Toru Furuya: Famous One Piece Star Fallen from Grace

One Piece and Detective Conan’s Toru Furuya resigned from his voice acting roles on June 22nd. Furuya’s stardom circumstances rose since May 22nd of his confession to having an affair with a fan over the past 4 years. Putting his future role for Metaphor ReFantzio at risk and his hosting appearance for a July Detective Conan event, he took matters into his own hands to turn away from the spotlight. Here are the key anime roles of Toru Furuya and his affair confession on Twitter (now X) post.

One Piece’s Sabo

Toru Furuya became the Japanese voice of One Piece’s noble pirate, Sabo. Sabo played an important role during the Portgas D. Ace Saga. He sailed away from home, the Goa Kingdom, to search for his sworn brothers, Ace and Luffy. He lost his memories when his ship got shot for raising his pirate flag as pirates are seen as criminals. The man who shot Sabo was the World Noble, Saint Jalmack. This caused Sabo to lose his memories of Ace and Luffy.

Monkey D. Dragon soon rescued Sabo at the Grey Terminal without realizing he was a sworn brother to Luffy. He trained and taught Sabo to be a Revolution Army chief after he begged not to return to the Goa Kingdom. Sabo would soon meet his sworn brothers again during the Marineford War then remembered Ace when his death came.

Detective Conan’s Rei Furuya

When Toru Furuya got cast for Case Closed Detective Conan in 2021 for the Police Academy Arc, he did not expect series’ creator Gosho Aoyama to name a character after him. Rei Furuya was once a bullied child for being half Japanese. When he grew older, he joined the Police Academy to investigate the disappearance of Elena Miyano. Rei graduated and became an undercover agent under the alias Toru Amaru for the Black Organization.

During the day, Rei works at Cafe Poirot, a cafe named after Christie Agatha’s Hercule Poirot. The establishment is located below the office of Detective Kogoro Mouri, the Sleeping Detective. When he became Kogoro’s apprentice, he discovered the real detective was Conan Edogawa, a child genius whose true identity is Shinichi Kudo. Rei is assigned a new mission to gather intel on the young boy.

Toru Furuya’s Affair

On May 22nd, the Weekly Bushun Magazine interviewed Furuya about his affair with a woman in her 30s. She was a fan who loved Toru Furuya’s voice work and they dated since 2019. The actor and the woman split up last September. Furuya made a public apology on his Twitter (now X):

“In the course of our relationship, there was this one time resorted to violence against her. I also made an unforgivable error by compelling her to terminate the pregnancy. I deeply regret causing her physical and emotional pain.”

Furuya’s announcement led to many anime event cancellations including his guest appearance for the Detective Conan panel at MomoCon Atlanta. The upcoming Atlus anime RPG, Metaphor ReFantazio dismissed Furuya’s role on June 11th and is searching for his replacement. His apology is now private due to the attraction of the negative press and outraged comments.

The Voicing Legend Resigns

On June 22nd, Toru Furuya resigned from his voicing roles, and a live stage production was set for August 10th. He deeply apologizes to his fanbase as he betrayed their trust for the past 4 years.  Detective Conan and One Piece are searching for other voicing talents to fill Furuya’s character roles. At this time, his wife, former voice actress Saotomi Majima, and their daughter have not spoken to the press about their reaction to Furuya’s affair.

Furuya became a voicing legend starting with the Mobile Suit Gundam series as Rey Amuro. Other productions he has voiced for are DragonBall (Yamcha), Pegasus Seiya (Seiya), Kaizoku Sentai Gokaiger (AkaRed), and Sailor Moon (Tuxedo Mask).

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