Takaya Kuroda

Who is Takaya Kuroda?

Takaya Kuroda is a Japanese voice actor, narrator, and actor. He is currently affiliated with AXL-One, and was formerly with Mausu Promotion, Aoni Production, 81 Produce and Bungaku Company.

He is best known for his astringent and amorous bass voice, which has usually seen him cast in villainous roles such as the voice of Yaiba in GoGo Sentai Boukenger. He is best known to western audiences for providing the voice of Kazuma Kiryu, the protagonist of the Yakuza series. Because of his vocal resemblance to the late Hirotaka Suzuoki, he was chosen to replace Suzuoki as the voice of Starscream in Transformers: Cybertron as Suzuoki's health deteriorated. On the other hand, he was not chosen to take over Suzuoki's role as Sakaki of Pokémon, with Kenta Miyake taking over the role instead.