous anime Donten ni Warau as Ashiya Mutsiku, as usual (for him) this character was a supporting role that proved very useful in the development of the story.

Although it didn’t have that much highlight, he made sure to make sure that those few lines he had were well done, causing impact and once again making those of you who didn’t know him wonder who was the seiyuu voicing this character.

In the same year, he also had a minor role in the anime with much hype behind it Tokyo Ghoul as Older-Brother Bin this time his role wasn’t that important. 

Fujiwara is a diamond in the rough to be “found” and polished with a little more experience in the business and more opportunities to gain it, sadly enough he has yet to have a lead role in an anime, and even though his characters are usually important, despite them being mostly supporting roles, it still is something that the fans have yet to see, hoping for it to happen in a near future.

As it was mentioned last month in the SEIYUU DIGEST #6, Fujiwara’s working for Amuleto as both a seiyuu but also as a stage actor.

In this agency, his senpai are famous names such as Kenjiro Tsuda, with whom he’s already worked multiple times as well as with Genki Okawa.

Of course, if we really want to see more of Fujiwara we can always search elsewhere, but fear not, you just have to keep reading because we’ll share it in this SEIYUU DIGEST edition.

Stage acting

Well, he must be one of the few seiyuu that debuted as a seiyuu and stage actor at the same time, as both a seiyuu and as a stage actor. Right after that, Fujiwara quickly joined the theater troupe Arutaego, where he stayed until later on in his ongoing career.

One thing we must be prepared for when searching, is the size of the list of his roles in stage plays, and what’s amazing isn’t only the size of it, but the fact that he really gives his all in every role he’s entrusted with and really delivers the audience the best performance.

What is very impressive is that precisely on the same year he debuted he started to gain momentum and only one year later he managed to get yet another role in the play 「アイスクリームマン」(Icecream Man), so since his debut, he has been working every year on a different play, so we can conclude that he’s a well sought.

In 2004 he had a role in the popular play テニスの王子様 (The Prince of Tennis) as Akira Kamio, this role enabled him to work in this play for three years.

In 2006 he was working once again with Mamoru Miyano and Takagi Shun in SMILY ☆ SPIKY as Takeru Iwasaki.

Needless to say that since his debut, all his work just gave him more than experience, especially because of all the different genres of the plays, which make him an experienced all-rounder stage actor.

Throughout the years Fujiwara has been able to work side by side with Tsuda Kenjiro, Hidekazu Ichinose (both of them already worked with him in Katekyo Hitman Reborn!), Kensho Ono, and others in different plays.

In 2012 he was in 夜のミラクル☆トレイン〜大江戸線へようこそ〜Sweet Dream Express, an adaptation of the anime Miracle Train.

2014 was definitely a year to remember for the fans of the anime PERSONA 3 because it was adapted for a stage play and Fujiwara was Akihiko Sanada and since this play, he’s been in all plays of this series as well as in the newest one from PERSONA 4.

In the same year he was in ハンサム落語 (Handsome Storyteller) as Shibugeki, and also in the play titled バカフキ！ (Bakafuki!) as ラゴ(Lago), for the first time as the main character, having waited 13 years for it. 

Fujiwara’s most recent work is as Akihiko Sanada in PERSONA 4’s play ペルソナ4 ジ・アルティメット イン マヨナカアリーナ.

Radio

Many of you may not know but Fujiwara is surprisingly an all-rounder. Despite being super busy with his stage acting career as well as his seiyuu career, he still has time to host radio shows, talk about being committed and devoted to the fans.

Fellow stage actor and seiyuu Tsuda Kenjiro is probably the person who he’s most when we speak about radio shows.

Fujiwara was even a guest in Tsuda’s show Tsudaken Roadshow Hateru made Radio that was airing from 2011 until last year.

With this show, they even managed to release a Radio CD.

Despite working with Tsuda on this show he’s also worked with other people, such as Ida Toshinobu. Currently, he’s also hosting an otome radio show called かりんラジオ alongside Koichi Yokota.

Music

TH IA (2011 – 2012)

Many may not know but Fujiwara actually made his first steps in the music industry a few years ago, unfortunately, it wasn’t as a solo artist but as a band/unit.

His first try in the industry was in 2011 as TH IA, a seiyuu unit consisting of Toyonaga Toshiyuki, Ida Toshinobu, Acaba Mio, and Fujiwara himself, most of the members he had already work with previously in the anime Katekyo Hitman Reborn!, so we can say that they weren’t particularly strangers.

The unit was only created because of the radio show these four seiyuu hosted titled 素顔の少年(Sugao no Shounen). The group disbanded a year later.

They released two singles Bokura no Hikari and Arigato / Hoshikuzu Elegy. Truth be told the songs were good but not “over the moon”, but still they were catchy.

4STRIKE

While this project failed he had yet another opportunity to be in the industry, this time with a rock band called 4STRIKE that unfortunately only had a mini-album.

This time Fujiwara didn’t just sing but he also played the bass showing a new and skillful facet that until the time wasn’t known. This band consisted of Masataka Nakagauchi, Hisanori Sato, Yuya Miyashita, and Fujiwara.

This band was created because of the original stage play that gave this band its title.

Although Fujiwara did sing the focus wasn’t all on him, but still, there are parts in each song in which you can notice his singing skills, especially on Go way!.

It was also a shame that this project didn’t work out as well, because they sure had some pretty good tracks.

Even though Fujiwara had other projects in this department these were definitely the ones with more importance. One thing that the fans would want to see is a solo project from Fujiwara but that wish is yet to be fulfilled. 

With this we reach the rend of this month’s SEIYUU DIGEST. Hope that you liked it and be on the look out for next month’s.