Batman: The Animated Series’ influence can never be underestimated
Thanks to the more modern media landscape, people around the world are being exposed and growing attached to TV shows, movies, games and culture from places they never would have had access to before.
That also apparently extends to Street Fighter 6’s Director Takayuki Nakayama, who recently shared his favorite series is one he shares with many western ’90s kids.
We found out this small but interesting tidbit of information when Nakayama took to X / Twitter and responded to a post about celebrating Batman: The Animated Series’ original premier back in 1992.
“Congratulations on the 32nd anniversary for my favorite series,” wrote Nakayama that we translated.
Batman TAS under the vision of Bruce Timm and Eric Radomski would shake up the landscape of cartoons, comic adaptations and the Dark Knight himself moving forward garnering fans of all ages, so it’s cool to see that influence reached Japan too.
一番好きなシリーズが32周年おめでとうございます https://t.co/10AW4hKl4L
— TAKA-nakayama (@takaNakayama) September 6, 2024
The show gave the world Harley Quinn, who’d become a franchise staple moving forward, and of course the icons of Kevin Conroy’s Batman and Mark Hamill’s Joker — whose legacy continued all the way through 2024 including MultiVersus even after Conroy’s death.
That’s likely not quite how Nakayama experienced Batman, however.
Unless he found a way to watch TAS with subtitles, he likely watched Batman with a Japanese dub, similarly to how many children / people in the ’90s were introduced to anime through English dubs on places like Toonami.
In that Japanese version, Bruce Wayne was played by Tessho Genda, who you may recognize as Kaidou in One Piece, the Nine-Tailed Fox in Naruto, Rodin in Bayonetta, ironically Suppaman in Dr. Slump, Shuu in Dragon Ball, Bojack in Dragon Ball Z, Younger Toguro in Yu Yu Hakusho and Guile in the Street Fighter EX games among hundreds of roles.
The Joker was portrayed by the late Takeshi Aono, who was also Kami in Dragon Ball, Tazuna in Naruto, Jinpachi in Tekken 5, Gen Fu in Dead or Alive, Roy Campbell in Metal Gear Solid and many more.
Finally, we’ll look at Harley said to be played by Miki Ito, who is also Android 18 in Dragon Ball Z, Taiga Fujimura plus Jaguar Warrior in Fate, Miyo Takano in When They Cry, and Sharon in Street Fighter EX among many others.
We already knew that SNK games had a big influence on Nakayama though this isn’t the first time we’ve heard about his love of comics either.
Back in 2022, the SF6 Director said he was a big fan of DC and would love to do a crossover with them and Marvel though he noted it would be really difficult to do so.
But at least they’ve managed to accomplish at least part of that with the upcoming Marvel vs. Capcom Fighting Collection: Arcade Classics bringing back all of the original crossovers.
And it’s cool to know that while we were sitting down watching Batman with our afternoon snack, the boy who would lead the Street Fighter team now would be doing the same thing on the other side of the world assuming he also watched it back then.
If you’re wondering how Batman TAS sounds in Japanese, we were able to find a clip to include below too.
Image via Game Informer.