Hiroshi Tsuchida, Japan’s Voice of Lightning McQueen and Attack on Titan’s Grisha, Dies at 54. Eren’s Voice Says the Story Needed Him

Hiroshi Tsuchida, the Japanese voice of Lightning McQueen in Pixar’s Cars films and of Grisha Yeager in Attack on Titan, has died at 54. Japanese audiences first knew him as Ninja Blue in a 1990s Super Sentai series. The voice actor who played Grisha’s son says the story could not have existed without him.

Tsuchida died of heart failure on October 11. His agency, 81 Produce, announced it on Tuesday, October 20. “Hiroshi Tsuchida, an actor with our company, passed away from heart failure on October 11, 2026, at the age of 54,” the agency wrote. In line with his family’s wishes, the funeral was held with relatives only.

He was born in Tokyo on February 8, 1972. Within hours of the announcement his names and roles were trending on X in Japan, according to the news site iza, with “Saizo,” “Ninja Blue” and “Trainer Okita” among the words people were posting.

Image: 81 Produce

Ninja Blue first, then the voice

His breakout came on camera. In Ninja Sentai Kakuranger, which aired from 1994 to 1995, he played Saizo, Ninja Blue, a descendant of the ninja Kirigakure Saizo. Iza describes the character as a money-loving joker with a big heart who won over the children watching and stood beside Sasuke, Ninja Red, as his best friend.

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Thirty years later he played Saizo again. In 2024 a sequel came out, Ninja Sentai Kakuranger: Third Part, Middle-Aged Struggle, with the original five back together. Game*Spark notes that it was the last time all five appeared together. The gaming site also points out a strange afterlife for one of his episodes: a scene in which a hit man dressed as a police officer says “Today is Friday in California” in English and then opens fire became an internet meme years later, mostly outside Japan.

Most of his work after Kakuranger, though, was behind a microphone. He became one of the regular Japanese voices for Hollywood leading men and for American television drama, often the lead of the show.

Lightning McQueen for 20 years

The part that reached the most homes was Lightning McQueen, the cocky red race car at the centre of Disney and Pixar’s Cars. Tsuchida voiced him in Japanese from the first film in 2006, through the sequels, shorts, shows and games.

The first film turned 20 this year, and Japanese cinemas brought it back for a week in September. For the anniversary Tsuchida sent a message, published by Cinema Today. “Some things never change, however much the times change,” he wrote. “That is one of the things I love about the world of Cars, and 20 years on it hasn’t faded at all.”

He thanked the fans directly. “Looking back, I got to meet all of you through the sequels, of course, and through shorts, shows, games and so much more. It has been a truly happy 20 years.”

Mamoru Miyano, left, and Hiroshi Tsuchida dub MacGyver live on stage in 2017. Image: MANTAN, MAiDiGi TV

Dubbing in Japan is a craft with its own stars. Fans follow the Japanese voice of a Hollywood actor the way they follow the actor, and a studio that recasts a long-running voice hears about it. Tsuchida’s list shows why producers kept coming back to him: he could play heroes who carry a whole series, and the villain or the doctor who turns up for one scene.

Eren’s father, a host club owner and an AI robot

In anime he played Grisha Yeager, Eren’s father, in Attack on Titan, a role at the root of the whole story. He was Koichiro Iketani in the Initial D Legend films, Susumu Yamazaki in Space Battleship Yamato 2199 and its follow-ups, Nadim Samaya in the prologue to Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch from Mercury, and Trainer Okita in Uma Musume Pretty Derby: Road to the Top.

Gamers knew him too. In Sega’s Yakuza series he played Kazuki, owner of the Stardust host club and one of Kazuma Kiryu’s most loyal allies from the early games on. In FromSoftware’s Armored Core VI: Fires of Rubicon he was G5 Iguazu, the Redgun pilot who sees the player as his rival.

He never fully left the hero shows either. In Ultraman Decker in 2022 he voiced HANE2, the show’s AI unit.

HANE2 in Ultraman Decker, with Tsuchida credited as its voice. Image: Tsuburaya Productions

“Without Grisha, Eren couldn’t exist”

Yuki Kaji, the voice of Eren in Attack on Titan, played opposite him for years as father and son. His goodbye, quoted by Oricon News, described a man who was quiet off mic and immovable on it. “He was very humble, shy and kind,” Kaji wrote. “And yet he was an actor with an unshakable core in his voice and his acting. I respected both sides of him, the calm and the passion.”

The studios behind his best known characters posted their own tributes on X. Disney’s Japanese account thanked him “for breathing life into the genius racer McQueen in Japanese.” RGG Studio, which makes the Yakuza games, said everyone at the studio “expresses our deepest condolences.” The official Space Battleship Yamato account paid its respects to “the great contribution” he had made to the remake series.

Colleagues from Uma Musume and from years of dubbing work wrote about him as a friend, someone they had shared a booth, a stage or a long evening with. Several spoke of the shock of losing someone so suddenly.

Still racing somewhere

For many Japanese viewers in their thirties and forties, Tsuchida was two childhood heroes at once: the ninja in blue on television and the race car on the family DVD shelf. For voice actors he was the kind of working professional the industry runs on, someone who could lead a drama on Monday, voice a robot on Tuesday and turn up for a public dub with a script in his hand.

His Cars anniversary message ended with a picture of the character he carried for two decades. “I’m sure McQueen is still racing somewhere in the world with his best partner,” he wrote. According to iza, he signed off the way McQueen would: “See you all again! Ka-chow!”

Sources: 81 Produce, announcement and agency profile (October 20, 2026); Oricon News, “Voice actor Hiroshi Tsuchida dies” and “Fellow voice actors pay tribute” (October 20, 2026); Cinema Today, death report (October 20, 2026) and Cars 20th anniversary messages (2026); iza (October 20, 2026); Sponichi Annex (October 20, 2026); Game*Spark (October 20, 2026); Anime News Network (October 20, 2026). Quotations from Japanese sources are translated by Voice Over Herald. Images: Shochiku (main image, from the official Space Battleship Yamato 2199 cast message), 81 Produce, MANTAN, Tsuburaya Productions.

Lee este artículo en español: Muere Hiroshi Tsuchida, la voz japonesa del Rayo McQueen y de Grisha en Attack on Titan, a los 54 años. La voz de Eren dice que la historia lo necesitaba

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