was a Japanese actor, voice actor, and theater director. He was also the founder of the theater troupe 21st Century FOX and was affiliated with 81 Produce.
He was best known for the roles of Suneo Honekawa in Doraemon, Iyami in Osomatsu-kun, the Conductor in Galaxy Express 999, Horrorman in Let's Go! Anpanman, Takeshi "Gian" Gōda in Doraemon, Perman #4 (Hōzen Ōyama) in Perman, Kemuzō Kemumaki in Ninja Hattori-kun, Sir Great Britain in Cyborg 009, Jiminy Cricket in Pinocchio, Benzou Karino in Kiteretsu Encyclopedia, Quackerjack in Darkwing Duck, and Tom in Tom and Jerry.
Biography Early life Kimotsuki was born on November 15, 1935,. as a descendant of the Kimotsuki clan in Kiire, Kagoshima Prefecture, Empire of Japan (which later became Kiire Town, and is now Kiire Town, Kagoshima City).
He left Kagoshima at age three and lived in Nakano, Tokyo City, Tokyo Prefecture until he was four years old.
He then grew up in Itabashi, Tokyo. While he attended Itabashi Municipal Itabashi Fourth Elementary School, he and the other schoolchildren were evacuated to Yuhiso in , Tone District, Gunma Prefecture (later and now Minakami Town) due to war at the time. He was evacuated again to Ryūō Town in , Nakakoma District, Yamanashi Prefecture (later Ryūō Town, now Kai City).
At the time, he was a quiet, timid child, so the scene of being tearfully separated from his parents while being put on a train was etched to his mind forever. From the first night he arrived, he cried for his parents, who were back in Tokyo. Unable to cope with his constant crying, his teacher sent him back to his parents. Evacuees were viewed with hostility at the time, and even in Ryūō, the village children teased him mercilessly, calling him a "spoiled city kid" and a "crybaby." His days became a cycle of crying, yet he stayed there for about a year and a half.
After the war finally ended, he returned cheerful and talkative, as he would run through the streets to gather up playmates and entertain by imitating the rakugo stories he heard from the radio at the evacuation site he stayed in and the G.I.s he saw in town. On his change in personality, Kimotsuki reflected years later as an adult, "I guess I was a city boy after all." He felt really happy to be back in Tokyo, and his old playmates felt like kindred spirits to him. He re-analyzed that moment in his lifetime, saying, "I was so moved I wanted to hug them," and "I was incredibly happy."
Becoming an actor
When he advanced to junior high school, Kimotsuki took a required entrance exam for a private school but failed. At that time, he dreamed of becoming a movie actor and auditioned twice.
In his second year of junior high, he went to audition for director Keisuke Kinoshita's film Boyhood and was able to clear the second round. With a massive boost in confidence, Kimotsuki traveled to Ōfuna for a camera test in the snow, but he was unsuccessful. The child actor who was ultimately chosen went on to become an actor. Kimotsuki said in a 1999 interview that sometime later he saw that same person on a variety show where they said they were burdened with many debts, to which seeing it made him realize how tough it was being a star and that he was ultimately glad he didn't win the part in the end..
To take his mind off things, Kimotsuki often listened to radio dramas. One day, when he went to watch a public recording of The Fountain of Stories on NHK, he thought he could work at the place it was performed, and that was the spark that made him aspire to become a film actor. His idol was actor Kenichi Enomoto. But his grandmother told him he didn't have the looks to become a film actor, which made him decide to instead aim to perform voice acting in radio dramas.
He went to Teikyo Junior and Senior High School, where he founded a drama club. After performing Junji Kinoshita's play Twilight Crane, Kimotsuki decided to pursue an acting career.
Career
After Kimotsuki completed high school, he gave up attending university due to the death of his father. He applied for the fourth class of Radio Tokyo (now TBS) Broadcasting Troupe but was unsuccessful, as instead he joined the Shichiyōkai Theater Company while working at Takashimaya. While working for Takashimaya, he joined theater troupe Shichiyōkai."あの声、あのキャラ、あの作品 肝付兼太と『ギャートルズ』(1)" (in Japanese), WEB Anime Style (June 28, 2005). At the time, Shichiyōkai worked with NHK, which caused Kimotsuki to start making appearances in NHK's radio dramas. To solidify his personal resolve to make a living as an actor, he decided to leave Takashimaya. However, even after he made his debut as a voice actor, he was short on money, so he gathered some friends and established his own travel agency. At the same time, he juggled several part-time jobs as a tour escort, banquet MC, shoe shiner, and dentist."肝付兼太の声優道①ラジオドラマに夢中になった中学時代" (in Japanese), Seiyu Grand Prix web. Archived from the original on February 1, 2014. After Shichiyōkai disbanded, he auditioned and was accepted as part of the opening performance at the Nissay Theatre alongside Takeshi Aono. Following a stint with the theater troupe Sakuhinza, which had split from the Shichiyōkai, Kimotsuki was invited to join a company that was established by Koichi Chiba, who was a former member of the TBS Broadcasting Theater Troupe and was recruiting actors.
Kimotsuki's affiliated production companies throughout his career were Kiri no Kai, Sanko Office, Kawa no Kai,Sakumi Matsuda "Roundtable Discussion PART 2" in Seiyū Hakusho (Voice Actor White Paper), Okura Publishing, March 1, 2000, p. 252. . Ezaki Office, Actor Project,'Cast List (1968 Edition)', Copyright Materials Association, 1967, p. 134. Tokyo Actor's Consumer's Cooperative Society,"Katsuta Hisashi's Japanese Voice Actor Chronicles" (in Japanese). My Anime, August 1981 issue, Akita Shoten, July 1981, p. 185. Mausu Promotion, Aoni Production, Production Baobab,Credited on the LP "Aim for Moscow" (in Japanese) by the unit Baobab Singers, released the year Baobab was established. and even his own company . As of February 2016, he was affiliated with 81 Produce. He had also been previously affiliated with Office Boro and .
His feature film debut was in When the Kobushi Flowers Bloom. At the time, he was still a theater troupe trainee and was credited under his birth name, Kanemasa Kimotsuki, playing a young barber. Aside from this, he also was in the pornographic film Woman of Shame, but both movies are his only appearances as an actor in live-action feature films.
His radio drama debut was in Women's Hour where he played an errand boy working for a dry cleaner. He had only two lines, but since everything was broadcast live back then, he remembered the tension performing his lines all the way until his death.
His voice acting debut was as a member of a motorcycle gang in the drama District Attorney. When he first appeared in an anime, he had already done dubbing for children's dramas, so he found it easy to match with the dialogue.
During a small theater boom in the 1980s, he encountered Sō Kitamura's Kotobuki Uta and was deeply touched by the play. Motivated by his strong desire to pursue theater work as an actor, Kimotsuki found the script for Kitamura's Eleven Boys at Kinokuniya and wanted to perform a play using it. He obtained permission to do so, gathered people from the training school where he was teaching, and in September 1983, left both Garakuta Kobo and Production Baobab"AFTER REPORT" (in Japanese), Animage, November 1983 issue, Tokuma Shoten, October 1983, p. 157. in order to start his theater company 21st Century FOX.
The original members of 21st Century FOX included Takeru Miyashita, Matsuo Matsuo, Kei Hayami, and Kumiko Nishihara, with Kappei Yamaguchi joining shortly after. Within the troupe, Kimotsuki directed and structured productions, also serving as a mentor and trained younger actors. In 2008, the troupe celebrated its 25th anniversary by holding a commemorative performance in December that year that featured former members like Kentarō Itō.
In 1985, from November to December, he was hospitalized for vocal cord throat surgery. His roles as Suneo Honekawa in Doraemon and Hakase in Obake no Q-Tarō were temporarily filled in by Naoki Tatsuta. Fearful of his voice becoming clean after the surgery, the laryngeal polyp was crushed using tweezers.
Awards
In 2004, Kimotsuki received the Rikiya Tayama Award at the 14th Japanese Movie Critics Awards alongside Doraemon co-stars Nobuyo Ōyama, Noriko Ohara, Michiko Nomura, and Kazuya Tatekabe for the 25th anniversary of the Doraemon film series. The following year in November 2006, they received a Special Award at the 11th Animation Kobe. And in March 2007, they received the 3rd Lifetime Achievement Award at the Tokyo International Anime Fair.
In 2012, Kimotsuki received the Achievement Award at the 6th Seiyu Awards.
Final years
In 2010, Kimotsuki was diagnosed with lung cancer.
Around May 2016, his physical health started to worsen, and he was diagnosed with pneumonia at a hospital in Tokyo. He was hospitalized for tests several times and continued his voice acting career after being discharged, but his condition worsened even further by October that year."スネ夫死す、声優肝付兼太さん忘れられないかすれ声" (in Japanese). Nikkan Sports (October 25, 2016)."さらばスネ夫…藤子作品の常連、肝付兼太さんが死去" (in Japanese). The Hochi Shimbun (October 25, 2016). Archived from the original on October 27, 2016.
Death
Kimotsuki died from pneumonia on October 20, 2016, at the age of 80.
His grave is located at Tsukiji Hongwanji Nishitama Cemetery in Akiruno, Tokyo.
Posthumous releases & legacy
His last acting appearance was in an episode of the NHK Radio program Radio Midnight for the segment Series: Voices that Created an Era which broadcast on November 6, 2016; his dialogue having been recorded on September 19, one month before he died."肝付兼太さん“最後の肉声”放送 声優人生を回顧 最後はじゃじゃ丸の声" (in Japanese), Sponichi Annex. Sports Nippon (November 6, 2016).
In January 2017, Kimotsuki was ranked 23rd place in a special program Popular Voice Actors 200 Seriously Choose! Voice Actor General Election! 3-Hour Special, which broadcast on TV Asahi."声優200人が本気で選んだ「声優総選挙2017」結果発表" (in Japanese), Animate (retailer), January 9, 2017.
In November 2019, Jajamaru from Niko Niko Pun appeared in the NHK family concert Let's Go On The Mysterious Train, held to celebrate the 60th anniversary of Okaasan to Issho, but with no replacement voice actor available, archive audio of Kimotsuki's lines for Jajamaru were used.NHK「おかあさんといっしょ」ファミリーコンサート ふしぎな汽車でいこう ~60年記念コンサート~[Blu-ray] (in Japanese), Amazon Japan, 2019, Retrieved on January 10, 2026.
Personality
Being the third son out of six children,"A Blunt Assessment of the Voice Acting World! 1998" (in Japanese), pp. 73–111, Chapter 3: Kaneta Kimotsuki's Theater of Life. Kimotsuki got married at the age of 24 and had a son and a daughter. His personal motto was "Respect Heaven and Love People."
Features
His voice range was tenor."The World of Voice Actors – From Animation to Foreign Films" (in Japanese), Asahi Sonorama, Fantastic Collection Special Edition, October 30, 1979, p. 80.
Kimotsuki's voice had been considered distinctive since childhood, but he himself only realized it was unique after he started voice acting. In high school, he played leading roles for the radio drama club and thought he had a good voice. After joining the Tokyo Broadcasting Theater Company, he thought he wanted to play leading roles in radio dramas, but decided not to do so.
Kimotsuki's spoken dialects were Kagoshima and Kansai.
As he had been active since the early days of Japanese animation,"肝付 兼太 - CDJournal" (in Japanese), CD Journal. Music publisher. Kimotsuki's voice acting roles generally consisted of bully leaders, grandpas, and grandmas, none of them being good lookers, but supporting characters.