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Aoni Production announced that Taiki Matsuno died on June 26, 2024, due to a hemorrhage on his right cerebrum. The Japanese live-action and voice actor was best known for his roles as Hajime Kindaichi in The Kindaichi Case Files, as well as Agumon and its evolutions in Digimon Savers—the original Japanese release of Digimon Data Squad. [Thanks, Oricon.]
The actor with the real name Tatsuya Matsuno was born on October 16, 1967, so he died at 56 years old. Taiki Matsuno made his debut as both a voice actor and a live-action actor in 1978. His first voiced role was as the Little Prince in The Prince of the Stars: Le Petit Prince, which was localized in English as The Adventures of the Little Prince. The actor also appeared in the 1978 TV drama adaptation of A Fugitive from the Past with his real name.
Taiki Matsuno rose to prominence after he starred as Hajime Kindaichi in the 1997 anime adaptation of The Kindaichi Case Files. He also had a role in Yu-Gi-Oh GX as Jun Manjome, who is alternatively known in English as Chazz Princeton. He was also the second voice actor who provided the Japanese dub voice for SpongeBob Squarepants, taking over from Hiroyuki Tsuru since the series’ fourth season.
The late voice actor also had many roles in video games. In Koei Tecmo’s Dynasty Warriors series, he voiced Ling Tong and Liu Shan who debuted in Dynasty Warriors 5 and Dynasty Warriors 7, respectively. Taiki Matsuno also voiced Hiiragi in .hack//G.U., Igtenos Minarde in Tales of Destiny, and Hammer in the Xenosaga games.
