Kenta Miyake

The Steel Throat of 81 Produce

Kenta Miyake doesn't have a conventional voice. He has a deep bass register that is rare in the Japanese anime industry, which is dominated by high, youthful tones. He entered the professional field in 1999 with modest roles in Beast Wars Neo.

The market took a while to figure out what to do with such a powerful, earthy talent.

In his early years, he specialized in burly characters or villains with an imposing physical presence. He didn't pursue the subtlety of the romantic lead, because his natural voice pushed him toward authority. In 2004, he played Tsume in Wolf’s Rain, and it became clear that his ability to convey pain through harshness was an underused asset.

But the real transformation of his career came with the turn of the decade.

In 2009, he took on the challenge of voicing Scar in Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood. The role demanded complete restraint and an aggression that came not from shouting, but from the inner vibration of the vocal cords. Miyake stripped away any trace of histrionics to give the character a dry humanity that won over fans of the original work.

The Scream That Went Viral

His real breakthrough didn't happen in a movie studio but on Japanese television in 2016. After landing the role of All Might in My Hero Academia, Miyake had to handle an exhausting technical duality. On one side was the hero bursting with energy, and on the other, the vulnerable man who physically deflates.

The gamble paid off.

His performance of the United States of Smash attack in the third season of the series is now studied at dubbing schools in Tokyo. It isn't just lung power. It's managing his breath during moments of extreme fatigue that separates an announcer from a top-tier voice actor.

That same power also opened the doors of Hollywood for him, at least indirectly.

Miyake is the go-to voice in Japan for actors such as Jason Momoa or Chris Hemsworth. In 2011, he took on the role of Thor in the Marvel Cinematic Universe for Japanese audiences. This live-action dubbing work requires him to synchronize his breathing with actors of a similar physical build, keeping his vocal delivery consistent throughout.

Silences and Deep Registers

Despite his fame in the action genre, he has also worked on experimental and sports projects. In 2022, he took part in the film The First Slam Dunk, playing Takenori Akagi. For this production, the director sought a far more realistic tone and less exaggerated style than the animated series of the 1990s.

Miyake adjusted his tone to sound like a high school student with adult responsibilities.

Success in Japanese dubbing doesn't depend solely on power, but on knowing when to hold back. In 2014, he brought Mohammed Avdol to life in JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: Stardust Crusaders. In this project, he showed he could hold his own against far more eccentric performances without losing the emotional center of the scene.

His contract with the agency 81 Produce remains in effect, and he is one of the company's most profitable assets.

In 2023, he joined the cast of Pluto, Netflix's adaptation of Naoki Urasawa's manga. His part in the episode dedicated to North No. 2 is an exercise in sensitivity, where the metallic voice of a robot ends up feeling more human than those of the flesh-and-blood protagonists. Miyake's voice was recorded in isolation to ensure absolute technical clarity in the lowest frequencies of the sound spectrum.