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Genzō Wakayama, the Japanese voice actor of Ansem the Wise, DiZ, and Zeus in the Kingdom Hearts series passed away on May 18th, 2021 at the age of 88. The cause of death is listed as a heart failure. Genzō Wakayama was born on September 27, 1932 in Ōdomari in the Karafuto Prefecture of Empire of Japan, currently known as Korsakov, Russia. When he was young, he moved to Sapporo, Hokkaido, Japan and graduated from Sapporo South High School. In addition of being a voice actor, he was a disk jockey and hosted a program on TBS radio in Japan from 1973 to 1995 as well as the narrator for a television show Abarenbo Shogun from 1978 to 2003. Other roles that Wakayama did include Detective Boom in the 1963 Astro Boy cartoon, Long John Silver in the 1978-79 anime version of Treasure Island, and Demaon in the 1984 movie Doraemon: Nobita's Great Adventure into the Underworld. He also was the official dub voice for Sean Connery, Gene Barry, and Lee Marvin. Other dubs that Wakayama did was Henry the Green Engine for the 13th season of Thomas and Friends, Zeus for Hercules, and John Silver for the 2003 version of Treasure Planet. Recently, he was also the voice of President Shinra in Final Fantasy VII Remake. Thank you for voicing Ansem the Wise, DiZ, and Zeus for the the Kingdom Hearts series Genzō Wakayama. May your heart guide you to your final resting place and rest in peace. View full article

Other than the series always thematically showing that love is the ultimate answer and power, even more so than the power of light or darkness, here are some quotes: From Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep: Aqua: "A pure heart filled with light... It's strange, the Master taught me darkness needs to be destroyed. But how, if not with light?" Fairy Godmother: "Oh, my dear, you're too young to know. Experience more things, and you'll find the answer. Just trust in your dreams." (Fairy Godmother implying the only way to defeat darkness other than with light is with love.) From Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep: Yen Sid: "I will tell you what your friend needs right now. It is not your protection. He needs you to believe. You see, Ventus's heart hangs in the balance. It sleeps in the place between light and darkness. From all I can perceive, that means he will be looking for a friend--one who believes in him, to show him the way home. Just as long as you love him...then Ventus will be able to find you when he wakes. He can follow that love back to where he belongs--the realm of light.” (Yen Sid implying the balance between light and darkness is love and that love is the only thing that can lead Ventus' heart home.) From Kingdom Hearts Chain of Memories: Riku: "What are you making me choose now?" DiZ: "Between the road to light and the road to darkness." Riku: "Neither suits me. I'm taking the middle road." DiZ: "Do you mean the twilight road to nightfall?" Riku: "No. It's the road to dawn." (Riku not choosing light or darkness, but choosing what he calls "dawn.") From Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance: Riku (to Ansem, Seeker of Darkness and Young Xehanort): "I walk the road to dawn!" Riku (to Ansem, Seeker of Darkness): "Consume the darkness, return it to light.” Young Xehanort (to Riku): "I don't know how you did it, but you really have found a way to trap darkness inside your heart. And a boy who's immune to darkness is of no use to us." (Riku reaffirming that he wields both light and darkness, and that he turns the darkness into light. That is the state he calls "dawn." And Young Xehanort confirming that by walking the road to dawn, Riku has somehow become immune to darkness.) From Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance: Data-Ansem the Wise: "The heart has always been quick to grow. Each exposure to light, to the natural world, to other people, shapes this most malleable part inside of us. Nobodies are not different from us in that manner. Sora was the only one able to return to his human form without destroying his Nobody. That is a statement to the love in his heart for other people, and the bonds that tie them together. Perhaps...he has the power to bring back the hearts and existences of those connected to him—to recreate people we thought were lost to us forever. Our most precious treasures—even an empty puppet—the trees of the forest, and the petals on the wind—there are hearts around us everywhere we look. And it does not take superhuman powers to see them. Surely we remember as children the way our hearts made everything seem so shiny, and perfect. Sora has a heart like that—uncorrupted, willing to see the good before the bad. When he sees the heart in something, it then becomes real. When a connection seems broken, he may have the power to mend it. He has touched countless hearts, he has accepted them, and he has saved them. And some of those hearts have never left him—whether they fell into darkness or were trapped there—whether they sleep in the darkness of Sora's heart, or were welcomed into its warmth—they can be saved. All Sora needs to do is be himself and follow wherever it is that his heart takes him. It is the best and the only way." (Data-Ansem the Wise saying that Sora's uninhibited undying love for people and his willingness to always see the good before the bad in anyone or anything is the ultimate answer that could solve everything and save everyone.) From Kingdom Hearts III: Ventus: "I didn't ask for this. To be sifted apart nice and neat. We should be free to choose. Not just light, not just darkness. We decide what we are." (Ventus implying light and darkness are choices and you can choose to be both or neither.)

Hello there. First time here in the forums, I just thought of this and I thought this could be interesting for discussion. Enjoy ~ PD: this is a semi-translation from my tweet posts about this matter, as I am spanish, so please take that into consideration if you see any error or mispellings. As you probably have seen by now, it seems that Aqua has gone through some changes, and of course we fans of Kingdom Hearts have inmediatley thought that this means that now Aqua is now one of the Thirteen Darknesses that Xehanort will use in KH3. And it doesn't make any sense. Think about it, KH 0.2 ended literally stating how she wanted to be the light in the midst of shadows, how she wanted to be there for those that may fall into darkness. And now she 's just a vessel? Weird. And then I saw this: https://twitter.com/AmaziahYT/status/1006261973527547905 . According to this information from an IGN interview (yes, I know IGN is not exactly the best source of info for KH, but bear with me) to an actual Square Enix employee, it seems that whatever happened to Aqua has nothing to do with Xehanort, but with the Realm of Darkness itself. And you'll say: that's impossible, she has the yellow eyes and even the hair is turning gray! I began to think about what kind of connection this could have if it was true. And then a friend called me saying she was about to finish KH 0.2 and had som doubts with what she had saw on E3: How were Riku and Mickey supposed to enter the Realm of Darkness if the Door to Darkness was closed and it would not let them pass. I asked what she was talking about, and suddenly I remembered this: One person cannot enter, or either exit to one Realm to another if it or she has Light in his or her heart. I guess you can begin to see where I am getting at. But there's more: "Even if she was to succumb to darkness in order to travel freely through the RoD and the RoL, how explains the orange eyes, the darkened skin and the gray hair?" And as a famous meme would say, I'm gonna call a friend that knows one or two things about darkness, the Realm of Darkness, the Organization XIII, Xehanort itself, and darkened skin, orange eyes and maybe even grayhair. Yep, my friend is no other than Ansem the Wise, also known in it's "Dark Form" as DiZ (Darkness in Zero). When Ansem was banished to the Realm of Darkness, he survived by learning how to use the darkness and control it. Not by succumbing to it, but by using it in it's favour (Ansem Report Nº6 KH2). That way, he could hide from the Organization, travel in and out freely through the Realm of Darkness and Light, and also acquire a new "form" that consisted of a version of himself with darker skin, more clear orange eyes (he already had some orangy-red eyes, but you can see it becomes near xehanort type) and as he is wearing his bandages around his head, it's kinda impossible to know if he also has gray hair on this form. And now the two magical questions: A) Why is sh mad or surprised by Mickey's pressence. B) Why didn't she left the RoD then? Answer to A) Video editing is a key point here, as the situation tries to point that Aqua is a bad girl now, but of it this way: Riku and Mickey are in the black beach. Whatever attacks them prisons Mickey in that red swirl and breaks Riku's keyblade. Aqua appears from the Darkness, destroys whatever was attacking them, and then realizes he is Mickey. Answer to B) Aqua herself can explain this better than I do. And... that's it. What do you think?

Sir. Christopher Lee, Ansem the Wise's voice actor in Kingdom Hearts II has sadly passed away today, aged 93. Sir. Christopher Lee was born on May 27, 1922 in Belgravia, London, England, United Kingdom. He was an actor, singer and author. He was most well known for his roles as Count Dracula in a string of popular Hammer Horror films, Saruman in The Lord of the Rings film trilogy and The Hobbit film trilogy, and Count Dooku in the final two films of the Star Wars prequel trilogy. After he voiced Ansem the Wise/DiZ in Kingdom Hearts II, Corey Burton took over. Corey Burton is known as the audio double for Christopher Lee and took over for him in Star Wars: The Clone Wars as Count Dooku after its feature length film and did so again for Kingdom Hearts having voiced Ansem the Wise/Diz in all titles following Kingdom Hearts II. The world has sadly lost a legend. R.I.P Sir. Christopher Lee, you will be missed greatly by all. Click here to view the article