Genshin Impact is an anime open-world game that took the gaming industry by storm, generating $400 million in revenue in its first few months on the market. But who is the Japanese voice actor of Xiao in Genshin Impact?
Yoshitsugu Matsuoka is the Japanese voice actor for Xiao in Genshin Impact. He is a voice actor from Hokkaido and has many credits to his name including video games, anime series, movies and other voiceovers.
Join me as we take a look at Matsuoka’s career in voice acting as well as his participation in the project known as Genshin Impact, as well as some of his other famous roles.
Yoshitsugu Matsuoka’s Career History
Matsuoka’s first credit was in 2009 and his career has been extremely successful. He joined the talent agency I’m Enterprise and has been a voice actor or presenter for a wide variety of formats.
Being the recipient of the Best New Actor in 2012 at the Seiyu Awards (voice acting talent awards show in Japan) and the 10th Seiyu Awards for Best Lead Actor in 2016, Matsuoka is accomplished in his field.
Other notable roles are Taiga Hirano from Sasaki and Miyano, To Handa from The Vampire Dies in No Time, Loki from Record of Ragnarok, and many others.
Most famously, he has played Kirito from Sword Art Online, and is a Guinness World Record holder for Bell Cranel from Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon? due to providing over 10,000 unique sound bites.
On top of this, his role as Petelgeuse Romanée-Conti from Re:Zero − Starting Life in Another World, and Inosuke Hashibira from Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba, have put him in the spotlight as a top voice actor.
Matsuoka has also done radio appearances as well as a collaboration with the Tokyo Giants in 2021 for his role of Kirito in Sword Art Online.
Originally, he planned to become a mechanic but after finding out that being a voice actor is a possible career path after watching some episodes of Neon Genesis Evangelion, he decided on what he wanted to do.
His incredibly busy schedule has seen him become one of the richest voice actors in Japan and his profile is only growing.
Yoshitsugu Matsuoka’s Voice Acting Style
Like a lot of voice actors, over time Matsuoka has been typecast, and so it has become fairly common for the characters he plays to be overpowered in some way.
He is often the hero or main protagonist, although rarely is the antagonist. He also tends to be put in a big or older brother role if a family dynamic is involved.
It is also not uncommon for his character to be at the center of a harem or at least very popular with all the female characters. This is quite in contrast to Matsuoka in real life, as he seems quite shy.
This reputation has grown to such an extent that he is referred to as the Harem King by many.
The actor’s talent is without a doubt, but in some ways, the appearance of Matsuoka on a show’s voice acting credits can tell you a lot about the character in question.
He possesses the ability to screech in a high-pitched voice for scenes that are terrifying, although the quality of the scream is really only suited for comedic usages.
Genshin Impact and Xiao
Xiao is one of the playable Anemo characters in Genshin Impact. The Japanese name for the character is 魈 which is read as Shou.
Known as an adeptus, Xiao currently resides at Wangshu Inn and leads a solitary life as he is not a big fan of crowds. The adepti are illuminated beasts and gods.
Xiao is a rated as having 5 star rarity, and uses the polearm as his main weapon. His special dish is the Sweet Dream and Xiao is only obtainable via the Invitation to Mundane Life event.
