Otanjoubi Omedetou, Kusunoki Taiten!

Today's the 39th birthday of Kusunoki Taiten-san who plays Sanada Genichirou, one of my favourite Top 3 characters! Taiten-san was born in 1969 at Tokyo and his real-name is Fukuda Taiten. According to his official website, his height is 173cm and weight is 65kg. Apparently, his weight does fluctuate quite a bit and he was discussing dieting methods with Okiayu Ryoutaro-san who plays Tezuka during Rajipuri in Aug 04. His blood group is the same as me i.e. B and another similarity between us would be having our birthdays in the same month. Besides Tenipuri, I've also heard Kusunoki-san's voice in animes like Yakitate Japan (the Monaco King) and Meine Liebe (the principal of Rosenstolz Academy). Other than that, he also appears in productions like Eyeshield, Gunslinger Girl, NARUTO, Xenosaga THE ANIMATION, Rupan Sansei, Yuu Gi Ou, Gundam and Kochikame.

As Sanada, he has released 2 solo singles (Meisei and Keep Going On!)and 2 group singles, "Wonderful Days" from Pull Tab to Can" and "Gather" from Ao to Bin to Kan. Kusunoki-san has also appeared regularly on Rajipuri as the monthly personality or guest. The months when he was one of the main personalities were Aug 04 with Okiayu-san (Tezuka) and Dec 2005 with Minagawa Junko (Echizen Ryoma). It was quite funny to hear him being "bullied" by the other seiyuus like Okiayu-san and Kiuchi Hidenobu (Oshitari Yuushi) for being an o-ssan (old man) and making silly mistakes during the radio show. The photo I've provided at the side is the cover for the Rajipuri Aug 2004 CD which I bought last year.

Before I forget, Sanada i.e. Kusunoki-san is due to release his first solo album soon and I expect it to be out by his birthday on 21 May which happens to be a Sunday. CDs are usually released on Wednesdays so I'm hoping NEC Interchannel can make an exception to release it on Sanada's birthday itself to make it a memorable item. Of course, I will be dying to get my hands on this title as soon as possible and I hope that there would be lots of kakkoii pictures of my dear Sanada! ^__^ You can't imagine how long I've prayed for the release of Sanada's album and when I read the news, I was going wild with joy so I'm eagerly counting down to Sanada's birthday in another 2 months.