Takahiro Sakurai

Takahiro Sakurai (櫻井 孝宏) is a Japanese who is most notably known for voicing the character Rohan Kishibe in the anime adaptations of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure and ''Thus Spoke Kishibe Rohan.

He is well known for his several other roles such as Cloud Strife in the and  series, Suzaku Kururugi in, Griffith in  and , Reigen Arataka in , and Diablo  in.

Sakurai's roles in the voice acting industry typically consist of handsome and/or arrogant young men. He was a member of voice talent firm,. After leaving the company in 2014, he joined the voice acting company, INTENTION.

Biography
Born in Okazaki City, Aichi Prefecture, Sakurai was the eldest of three siblings born to a family that owned a rice shop. As a child, Sakurai became interested in voice acting after he saw an interview on TV with a voice actor he liked. Sakurai's passion for voice acting was further influenced when a Japanese language teacher in Junior High School told him that he should consider pursuing a serious career in the industry.

In 1996, after graduating from the Yoyogi Animation Academy in Nagoya and the 81 Acting Institute, he made his official debut voice acting in the anime series. Even before his official debut, he had already received work voicing in various radio dramas and other projects while he was in coaching school, however, there was a long period when he was unable to find work even after auditioning. After moving on from the coaching school, he became a member of under the influence of his admiration for. In 1999, when he was 25 years old, Sakurai was considering quitting the voice acting industry, until he got two recurring roles in the movies and, and in the same year, he sang his first character song in his first starring movie,.

When asked what he would've done had he not become a voice actor, Sakurai replied that he probably would've taken over his family's rice shop, which might've also been a good idea.

Trivia

 * Sakurai was an avid reader of Weekly Shonen Jump growing up, though he wasn't particularly into JoJo at first. His favorite part is Diamond is Unbreakable and his favorite character is Tonio Trussardi. He initially thought Rohan was an awful person when reading about him.
 * Sakurai is a big fan of Hirohiko Araki's previous works like Cool Shock B.T., Gorgeous Irene and Baoh the Visitor. He also remembers at the time acknowledging how much JoJo went out of its way to avoid standard manga conventions such as having the main character die.