It's not that Masakazu Morita can be described... it's just that he HAS to be described!
Described by Tite Kubo and Wikipedia, as "overly energetic, very friendly, open", Masakazu Morita (born October 21, 1972) started his career as a motion capture actor. He first did the motion capture for Zell Dincht from Final Fantasy VIII, then as the main character Tidus in Final Fantasy X. And since the characters were being voiced by then, he gave it a shot and voiced Tidus too.
While that wasn't quite enough to shoot him into the spotlight, he ended up meeting Tite Kubo, became good friends with him and agreed to voice the main character of Bleach, Ichigo Kurosaki, when it got animated. This marked the start of his success and infamy. Up until today, both have been in a good relationship, and Morita opened up a radio show based on his character.
It should be noted however that, infamous or not, he's actually a talented and versatile voice actor with quite a voice range, and he's good at leading radio talk shows, being extremely chatty, cheerful and humorous. He also has a unique way of thinking, and is a bit of a pervert.
Ironically, while Ichigo often makes mistakes with names, Morita's name is often misread as "Seiichi Morita".
He has several relationships with other Japanese voice actors. The most recognizable one is with Fumiko Orikasa, who played the next generation of Saori Kido, Rukia Kuchiki and Gabriella Montez, three characters close to Masakazu's characters. Likewise, he also develops a relationship with Jun'ichi Suwabe, with the latter being Sting Oakley, Grimmjow Jeagerjaquez, Shinta Fukuda, and Seymour Guado, all either friends or rivals of Morita's characters.
His English equivalent could be Johnny Yong Bosch, since they have identical voice ranges.
Notable roles by Masakazu Morita:
- Aiji Yanagi in Collar × Malice
- Arthur in the Japanese version of Arena of Valor
- Auel Neider in Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Destiny
- Azazel and Meteon in Granblue Fantasy (reprises the former in Rage of Bahamut: Genesis and Dragalia Lost)
- Barnaby Brooks, Jr. (aka "Bunny") in Tiger & Bunny (playing completely against type as a calm, uptight, reserved young man.)
- Billy Morgan in Fafner in the Azure: Exodus
- Bolearis in Xenoblade Chronicles 3
- Claire Stanfield/Vino in Baccano! (proving that he can also do Ax-Crazy very convincingly)
- Dingo and Blaze Dingo in Epic Seven
- Eiji Hoshimiya in Big Order
- Hazuki in Hakkenden: Eight Dogs of the East
- Ichigo Kurosaki in Bleach and reprised in a crossover with Onmyoji and when he's the bonus skin for Lu Bu in Arena of Valor
- Kazuchika Okada in Tiger Mask W
- Kazuki Hihara, Shirō Hozumi and Hayate Ryūzaki in La Corda d'Oro
- Kazuya Hiramaru in Bakuman。 (sort of Playing Against Type as Hiramaru is very lazy and wacky unlike most of what Morita usually plays)
- Kija and Guen in Yona of the Dawn
- Keiji Maeda in the Sengoku Basara series (whose personality is probably closest to what Masakazu's like in Real Life)
- Kochiro Tanba in Ace of the Diamond
- Kōtarō Takamura in Bungo to Alchemist
- Kotarou Tennouji in Rewrite
- Lechter Arundel and Jack in the Trails Series (Playing Against Type as neither are hotblooded; the former's actually very calculating and unpredictable.)
- Ledah in Riviera: The Promised Land (he's actually The Stoic in this game)
- Leki (Loki) in Summon Night Swordcraft Story 2
- Marco in One Piece (a laid-back, middle-aged guy)
- Pang De in Dynasty Warriors (he can pretty much voice middle-aged men with a deep voice just fine)
- Pegasus Seiya in the latter series of Saint Seiya
- Although in Saint Seiya Omega original voice actor Tōru Furuya took back the role. However, Morita reclaimed it in the PS3 games (such as in J-Stars Victory VS), Jump Force, ONA Saint Seiya: Saintia Sho and Saint Seiya: Knights of the Zodiac
- Pod (Chili) in Pokémon: Best Wishes
- Remnith in World Flipper
- Rhya in Black Clover (episode 87 onwards, replacing Hirofumi Arai)
- Rosso in 100 Sleeping Princes and the Kingdom of Dreams
- Ryo Yuki in Eden of the East
- Schezo Wegey in Puyo Puyo ("I want you...r power!" and all)
- Shin/Xin in Kingdom
- Shiza/Caesar in Tales of Link
- Shougo Haizaki in Kuroko's Basketball
- Shūji Miwa in World Trigger
- Tarble in Dragon Ball: Yo! The Return of Son Goku and Friends!!
- Whis in Dragon Ball Z: Battle of Gods and Dragon Ball Super (high-pitched and humble voice tone)
- Professor Tenjuro Banno in Kamen Rider Drive and Kamen Rider Outsiders(Playing Against Type especially when portrayed in live-action as he's not only Kiriko and Gou's father, but he's the creator of the Roidmudes and shows his true colors as the true Big Bad!)
- Teru Saeki in Tokimeki Memorial Girl's Side 2.
- Thoma in Genshin Impact
- Tidus in Final Fantasy X and Dissidia Final Fantasy and their sequels
- Troy Bolton (Zac Efron) in the Japanese dub of High School Musical
- Yukari Mishakuji in K: Missing Kings and K: Return of Kings
Tropes Associated with Masakazu Morita
- Playing Against Type:
- Kazuya Hiramaru, unlike most of Morita's characters who is in high spirited, is wacky and lazy.
- He played the sociopathic Big Bad Dr. Tenjuro Banno Kamen Rider Drive. A far cry from his usually heroic roles.
