A new actor, Kouji Takeda, is now lending his voice to Donkey Kong – one of Nintendo’s prominent characters. In the credits for Donkey Kong Bananza, it’s revealed that he’s the man behind the iconic ape. Interestingly, this isn’t Takeda’s debut as Donkey Kong; he has previously voiced him in the Japanese version of The Super Mario Bros. Movie and more recently in last month’s Mario Kart World.
As reported by IGN, Takeda has stepped in to voice Donkey Kong, replacing Takashi Nagasako who had voiced the character for more than two decades. Additionally, Jenny Kidd is now lending her voice to Pauline in Donkey Kong Bananza, having taken over the English role from Kate Higgins, who previously voiced her in Super Mario Odyssey.
Nintendo appears to have been changing the voice actors for its array of characters quite frequently in recent times. For example, Samantha Kelly, who voiced both Princess Peach and Toad for 18 years up until Mario Kart World, was recently replaced. Similarly, Charles Martinet, who has lent his voice to Mario since Super Mario 64 in 1996, stepped away from the role last year. Last month, Martinet shared that he won’t say anything unusual as Mario to maintain the character’s authenticity and respect for fans.
To clarify, Takeda isn’t just associated with one Nintendo game; he has lent his voice to other well-known Nintendo titles as well. He played Master Mummy in Arms and Daruk in The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild.
Today marks the release of Donkey Kong Bananza on Nintendo Switch 2. This game was developed due to Nintendo executive Yoshiaka Koizumi requesting the Super Mario Odyssey team to explore a 3D Donkey Kong project. For further details, take a look at TopMob’s review of Donkey Kong Bananza.
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2025-07-17 19:09