Naruto Shippuden Star Tomomichi Nishimura Dies at 79

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Tragic news has passed for Naruto fans as Tomomichi Nishimura, voiceover star of anime including Ohnoki in Naruto: Shippuden and Yu Yu Hakusho’s narrator, and as a prominent voice of Street Fighter including Akuma and M. Bison. News of his death confirmed he was undergoing medical treatment until his passing on November 29, 2025.

The news was confirmed by his talent agency, Arts Vision, while also stating that his passing was followed by a family funeral. For fans around the world, he could provide an impressive vocal range, conveying strength and wisdom, with no shortage of cool one-liners. Nishimura’s talent will be sorely missed worldwide.

Tomomichi Nishimura’s Work Spanned Decades of Voiceovers

While his filmography is far too diverse to concisely list here, Nishimura was active since the 1970s, with anime voiceover as recent as this year. This effectively made him a presence known for 50 years, no mean feat, and garnered him no small amount of fans. But for Naruto diehards, the passing of Ohnoki’s voice will especially hurt.

Ohnoki was a surprisingly deep character, with Nishimura conveying an initial sense of callous and dismissive of his younger peers like Kazekage Gaara. But thanks to this portrayal, over the course of Naruto: Shippuden, they could see a heroic shinobi bearing multiple great wars’ worth of experience. Now, Ohnoki and the voice which gave him life, can finally rest.

Release Date: 2007 – 2017-00-00
Network: TV Tokyo
Directors: Masaaki Kumagai, Naoki Horiuchi, Kazunori Mizuno, Yuki Kinoshita, Kazuya Iwata, Hiroyoshi Kishikawa, Yusuke Onoda, Hisashi Ishii, Yoshihiro Sugai, Shu Watanabe, Akitaro Daichi, Takuma Suzuki, Kiyoshi Murayama, Tsuneo Tominaga, Kunitoshi Okajima, Kenichi Nishida, Hideki Takayama, Masaharu Watanabe, Akira Shimizu, Ayataka Tanemura, Hiroaki Nishimura, Atsushi Nakagawa, Kentaro Fujita, Masayuki Matsumoto
Writers: Yasuyuki Suzuki, Shin Yoshida, Junki Takegami, Katsuhiko Chiba, Yuka Miyata, Satoru Nishizono, Kento Shimoyama, Daisuke Watanabe, Hideto Tanaka, Masaya Honda