Eric Kelso | |
---|---|
Born | December 22 |
Nationality | American |
Alma mater | University of California at Santa Barbara |
Occupations |
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Years active | 1988–present |
Website | erickelso |
Eric Kelso (born December 22) [1] is an American voice actor, director, presenter and producer currently based in Tokyo, Japan.
He is best known as the voice of Paul Phoenix in the video game series, Tekken , as well as Guizhang Chen, [1] Masayuki Fukuhara, [1] and Ren of Heavens [1] in the Shenmue series, Captain Falcon, and Blood Falcon in F-Zero GX , and Jacky Bryant in the Virtua Fighter series. [2] Outside of video games, he has also provided voices for many Japanese TV shows, films, radio programs.
Eric Kelso attended high school in Santa Cruz, California and went to the University at Santa Barbara where he majored in Film Studies. While at UCSB he received a Corwin Metropolitan Film Award for writing and directing the short film, "an echo en route". [3]
After graduating in 1986, he set out to travel the world in search of documentary film subjects. He eventually made his way to his current long-time residence of Japan. [4]
Kelso has been active in Japan doing English-language and Japanese-language voiceovers for movies, television shows, children's programs and educational broadcasting. In 1995, Kelso provided live interactive voiceover and CG movement work for Mr. Mike, a sarcastic talking microphone character, around the world. Notable events include TELECOM 95 in Geneva, Switzerland, [5] as well as at ASIA TELECOM 97 in Singapore.
He voiced the Japanese movie trailer for Disney's Mulan, as well as the part of River Guide in the Wild River Splash VR Simulator ride for DreamWorks at SEGA's Joypolis in Tokyo. In 2006, shortly after the merger of Tomy and Takara, Kelso provided the voice for the Omnibot 2007: i-SOBOT, which has been certified by Guinness World Records as "the world's smallest humanoid robot in production".
Kelso has been a director and producer for corporate video recordings for companies such as Prologis Inc. and Medtronic.
Kelso began voice acting for the video game industry in 1996. In 2001, he voiced the character Paul Phoenix in the fighting video game, Tekken 4 . [6] In 2004, Kelso reprised this role in 5 [7] and continued to voice the character in Dark Resurrection and 6 .
In 2000, Kelso provided voices for the English dub of the Sega Dreamcast game, Shenmue . Playing the roles of Masayuki Fukuhara [1] and Guizhang Chen, [1] Kelso noted how expansive the project was, having a more developed storyline and more dialogue than other games at the time. In 2001, Kelso became the voice for another fighting game character in Virtua Fighter 3 called Jacky Bryant. [2] He also reprised the role in Virtua Fighter 5 , [8] as well as side projects featuring the character, such as, Sega Superstars , [9] Virtua Quest , [10] Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing , [11] and Dead or Alive 5 Ultimate [12] In 2002, Kelso also worked on the sequel to Shenmue, Shenmue II , voicing a new character in the franchise, Wuying Ren "of Heavens". [1] The English dub of the game appeared in the re-released version on the Microsoft Xbox console as well as the high-definition ports for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One.
Year | Title | Role | Notes | Ref. |
---|---|---|---|---|
Doraemon | unknown | Gakken English dub | [13] | |
1993–1998 | Iron Chef | Masaharu Morimoto; Yoshiro Mori | Live-action English dub | [14] |
2001 | Zoids: Century Neo | Additional voices | Alternate English dub; pilot | |
2015 | Air Bound | Ace, Owen, Buck Tooth | International English dub | [1] |
2017 | Sakura Quest | Mayor Naumann | Japanese dub (Ep. 25) | [15] |
2023 | The Marginal Service | Character Naration | [1] |
Year | Title | Role | Notes | Ref. |
---|---|---|---|---|
2016 | Under the Dog | Soldier |
Year | Title | Role | Notes | Ref. |
---|---|---|---|---|
1996 | Virtua Fighter 3 | Jacky Bryant | ||
1997 | Soul Edge | English dub | [13] | |
2000 | Slashout | Slash | [1] | |
Gungriffon Blaze | Various | |||
Shenmue | Masayuki Fukuhara, Guizhang Chen | English dub | [1] | |
2001 | Virtua Fighter 4 | Jacky Bryant | ||
Tekken 4 | Paul Phoenix | Select voice samples re-used in 5 and 6 | ||
Planet of the Apes | Various | [13] | ||
Universal Studios Theme Parks Adventure | Woody Woodpecker, Biff Tannen | |||
2002 | Shenmue II | Wuying Ren | [1] | |
2003 | Dino Crisis 3 | Jacob Ranshaw | Motion capture | |
F-Zero GX | Captain Falcon, Blood Falcon | [1] | ||
Glass Rose | Takashi Kagetani, Kazuya | English dub | [1] | |
Bloody Roar 4 | Reiji Takigawa | English dub | [1] | |
2004 | Firefighter F.D.18 | Dean McGregor | Credited as Erick Kelso | [1] |
Gradius V | Pilot, Boss | [13] | ||
Taiko: Drum Master | Various | [13] | ||
Boktai 2: Solar Boy Django | Dainn, Kid, Coffin Shopkeeper, Ennio | English dub | [1] | |
Sega Superstars | Jacky Bryant | |||
Tekken 5 | Paul Phoenix | [13] | ||
Baten Kaitos | Kalas | English dub | [1] | |
Metal Wolf Chaos | Additional voices | [16] | ||
2005 | Virtua Quest | Jacky Bryant | English dub | [10] |
Shining Force Neo | Klein | English dub | [1] | |
Tekken 5: Dark Resurrection | Paul Phoenix | |||
2006 | Virtua Fighter 5 | Jacky Bryant | ||
Elebits | Ed (Dad) | English dub | [1] | |
Dance Dance Revolution: Disney Mix | Various | |||
2007 | Lunar Knights | Duke Dumas, Kay | English dub | [1] |
Dynasty Warriors: Gundam | Various | |||
Mega Max ZX Advent | Aeolus | English dub | [17] | |
Tekken 6 | Paul Phoenix | |||
2010 | Sonic & SEGA All-Stars Racing | Jacky Bryant | ||
Ace Combat: Joint Assault | Michael Arena | English dub | ||
2013 | Dead or Alive 5 Ultimate | Jacky Bryant | [1] | |
2015 | Dead or Alive 5 Last Round | Jacky Bryant | [18] | |
Transformers Pachinko | Optimus Prime | [13] | ||
Time Crisis 5 | Marc Godart | English dub | [1] | |
Devil’s Third Online | Various | [13] | ||
2016 | NightCry | Harry, Newscaster, HQ | English dub | [1] [19] |
Pokémon Tretta | Announcer | |||
2019 | Shenmue III | Wuying Ren | English Dub (Mod) | [20] |
Year | Title | Role | Notes | Ref. |
---|---|---|---|---|
1991 | New York and Boston with Eric | Host | [13] | |
1991–1992 | Radio Eikawa | Host | [13] | |
1992 | Florida with Eric | Host | [13] |
Year | Title | Medium | Notes | Ref. |
---|---|---|---|---|
1998 | Mulan | Film trailer | Japanese version | [13] |
Year | Title | Role | Notes | Ref. |
---|---|---|---|---|
1995 | Mr. Mike | Voice, motion capture; Interactive CG | [13] | |
2001 | Universal Studios Japan | Woody Woodpecker | Theme Park | [13] |
2007 | i-SOBOT | English voice; Robot | [13] | |
2019 | Ultra Galaxy Fight: New Generation Heroes | Ultra Dark-Killer | YouTube web series; English dub | [21] |
2020 | Ultra Galaxy Fight: The Absolute Conspiracy | Ultraman Zero, Ultraman Great | YouTube web series; English dub | [21] [22] |
Virtua Fighter is a fighting game created for the Sega Model 1 arcade platform by AM2, a development group within Sega, headed by Yu Suzuki. An early prototype version was location tested in Japan by August 1993, before the complete game was released worldwide in October 1993. It is the first game in the Virtua Fighter series, and the first arcade fighting game to feature fully 3D polygon graphics. The game has been ported to several platforms including the Sega Saturn, Sega 32X, and Microsoft Windows.
Shenmue is a 1999 action-adventure game developed and published by Sega for the Dreamcast. It follows the teenage martial artist Ryo Hazuki as he sets out in revenge for the murder of his father in 1980s Yokosuka, Japan. The player explores an open world, fighting opponents in brawler battles and encountering quick time events. The environmental detail was considered unprecedented, with numerous interactive objects, a day-and-night system, variable weather effects, non-player characters with daily schedules and various minigames.
Yu Suzuki is a Japanese game designer, producer, programmer, and engineer, who headed Sega's AM2 team for 18 years. Considered one of the first auteurs of video games, he has been responsible for a number of Sega's arcade hits, including three-dimensional sprite-scaling games that used "taikan" motion simulator arcade cabinets, such as Hang-On, Space Harrier, Out Run and After Burner, and pioneering polygonal 3D games such as Virtua Racing and Virtua Fighter, which are credited with popularizing 3D graphics in video games; as well as the critically acclaimed Shenmue series. As a hardware engineer, he led the development of various arcade system boards, including the Sega Space Harrier, Model 1, Model 2 and Model 3, and was involved in the technical development of the Dreamcast console and its corresponding NAOMI arcade hardware.
Virtua Fighter 4 is a fighting game by Sega. It is the fourth game in the Virtua Fighter series.
Shenmue II is a 2001 action-adventure game developed by Sega AM2 and published by Sega for the Dreamcast. It was directed, produced and written by Yu Suzuki. Like the original Shenmue (1999), Shenmue II consists of open-world environments, brawler battles and quick-time events. It features a day-and-night system, variable weather effects, non-player characters with daily schedules, and various minigames. The player controls the teenage martial artist Ryo Hazuki as he arrives in Hong Kong in 1987 in pursuit of his father's killer. His journey takes him to Kowloon and the mountains of Guilin, where he meets a girl who is part of his destiny.
Sega AM Research & Development No. 2, previously known as SEGA-AM2 Co., Ltd., is a video game development team within the Japanese multinational video game developer Sega. Yu Suzuki, who had previously developed arcade games for Sega including Hang-On and Out Run, was the first manager of the department.
Fighters Megamix is a 1996 fighting game developed by Sega AM2 for the Sega Saturn. It is a video game crossover of various 3D arcade blockbusters by Sega, from the complete cast of Virtua Fighter 2 and Fighting Vipers to Janet from Virtua Cop 2 and the Hornet car from Daytona USA. It allows gamers to play as the bosses of both Virtua Fighter 2 and Fighting Vipers without codes.
Virtua Fighter Kids is an installment in the Sega AM2 Virtua Fighter fighting game series. A super deformed version of Virtua Fighter 2, it was released in the arcade and on the Sega Saturn in 1996. Unlike Virtua Fighter 2, it was developed on the ST-V board.
Virtua Fighter 5 is the fifth installment in Sega's Virtua Fighter series of arcade fighting games. The original version was released on the Sega Lindbergh arcade system board. The first location tests took place on November 26, 2005 leading to the official release on July 12, 2006, in Japanese arcades. An export version, based on Version B, was released to arcades outside of Japan in February 2007.
Virtua Fighter 3 is the sequel to 1994's Virtua Fighter 2 and the third fighting game in the Virtua Fighter series, developed by Sega AM2 and published by Sega in 1996. It was the first arcade game to run on the Sega Model 3 system board.
Virtua Fighter is a series of fighting games created by Sega-AM2 and designer Yu Suzuki. The original Virtua Fighter was released in October 1993 and has received four main sequels and several spin-offs. The highly influential first Virtua Fighter game is widely recognized as the first 3D fighting game released.
Sarah Bryant is a character in the Virtua Fighter series of fighting games by Sega. She is a college student from San Francisco, California, who debuted in the original Virtua Fighter, brainwashed to try and kill her brother, and later tries to surpass him while seeking to take down the organization responsible. She has appeared in every game in the series including spinoff titles, and made several guest appearances in other games, notably in Tecmo Koei's Dead or Alive 5 as a playable character. In addition, she has been featured in various print media, as well as the Virtua Fighter anime.
Virtua Fighter Animation, known in Japan as Virtua Fighter Mini, is a 1996 fighting video game for the Game Gear and Master System. It is based on the Virtua Fighter anime series.
Tekken (鉄拳) is a fighting game developed and published by Namco. It was originally released for arcades in 1994, and ported to the PlayStation a year later. The game was well-received by critics. It is the first entry in the Tekken series, with a sequel, Tekken 2, being released in 1995.
Virtua Fighter is a Japanese anime television series based on the Virtua Fighter series of video games made by Sega-AM2. Produced by TV Tokyo, Yomiko Advertising and TMS Entertainment, it was directed by Hideki Tonokatsu, with Tsutomu Kamishiro handling series scripts, Ryō Tanaka designing the characters, Satoshi Katō serving as sound director and Kaoru Ōhori composing the music. Targeted towards children aged 6 to 15 years old, the series originally aired on TV Tokyo from October 2, 1995 to June 27, 1996. The episodes take place before the first game in the series, and accordingly portray the characters as slightly younger than they are in the games.
Shenmue III is a 2019 action-adventure game developed by Ys Net, published by Deep Silver for PlayStation 4 and Windows and produced by Shibuya Productions. Like the previous Shenmue games, it consists of open-world environments interspersed with brawler battles and quick time events, with a day-and-night system, variable weather effects, non-player characters with daily schedules, and various minigames. The story continues the quest of the teenage martial artist Ryo Hazuki, who searches for his father's killer in the mountains of 1980s Guilin, China.
Shenmue is an action-adventure game series created, produced and directed by Yu Suzuki. Shenmue (1999) and Shenmue II (2001) were developed by Sega AM2 and published by Sega for Dreamcast. Shenmue III, developed by Suzuki's company Ys Net, was released for PlayStation 4 and Windows in 2019.
Project X Zone 2 is a crossover tactical role-playing game for the Nintendo 3DS developed by Monolith Soft and published by Bandai Namco Entertainment. Despite the game being the sequel to Project X Zone, the plot is a homage to the events of its spiritual predecessor, Namco × Capcom, while retaining a standalone story. The game is a crossover between various franchises from Bandai Namco, Capcom, and Sega, with special guests from Nintendo. The game was released in Japan in November 2015, and worldwide in February 2016.
Shenmue: The Animation, also known simply as Shenmue, is a Japanese anime television series based on the Shenmue video game series by Yu Suzuki and published by Sega. A co-production between Crunchyroll and Adult Swim, the series aired from February to May 2022. A Japanese streaming release followed in April 2022. Shortly after its streaming debut in Japan, it was decided that a televised broadcast of the series would commence a month later on Tokyo MX in May 2022. The anime series adapts the storyline of the first two games, Shenmue (1999) and Shenmue II (2001).
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