Chikao Ōtsuka, Voice of Dr. Weil, Passes Away at 85

A few days ago, it came to my attention through TSSZ News that Chikao Ōtsuka, the Japanese voice of Dr. Ivo “Eggman” Robotnik, passed away at the age of 85 due to heart failure. Recent crossovers with Sonic aside, you might understand why– speaking from a purely Mega Man-related point of view I didn’t give this much thought as to warranting a post here.

Seems I was mistaken, however.

Thanks to tips from GeminiSparkSP and Mega Man X Zero, I learned that he does indeed hold relevance to not only Mega Man, but a whole lot more. In addition to voicing Dr. Weil/Dr. Vile of the Mega Man Zero series and Eggman, he has also provided the voice of Big Boss from Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots, Tao Pai Pai from Dragon Ball, and Wario from the Mario franchise.

That’s not even close to everything; you can get a better idea of his vast filmography by checking out his Wikipedia article. As Blaze Hedgehog put it, “Literally from the dawn of anime, this man was playing a major part in the industry.”

By way of Protodude’s Rockman Corner, we also see that Mega Man Megamix creator Hitoshi Ariga also paid him tribute with an illustration of Dr. Weil on Twitter:

Farewell, Ōtsuka, and thanks for your many, many contributions to anime and video games.

LanceHeart