Ryo Horikawa Voice Talent - Dragon Ball
Ryo Horikawa (born Makato Horikawa, February 1, 1958 in Osaka, Japan) is a Japanese voice actor and film actor affiliated with Aslead Company. He has gone by his stage name, Ryo, which uses the kanji of his birth name, during the span of his voice acting career. He is well-known for his voice acting in the role of Vegeta in the anime franchise Dragon Ball, a character who is recognized as the prince of the Saiyan race, whose character arc progresses from villain to hero throughout the series. Horikawa starred in several other Dragon Ball series, movies and adaptations, such as Dragon Ball Z: Super Android 13, Dragon Ball Z: Broly - The Legendary Super Saiyan, and several Dragon Ball video games.
Ryo Horikawa’s voice has been featured as the character Vegeta since 1990, first appearing in the movie Dragon Ball Z: Bardock - The Father of Goku (also referred to by its original Japanese title as Dragon Ball Z Special: Tatta Hitori no Saishû Kessen Freeza ni Idonda Z Senshi Son Gokû no Chichi ). The movie was released as the first Dragon Ball Z television special and broadcasted on the Fuji television network in Japan in between Dragon Ball Z episodes 63 and 64. It was later dubbed in English and released to the American public in 2000 on Funimation as a special VHS, before the more popular commercial distribution of Dragon Ball the series took place on Cartoon Network’s Toonami block in 2001.
He also voices Gogeta, Vegetto, Vegeta Jr. and Charmy Yamada in the Dragon Ball series.
Start of Career
Ryo Horikawa began his career in the film industry as a child actor, starring in the movies Zatoichi and the Chess Expert and Yoidore Hatoba, and the TV series Kazoku Nisshi all while in elementary school.
He continued his career, making his debut in voice acting as the character ‘Hirono Kenta’, the protagonist of the 1984 anime series Dream Fighter Wingman, also referred to by its original Japanese title, Yume Senshi Wingman. He continued to take on notable roles in well-known anime series, such as ‘Reinhard Von Lohengreim’ in Legend of the Galactic Heroes: My Conquest is the Sea of Stars, ‘Shun’ and ‘Andromeda Bronze Saint’ in Saint Seiya: The Heated Battle of the Gods, ‘Yoshiki Usui’ and ‘Thomas Harris’ in Sailor Moon. Other notable works include ‘Captain Falcon’ in the Super Smash Bros. series, ‘Heiji Hotori’ in *Detective Conan, and ‘Akumaru Sujigara’ in Samurai Sentai Shinkeger.
Ryo Horikawa remains an active voice and film actor, as well as president of the Japanese talent agency Aslead Company, with which he was previously affiliated.
Achieving Fame
After achieving notable fame in the voice acting industry, Ryo Horikawa expanded on his talents, starting another career in instructing professional voice acting lessons for up-and-coming voice actors and actresses in cooperation with Aslead Company, which he became president of.
Ryo Horikawa is also a fluent English speaker, and enthusiastic to encourage learning of new languages in the next generation. He took this motivation to create and launch the mobile app Horikawa Ryo no Osaka-ben Kouza, which literally translates to ‘Osaka-ben Lessons by Ryo Horikawa’. The app aims to help its users learn short phrases in the Kansai-ben Japanese dialect, the accent of which Horikawa has used extensively in his voice acting roles, and is his native accent as well.
Horikawa attended the Anime Expo convention in Los Angeles, California, USA as a Guest of Honor in 2012, and also attended the Anime Weekend Atlanta convention in September of the same year in Atlanta, Georgia, USA. Horikawa also attended the Anime North convention in the Toronto Congress Center in Ontario, Canada in 2013. He has since held meet-ups and attended public events, such as his recent autograph session at the 2017 Anime Expo in Los Angeles, during which he also featured on the Dragon Ball Super Panel, presented by Funimation and Toei Animation Inc. During this panel, he was joined by the U.S. voice actors who dubbed Dragon Ball’s in English to overview the legacy of the Dragon Ball series, and answer an extensive Q&A session, in which the mic was opened to the audience.
Video Game Roles
Ryo Horikawa has had twenty-six voice acting roles in video games, his first being in 1993, when he voiced Vegeta in the Dragon Ball Z: Super Butoden video game. Other than anime series and video games, movies, and animated short films, Ryo Horikawa has also had several roles in theatrical animations, original video animations, dubbing, tokusatsu (referring to Japanese live action films or television dramas), and drama CDs.
Marriage
Ryo Horikawa is married to a fellow voice actress Hitomi Oikawa, whose surname was also Horikawa. She has voiced roles in the television shows Super Dimension Century Orguss as ‘Elene’, and Cream Lemon: Lemon Angel as ‘Ami Nonomura’.
Links
Dragon Ball Series
Dragon Ball Z Series
Dragon Ball Kai Series
Dragon Ball Super Series
Dragon Ball GT Series
Super Dragon Ball Heros
Akira Toriyama