Norio Wakamoto

Norio Wakamoto (若本 規夫 Wakamoto Norio, born October 18, 1945) is a Veteran Japanese voice actor from Shimonoseki, Yamaguchi Prefecture, and was raised in Sakai, Osaka Prefecture.

After graduation from Waseda University, Wakamoto initially found employment as a police officer assigned to the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department's Anti-Riot Squad division before becoming a voice actor.

The quality of Wakamoto's voice is known for uniting astringency and sharpness, usually leading him to villainous roles in dubbing work and games, such as Cell in Dragon Ball Z, Emperor Charles Zi Britannia in Code Geass, Xemnas in the Kingdom Hearts series, Black Ghost in Cyborg 009, Vicious in Cowboy Bebop, among many others.

On adult animation titles and dating sims he goes by the alias "Hiruma Kyounosuke". He also holds the rank of 3-dan in both Shorinji Kempo and Kendo.