Akira Ishida is a Japanese voice actor. He spent his twenties doing odd jobs and part-time positions before deciding to enroll in college. After his graduation, his career as a voice actor started in the 1990s. Ishida is camera shy and doesn't like to make too many public appearances. Although vocal about his various likes and dislikes, he doesn't consider himself a chatty or lively person with his curt responses.
Since 2002, Ishida refuses to sing character image songs. He states he doesn't think they're necessary for his career and may ruin the character's image. At the same time, he also admits he is embarrassed to participate in them and isn't confident in his singing skills. Since he is a voice actor who is overwhelmingly popular with female fans, Ishida's announcement of his decision was distressing. If he is caught singing a tune, it's usually within a group performance or jokingly as a parody.
Ishida has a wide vocal range, but he is often cast for attractive characters with his "dominate male" tone in the anime or game industry, namely Katsura Kotarou in Gintama, the version of Zhu Bajie/Cho Hakkai in Gensoumaden Saiyuki, and Gaara from the Naruto series. He has expressed multiple times that he likes it when male voice actors act out female roles since it's an interesting break from normal acting (Ishida himself has voiced Julia from ICE as a testament to this). This maybe related to his earnest desire to perform more cheerful roles, as most of his characters tend to be dark and depressing.
Works
The following roles listed below come from titles associated with Koei Tecmo and third party works distributed as part of a deal with other companies.
