Takehito Koyasu roles and characters
Takehito Koyasu is the Japanese voice actor behind Dio Brando in JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure, Zeke Yeager in Attack on Titan, Roswaal L Mathers in Re:Zero and the Hand Demon in Demon Slayer. Born in Yokohama on 5 May 1967, he has been working since the late 1980s and runs his own agency, T’s Factory. Below I go through the characters, the films, the Japanese dub work and the places where his career crosses paths with the Digimon cast.
Who Takehito Koyasu is
I think of Koyasu as the voice you reach for when a script needs a man who sounds elegant, superior and slightly dangerous. His name is written 子安 武人 in Japanese, which is why you will also see him listed as Koyasu Takehito in Japanese-order credits and on Japanese fan sites.
He started in the late 1980s with small parts, spent the early 1990s building a reputation for nobles, scientists and villains, and then had the kind of 1995 that most actors never get. He has stayed near the top of the industry ever since, and in 2024 and 2025 he was still landing headline roles in the biggest franchises in Japan.
Here are the facts I keep handy whenever I write about him.
| Detail | Information |
|---|---|
| Full name | Takehito Koyasu (子安 武人) |
| Date of birth | 5 May 1967 |
| Birthplace | Yokohama, Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan |
| Career start | Late 1980s |
| Agency | T’s Factory (his own company) |
| Breakout roles | Zechs Merquise (Gundam Wing), Shigeru Aoba (Evangelion), Rezo (Slayers), Hotohori (Fushigi Yûgi), all 1995 |
| Best-known modern roles | Dio Brando, Zeke Yeager, Roswaal L Mathers, Kuzan |
| Non-anime claim to fame | Japanese voice of Deadpool in the Marvel anime series Marvel Disk Wars: The Avengers and Marvel Future Avengers, and of Nicepool in the Deadpool & Wolverine dub |
| Original creation | Weiß Kreuz (concept creator and voice of Aya) |
What the Koyasu voice actually sounds like
Describing a voice in writing is a losing game, but I will try, because recognising him mid-episode is half the fun. His baseline is a smooth baritone with a lot of air in it, and he loves stretching vowels so that a line lands late and with a smirk.
Listen to Roswaal drawl “sou desu ne” across three beats, or Dio roll a threat out syllable by syllable, and you can hear the same instinct. He treats pauses as weapons.
The other thing he does better than almost anyone is the sudden break from calm into mania. Dio’s scream when The World stops time, the Hand Demon’s whimpering turning into rage, Zeke’s quiet “it’s fine” moments right before a betrayal: all of them depend on that controlled lurch from one register to another.
Tamer tip
If you want to test whether an unnamed villain is Koyasu, wait for a laugh. He almost never laughs on the beat; he lets the line finish, breathes, and then laughs a half second late, usually rising in pitch. Once you notice it in Dio you will hear it in Roswaal, Zeke and even Kururu.
1995, the year everything changed
Four roles arrived within about six months of each other, and together they built the Koyasu brand. Nobody plans a year like that.
Mobile Suit Gundam Wing started in April 1995 and gave him Zechs Merquise, the masked ace who is also Milliardo Peacecraft, exiled prince of the Sanc Kingdom. Zechs is a dignified antagonist with a code of honour, and Koyasu played him with a restraint that made the character’s eventual turn toward White Fang feel earned rather than sudden.
Neon Genesis Evangelion followed in October 1995 with Shigeru Aoba, one of the three NERV bridge operators. The part is small, but the show became a phenomenon, and Koyasu has voiced Aoba in every version since, including the four Rebuild films released between 2007 and 2021.
Slayers, also 1995, handed him Rezo the Red Priest, the blind holy man whose kindness is a lie covering a pact with Shabranigdo. For many fans of that era this was the first time they heard the “gentle voice, monstrous intent” trick he would reuse for decades.
Fushigi Yûgi rounded the year out with Hotohori, Emperor of Konan and one of the Suzaku Seven. It is the most purely romantic lead he has played, and it proved he could carry a sympathetic character rather than only the ones you are supposed to distrust.
Gundam Wing matters to me for one more reason. Gundam sits under the same corporate umbrella as Digimon, because Bandai Namco is the digimon franchise owner and also the parent of Sunrise, now Bandai Namco Filmworks. Koyasu has been a regular at Bandai properties ever since, which is part of why his name keeps coming up on this site.
Takehito Koyasu characters: the roles everyone knows
Here is the spine of his anime career, sorted by first appearance. I have kept this to roles I can confirm from the shows themselves rather than padding it with every guest spot.
| Character | Series | First voiced | What kind of role |
|---|---|---|---|
| Zechs Merquise / Milliardo Peacecraft | Mobile Suit Gundam Wing | 1995 | Masked rival, later antagonist |
| Shigeru Aoba | Neon Genesis Evangelion | 1995 | NERV bridge operator |
| Rezo the Red Priest | Slayers | 1995 | Hidden main villain |
| Hotohori | Fushigi Yûgi | 1995 | Emperor, romantic lead |
| Aya (Ran) Fujimiya | Weiß Kreuz | 1998 | Assassin florist, lead |
| Ryosuke Takahashi | Initial D | 1998 | Mastermind racer |
| Lord Il Palazzo | Excel Saga | 1999 | Deadpan cult leader |
| Mu La Flaga / Neo Roanoke | Mobile Suit Gundam SEED | 2002 | Ace pilot, mentor |
| Bobobo-bo Bo-bobo | Bobobo-bo Bo-bobo | 2003 | Absurdist shonen hero |
| Kururu | Sgt. Frog (Keroro Gunso) | 2004 | Scheming inventor |
| Kuzan (Aokiji) | One Piece | 2005 | Marine Admiral, later Blackbeard ally |
| Shinsuke Takasugi | Gintama | 2006 | Charismatic terrorist |
| Diethard Ried | Code Geass | 2006 | Media manipulator |
| Dio Brando | JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure | 2012 | Franchise’s defining villain |
| Roswaal L Mathers | Re:Zero | 2016 | Eccentric margrave |
| Zeke Yeager (Jaeger) | Attack on Titan | 2017 | Beast Titan, Eren’s half-brother |
| Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald | Bungo Stray Dogs | 2017 | Guild leader |
| Hand Demon | Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba | 2019 | Final Selection demon |
Dio Brando (JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure)
If you only know one Koyasu role, it is this one. He first voiced Dio in the 2012 Phantom Blood television anime, playing the Victorian-era adopted brother who turns himself into a vampire with the Stone Mask, and then returned for Stardust Crusaders in 2014 and 2015 as DIO, the Stand user ruling Cairo from the shadows.
The two performances are deliberately different. Phantom Blood Dio is all ambition and petulance, a young man who cannot stand being second; Stardust DIO is slower, older, almost bored, until The World comes out and the “muda muda muda” barrage turns him into a storm.
Koyasu has carried the character into every follow-up that needed him: the brief flashbacks in Stone Ocean on Netflix in 2021 and 2022, the fighting games All-Star Battle (2013), Eyes of Heaven (2015) and All-Star Battle R (2022), and more promotional spots than I can count. “Za warudo” became a meme largely on the strength of his delivery.
Zeke Yeager (Attack on Titan)
Zeke arrived in Season 2 in 2017 as the Beast Titan, an unknown enemy who throws boulders and talks to Titans like a man addressing staff. Koyasu kept him smug and clinical for a full season before the show revealed who he actually was.
Once Zeke’s history as Grisha’s first son and his euthanasia plan came into view in the final seasons, the performance shifted toward exhaustion. The scenes in the Paths with Eren, and the quiet baseball catch with Ksaver, are Koyasu at his least theatrical and arguably his best.
For Digimon fans there is a lovely crossover here. Hange Zoë, the Survey Corps scientist who spends so much time arguing with Zeke, is voiced by Romi Park, who was also Ken Ichijouji in Digimon Adventure 02, so you are listening to the Digimon Emperor and the Beast Titan negotiate.
Roswaal L Mathers (Re:Zero)
Roswaal is the clown-faced margrave who owns the mansion Subaru keeps dying in. Koyasu plays him with that elongated sing-song cadence, every “desu ne” stretched like taffy, which makes the character funny right up until you realise he has been steering everyone’s suffering for centuries.
He has voiced Roswaal through Season 1 in 2016, the split-cour Season 2 in 2020 and 2021 that finally explained the Gospel and the body-hopping, and Season 3 across late 2024 and early 2025. The mansion arc in Season 2 is the showcase, especially the scenes where he drops the clown voice and speaks to Ram as the man underneath.
Hand Demon (Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba)
The Hand Demon is the morphing, many-armed monster waiting on Mount Fujikasane during the Final Selection in the first season of Demon Slayer in 2019. Koyasu voiced him for a single arc, and the character has stayed with fans because he is the demon who devoured Urokodaki’s students, including Sabito and Makomo, and brags about it to Tanjiro.
The performance is a compact study in self-pity curdling into cruelty. The demon whimpers about the years he has spent trapped, lashes out at the sight of Urokodaki’s fox masks, and then, as Tanjiro’s blade takes his head, Koyasu drops the menace entirely for the dying memory of a human brother holding his hand. It is a small role, but it is exactly the calm-to-mania lurch that defines his villains, compressed into one episode.
Kuzan, Takasugi, Bo-bobo and Kururu
Kuzan, better known as Aokiji, has been Koyasu’s One Piece role since 2005. He is the lazy Admiral with ice powers who duels Akainu for the Fleet Admiral seat and loses, then walks away from the Marines. The character resurfaced in the Egghead arc animation in 2024 and 2025, now riding with Blackbeard, and Koyasu’s laconic drawl has not changed a bit.
Shinsuke Takasugi in Gintama is the opposite temperature: a soft-spoken revolutionary who wants to destroy the world that killed his teacher. Koyasu gives him a near-whisper that makes his rare outbursts terrifying, and the character’s arc closes in Gintama: The Final in 2021.
Bobobo-bo Bo-bobo, from the 2003 gag series, is the role I show people who think Koyasu only does villains. He plays a nose-hair-wielding hero with total sincerity, which is exactly why the nonsense works. Kururu in Sgt. Frog (Keroro Gunso) runs on the same logic: a yellow frog inventor whose “ku ku ku” laugh is pure Koyasu.
Takehito Koyasu movies
Most of his cinema work comes from franchises carrying their television casts onto the big screen, plus one Marvel Japanese dub assignment. Here are the films I can confirm.
| Film | Year | Character | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Neon Genesis Evangelion: Death and Rebirth | 1997 | Shigeru Aoba | Compilation plus new footage |
| The End of Evangelion | 1997 | Shigeru Aoba | Alternate ending to the series |
| Mobile Suit Gundam Wing: Endless Waltz Special Edition | 1998 | Zechs Merquise | Theatrical cut of the OVA |
| Initial D Third Stage | 2001 | Ryosuke Takahashi | Theatrical chapter of the series |
| Keroro Gunso film series | 2006 to 2010 | Kururu | Five annual spring films |
| Evangelion: 1.0 You Are (Not) Alone | 2007 | Shigeru Aoba | First Rebuild film |
| Evangelion: 2.0 You Can (Not) Advance | 2009 | Shigeru Aoba | Second Rebuild film |
| Gintama: The Movie | 2010 | Shinsuke Takasugi | Benizakura arc retelling |
| Evangelion: 3.0 You Can (Not) Redo | 2012 | Shigeru Aoba | Third Rebuild film |
| One Piece Film: Z | 2012 | Kuzan | Appears opposite the villain Zephyr |
| Gintama: The Final | 2021 | Shinsuke Takasugi | Concludes Takasugi’s story |
| Evangelion: 3.0+1.0 Thrice Upon a Time | 2021 | Shigeru Aoba | Final Rebuild film |
| Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Freedom | 2024 | Mu La Flaga | Returns after 20 years |
| Deadpool & Wolverine (Japanese dub) | 2024 | Nicepool | Marvel Studios release, Deadpool variant |
The Evangelion run is the longest single thread, since he has voiced Aoba on cinema screens across 24 years. Gundam SEED Freedom in 2024 was a bigger surprise to me, because it brought Mu La Flaga back to theatres two decades after SEED Destiny, with Koyasu sounding exactly as he did in 2002.
Japanese dub work: Deadpool and live-action Marvel
Koyasu’s dubbing career is smaller than his anime one, but it contains a connection that made him a familiar name beyond anime circles. He is a Japanese voice of Deadpool, although not in the live-action films most people think of first.
His Deadpool work comes from the Marvel anime series Marvel Disk Wars: The Avengers and Marvel Future Avengers, where he voiced the Merc with a Mouth in Japanese. In the live-action films the main Wade Wilson is dubbed by Yasuyuki Kase, and Koyasu’s contribution to Deadpool & Wolverine in 2024, the Marvel Studios crossover that paired Reynolds with Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine, was the variant Nicepool, the saccharine alternate-universe Deadpool. Deadpool’s constant fourth-wall jokes and pop culture riffs need an actor who can switch tones mid-sentence, and the Japanese adaptations lean on Koyasu’s comic timing far more than on his villain register.
I find it funny that Dio Brando and a Deadpool share a voice, and Japanese audiences clearly agree, because the casting gets referenced constantly whenever a new Deadpool trailer drops. His Dio and Deadpool are both characters who narrate their own greatness, and he plays the two with very different kinds of arrogance.
Video game roles
He voices his anime characters wherever they appear in games, and a few of those appearances are worth knowing about if you collect the franchises.
| Game | Year | Character | Franchise |
|---|---|---|---|
| JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: All-Star Battle | 2013 | Dio Brando / DIO | JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure |
| JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: Eyes of Heaven | 2015 | Dio Brando / DIO | JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure |
| Re:Zero: The Prophecy of the Throne | 2021 | Roswaal L Mathers | Re:Zero |
| JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: All-Star Battle R | 2022 | Dio Brando / DIO | JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure |
| Super Robot Wars series | Ongoing | Zechs Merquise, Mu La Flaga | Gundam crossover |
| One Piece: Pirate Warriors series | Ongoing | Kuzan | One Piece |
The Super Robot Wars line deserves a note. Because Zechs and Mu La Flaga both show up in those Bandai Namco crossover strategy games, Koyasu has recorded hundreds of battle lines across the series, and fans of his Gundam work often know him from there before anything else.
Where Digimon fans have heard him
I want to be straight with you, because accuracy matters on this site: Takehito Koyasu is not part of the core Japanese cast of any Digimon anime series. He did not voice a Chosen Child, a partner Digimon or a season-long villain, and when I think of the digimon franchise voice roster, his name belongs to the “adjacent legends” column rather than the main list.
What he does have is a web of connections to the people who did. Those links are worth knowing, because once you spot them you cannot unhear them.
Romi Park, Ken Ichijouji in Adventure 02, plays Hange opposite his Zeke in Attack on Titan. Hiroaki Hirata, Leomon across Adventure, 02 and tri., is Sanji in One Piece, which means Leomon and Aokiji have shared the Marineford battlefield. Daisuke Ono, Jotaro Kujo in Stardust Crusaders, voiced Kyotaro Imura in Digimon Adventure: Last Evolution Kizuna, so Dio’s nemesis is also the man chasing Taichi and Yamato through Tokyo. Megumi Ogata, Shinji in Evangelion while Koyasu was on the NERV bridge, later voiced Lui Ohwada in Digimon Adventure 02: The Beginning.
There is also a generational point. Adventure first aired in 1999, four years into Koyasu’s star run, and the kids who grew up singing the butter-fly song every Sunday morning were the same kids watching Gundam Wing reruns and Initial D in the evening. His voice is part of the sonic wallpaper of that era, even without a Digimon credit attached.
If Bandai Namco ever casts him in a future Digimon anime or a Story game, I will update this page the same day. For now, treat him as the actor you keep running into next to the Digimon cast rather than inside it.
Weiß Kreuz: the project he created
One fact that separates Koyasu from most of his peers is that he created a franchise. Weiß Kreuz began in the mid-1990s as a concept he developed about four florists who moonlight as assassins, and it grew into a drama CD line, a 1998 television anime, OVAs and a 2002 sequel series.
He voiced Aya Fujimiya, the katana-wielding leader, while Tomokazu Seki, Shin-ichiro Miki and Hiro Yuki took the other three. The four of them also performed together as the musical group Weiß, releasing singles and albums and playing live shows, which was unusual for male voice actors at the time and helped set the template for the idol-style seiyuu units that followed.
The show itself is a cult object now, but the career lesson is bigger. Koyasu understood early that a voice actor could own intellectual property, and T’s Factory, the agency he founded, grew out of the same independent streak.
Takehito Koyasu news: 2024 and 2025
He has had an unusually visible couple of years, which is saying something for a man whose Dio clips have been circulating for a decade.
Deadpool & Wolverine reached Japanese cinemas in July 2024 with Koyasu voicing the variant Nicepool alongside Yasuyuki Kase’s Wade Wilson, and the dub casting drew attention because of the Dio association. Gundam SEED Freedom, released in January 2024, returned Mu La Flaga to the screen and became a box office success in Japan, prompting a new wave of interest in the SEED cast.
Re:Zero Season 3 ran from October 2024 into early 2025, giving Roswaal the Priestella arc, and One Piece’s Egghead arc put Kuzan back in regular episodes as a member of the Blackbeard Pirates. Attack on Titan wrapped in November 2023, so Zeke’s story is complete, but the final episodes still get discussed as some of the best work he has ever done.
Trivia I like telling people
He created the “Sou desu ne” drawl for Roswaal himself; the elongated delivery is a performance choice that the light novel’s text only hints at with stretched kana, and the anime leaned into it after the first recording sessions proved how funny it was.
Dio’s scream when The World stops time and Deadpool’s quips come from the same throat, and Koyasu has joked in interviews about audiences hearing one when he is playing the other.
He is one of the few voice actors whose son has followed him into the industry, and the two have appeared in projects together, which Japanese fans track closely.
Hotohori in Fushigi Yûgi remains his biggest “idol” role with female audiences from the 1990s, and it is the reason his early fan clubs were so large; he was a regular on magazine covers in that era before many actors had that profile.
His Bo-bobo performance is beloved precisely because he refuses to wink at the audience. Playing an absurd gag character with total conviction is harder than playing a villain, and he has said the show was one of the most physically exhausting he has recorded.
FAQ
Who is Takehito Koyasu?
He is a Japanese voice actor born on 5 May 1967 in Yokohama. He has worked since the late 1980s, runs the agency T’s Factory, and is best known for Dio Brando in JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure, Zeke Yeager in Attack on Titan, Roswaal L Mathers in Re:Zero, the Hand Demon in Demon Slayer and the Japanese voice of Deadpool in the Marvel anime series Marvel Disk Wars and Marvel Future Avengers, plus Nicepool in the Deadpool & Wolverine dub.
What are Takehito Koyasu’s most famous characters?
Dio Brando is the headline role, followed by Zeke Yeager, Roswaal and Kuzan (Aokiji) in One Piece. Older fans will add Zechs Merquise from Gundam Wing, Hotohori from Fushigi Yûgi and Rezo from Slayers, all from his breakout year of 1995.
Does Takehito Koyasu voice anyone in Digimon?
No, not in any core Digimon anime cast or Story game I can confirm. His connections to the series run through co-stars instead, such as Romi Park (Ken Ichijouji) in Attack on Titan, Hiroaki Hirata (Leomon) in One Piece and Daisuke Ono (Imura in Kizuna) in JoJo.
Is Takehito Koyasu the Japanese voice of Deadpool?
Partly. He voices Deadpool in the Marvel anime series Marvel Disk Wars: The Avengers and Marvel Future Avengers, and in Deadpool & Wolverine (2024) he voiced the variant Nicepool. The main Wade Wilson in the live-action films is dubbed by Yasuyuki Kase, not Koyasu.
What movies has Takehito Koyasu been in?
His confirmed theatrical work includes every Evangelion film as Shigeru Aoba, Gundam Wing: Endless Waltz and Gundam SEED Freedom, One Piece Film: Z, both Gintama films, the Keroro Gunso film series and the Nicepool role in the Deadpool & Wolverine dub.
What is Takehito Koyasu’s Japanese name?
It is written 子安 武人. In Japanese name order that reads Koyasu Takehito, so both orders refer to the same actor.
