Toru Furuya

"I have acted Super Mario from 1986 to 1998. Last projects I work on were BS Super Mario Bros for Satellaview."

- Toru Furuya

Toru Furuya (Japanese: 古谷 徹, Furuya Tōru) is a Japanese actor, voice actor, and narrator who voiced Mario in various Super Mario commercials, OVA's, games, and movies in Japan. He is best known for his starring role in the film Super Mario Bros.: Peach-hime Kyūshutsu Dai Sakusen! as Mario in 1986. Furuya remained the voice of Mario all the way up until 1998, a full three years after Charles Martinet was selected as the voice of Mario in other parts of the world. Furuya is still currently working as a voice actor and narrator in other Japanese anime such as ' and '.

Furuya was 33 years old when he was approached by Masami Hata to star as the voice of Mario in the 1986 anime film. He was then followed by Yū Mizushima as Luigi, Akiko Wada as Bowser, and famous Japanese pop singer Mami Yamase as Princess Peach. Almost three years later, Furuya was asked to reprise his role as Mario for the upcoming Amada Anime Series: Super Mario Bros. alongside two educational Mario-related videos. In an interview, he had explained that there would not be any re-releases of any Japanese Mario anime films.

Much later, Furuya was contacted by Nintendo themselves instead of animation companies. This time, it was to work on the upcoming BS Super Mario Satellaview games. He also later reunited with a few of the other voice actors who have worked alongside Furuya with other animated Mario projects.

Works credited

 * Super Mario Bros.: Peach-hime Kyūshutsu Dai Sakusen! (1986)
 * Super Mario Furikake (1986-1987)
 * Amada Anime Series: Super Mario Bros. (1989)
 * Super Mario no Kōtsū Anzen (1989)
 * Super Mario no Shōbōtai (1989)
 * Super Mario World: Mario to Yoshi no B%C5%8Dken Land (1991)
 * BS Super Mario USA Power Challenge (1996)
 * Excitebike: Bun Bun Mario Battle Stadium (1997)
 * BS Super Mario Collection (1997-98)