The Emperor of Anime Songs. A veteran singer, actor and voice actor, he started singing in the 1960s and continued until his death on the 6th of December 2022 (though his passing wasn't announced until the 12th). The cause of death was lung cancer, which he revealed he'd been suffering from in April of 2021. As a side effect, he suffered partial paralysis of his vocal chords, something he noted was a new experience in his over-50 year long career. His final performance was on the 28th of November 2022.
Born Toshio Hayakawa in 1948, he was exposed to music at a young age thanks to his parents running a record store. His mother in particular was a great fan of jazz, and as a result he wanted to become a singer as early as 5 years old. He taught himself how to sing while listening to the records of the likes of Nat King Cole. His big break came in 1964 when he was 16 years old, when he got the attention of Teruo Sakurai, the 2nd generation leader of the rock-and-roll band The Drifters, who suggested that he participate in a singing contest held at a famous jazz cafe in Kabukicho. After he handily won the contest, Sakurai encouraged him to pursue singing professionally, suggesting he could become the "Frank Sinatra of Japan".
Despite this, the music scene of the Showa Era was highly competitive with so many stars that any aspiring singer needed both talent and luck. Mizuki himself would recall criticism from those early years, specifically that he was once told that his singing had "no personality". He even considered giving up his dream of being a world-famous singer and instead become a composer. However, he was then asked to perform the opening theme to 1971's Genshi Shonen Ryu ("Ryu the Caveman"), an anime adaptation of Ryo No Michi by Shotaro Ishinomori. This would change Mizuki's life.
During this time, the opening themes of animes were viewed as children's songs, the sort of thing a successful singer would consider an Old Shame. Worse, there wasn't much money in them, since it was thought that no one would want to buy records of "children's songs". However, Mizuki looked at it differently. The passion and romance of the lyrics spoke to him, and he also realised that those same "silly children's songs" would be repeated on national TV week after week.
His instinct paid off in a big way. Around the 70s, televisions were becoming common sights in Japanese homes as signs of post-war economic recovery, and more and more television programmes (including tokusatsu and anime) were being created to match the demand. Thanks to singing the opening themes to tokusatsu series like Choujin Barom 1 and Henshin Ninja Arashi, as well as anime like Devilman note (all in 1972), Mizuki's voice became very familiar to television viewers both adult and child. And of course, his single greatest hit would be the legendary opening to Mazinger Z (also in 1972).
Remembering the criticism from his early days that he was “singing without personality” Mizuki took the criticism to heart to truly find his niche in the anisong genre. Mizuki’s unique thick voice, combined with various roars and adverbial words in the lyrics (most often attack names like "Rocket Punch!" or "Thunder Break!") helped make his voice stand out. Furthermore, the influence of jazz and Western songs he grew up with could be heard in how he would warble his voice like an old-school crooner. His ability to sing with passionate Hot-Blooded-ness to gentle and romantic meant that he could perform for almost any sort of genre from a combat oriented Super Robot show to a cutesy kids cartoon.
Between 1971 and 1975, Mizuki recorded over 150 songs for various series. The opening theme to Mazinger Z in particular sold over 700,000 copies. This made him the Trope Maker (or at least Trope Codifier) for the anisong genre as a whole. While anime openings existed before him, he is credited with actually making anisong an actual genre of music. In addition, due to the sheer number of songs he did for the genre he's also credited with popularising the Super Robot genre. note
Over his 50 year career, he recorded at least 1,200 songs. He also performed as a voice actor for anime, tokusatsu and video games. Suiting such a legendary and long-performing entertainer, he was acquainted with many of the biggest names in Japanese entertainment. Isao Sasaki was his senior when they were learning to sing (and Sasaki himself is known as "The Great King of Anime Songs" (アニソンの大王 Anisong no Daiō) to Mizuki's "The Emperor of Anime Songs"), Mitsuko Horie was his old friend and frequent collaborator (Horie being "the Queen of Anime Songs" (アニソンの女王 Anisong no Jōō)), he was a founding member of JAM Project, and made several appearances on shows hosted by Downtown.
It's difficult to overstate his effect on the anime industry. Because many anime and tokusatsu series exported overseas didn't bother to replace the theme songs while they were being dubbed, his voice became the first exposure many people had to the Japanese language (fittingly enough, the same way he became a household name in Japan itself).
Mizuki's music maintained an old school style and sound over the years. It's one of the things that distinguished him from JAM Project, especially all the ballads he did. He could've probably been the King of Enka if he had chosen to do so.
Tropes associated with Ichiro Mizuki:
- Actor Allusion:
- His famous "ZETTT!" catchphrase (normally said when he walks on-screen) is a reference to his single most famous hit: the opening theme to Mazinger Z.
- His penchant for wearing an overly starched red scarf (shaped to look like it's billowing in the wind) came about when he agreed to appear on the 2006 Gaki no Tsukai 24-hour Batsu Police special, where he appeared as the sole staff member of a petrol station. A member of staff approached him with the scarf and told him that because they had an image of him singing songs from the Kamen Rider series, they prepared a similar scarf for him. In his own words, Mizuki recalled his reaction at the time was, "Sounds like fun! Let's do it!" He liked it so much that it became part of his trademark look.
- Consummate Professional: No matter if he's singing in a concert hall for an audience of tens of thousands, a convention center for a couple thousand, or a smaller venue with a few dozen, when Ichiro Mizuki came to sing he'd sing his heart out.
- Cool Old Guy: As one of the most veteran performers still active at the time of his death, Mizuki had the reputation of being a good sport and quite happy to roll with working with both young talent and veterans. In a downplayed example of Leslie Nielsen Syndrome, following his appearance on Gaki No Tsukai's 2006 special he was quite willing to make appearances on variety shows (sometimes poking fun at himself) while still keeping up his singing career.
- Dented Iron: It was an open secret after his diagnosis with lung cancer that while Mizuki was fully willing to give his all in any performance he gave, his body was simply not able to keep up anymore. As an example, during a celebratory online concert to commemorate the Super Robot Wars series' 30th anniversary, while he clearly tried to sing with all his strength he still had to be supported by other members of JAM Project due to visibly struggling to hold the notes.
- Determinator:
- In September 1999, he famously performed over 1,000 songs over 24 hours.
- Even after being diagnosed with lung cancer, even when his vocal cords were partially paralyzed, Mizuki continued to perform as best he could while undergoing treatment. It's telling his final performance was a mere 7 days before his passing.
- Doing It for the Art: When asked if he'd ever considered trying to break into the mainstream music industry (as opposed to specialising in the anisong genre), Mizuki noted that he wasn't really interested. The biggest reason he gave was that he genuinely loved singing anime songs, especially because the lyrics often brought out in him as sense of passion and romance.
- Large Ham: Gleefully engaged in this in his appearances on variety shows and the like (such as the Gaki no Tsukai ya Arahende 24-hour Batsu game specials), most famously punctuated by a hearty, "ZETTT!". In an interview, he noted that it gave him a larger than life presence and people seemed to enjoy it, and crucially he had fun as well.
- Playing Against Type: Part of the reason his appearance on Gaki No Tsukai was so effective is because he was so over-the-top that the participating members were taken by surprise. Hitoshi Matsumoto (who hadn't participated in that particular special) actually asked the others if Mizuki had always been like that, only to be reassured that, no, no, he was not.
- Punny Name: His title of "Aniking" (given to him because of his extensive discography of anime songs, especially in the 70s). It's a mix of his nickname "Aniki" (big brother) and "king".
- Red Baron: His titles of "Aniking" (アニキング, Anikingu) and "Emperor of Anime Songs" (アニソングの帝王, Anisongu no Teiō). He was also famously nicknamed "Aniki" (lit. big brother) by his fans, and the nickname was adopted by just about everyone in the Japanese entertainment industry.
- Scarf of Asskicking: Roughly around the early 2000s, Mizuki became known for wearing overly-starched scarves that were shaped to look like they were being blown by the wind. He was inspired to do so after participating in the famous 24-hours No Laughing variety program (a fuller description is mentioned under Actor Allusion above). He noted while he was aware some people thought it made him look silly, to him the scarves reminded him of heroes like Kamen Rider, and he hoped that be wearing them he'd similarly inspire Hot-Blooded-ness in others.
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Signature Song: Sing it with us now... "MA-ZIN-GA--ZETTTT!" During his famed 1,000 song marathon concert, Mazinger Z's opening was naturally the first song he sang... and then sang it again to make it the 1,001st song of the concert as a bonus. - So My Kids Can Watch: One of the reasons Mizuki loved singing anime songs was because he viewed it as a way to inspire children and instill a love of music and the power of song, the same way he was inspired when he himself was a child.
- Spell My Name With An S: While his name in Hiragana would be spelled I-chi-ro-u, the official Romanization of his name was Ichiro.
