Popular anime in which you heard Sanji's voice

Key insights

• Hiroaki Hirata, known for voicing Sanji in One Piece, has demonstrated impressive vocal range in various roles.
• His performances as Genma, Leomon and Godot highlight his versatility and talent.
• Hirata's portrayal of Mutta Nanba and Wild Tiger proves his unexpected ability to excel in lead roles.

One piece is home to some of the most memorable and iconic main characters in all of anime and manga Vinsmoke Sanji is one of the most prominent examples. The Straw Hat Pirates' romantic chef is a funny yet honorable and charming gentleman who stands out for many reasons, one of which is his gruff voice that belongs to none other than the greats Hiroaki Hirata.

Hirata is an experienced Japanese voice actor and narrator who has worked in the anime industry for over 27 years. As a result, he has portrayed numerous different characters in which he has been able to demonstrate his impressive vocal range, especially since some of them are significantly different from Sanji. The following eight roles are the best examples of Hiroaki Hirata's talent.

8 Genma Shiranui

In Naruto and Naruto Shippuden

Although One piece And Naruto are often considered “competitive” series, but that hasn't stopped several talented voice actors from taking on roles in both series, and Hiroaki Hirata is obviously no exception. In this case he lent his voice Genma Shiranuione of the many jonin who work in the Hidden Leaf Village.

This is clearly a more reserved role for Hirata, as Genma is calmer and more collected than Sanji and most of his other characters. Still, his solid performance and deep voice helped make Genma one of the most memorable background characters ever Naruto And Naruto Shippuden.

7 Leomon (and others)

In Digimon Adventure

Digimon Adventures is one of the most famous anime series from Toei Animation, right behind Dragon Ball And One piece. It is not uncommon for major Japanese animation studios to cast voice actors for more than one project, and Hiroaki Hirata has had the honor of working on this series from the beginning, with his most popular character being the Leomon.

With his excellent performance, he manages to give the so-called “King of the Animals” a lot of friendliness and charm without losing his wildness and intimidation factor. As great as this portrayal is, this isn't Hirata's only character in Digimon Adventuresas he also voiced Megadramon, Hagurumon, Hiroaki Ishida and even the narrator himself.

6 Small / Tsuboi Ryōtarō

In Sword Art Online

Hiroaki Hirata often specializes primarily in embodying two specific (but very different) types of characters: tough and intimidating fighters or super friendly and nice guys. Because of this talent, he brought to life what would eventually become one of the most beloved characters in history Sword art online: Tsuboi Ryōtarōalso known as Small.

Klein is a light-hearted and good-natured character who is known in the original for being the first friend Kirito ever made Sword art onlinenot to mention he even explained the basic mechanics of the game to him. On the other hand, he's also a womanizer, which must have resonated with Hirata after voicing Sanji for so many years. Without Hirata's performance, Klein would never have earned the reputation he deserved among fans.

5 Terada Tatsugoro

In Gintama

Roronoa Zoro's voice actor, Kazuya Nakai, portrayed Toushirou Hijikata in Gintama, but he's not the only famous one One piece Talent who worked on Sunrise's hilarious adaptation of Hideaki Sorachi's manga. Nevertheless, Hiroaki Hirata ended up expressing a much more tragic character: Terada Tatsugoro.

Once again, Hirata demonstrates his impeccable ability to bring kind but strong and cool characters to life, as before his tragic death, Terada was a police officer protecting the Kabuki District and a good rival to Doromizu Jirocho. This is not the most well-known character in Gintamabut it's certainly one of the most memorable, thanks in part to Hirata's impressive acting.

4 Godot

In Ace Attorney

• Release date: April 2, 2016
• Genre(s): Drama, mystery
• Studio: A-1 Images, CloverWorks
• Streaming service(s): Crunchyroll

That cannot be denied Godot is one of the most popular characters ever Ace Lawyer Franchise. When it came time to adapt this iconic game series into an anime, he had the honor of being voiced by the great Hiroaki Hirata, who was absolutely perfect for the role.

Godot is a suave and confident prosecutor who isn't all that different from Sanji in many ways, meaning Hirata's gruff voice suits him surprisingly well in the end. Godot was already very popular Ace Lawyer character, but Hirata's charismatic portrayal in the anime adaptation certainly helped him become more popular among anime viewers.

3 Mom Nanba

In Space Brothers

Hiroaki Hirata is best known for portraying suave and cool supporting characters like Sanji or Godot, but he is also talented enough to star in a series as one of the main characters. He has actually done this on numerous occasions, one of the most famous examples being Mom Nanba out of Space Brothers.

As one of the title holders Space BrothersMutta Nanba is a pretty complex character that requires the full extent of Hirata's singing talent: he's calm and collected, he's very intelligent, he cares a lot for his brother Hibito, and he's overall a really likeable guy. This is definitely one of the best vocal performances in Hirata's entire career.

2 Kotetsu T. Kaburagi / Wild Tiger

In Tiger & Bunny

Another memorable anime protagonist voiced by Hiroaki Hirata is Kotetsu T. Kaburagi (also known as wild tiger), one of the main characters of the title Tiger & Rabbit. However, this shouldn't be a big surprise since Kotetsu actually looks a lot like his most famous role, Sanji.

This is another one of the roles in which Hirata was able to showcase all of his incredible range, particularly his impeccable ability to portray characters that are heroic and selfless, but also quite funny and stubborn. At the end of the day, both Wild Tiger and Mutta Nanba are gone Space Brothers are undeniable proof that Hirata needs to voice the main characters in anime more often.

1 Rikiya Yotsubashi / Re-Destro

In My Hero Academia

As mentioned several times throughout this list, most of the characters that Hiroaki Hirata voices are friendly and light-hearted heroic characters, and he has excelled in this type of role for many years. His performance as a despicable villain is precisely for this reason Destroy again in season 5 of My Hero Academia was such an unexpected pleasure. In just one stunning performance, Hirata managed to seamlessly portray both Re-Destro's likable CEO persona and his true self, an ambitious and manipulative villain who goes to extreme lengths to achieve his goals.

While Sanji's voice is initially easy to hear in Re-Destro's lines, Hirata does such an excellent job that he eventually gives him his own identity, very different from any of his other characters. Curiously, season 5 of My Hero Academia also introduced Flect Turn – the film's main villain World Heroes Mission – whose voice is none other than Kazuya Nakai. This means that Sanji and Zoro technically voiced villains around the same time on the same show.