Hikaru Midorikawa
Hikaru Midorikawa is an actor, born 1968.
Hikaru Midorikawa comes from Otawara in Tochigi and has been with Aoni Production for most of a long career. He specialised early in one very specific young man: cold, clipped, faster than everyone around him and aware of it. Heero Yuy in Mobile Suit Gundam Wing, Kaede Rukawa in Slam Dunk, Seto Kaiba in Yu-Gi-Oh!, Marth in Fire Emblem, Zelgadis in Slayers, Ryuho in s-CRY-ed, Akihiko in Persona 3.
The interesting part is what he has done to that type since. Sakamoto in Haven't You Heard? I'm Sakamoto is the joke version, a schoolboy whose imperturbable cool is the entire premise of the show, played completely straight for twelve episodes. Garou in One-Punch Man is the violent version, the same precision with the restraint removed. Lancer in Fate/Zero is the romantic version. He is not repeating himself so much as running experiments on one register.
And he is capable of dropping it entirely. Android 16 in Dragon Ball Z is a huge, gentle machine who would rather look at birds, and Midorikawa plays him with real tenderness. Tadashi in Ghibli's Ocean Waves is an ordinary teenager with no cool at all. Elsewhere the credits sprawl: Tenshinhan across the Dragon Ball films and Kai, Lin in Cowboy Bebop, Thor in Record of Ragnarok, Zora Ideale in Black Clover, Gridman in both Gridman the Hyper Agent and SSSS.GRIDMAN, Fiore in a Sailor Moon film, and a small part in the animated sequence of Kill Bill: Vol. 1.
Movies (60)
- Kill Bill: Vol. 1 (2003)
- My Hero Academia: You're Next (2024)
- Detective Conan: One-Eyed Flashback (2025)
- Dragon Ball Z: Battle of Gods (2013)
- Black Clover: Sword of the Wizard King (2023)
- Dragon Ball Z: Resurrection 'F' (2015)
- One Piece Film Red (2022)
- Dragon Ball Z: Fusion Reborn (1995)
- Detective Conan: The Bride of Halloween (2022)
- Ocean Waves (1993)
- Gridman Universe (2023)
- Saint Seiya Heaven Chapter: Overture (2004)
- Lupin the Third vs. Detective Conan: The Movie (2013)
- Persona3 THE MOVIE #1 Spring of Birth (2013)
- The Moment You Fall in Love (2016)
- Persona3 THE MOVIE #2 Midsummer Knight's Dream (2014)
- Kuroko's Basketball the Movie: Last Game (2017)
- Sailor Moon R: The Movie - The Promise of the Rose (1993)
- Ultraman Geed the Movie: Connect! The Wishes!! (2018)
- Persona3 the Movie #4 Winter of Rebirth (2016)
- JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Phantom Blood (2007)
- I've Always Liked You (2016)
- Lupin the Third vs. Detective Conan (2009)
- Slam Dunk 2: National Tournement (1994)
- Persona3 THE MOVIE #3 Falling Down (2015)
- Kamen Rider Den-O & Kiva: Climax Deka (2008)
- Ultraman Zero: The Revenge of Belial (2010)
- Gundam Wing: The Endless Waltz (1998)
- Air: The Motion Picture (2005)
- Clannad: The Motion Picture (2007)
TV (122)
- RE-MAIN (2021)
- Dragon Ball Z (1989)
- The Eminence in Shadow (2022)
- One-Punch Man (2015)
- Cowboy Bebop (1998)
- Clannad (2007)
- Atashin'chi (2002)
- Fate/Zero (2011)
- Revolutionary Girl Utena (1997)
- Our Last Crusade or the Rise of a New World (2020)
- Black Clover (2017)
- Great Teacher Onizuka (1999)
- Slayers (1995)
- Saint Seiya Omega (2012)
- Witch Watch (2025)
- Kakushigoto (2020)
- Record of Ragnarok (2021)
- Delico's Nursery (2024)
- SSSS.GRIDMAN (2018)
- Rewrite (2016)
- SK8 the Infinity (2021)
- Kyuukyuu Sentai GoGoFive (1999)
- A Condition Called Love (2024)
- 7O3X Fastest Finger First (2017)
- Mahou Sentai Magiranger (2005)
- Hikonin Sentai Akibaranger (2012)
- Fushigi Yûgi: The Mysterious Play (1995)
- Tokyo Encounter (2010)
- Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha (2004)
- DOREIKU The Animation (2018)
Where to start with Hikaru Midorikawa
The fastest introduction is One-Punch Man. Garou arrives in the second season as the show's best antagonist and Midorikawa gives him a voice that is calm right up until it is not, which is the whole character.
For the classic version, Mobile Suit Gundam Wing is where the type was set, a teenage pilot who barely speaks and is terrifying anyway. Yu-Gi-Oh! is Kaiba, the same arrogance played for melodrama, and it is enormous fun.
Then the counter-programme. Haven't You Heard? I'm Sakamoto is a comedy built entirely from the persona and is probably the funniest thing on the list. Ocean Waves is a quiet Ghibli television film where he plays an ordinary boy. Dragon Ball Z has Android 16, which is the gentlest work he has done, and Cowboy Bebop and Record of Ragnarok are the two extremes of how loud he can get.
The classics
Thirty-five years of work, and this is where it starts. Ocean Waves is the Studio Ghibli television film almost nobody has seen, and it is the most naturalistic thing anywhere on his list by a distance.
The rival archetype
The cool, slightly distant character he has been cast as for three decades. Lancer in Fate/Zero is the most sympathetic version, a man whose entire problem is that he keeps behaving honourably. The Key adaptations use the same voice for warmth.
The recent and the comic
Sakamoto is the joke version of everything he has ever been cast as, a high-school student so composed that the show tips into the surreal. SK8 the Infinity and The Eminence in Shadow are the recent series worth watching.