lit a candle 4h agoNever followed the anime stuff but my kid had the Cars DVD on loop for about two years straight and I got to where I could recognize that McQueen voice without even looking at the screen. Heard about the heart failure thing today, 54 is nothing. Gives credit where due, the man did his job well.
Their story
Hiroshi Tsuchida (土田 大, Tsuchida Hiroshi) was a Japanese actor, voice actor and narrator whose career ran from a starring role in a 1994 Super Sentai series to more than three decades of anime, video game and dubbing work. To children of the 1990s he was Saizo, the quick-tempered Ninja…
Hiroshi Tsuchida (土田 大, Tsuchida Hiroshi) was a Japanese actor, voice actor and narrator whose career ran from a starring role in a 1994 Super Sentai series to more than three decades of anime, video game and dubbing work. To children of the 1990s he was Saizo, the quick-tempered Ninja Blue of Ninja Sentai Kakuranger. To later generations he was the Japanese voice of Lightning McQueen in Disney and Pixar's Cars films, Grisha Yeager in Attack on Titan, Kazuki in the Yakuza (Like a Dragon) games and Daikichi Kawachi in Bunny Drop.
He was born on 8 February 1972 in Tokyo. As an elementary school pupil he took part in school drama festivals, and in a class anthology he wrote that he wanted to become an actor. He later said he disliked studying and saw no point in going to university just for the sake of it, so after graduating from Tokyo Metropolitan Bunkyo High School he decided, almost on a whim, to try acting. He spent two years with the Gekidan Tohai troupe, formed a theatre company of his own, and considered quitting after a joint injury before joining the agency Big Apple.
In 1994 he made his screen debut as Saizo / Ninja Blue in Toei's Ninja Sentai Kakuranger, alongside Teruaki Ogawa, Hitomi Hirose, Kane Kosugi and Shū Kawai. A short 1995 scene in which an assassin shouts "Today is Friday in California!" before trying to shoot Saizo resurfaced online decades later and became a widely shared internet meme in the early 2020s. Tsuchida embraced it, joking on his own X account in 2025 that the line was already 30 years old.
From the late 1990s he worked mainly as a voice actor and narrator, eventually signing with 81 Produce, the agency that represented him until his death. His anime credits included Raido Namiashi in Naruto, Capote in One Piece, Kazushi Yamazaki in Honey and Clover, Masamune in Soul Eater, John Titor in Steins;Gate, the lead Daikichi in Bunny Drop, Professor Sycamore in the Pokémon XY series, Koichiro Iketani in the New Initial D films, Nadim Samaya in Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch from Mercury and Okita, Narita Top Road's trainer, in Umamusume: Pretty Derby. In Attack on Titan he voiced Grisha Yeager, the father of the hero Eren, across the series from 2013 to its final chapter in 2023. In games he played Kazuki throughout the Yakuza series, Feng Wei in Tekken, Zasalamel in Soulcalibur and Tron in Kingdom Hearts II. In tokusatsu he returned as a voice performer, most notably as the robot HANE2 in Ultraman Decker (2022 to 2023).
He was one of Japan's busiest dubbing actors. He voiced Lightning McQueen (Owen Wilson's role) in Cars, Cars 2, Cars 3 and the Cars on the Road series, and frequently dubbed Joseph Gordon-Levitt, including Arthur in the theatrical dub of Inception. Other regular assignments included Lee Byung-hun as the Front Man in Squid Game, Carlos Bernard as Tony Almeida in 24, Travis Fimmel as Ragnar Lothbrok in Vikings, Mark Wahlberg in the Transformers films and Charlie Hunnam as Ed Gein in Monster: The Ed Gein Story. He also narrated NHK programmes such as Science Zero and Deep People.
In 2024 the Kakuranger cast reunited for the 30th anniversary production Ninja Sentai Kakuranger Part Three: Middle-Aged Struggle Chapter, streamed on the Toei Tokusatsu Fan Club. In August 2026 he marked the 20th anniversary of Cars with a message to fans that ended with McQueen's catchphrase, "Ka-chow!"
Tsuchida died of heart failure on 11 October 2026, aged 54. His agency 81 Produce announced the death on 20 October 2026 and said that, at the family's wish, the funeral had already been held privately with relatives only. Tributes followed from his Kakuranger co-stars, from Yuki Kaji, who played his son Eren in Attack on Titan and said that without Tsuchida's Grisha "the Eren of the beginning and the end could not have existed", and from Disney Studio Japan, which thanked him for giving McQueen life in Japanese. Kane Kosugi remembered how Tsuchida used to drive the young cast, who had no cars, to the station after filming.
Biography adapted from 81 Produce death notice (20 October 2026); ORICON NEWS (oricon.co.jp/news/2487542, 2487575, 2487716); Sponichi via Mainichi Shimbun (20 October 2026); Japanese and English Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0); TV. Wikipedia ↗
In their own words
“Thank you all for your congratulatory messages. It hit me that Today is Friday in California was already 30 years ago, and I went "Huh?!"”
His own X post on his birthday, 8 February 2025 (translated from Japanese)
“Being able to share a dreamlike time with all of you again after 30 years, I thank you once more. I gave Part Three, the Middle-Aged Struggle Chapter, everything I had.”
X post after the Kakuranger 30th anniversary event, 12 May 2024 (translated from Japanese)
“The way he grows through the things that truly matter is, I think, McQueen's greatest charm in the Cars series. See you all again! Ka-chow!”
Message for the Cars 20th anniversary, shared by Disney Japan, 28 August 2026 (translated from Japanese)
“Thanks to all of you, we were able to reach our 20th anniversary. Thank you.”
X post on the Cars 20th anniversary, 28 August 2026 (translated from Japanese)
“Without Tsuchida's Grisha, the Eren of the beginning and the end could not have existed either.”
Tribute by Yuki Kaji, his on-screen son in Attack on Titan, 20 October 2026, as reported by ORICON NEWS (translated from Japanese)
Photos
1by People Forever
Same here, wore that disc out