Zeno Robinson, who voiced the popular character Hawks from My Hero Academia has gained a lot of popularity after becoming a part of major anime franchises, such as Dragon Ball, Digimon, and Pokémon. He voiced many challenging and varied characters such as Gamma Two (Dragon Ball), Tai (Digimon), and Goh (Pokémon). But it was never so easy for him. His journey, which properly started from Kuroko Basketball has been a tough one and he was not so confident about his involvement in the anime series.
Zeno Robinson Talks About His First Job
In 2022, while talking with ComingSoon, Hawk’s Voice Actor shared his first job experience, and how it helped him bag other big roles. One of his major first roles was Taiga Kagami from Kuroko Basketball. He also shares how challenging his first character was. He said:
“Taiga was a challenging role for me because I personally felt like I didn’t have a cool enough or a gruff enough or low enough voice to play Kagami. I was worried that they made the wrong choice and the challenge there was finding him, because he didn’t sit in a register that comes naturally to me. It didn’t necessarily play to a lot of but I made it work.”
“I adapted to fit Kagami and made Kagami. Then I adapted Kagami to fit to my strengths, and that’s how I think his voice came to be. But the challenge was finding it. You can hear it in the first few episodes of the show, you can hear me finding the voice. As we get closer to, like, episode five, I think are really locked in.”
Zeno Robinson’s Experience with Major Anime Franchises
Robinson’s work has been reflected in a lot of anime series. Among them, some are one of the largest franchises in the world. He described every role that he worked on and how it helped him to reach another level of capability in his career. Be it Shaman King or Pokémon, his work has been challenging but also helped in building his repute in the anime world. While sharing his experience about playing Hawk from My Hero Academia, he explained how he loved to play complex and nuanced characters like him. He also shared about how excited he was for the future development of his character.
Being a hero, or a supporting character is one thing, but becoming the antagonist of a major anime takes a whole other level of hard work. Robinson while voicing Gamma Two (Dragon Ball) explained how humble he was to get a chance to play a major villainous role in one of the biggest anime franchises of all time. He talked about how the enthusiastic and fun-loving character in a negative role helped him grow.
Zeno Robinson’s Dream Role
Robinson’s journey has been truly inspiring and despite the negative reputation that the dubbed versions have received, his work has received a good appreciation from fans. Ending the interview, Kagami’s Voice Actor talked about the anime series that he would like to work in. He said:
“A series that I haven’t joined, I would love to be in Ninja Turtles. Ninja Turtles for sure. This theme of classic series that were formative for our childhood. So Ninja Turtles is one of the ones that I haven’t been in, but I would love to be in. Or Kingdom Hearts, but I feel like it’s a little different genre wise since we’re talking about anime, so yeah, Ninja Turtles.”
Robinson’s journey that started from playing Taiga Kagami in Kuroko Basketball to becoming one of the major villains in Dragon Ball has been extraordinary. His ability to understand the depth of the character has surely helped him in bagging such big roles.
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Source: ComingSoon
