Soma Saito

Sōma Saitō’s Path from Yamanashi to Japan’s Voice Acting Elite

At 17, Sōma Saitō entered the 2nd 81 Produce Audition in 2008 – one of 1,035 hopefuls, with only 33 reaching the final round. Winning the Excellence Award in the male category, he trained at 81 ACTOR’S STUDIO while completing high school, then navigated his university years with minor anime roles before finally committing full-time to the craft in his final year. His official debut came in 2010 through a small part in the anime Soredemo Machi wa Mawatteiru, and for the next four years he built his foundation steadily through limited appearances. What drove him toward voice acting in the first place was a period during high school when he withdrew from school life, spending months watching anime – specifically Akira Ishida’s portrayal of Koyemshi in Bokurano – and deciding that was the world he wanted to inhabit.

Terror in Resonance and the Breakthrough That Changed Everything

The year 2014 proved to be the turning point. Cast as the silent, haunted Twelve in Shinichiro Watanabe’s Terror in Resonance, Saitō delivered a performance that carried both threat and fragility across the same character with no theatrical seam between them. That same year, he landed the lead role of Tatsumi in Akame ga Kill! and began voicing Tadashi Yamaguchi in Haikyuu!!, a recurring presence that would span the franchise’s entire run, including the 2024 theatrical film. The accumulated weight of those 2014 credits earned him Best Male Newcomer at the 9th Seiyu Awards in 2015, shared with Ryota Osaka and Natsuki Hanae.

The Wanderer and the Fighter: Kenshin Himura and Vinegar Doppio

Two roles in particular showcase the range Saitō has developed since his breakthrough. In 2019’s JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: Golden Wind, he voiced Vinegar Doppio – a fractured personality functioning as both an oblivious errand boy and the suppressed vessel of a crime lord. The performance required him to shift between two radically different mental states within the same scene, often mid-sentence. Then in 2023, he was cast as Kenshin Himura in the rebuilt Rurouni Kenshin adaptation on Noitamina, reprising the role through the Kyoto Disturbance arc in 2024-2025. Taking on a character that carries enormous audience nostalgia, Saitō brought a quieter, more introspective Kenshin to screen – soft-spoken but charged with restrained history.

Singer, Songwriter, and the Parallel Career Under Sacra Music

Saitō launched his solo music career in June 2017 with the single “Fish Story” under Sacra Music, a Sony label. From the outset, his artistic ambitions ran deeper than a typical seiyuu music project: by his third single he had taken on full songwriting and compositional duties. His debut album quantum stranger followed in December 2018, and his second studio album in bloom in 2020 earned him the Best Singing Award at the 16th Seiyuu Awards in 2022 – the first individual singing award of his career. Beyond award recognition, Saitō has toured nationally, with his 2024 “(Non)Fictions” tour running across Osaka, Nagoya, Sendai, and Fukuoka in support of his third album. His interests extend further still: in 2022 he disclosed that he had written a novella titled Isana, published in the literary magazine spin.

Active Across Franchises in 2024 and 2025

Saitō has maintained a heavy production schedule through 2024 and into 2025. Confirmed credits from this period include Hyoma Chigiri in Blue Lock: Episode Nagi, Arnold Renck in Code Geass: Roze of the Recapture, Jinka in Sengoku Youko, Rooney in Mr. Villain’s Day Off, and Kenshin Himura in the ongoing Rurouni Kenshin: Kyoto Disturbance run. In gaming, he voiced Eisuke Sasaki in Emio – The Smiling Man: Famicom Detective Club and Michirou Kujirai in REYNATIS. He continues to carry franchise commitments across Hypnosis Mic, Ensemble Stars!!, Blue Lock, Touken Ranbu, and IDOLiSH7, with upcoming credits including a new Haikyuu!! theatrical film and SI-VIS: The Sound of Heroes scheduled for late 2025.