Koji Igarashi Reveals Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night’s Japanese Cast

After three months of silence on the progress of Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night (last month’s FAQ was less of an update and more of a means for 505 Games to communicate with the campaign backers), Koji Igarashi has updated his Kickstarter page with some important news: voice recordings are finally finished. Well, the Japanese recordings, anyway.

Full disclosure: I helped back the Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night Kickstarter campaign. I gave Igarashi some of my hard-earned money to help create the game, so I am waiting on baited breath for its release. Now that that’s out of the way, on with the news.

Some of you might wonder what is so important about announcing a game’s Japanese voice actors. Well, plenty of gamers prefer to play localized Japanese games with their original Japanese voices. While the currently announced English voice actors, David Hayter (Solid Snake in the Metal Gear Solid franchise) and Robert Belgrade (Alucard in Castlevania: Symphony of the Night), are well-recognized and beloved by many American gamers, some would rather listen to Japanese voice actors, and Igarashi’s choices have some serious acting experience. Here is a complete list of all the Japanese voice actors:

Ami Koshimizu, known for her roles as Makoto Kino/Sailor Jupiter in Sailor Moon Crystal and Ryuko Matoi in Kill la Kill (I highly recommend this anime, but only if you’re over 18), will play the role of main protagonist Miriam.

Shusaku Shirakawa, who played Lawrence in Izetta: The Last Witch and Deadpool and Cyclops in the Japanese dub of Lego Marvel Super Heroes, will voice the main antagonist Gebel

Kazuyuki Okitsu, who voiced Saito in Your Lie in April and Jonathan Joestar in JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure, will play the side-character Johannes.

Kaori Mizuhashi, known for voicing Mami Tomoe in Puella Magi Madoka Magica, will take the role of the shopkeeper Dominique.

Ryotaro Okiayu, who voiced Meisaku Nueno in Hell Teacher Nube and Kunimitsu Tezuka in The Prince of Tennis, will play the mysterious man simply known as Mysterious Man.

Taiten Kusunoki, known for playing Antonio Lopez/Rock Bison in Tiger and Bunny and Darth Vader in the Japanese dub of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, will play the side-character Alfred.

Hiroki Yasumoto, who is famous for playing Elfman Strauss in Fairy Tail, Yasutora Sado in Bleach, and Guile in Street Fighter V, will play the rival character Zangetsu.

Saori Goto, who played Nao Sadatsuka in Food Wars!: Shokugeki no Soma, will voice the demonic Gremory.

Akari Kito, who voiced Siluca Meletes in Record of Grancrest War, will play the shopkeeper Anne

Many of Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night‘s backers are excited for these casting choices, myself included. I can only imagine who Igarashi has lined up to play the English cast.