Subaru Kimura (木村 昴, Kimura Subaru) is a German-born Japanese voice actor and singer who voices Pesci in the fourth season of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: The Animation, Golden Wind.
He is also well known for his roles as Aoi Todo in Jujutsu Kaisen, Takeshi Goda in Doraemon since 2005, Ryoma Terasaka in Assassination Classroom, Free in Beastars, Aikawa in Dorohedoro, Satori Tendo in Haikyu!!, Hanamichi Sakuragi in The First Slam Dunk, Vice in Kamen Rider Revice, Franky in One Piece since 2025, and Knuckles the Echidna in the Sonic the Hedgehog film series.
Biography
Subaru Kimura was born on June 29, 1990 in Leipzig, Germany, to a German father, an opera singer, and a Japanese mother who was a soloist in baroque music and a vocalist.[2] Because of this background, his parents were strict when it came to classical music. At the age of five, he began learning violin, but due to these influences, he eventually came to dislike classical music.[3]
Kimura spent his early childhood in Germany and moved to Japan at the age of seven.[4] At the time, he could not speak Japanese at all, but he enrolled in a local public elementary school, communicating with teachers and classmates to learn the language.[3]
As a child, he was cheerful and outgoing, often entertaining friends, especially girls, with his lively personality.[4] On the other hand, his mother described him as a "straightforward and well-behaved child" at the time.[4] Since his household lacked television and manga, he had almost no exposure to anime as a child and had no interest in voice acting.[4] He joined Sanno Production's Nihon Jido Theater, located near his home.[4] He decided to audition after seeing a newspaper advertisement, thinking it "simply looked interesting."[3] After joining, he learned various skills, including traditional Japanese dance, tap dance, and musical instruments. Among these, he became particularly passionate about acting lessons, eventually aspiring to become a musical theater actor through experiences in the troupe's performances.[4] At one point, he also admired opera singers, but he abandoned this ambition, feeling he couldn’t surpass his parents and wanting to take a different path as a form of rebellion.[5]
In 2002, he started his career as a tap dancer in the musical Annie.[3] At the age of 14 in 2005, he took over as the voice of Takeshi "Gian" Goda in Doraemon, succeeding the previous actor, Kazuya Tatekabe. He admitted that he decided to audition for the role because he loved bragging about meeting certain people to his friends and seeing them happy; sometimes they wouldn't know who he was referring to, but he knew everyone in his class would know about Doraemon.[6]
Kimura graduated from Tokyo Metropolitan Harumi Sogo High School.[7] After graduation, while he wanted to challenge himself with various roles, he initially found it difficult to voice characters other than Gian.[3]
In Jump Festa 2025, Kazuki Yao revealed that Subaru Kimura would be his successor as the voice of Franky in One Piece after Yao's retirement.[8]
JoJo's Bizarre Adventure
Although Kimura knew about JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, he only read the series for the first time for his audition as Pesci. He stated that once he dived into it, he was hooked immediately. According to Tatsuhisa Suzuki, the voice actor of Prosciutto, he and Kimura immediately clicked with each other the first time they met. When asked what he would do if he had the Stand Beach Boy, Kimura expressed that he would use it to go fishing for sea perch, always catching big fishes.[9]
JoJo's Bizarre Adventure Roles
| Title | Media | Year |
|---|---|---|
| Golden Wind | Anime | 2018-2019 |
| Stardust Shooters | Video Game | 2018 |
| Diamond Records | Video Game | 2019 |
| JoJo's Pitter-Patter Pop! | Video Game | 2019 |
| All-Star Battle R | Video Game | 2022 |
Interviews
| # | Interview | Type | Media | Published |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Golden Wind Anime Interviews (December 2018) | Interview |
Home Media |
December 19, 2019 |
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 VIP Times - Biography
- ↑ "Nikkei Entertainment! Anime Special Voice Actor Bible 2020", p. 40, Nikkei BP, 2019. ISBN: 978-4296104536
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 Yu Ishibashi (March 28, 2019), "How to Create a Theater Company and Actor Vitality – Subaru Kimura", FUN'S PROJECT.
- ↑ "From Gian Debut to 13 Years Later… Subaru Kimura Reflects on His Voice Acting Career", Anime! Anime!, October 5, 2018.
- ↑ "Voice Actor for Gian in Doraemon Shares His Audition Motive: 'Because of My Classmates…'", Sponichi Annex, March 26, 2022.
- ↑ Subaru Kimura [@GiantSUBAru] (November 7, 2012), "Subaru Kimura's Tweet on Graduation", on Twitter / X.
- ↑ https://x.com/Eiichiro_Staff/status/1870751401028260050
- ↑ Golden Wind Anime Interviews (December 2018)
