In 1957, he entered the Haiyuza theatrical training school; that same year, he joined a theater troupe fellowship, and in 1962, he formed Gekidan Theatre Company and Gekidan Dramahouse.[3] His first voice acting role in an anime was for the 1964 anime adaption of Big X.[2] Through working as an Acting Planner, he joined the Tokyo Actors' Co-operative in 1968.[3] Most of Kiyokawa's voice roles were that of older men.[2]
Although stage acting was his main occupation, he made his debut in voice acting dubbing a soldier in 1962's Combat!.[4] He stated that the reason he did voice acting was "[just] to make money."
Together, he and Reiko Yamada established the "Dramahouse Voice Actor School D.D.",[5] where he was an instructor.
He died of pneumonia on August 17, 2022, at age 87.[6]
Personality and characteristics
He was considered to be a baritone.[3] His hobbies were judo and fencing.[3]
As a voice actor, he was known for his roles as older characters. He also voiced many monsters in the Tokusatsu genre. Hideaki Anno specifically sought out Kiyokawa because he liked Kiyokawa's role in Himitsu Sentai Gorenger.[7] Kiyokawa also played the role of Ultraman King in the Ultraman franchise, starting with Ultraman Leo.
Although Kiyokawa played many villains, he described his own voice was "soft", stating "I just can't turn into a real villain".[4] Therefore, when he was asked to play the antagonist Gargoyle in Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water, Kiyokawa suggested to director Anno, "Why don't we play the roles in such a way that it is not clear who is the bad guy?". In addition to playing the role of the crew of the Nautilus, Kiyokawa provided commentary on the story from the second episode to the 23rd episode.[8] In addition, when he voiced Dr. Mikamura in Mobile Fight G Gundam, director Yasuhiro Imagawa, after hearing Kiyokawa's voice, said, "I just can't make him a bad guy," and eventually changed Dr. Mikamura, who was originally set up as a bad guy, to a good guy.[4]
After the deaths of Akio Miyabe, Kazumi Tanaka, Tatsuyuki Ishimori, and Ichiro Nagai, Kiyokawa took over some of their roles.
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