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Jōji Yanami (八奈見 乗児) (August 30, 1931-December 3, 2021) born Shigemitsu Shirato (白土 繁満) on August 30, 1931 in Tokyo, was a veteran seiyuu. And by "veteran", we mean ''veteran''; he started working in 1963, when popular TV Anime first started to become a thing. That's right, this guy was working for as long as ''anime has been a thing'', plus or minus a couple of months, and seemed to show no sign of stopping in his ''eighties''.

In 2015, he had to take an indefinite medical leave. As such, his ongoing roles (especially as the narrator and King Kai on Dragon Ball) have been recast essentially retiring from the biz.

His [[ThrowItIn Ad Libbing]] is legendary, and in several cases (especially the Time Bokan series) his characters and roles began to be written with deliberately sparse "HarpoDoesSomethingFunny" lines for him to work in. He is best known for his roles in the ''Anime/TimeBokan'' series and as the {{Narrator}} for the ''Franchise/DragonBall'' series.

As a funny little bit of trivia, one of the debug rooms in ''VideoGame/CastlevaniaSymphonyOfTheNight'' has [[https://tcrf.net/Castlevania:_Symphony_of_the_Night_(PlayStation)#Debug_Area a rant by him playing in the background]].

He died of natural causes at the age of 90, may he rest in peace.

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!!Notable roles:
* ''Series/{{Akumaizer 3}}'' (Gabra)
* ''Bikkuriman'' (Super Zeus)
* ''Botchan'' (TMS adaptation) (Red Shirt)
* ''Cooking Papa'' (Yoshioka)
* ''Manga/{{Cyborg 009}} 1968'' (Dr. Isaac Gilmore)
* ''Manga/{{Devilman}}'' (Pochi)
* ''Anime/DigimonAdventure'' (Gennai)
* ''Manga/DragonBall'' (Narrator, Master Roshi (ep. 137), Dr. Brief, The King)
* ''Anime/DragonBallZ'' (Narrator, King Kai, Dr. Brief, The King, Babidi)
* ''Anime/DragonBallGT'' (Narrator, King Kai, The King)
* ''Anime/DragonBallZKai'' (Narrator, King Kai, Dr. Brief)
* ''Manga/GeGeGeNoKitaro 1985'' & ''2007'' (Ittan Momen)
* ''Manga/GetterRobo G'' (Benkei Kurama, Emperor Burai)
* ''Anime/GunXSword'' (Kameo)
* ''Hustle Punch'' (Professor Garigari)
* ''Manga/{{Inuyasha}}'' (Totosai)
* ''Anime/IrresponsibleCaptainTylor'' (Dr. Kitaguchi)
* ''VideoGame/KeioFlyingSquadron'' (Dr. Pon)
* ''Anime/MazingerZ'' (Dr. Yumi)
* ''Mouretsu Atarou 1969'' & ''1990'' (Boss Kokoro)
* ''Manga/OnePiece'' (Gun Fall, Boodle)
* ''Manga/OsomatsuKun 1966'' (Matsuzo)
* ''Manga/RanmaOneHalf'' (Harumaki)
* ''VideoGame/SakuraWars2ThouShaltNotDie'' (Mokujiki)
* ''[[Anime/CaptainHarlock Space Pirate Captain Harlock]]'' (Doctor Zero)
* ''[[Creator/IkkiKajiwara Kyojin no Hoshi (Star of the Giants)]]'' (Ban Chuuta)
* ''Anime/TimeBokan'' series (Grocky, Boyacky, Tobbokee, Sekobitchi, others)
* ''VideoGame/{{Twinbee}}'' (Dr. Mardock)
* ''WesternAnimation/FunAndFancyFree'' (1981 Japanese dub for [[Creator/TokyoBroadcastingSystem TBS]]) (Goofy in "Mickey and the Beanstalk" segment)
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