Koichi Yamadera: The Man, the Myth, the Pigeon.
Koichi Yamadera isn’t just your average, everyday voice actor. The 60-year-old recently married voice industry veteran has not only lent his voice to some of the most beloved anime characters out there, including Cowboy Bebop‘s Spike Spiegel and Ranma ½‘s Ryoga Hibiki/P-Chan, but he’s also provided the Japanese-dubbed voice for over a dozen A-list Hollywood actors. He’s even the official Japanese voice of Donald Duck for crying out loud!
Speaking of birds, it’s come to light that Yamadera can imitate more than just anthropomorphized ducks without pants. In a tweet that went viral earlier this week, Yamadara showcased his astounding prowess for voicing feathered friends of the real-world variety:
▼ I tried speaking to a pigeon by doing a pigeon voice.
鳩に鳩のモノマネで話しかけてみた pic.twitter.com/XHZCaGuyxE
— 山寺宏一 (@yamachanoha) September 8, 2021
Incredibly, Yamadera’s voice is truly indistinguishable from the pigeon’s. Net users had fun trying to guess where his voice stopped and the bird’s began, remarking that he must have been a pigeon in his past life. The pigeon’s apparent look of intrigue also earned many devoted online fans who speculated on just what exactly must have been going through the bird’s head at that exact moment:
▼ Pigeon: “Are you…maybe a pigeon from the next town over…?”
鳩「おめぇ、もしかして隣町のハトスケ……か………?」 pic.twitter.com/hDcpxRXYlI
— ★ズーミー★ (@zu_mi_Disney) September 8, 2021
However, the story gets even better, as two days later Yamadera dropped this little revelation:
▼ A video of me taking a video of my pigeon imitation. (By the way, the pigeon didn’t coo once.)
鳩マネ動画を撮ってる動画
— 山寺宏一 (@yamachanoha) September 9, 2021
(ちなみに鳩は一切鳴いてません) pic.twitter.com/AVVOmg2GRv
It turns out that the sound was coming from only Yamadera the whole time! We really do have to wonder now what kind of information he was conveying. Perhaps he was complaining about the fowl play in last night’s game, or the natural a-coo-stics of the garden? Or maybe they were trading notes about that pigeon dating simulator that actually exists.
Source: Twitter/@yamachanoha via Hachima Kiko
Featured image: Twitter/@yamachanoha
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