Most of Genzo Wakayama's younger fans know him from Kingdom Hearts, as he's the Japanese voice actor for Ansem the Wise, a character who made his first appearance in Kingdom Hearts Chain of Memories as the mysterious DiZ. Kingdom Hearts stands as one of the most popular video game franchises in the world, and while Ansem necessarily isn't a main character, he frequently plays a pivotal role in how the plot of the series pans out and so appears in some its most memorable scenes.

However, Wakayama experienced quite a long voice career, one nearly spanning six full decades. He's nearly been voice acting for the duration of some people's lifetime and so has quite a few other roles to his name, outside of Kingdom Hearts. These include:

• Detective Boon (Astro Boy)
• Japanese Dub James Bond (Sean Connery James Bond)
• Japanese Dub Jim Phelps (Mission: Impossible television series)
• Japanese Dub Professor Henry Jones (Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade)

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As such, many will be sad to hear that Genzo Wakayama has passed away. At the age of 88, his body simply gave out, and he succumbed to heart failure in his Tokyo home a handful of days ago on May 18. His family held a private funeral and memorial service for him and have no plans to host a public memorial gathering. As a result, news of his death is only now reaching the public. Conceivably, this allowed his family the privacy to grieve him without outside interference.

With Wakayama having departed, Ansem the Wise's role will have to be recast, as Kingdom Hearts has yet to conclude his story and might not for a while. As it stands, Ansem is the smartest character in the franchise when it comes to its science. In his latest endeavor, he's helping Riku, and the rest of the gang make some sense of a never-before-explored setting called "Quadratum," which is set to be the first "fictional" world to appear in the Kingdom Hearts series.

Hopefully, Wakayama felt he led a very fulfilling life. He achieved quite a lot during his voice acting career and seemingly enjoyed it as, again, he performed for nearly six decades, 58 years to be exact. During that time, he appeared in video games, movies, tv shows, and animation, voicing several characters and roles that his listeners will never forget. He certainly accomplished a lot more than most can say, and his signature, low voice will be missed.

Kingdom Hearts is on PS4, Xbox One, and PC.

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Source: NikkanSports