The art history comedy anime series Oshiete Hokusai! has revealed the voice actors for the painters who will guest star in the series. Judging from the promos we’ve seen so far, the series looks like a fun one. Here’s the latest one:
The cast will include:
- KENN as Ogata Korin, who revitalized the Rinpa school. The J-pop singer and voice actor also played Jaden Yuki in Yu-Gi-Oh! GX.
- Hidenori Takahashi as Takahashi Yuichi, a western-style or ‘yoga’ (no, not that yoga) pioneer. The voice actor is also the grown-up Konohamaru in Boruto. The family name is probably a coincidence, but who knows?
- Daisuke Hirakawa as Kano Eitoku of the Kano school, who painted for Oda Nobunaga and Toyotomi Hideyoshi. Hirakawa is the official dubbing voice for Orlando Bloom in Japan.
- Junichi Suwabe as Hakuin Ekaku, the Zen Buddhist master of the Rinzai school of art. Suwabe plays Eraser Head in My Hero Academia.
- Yu Hayashi as Utagawa Kuniyoshi, the ukiyo-e woodblock print artist (who shows up in my National Cat Day article, of all places). Hayashi is Ino Takuma in Jujutsu Kaisen.
- Daisuke Ono as Ryusei Kishida, a Taisho and Showa-era western-style yoga painter. Ono is Jyushimatsu in Osomatsu-san, and Jotaro in JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure.
- Ryoko Shiraishi as Uemura Shoen, a Nihonga-style painter (and the only woman on this list). The voice actor was the sheep Macaron in Amagi Brilliant Park, and is currently Chocho in Boruto.
- Ayumu Murase as Kuroda Seiki, a leader of the western-style yoga movement. Murase was also Kazuki in Sarazanmai.
In the series, schoolgirl Tenkorin (Azumi Waki) needs help with her art classes, so she prays to Raijin (Katsuyuki Konishi). The god of thunder answers her prayers by bringing historic Japanese painters to her. As you can see from the above list, the series will have a wide variety of artists from several eras in Japanese history to share their insights. And as you can tell from the promo video, these painters will be treated more like rock stars and celebrities, rather than dusty art museum profiles.
I love a good history anime series. And while there have been many shows which take place in historic periods, there have been relatively few which discuss history. So hopefully this will have the right balance of informative, silly, and fun.
You can find the Oshiete Hokusai! website here.