Saburo Shinoda

Saburo Shinoda (篠田三郎) is a Japanese actor and voice actor. He is mostly known for his role as Ultraman Taro's human host named Kotaro Higashi and also was the voice actor for Ultraman Taro in the series only. He was also Silver Kamen (1971) and played in Godzilla vs. Mothra (1992). He is a member of the Ultraman Foundation.

Before casting as Kotari Higashi in Ultraman Taro, he made a cameo appearance in Ultraman Ace episode 20. So far, he has yet to reprise his role, either as Kotaro or Ultraman Taro. He is the first voice actor for Ultraman Taro and yet to reprise it in the future. Currently, the role of Ultraman Taro is passed to veteran voice actor Hiroya Ishimaru. Although no longer the voice in for Taro, his grunts were still kept and reused in some of Taro's later appearances.

Roles

 * Ultraman Ace
 * Ultraman Taro - Kotaro Higashi, voice of Ultraman Taro

Stock Grunts
This section here refers to Saburo's grunts being reused per stock footage on other Ultra Series.
 * Ultraman Taro - Ultraman, Zoffy, Ultraseven, Ultraman Jack, Ultraman Ace
 * The・Ultraman: Jackal vs. Ultraman - Ultraman Taro
 * Ultraman Mebius Gaiden: Hikari Saga - Ultraman Taro
 * Ultraman Ginga S episode 16 - Ultraman Taro
 * Ultraman Orb - Ultraman Taro (Ultra Fusion Card)
 * Ultraman Fighting Evolution 3 - Ultraman Taro

Trivia

 * Saburo Shinoda is married, with a son and a daughter. He became a grandfather on 27th February 2015.
 * Kotaro was meant to return in Ultraman Mebius, but he couldn't make it because Saburo Shinoda was attending someone's funeral at the time. Saburo Shinoda also was supposed to voice act for Taro but this decision was scrapped due to the funeral he was attending.
 * During his time in Ultraman Taro, Saburo stated that:
 * His favorite monster is Depparas.
 * Even he himself is shocked of learning of Kotaro's decision to leave his Ultraman to continue his life as a normal human.