Last year in October, popular voice actor Sakurai Takahiro was revealed to have cheated on his wife, a former voice actress, of twenty years with a woman he had been working with for his radio show, P.S. Genki Desu Takahiro. The program ended abruptly last October after Shukan Bunshun had revealed that not only was Sakurai cheating on his wife with this other woman for 10 years, but that the other woman was unaware of his martial status as it had not been previously disclosed to the public prior to the article’s release in September 2022.
In addition, a third lover came forward with allegations of three timing as she showed proof of a 15 year relationship between 2006 to 2021. This was revealed in another Bunshun article published January of this year.
The fallout was swift and severe. Even with an apology posted on his agency website, Sakurai did not attend the Jujutsu Kaisen panels during Jump Festa last December, though he was slowly making a return to programs this year with a couple of appearances on variety programs. However, even as he slowly has returned to variety, his presence for some anime works still seems tenuous as some, like the anime Ayaka: A Story of Bonds and Wounds, have announced that they will be recasting the role he was supposed to have.
Sakurai‘s influence on anime is vast. Major roles include Griffith in Berserk, Tomioka Giyu in Demon Slayer, Suzaku in Code Geass and Cloud in Final Fantasy VII.
Source: ANN; Oricon News; Bunshun
