Masakazu Morita, the Japanese voice actor for Kurosaki Ichigo, the protagonist of Tite Kubo’s Bleach, has been voicing the character since the beginning of the series. He has additionally worked as Marco the Phoenix in One Piece, Tidus in Final Fantasy X, Whis in Dragon Ball Super, Pod in Pokémon, Tenjuro Banno in Kamen Rider Drive, and Li Xin in Kingdom.
While Morita is a big name in the anime industry, many fans may not know that Morita has also been voicing Kurosaki Ichigo in the popular mobile game Bleach: Brave Souls since the anime series ended. Along with that, he has also worked on a bunch of other popular mobile and PC video games.
However, Morita once revealed in one of his interviews that he prefers anime voice acting over games because it feels more like a conversation compared to video games, where they are just normal dialogues.
Masakazu Morita Shares His Experience of Voicing Ichigo in Bleach: Brave Souls
Last year, Viz Media interviewed Tite Kubo, the creator of Bleach and Morita, who has been the voice actor of Kurosaki Ichigo from the beginning. While talking about Bleach: Thousand-Year Blood War, Morita explained that he has been connected with Bleach all along as he has been voicing Ichigo in the popular mobile game Bleach: Brave Souls.
Morita stated:
“Doing a voice for a game ensures your passion doesn’t decline. And with regards to Brave Souls, it also maintained my connection to our fans. I stayed connected to fans not only in Japan, but also in Asia, Europe, and America. I think KLab has put a lot of effort into this, and I am thankful to them.”
According to Morita, because of the game, he has been connected to Bleach fans from all over the world, and he is thankful to KLab, the developers, and the publishers of the game, who released the game in 2015. The game is not only limited to mobile gaming, as it was also released for Windows in 2020 and PlayStation 4 in 2022.
Masakazu Morita Prefers Anime Voice Acting over Game Voice Acting
While Morita enjoyed his experience as the voice actor for Ichigo in Bleach: Brave Souls, he stated that he would still prefer using his talents for the anime series. According to him, the voice recordings of games usually include free-standing dialogues that, although they might be easy, are not too much fun.
Morita stated:
“That being said, lines recorded for games are usually self-contained dialogue. But for anime recordings, they are actual conversations between characters. In that sense, it’s been a while since I’ve had the chance to engage in a “conversation” with the other BLEACH cast members.”
According to the voice actor, he prefers voicing Ichigo in the anime series because it involves engaging in actual conversations with other Bleach cast members that help them build a narrative. He also expressed happiness as he was finally getting the opportunity to voice Ichigo once again after ten years in Bleach: Thousand-Year Blood War.
You can watch Bleach: Thousand-Year Blood War on Hulu.
