Osamu Saka

• 1. Introduction

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  Osamu Saka is a Japanese actor and voice actor, and his career is best measured not in years but in the sheer number of faces he has lent his voice to. He is affiliated with Aoni Production. One season he is a grandfather in Dragon Ball, the next he is a sniper in a Metal Gear Solid game, and on another he is the Japanese voice of John Cleese. How does a single performer move between a children's adventure, a military video game, and a British comedy? What kind of voice can play both a kindly old man and the commanding head of an empire? The roles gathered here, stretching from a 1963 robot cartoon to original animations made for streaming, tell the story of a working actor whose range outpaced any one character. Saka's filmography reads like a map of Japanese screen entertainment itself.

• 2. The Ghost In The Shell Anchor

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  Daisuke Aramaki is the role that returns again and again across Osamu Saka's filmography. He first voiced Aramaki in Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex, the series that ran from 2002 to 2005. The character followed him into companion works built around the same story. He reprised Aramaki in Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex - The Laughing Man in 2005, then again in Individual Eleven in 2006. The role proved durable enough to survive the gap between formats. When the franchise returned as an original net animation, Ghost in the Shell: SAC 2045 in 2020, Saka was once more the voice of Daisuke Aramaki. Few characters in his career span that many entries.

• 3. Villains And Commanders

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  G.O.D. General Commander is the kind of part Osamu Saka was repeatedly trusted with, voicing the role across the first twenty-one episodes of Kamen Rider X in 1974. Authority and menace run through his tokusatsu work. That same year he played the Ruler of the Garanda Empire, the Real Great Emperor Zero, in Kamen Rider Amazon. His commanders extend into anime as well. In Legend of the Galactic Heroes in 1988 he voiced Kaiser Friedrich IV, and in Record of Lodoss War in 1990 he played King Fahn. He even reached into the Metal Gear Solid series, voicing Colonel Sergei Gurlukovich in Sons of Liberty and The End in both Snake Eater and Peace Walker. The End, a sniper, returned again in Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain, where Saka voiced Code Talker.

• 4. Elders And Grandfathers

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  Grandpa Son Gohan, the adoptive grandfather at the start of Dragon Ball in 1987, is one of Saka's most recognizable kindly roles. The aged and the wise recur throughout his anime work. In Cardcaptor Sakura in 1998 he voiced Masaki Amamiya, described as Sakura's great-grandfather. He played fathers and patriarchs across decades, from Frederick March, the father in Little Women in 1987, to the title doctor's mentor figure Dr. Jotaro Honma in Black Jack in 2006. Royalty and rank fill out the gallery. He voiced King Neptune in Andersen Stories, Louis XVI in La Seine no Hoshi in 1975, and Admiral Takashi Hayase in The Super Dimension Fortress Macross in 1982.

• 5. The Voice Of Foreign Stars

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  John Cleese is one of the live-action actors Osamu Saka regularly dubbed into Japanese. He voiced Cleese as Archie Leach in A Fish Called Wanda, Rollo Lee in Fierce Creatures, and Chief Inspector Charles Dreyfus in The Pink Panther 2. He also became a recurring Japanese voice for Anthony Hopkins, dubbing him in Juggernaut, Freejack, and Hearts in Atlantis. His dubbing roster reaches some of cinema's most famous faces. He voiced Morgan Freeman as Alex Cross in Along Came a Spider and as Lucius Fox in a television edition of Batman Begins. He dubbed Ian McKellen as Magneto in X-Men, and Richard Burton as George in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? In animation he gave Japanese voice to Spock in Star Trek: The Animated Series and George Darling in Peter Pan.

• 6. Studio Ghibli And The Movies

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  The British Delegate in The Castle of Cagliostro in 1979 marks one of Osamu Saka's early film credits. His feature work touches several landmark animated films. He voiced a Sky Bandit in Porco Rosso in 1992 and The Admiral in Steamboy in 2004. Recurring characters carried over from his television parts into theaters. He played Seitaro Sakaki across the Patlabor films, having first voiced the character in the 1989 anime series, then in Patlabor: The Movie the same year and in Patlabor 2: The Movie in 1993. His film roles span tones widely. He voiced Kamata in Memories in 1995 and a Toyotomi Envoy in Ninja Scroll in 1993, while also appearing in family films like Doraemon: Nobita's Dorabian Nights in 1991.