Mackenyu Arata

Mackenyu Arata
Native name	新田 真剣佑
Romanized	Arata Makkenyū
Nationality	Japanese American
Born	November 16, 1996 (age 27) Los Angeles, California, United States
Occupations	Actor
Portrays	Sojiro Nishikado

Mackenyu Arata (新田 真剣佑 (あらた まっけんゆう) , Arata Makkenyū, born November 16, 1996 in Los Angeles, California), formerly known mononymously as Mackenyu, is a Japanese-American actor. He became well known in Japan for his role in the Chihayafuru film trilogy. Arata is known internationally for playing Roronoa Zoro in One Piece.

Mackenyu co-starred in Hana Yori Dango: The Musical as Sojiro Nishikado.

Biography

Early life

Arata was born as Mackenyu Maeda (前田 真剣佑 (まえだ まっけんゆう) , Maeda Mackenyu) on November 16, 1996 in Los Angeles, California. He is the first son of martial artist Sonny Chiba and his second wife Tamami Chiba. Arata has an older half-sister Juri Manase and a younger brother Gordon Maeda. At eight-years-old, Arata began practicing Kyokushin Karate and competed in tournaments. He graduated from Beverly Hills High School. In 2015, Arata's parents divorced. His father passed away in August 2021 at the age of eighty-two.

Career

Beginnings

As a child, Arata appeared in two episodes of the television drama, Team Astro (2005), with his father. He was credited at J.J. Jr. Mackenyu. He also had a small role in his father's film Oyaji (2007). Arata focused on his schooling until deciding to act seriously in 2013. He went on to star in two American short films, Space Man (2013), California Life (2014), and Tadaima (2014), and the feature-length film, Take a Chance (2015), with his father. In 2014, Arata became a hot topic in Japan when he attended the preview for his father's film Kabukicho High School. This lead to several appearances on the variety show, Viking. Arata subsequently signed with Asai Kikaku. He appeared in his father's film Buzz and Kamen Rider Drive: Surprise Future (both 2015).

Arata at the musical's press conference

Arata began 2016 playing Sojiro Nishikado in Hana Yori Dango: The Musical. The same year, he portrayed Arata Wataya in Chihayafuru Part 1 and Part 2, for which he won Newcomer of the Year Award at the 40th Japan Academy Film Prize. A third Chihayafuru film was released in 2018. In 2016, he also had supporting roles in the films, Night's Tightrope and Nigakute Amai, and a main role in the television drama, Aogeba Totoshi. The next year, he transferred to Top Coat and changed his stage name to Mackenyu Arata. He borrowed the name from his Chihayafuru character and received permission from the original author to use it. That year, he had major roles in three films, Let's Go, Jets!, Peach Girl, and JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Diamond Is Unbreakable, and the drama Bokutachi ga Yarimashita.

Going international

In 2018, Arata landed his first role in Hollywood as Ryoichi Hatayama in Pacific Rim Uprising. He also had roles in the television drama, Todome no Kiss, and the film, Over Drive, that year. Arata went on to appear in the office drama Doki no Sakura and the films, Juninin no Shinitai Kodomotachi and Tokyo Ghoul S, the following year. His next roles were in two films, Kaiji: Final Game and Sayonara Made no Sanjubun, which were released in early 2020. At the end of the year, Arata announced his decision to amicably leave Top Coat. He also suspended his activities in Japan in order to focus on filming projects overseas. Three movies starring Arata were released in 2021, including The Master Plan, Brave: Gunjo Senki, and Rurouni Kenshin: The Final.

In 2022, Arata portrayed Scar in the two-part live-action film adaptation of Fullmetal Alchemist. The following year, he starred in the Hollywood film, Knights of the Zodiac, as Pegasus Seiya. The film, an adaptation of a Japanese manga, was a box office bomb. Later the same year, Arata shot to international fame for his portrayal of Roronoa Zoro in Netflix's One Piece.

Personal life

On January 22, 2023, Arata and his younger brother Gordon announced their marriages to non-celebrities. The brothers consulted their partners to make the joint announcement on what would have been their father's eighty-fourth birthday.

Filmography

Stage

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2016	Hana Yori Dango: The Musical	Sojiro Nishikado
2018	Zerotopia	Atlas
2020	Hoshi no Daichi ni Furu Namida: The Musical	Shachi

Television dramas

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2005	Team Astro	Shin-chan	Episodes 9-10
2014	Yonimo Kimyo na Monogatari: Shadow Boxing		Special
2015	Hoiku Tantei 25-ji: Hanasaki Shinichiro wa Nemurenai!!	Hitoshi Kamose
	Yume wo Ataeru	Masaki
	Hatsumori Bemars	Sasaki Kojiro	Episode 8
2016	Sakurasaku	Ippei Takemiya	Web series
	Ashita mo Kitto Kimi ni Koi wo Suru.	Shota Natsuki
	Aogeba Totoshi	Ren Kitora
	Tokumei Shikikan Goma Ayaka	Tatsuya Suzuki	Special
2017	Bokutachi ga Yarimashita	Tetsuto Ichihashi
	Keiji Yugami	Kappei Kaitori	Episode 6
2018	Todome no Kiss	Takauji Namiki
	Todome no Parallel	Takauji Namiki	Web series
	Chihayafuru: Tsunagu	Arata Wataya	Web series
2019	Two Homelands	Isamu Amoh
	Doki no Sakura	Aoi Kijima
2020	Remote de Korosareru	Yusaku Nomura	Special
2021	Re: Na mo Naki Sekai no End Roll: Half a Year Later	Makoto	Web series
	Ichikei no Karasu	Bunta Ishikura
2023	Ichikei no Karasu Special	Bunta Ishikura	Special
	One Piece	Roronoa Zoro	Web series

Films

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2007	Oyaji
2013	Space Man		Short film
2015	Tadaima		Short film
	Take a Chance	Masataro
	Buzz	Professor's son
	Kamen Rider Drive: Surprise Future	Eiji Tomari
2016	Chihayafuru Part 1	Arata Wataya
	Chihayafuru Part 2	Arata Wataya
	Night's Tightrope	Hikaru Makise
	Nigakute Amai	Atsushi Babazono
2017	Let's Go, Jets!	Kosuke Yamashita
	Peach Girl	Kazuya Tojigamori
	JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Diamond Is Unbreakable Chapter I	Okuyasu Nijimura
2018	Impossibility Defense	Asao Momose
	Chihayafuru Part 3	Arata Wataya
	Pacific Rim Uprising	Ryoichi Hatayama
	Over Drive	Naozumi Hiyama
	Code Blue: The Movie	Akio Kishida
2019	Juninin no Shinitai Kodomotachi	No.5
	Tokyo Ghoul S	Sota
	NiNoKuni	Haru	Voice
2020	Kaiji: Final Game	Minato Hirose
	Sayonara Made no Sanjubun	Aki Miyata
	Tonkatsu DJ Agetaro	VIP guest	Cameo
2021	The Master Plan	Makoto
	Brave: Gunjo Senki	Aoi Nishino
	Rurouni Kenshin: The Final	Yukishiro Enishi
2022	Fullmetal Alchemist: The Revenge of Scar	Scar
	Fullmetal Alchemist: The Last Transmutation	Scar
2023	Knights of the Zodiac	Pegasus Seiya

Notes

• General
• Personal
• Connections

• On September 19, 2015, Arata attended the Tokyo Game Show with his F4 costars to cross promote Hana Yori Dango: The Musical and Hana Yori Dango: F4 and First Kiss.
• Along with his costars, Yoko Kamio presented him with an illustration of his character in January 2016.

Arata is friends with fellow actors Taishi Nakagawa and Kento Yamazaki.

David Ito also appeared in Team Astro (2005).

Mariko Kaga had a guest role in Hoiku Tantei 25-ji: Hanasaki Shinichiro wa Nemurenai!! (2015).

Arata and Tatsuomi Hamada both had supporting roles in Yume wo Ataeru (2015).

Shugo Oshinari also appeared in the 2015 film Buzz.

He and Kenta Hamano had supporting roles in Kamen Rider Drive: Surprise Future (2015).

Arata reunited with Ryotaro Sakaguchi in Chihayafuru Part 1, Part 2 (both 2016), and Part 3 (2018).

Mako Ishino also appeared in Nigakute Amai (2016).

He and Momoko Kikuchi both had supporting roles in the 2017 film Peach Girl.

Mio Imada also appeared in the drama Bokutachi ga Yarimashita (2017).

Arata, Imada, Hana Sugisaki, Taishi Nakagawa, Marie Iitoyo, and Akira had guest roles in Keiji Yugami (2017), though all in different episodes.

Oshinari and Tet Wada also had supporting roles in Impossibility Defense (2018).

The late Kotaro Shiga also appeared in Chihayafuru Part 3 (2018).

Arata had a supporting role in Code Blue: The Movie (2018), which starred Erika Toda.

He and Sugisaki both starred in the film Juninin no Shinitai Kodomotachi (2019).

Shun Oguri starred in Two Homelands (2019), in which Arata had a supporting role.

Arata appeared in Tokyo Ghoul S (2019) with Shota Matsuda.

He reunited with Ryo Kimura for an episode of the 2019 drama Doki no Sakura.

Hamada and Jin Suzuki both had supporting roles in Brave: Gunjo Senki (2021) starring Arata.

Koji Yamamoto, Naohito Fujiki, and Keiko Horiuchi also appeared in Fullmetal Alchemist: The Revenge of Scar and The Last Transmutation (both 2022).

External links

• Mackenyu Arata (@mackenyu) on Instagram
• Mackenyu Arata (@Mackenyu1116) on Twitter
• Mackenyu Arata on Wikipedia
• Mackenyu Arata on Japanese Wikipedia
• Mackenyu Arata at the Anime News Network
• Mackenyu Arata at the Internet Movie Database