Toshio Furukawa

Toshio Furukawa, born in Ōhira, Tochigi in 1946 and affiliated with Aoni Production, is best known to Dragon Ball fans as the Japanese voice of Piccolo. He took the role when Piccolo first hatched from an egg as the reincarnation of the demon king, the arc villain of the original Dragon Ball's King Piccolo saga, and he has held it ever since. That continuity is remarkable: across the original Dragon Ball, Dragon Ball Z, Dragon Ball GT, Dragon Ball Z Kai, and Dragon Ball Super, Piccolo has always had the same voice.

Furukawa's range is what made the character's evolution believable. The snarling warlord who tried to conquer the world became the reluctant guardian who trained Gohan in the wilderness, then the tactician of the Namek saga, the proud warrior who fused with Nail and then Kami, and eventually the beloved family figure of Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero. Furukawa found a calm, grounded register for Piccolo that could shift into thunder when the fight called for it, and that restraint is a big part of why the character reads as dignified rather than simply grim.

Piccolo is not Furukawa's only Dragon Ball role. He also voiced General Blue in the original Dragon Ball and Dragon Ball GT, the bandit chief Shula, and several characters in Dr. Slump, including Taro Soramame, the Sun, and the Narrator, on the Toriyama anime that shares the Dragon Ball universe. His debut role was a soldier in the 1975 robot anime Brave Raideen, and from there he built one of the most varied careers in Japanese voice acting. He can play comic leads like Ataru Moroboshi in Urusei Yatsura, cool-headed warriors like Shin in Fist of the North Star, and tragic figures like Portgas D. Ace in One Piece.

Outside the booth he was a member of the Japanese band Slapstick from 1977 to 1986, playing rhythm guitar alongside other voice actors including Tōru Furuya on drums. He is married to voice actress Shino Kakinuma, who played Videl in Dragon Ball Z Kai, which makes them one of the few couples where both partners have canonically lived inside the Dragon Ball cast.

Furukawa's tenure as Piccolo now spans close to half a century, a run matched by very few voice actors in any country or franchise. The fact that modern Dragon Ball Super projects still come to him for the role, rather than recasting around his age, speaks to how essential that voice is to the character. When Piccolo unlocked Orange Piccolo in Super Hero, Japanese viewers heard the same Furukawa who had snarled out King Piccolo's villainous promises decades earlier, now delivering one of the most satisfying power-ups in the franchise.

For Japanese fans, Piccolo and Furukawa are inseparable. He is the voice that raised Gohan, and by extension, he helped raise a generation of viewers along with him.