One of the most revered veteran Japanese voice actors ever. Tesshō Genda (born May 20, 1948 as Mitsuo Yokoi) is known for his gruff, heavy voice which makes him quite the go guy for gung-ho, big guy roles or at least those fulfilling the Mighty Glacier role. He's also quite the Memetic Badass, mostly due to his dub roles as two very very famous Western Animation roles: Batman (Kevin Conroy) and Optimus Prime (Peter Cullen). He was also the official dub over voice of the Fourth Doctor (Tom Baker). In his voice acting career, he is often landed with roles that share relationship with Akio Ōtsuka.
According to Anime News Network
, he is the 5th most prolific voice actor after Takehito Koyasu, Toshiyuki Morikawa, Shin-ichiro Miki, and Takahiro Sakurai. As of October 2023, he is one of the only five to have over 600 anime credits to his name.
He's also into ballet, and is popularly known as "Pirouette Genda."
As a veteran voice actor with gruff voice, it is not really that surprising that he is usually the go-to guy to dub characters played by Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone, as well as many other superstars with famously epic voices, in Japanese.
Roles done by Tesshō Genda:
- Adon Coborlwitz in Berserk (1997)
- Alain Kofune in Summertime Rendering
- Ash-Far in Valis IV.
- Batman in many Batman cartoons.
- In The Batman, however, he's the voice of Mister Freeze.
- Biff Tannen (Thomas F. Wilson) in the TV Asahi dub of the Back to the Future trilogy
- Blastoise ("Kamex" in Japanese) in Pokémon: The Series and the Super Smash Bros. series, in possibly one of the coolest non-ironic examples of Pokémon Speak.
- Bobby (Goodfeathers) in Animaniacs
- Bowler Hat Guy in Meet the Robinsons
- Brian Cooper in Double Decker
- "Captain Tenille" in JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Stardust Crusaders
- Charioce XIII in Rage of Bahamut: Genesis
- Cleon (Dorsey Wright) in the Japanese dub of The Warriors
- Co-Narrator in the Japanese version of Mammals vs. Dinos
- Daijirou Go in Voltes V
- Dan Dastun in The Big O
- The Devil in the Japanese dub of Cuphead
- Doc McCoy in Dallos
- Dragon Ball:
- Shuu in Dragon Ball and Dragon Ball Super
- Bojack and Janemba in the Dragon Ball Z movies
- Edgar the Bug and Frank the Pug in the Nippon TV and DVD/VHS dubs of Men in Black respectively
- E.P. Arnold Royalton in the Japanese dub of Speed Racer
- Deus Ex Machina in Super Robot Wars UX
- Galerius in Unicorn Overlord
- Gally Gregman in Evil Zone
- Emperor Ganishka in Berserk and the Band of the Hawk
- Foghorn Leghorn in the Japanese dub of Looney Tunes
- Gara in Bastard!! (1988)
- Garfield in the mid-nineties WOWOW dub of Garfield and Friends (Darrined by Chafurin in the 2003 Cartoon Network dub)
- George Costanza (Jason Alexander) in the Japanese television dub of Seinfeld (Darrined by Hiroshi Iwasaki in the DVD dub)
- Gigas Terano-Sensei in Seton Academy: Join the Pack!
- Gorisaki Banana in Tokumei Sentai Go-Busters ("RYUUUUJI!!")
- Grunbeld in Berserk: Millennium Falcon Hen Seima Senki no Shō
- Gu-Landon Goetz in Super Robot Wars: Original Generation: Moon Dwellers
- Gundam series:
- Sleggar Law in Mobile Suit Gundam
- Dozle Zabi in the more recent video games such as Dynasty Warriors: Gundam 3 and Gundam Memories (succeeding the late Daisuke Gōri)
- Kelly Layzner in Mobile Suit Gundam 0083: Stardust Memory
- Terry Sanders, Jr. in Mobile Suit Gundam: The 08th MS Team
- Hanorld Dogegenchonegger and the narrator in How Heavy Are the Dumbbells You Lift?
- The Hell-Lord in 'Tis Time for "Torture," Princess
- Honda Tadakatsu in Onimusha 3: Demon Siege and later Nioh
- Inspector Gadget in the 80s Inspector Gadget series
- Itō in Nangoku Shonen Papuwa Kun
- Howling in Suite Pretty Cure ♪ movie
- Jack in the first Violence Jack OVA
- James Links in Zone of the Enders: Dolores, i
- Junior Gorg ("Prince Gorg" in Japanese) in the 1986 NHK dub of Fraggle Rock
- Kaibara in AFTERLOST
- Kaido in One Piece
- Karl Gustav Kempff in Legend of the Galactic Heroes
- Kensaku Kira in God Sigma
- King Shark (Sylvester Stallone) in the Japanese dub of The Suicide Squad
- The King of Sodra in The Brave of Gold Goldran
- Kratos in the Japanese version of the God of War series and for his appearance in PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale.
- Kurama/The Nine-Tailed Fox in Naruto
- Leonidas Crisper in Kamen Rider: Beyond Generations
- Mayor Lioneart in Zootopia.
- Lu Buwei in Kingdom
- Lucas in Cybersix
- Ludo the Yeti in the Japanese dub of Labyrinth
- Lunar's Papa in My Bride is a Mermaid (I'll be back!)
- Mace Windu (Samuel L. Jackson) in the Japanese dub of the Star Wars franchise
- Marcellus Wallace (Ving Rhames) in the Japanese dub of Pulp Fiction
- Masculimus in Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt
- Master Chief in the Japanese dub of "The Package" from Halo Legends
- Mayor Manx in the Japanese dub of SWAT Kats
- Mega Man
- Soldier Stonekong and Ride Boarski in Mega Man X7
- Teisel Bonne in the Mega Man Legends series
- Melakuera in Re:Zero
- Metal Knight in One-Punch Man
- Moguro Fukuzou/"The Laughing Salesman" in Laughing Salesmen NEW
- Moloch in You Are Being Summoned, Azazel
- Morpheus (Laurence Fishburne) in the Japanese dub of The Matrix films
- Mugen in Granblue Fantasy
- Muk and Luk in the Japanese dub of Balto
- The Narrator and MagiPhone voice in Mahou Sentai Magiranger
- The Narrator of Sabagebu!
- The HAMMY Narrator and Cross in Shin Mazinger
- Nue in Ninja Sentai Kakuranger
- Oculus in Death Parade
- Officer Landers in Monster House
- Orin Scrivello (Steve Martin) in the Japanese dub of Little Shop of Horrors
- Emperor Pierrot in Smile Pretty Cure!
- Popuko in Pop Team Epic*
- President Schwarzenegger in The Simpsons Movie
- Rodin in Bayonetta and Super Smash Bros. Ultimate
- Rune God Selece in Magic Knight Rayearth
- Ryujinmaru in the Mashin Hero Wataru Series
- Ryusaku in AKIRA
- Shirogane and the Narrator in Ayakashi Triangle
- Stacker Pentecost (Idris Elba) in the Japanese dub of Pacific Rim
- Street Fighter series:
- Guile in Street Fighter II V and Street Fighter EX
- Zangief in Capcom vs. SNK and Capcom vs. SNK 2
- Mike Haggar and Unknown Soldier 2P in Namco × Capcom
- General Bison (Raúl Juliá) in the VHS/DVD dub of the Street Fighter film (where he kept his Dub Name Change from the overseas versions of the games)
- Surtr and Muspell Fire Emblem Heroes
- Takeda Shingen:
- In the Sengoku Basara series ("YUKI
MURAAA!!!") - In Oda Cinnamon Nobunaga, reincarnated as "Lucky the Pomeranian".
- In the Sengoku Basara series ("YUKI
- Tales Series:
- Mighty Kongman/Bruiser Khang in Tales of Destiny
- Largo the Black Lion in Tales of the Abyss
- Taurus Aldebaran in Saint Seiya (" GREAT HORNS!!!!!")
- Tigger in the Winnie the Pooh franchise and the Kingdom Hearts series
- Toguro the Younger in YuYu Hakusho
- Tor in Mighty Orbots
- Transformers series:
- Convoy (Optimus Prime) in The Transformers and Transformers: ★Headmasters (also reprising his role to dub him in the live-action films, The Transformers: Titans Return and Transformers Earthspark.). Also voices Omega Supreme and Professor Terranova in the cartoon.
- Primus in the Unicron Trilogy
- Omega Supreme in the Japanese dub of Transformers: Animated
- Tsuyoshi Mokoyama in Yakitate!! Japan
- Tsuyoshi "Mukoukki" Seido in GoLion
- Umibozu in City Hunter (also for every anime movie, including Shinjuku Private Eyes)
- Unken Inuzuka in Sumomo Mo Momo Mo
- Victor in Dragalia Lost
- Weaver in Antz
- War Machine in Iron Man: The Animated Series
- Wilson Fisk/The Kingpin in the Japanese dub of Spider-Man (PS4), Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse and Hawkeye (succeeding Kenji Nomura from Daredevil)
- Xenoblade Chronicles series:
- Xord in Xenoblade Chronicles 1
- Vandham in Xenoblade Chronicles 2
- Guernica Vandham in Xenoblade Chronicles 3
- Yamazaki in Live A Live (2022 remake)
- Yang Fang Leiden in Final Fantasy IV DS
- Yapool in the Ultra Series as of Ultraman Mebius
- Ys:
- Dogi in the Ys OVAs and Ys: The Oath in Felghana (succeeded by Kenta Miyake as of Ys VIII: Lacrimosa of Dana)
- Gadis in Ys IV: The Dawn of Ys and Ys: Memories of Celceta
- Zathba in Granblue Fantasy: Relink
