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Ichirou Mizuki

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Ichiro Mizuki (水木 一郎, Mizuki Ichirō), born Toshio Hayakawa (早川 俊夫, Hayakawa Toshio) (born January 7, 1948), is a famous, highly prolific Japanese vocalist best known for his work on theme songs for Tokusatsu and Anime, having performed numerous theme songs for Japanese film, television, video and video games. He is referred to by fans and fellow performers alike as the onii-san (big brother) of the anison, or anime music genre. As such, he is popular known as "Aniki", an informal way of referring to an older brother. In terms of fame, he is only rivalled by a handful of anison singers, most of whom joined him in forming the group JAM Project.

Mizuki is perhaps most famous for one of his first performances: the opening theme songs of the Go Nagai animated television series Devilman and Mazinger Z, Leiji Matsumoto's Space Pirate Captain Harlock and Tatsunoko Productions' Tekkaman: The Space Knight —a show which would later give birth to the Super Robot genre of anime that dominated the Japanese television landscape of the 1970s.

On July 19, 2000, he formed (with fellow anison vocalists Hironobu Kageyama, Masaaki Endoh, Eizo Sakamoto, and Rica Matsumoto) the "supergroup" JAM Project. (Effective August 2002, he has since reduced his formal status in this group to "part-time member" and now focuses on producing both the group and up-and-coming talent.)

Acting roles

In addition to his vocalist career, Mizuki has been cast in several roles as both a seiyū and a live-action actor. As a voice actor, he played the roles of Yoldo in the first episode of the OVA Dangaioh, Rat Hector in Koraru no Tanken, and (more recently) the villain Keisar Ephes in the video game Super Robot Wars Alpha 3. His live-action roles include Dr. Ben in Jikuu Senshi Spielban and (most notably) Voicelugger Gold in Voicelugger, a Tokusatsu show based on the last concept written by Shotaro Ishinomori before his death. He played the title character Bobobo-bo Bo-bobo in the first Playstation 2 game of the series, as well as singing the theme song.

Notable anime theme song performances

He has also sung cover versions of many other famous anime songs, including the Macross theme and assorted songs from the Gundam franchise.

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