Keiji Fujiwara, the legendary voice actor who voiced the champion Master Yi on the Japanese server, passed away on April 12, 2020, leaving behind a massive 30-year career and an immense sense of loss among fans.
Born on 05/20/1964, Keiji Fujiwara had an outstanding voice acting career, bringing life to very many different characters from animation to video games since 1991. In Japan, he is best known for his role as Hiroshi, the father in Shin – The Pencil Boy.
Most recently, Fujiwara was the voice actor for the character Ardyn in the game Final Fantasy XV and the character Reno in the recently released Final Fantasy VII Remake. In fact, in the Japanese version of the Marvel Cinematic Universe films, Fujiwara voiced Iron Man. In 2006, he founded the talent agency Air Agency and served as its representative director.
The passing of Keiji Fujiwara was officially announced through the agency he founded, and Riot Games Japan also shared the sad news on their official Twitter. In August 2016, Keiji Fujiwara took a leave of absence for health reasons. During this time, the projects he was handling were taken over by others, including Shin The Pencil Boy and Attack on Titan. A year later, he returned to work.
Riot Games Japan: “Keiji Fujiwara, who was the voice actor for Master Yi, has been announced on the official website to have passed away on April 12 at the age of 55. Fujiwara brought a fresh and humorous perspective to League of Legends. His powerful and rugged voice was loved by many foreign gamers.”
In 2015, when Riot Games was preparing to launch the Japanese server for League of Legends, Fujiwara and several other anime voice acting stars were recruited to voice the champions.
Fujiwara’s funeral was held privately, without the attendance of outsiders or the media.