Toru Furuya, a famous anime voice actor, is reported to have had an affair with a female fan for four and a half years until September of 2023. Weekly Bunshun revealed that Furuya admitted to abusing and forcing the woman, who was 37 years younger, to have an abortion. This shocking news is truly heartbreaking for anime fans considering the amount of recognizable works the voice actor has contributed to the industry.
“I knew Furuya’s name because I loved anime, but I became a fan after hearing his voice playing Tooru Amuro in the 2016 Conan movie, Pure Black Nightmare. Before I knew it, I had gone to the theater to see The Enforcer (2018) 45 times, and I was moved to tears by Furuya’s performance,” the woman said. A massive supporter of Furuya, she sent fan letters and gifts to the agency, but in January 2019, she received a text message from an unknown number that turned out to be the voice actor.
The relationship grew closer but changed rapidly in 2021 when the then-couple discovered she was pregnant—refusing to sign the operation consent form and even pushing the woman to have an abortion. Furuya has also revealed that he has even raised his hand to strike the woman during an argument in his villa during their relationship.
How Did Social Media React to Toru Furuya’s Affair and Abuse?
Toru Furuya has had an illustrious voice-acting career that spans over five decades. In all those years, he has contributed greatly to more than a hundred titles, voicing notable characters such as Sabo in One Piece, Tōru Amuro/Rei Furuya in Detective Conan, Tuxedo Mask in Sailor Moon, Seiya Pegasus in Saint Seiya, Yamcha in Dragon Ball, Shuren in Bleach, and many more prominent characters from equally prominent animes.
With this amount of work, Furuya has amassed millions of fans throughout his career. Unfortunately, these same fans are the most disappointed in him—even expressing their emotions and anger on social media platforms. But first, see what Furuya had to say on Twitter:
One Twitter user said, “Knowing how famous he is as ‘the guy who voices characters that women love’ this is crazy. Cuz that’s his entire identity. Rei Furuya/Toru Amuro is named after him. And I gotta believe he has the largest female fanbase in AniManga, right? Cuz I ain’t ever see the like.” It’s no lie that Furuya has been the voice of awesome male characters in anime, so it’s saddening to see him regarded from lovable to “Literally. Just. Atrocious,” according to another Twitter user.
It isn’t just X/Twitter talking about his affair at 70 years old. Reddit users have also joined in on expressing their discontent with the voice actor, with one user sharing in a thread: “Seeing this post on r/Gundam just a few minutes ago scared the sh*t out of me because for a second I thought it was going to be an announcement of his death (because that’s usually what happens when there’s a news post being made about a particular voice actor in the industry, and I know Furuya is getting up there in years).”
A Reddit user said something that would possibly resonate with all anime fans’ sentiments about the incident, and it reads: “Well, that’s a massive bummer, to put it lightly. It’ll certainly negatively tinge my memories of all the roles he’s done that I’ve enjoyed whenever I think about them. It sucks to think that the voice of Amuro Ray or Tuxedo Mask is a massive a*shole.”