Right now it’s June 12, 3 am early Sunday morning and I’m watching the newest iteration of Ghost in the Shell (2045). My partner and I just finished watching Strange New Worlds and the Orville back to back: it wasn’t weird. I pause to check my phone and I read about the death of Billy Kametz, a voice actor who voiced some of my favorite anime characters. I didn’t know their name but I knew their voice. I’d listened to it almost every week, almost every day. From what I read Billy was a man who lived his life with his talents to the fullest. A man who loved life. Billy wasn’t even a year older than me and he died of colon cancer.
We are so helpless in this world. When nature comes calling there is no fighting back. We can try, and we will, no doubt, but nature comes for us all. And always wins.
Living in the moment is hard. Breathing is hard. Watching the world fall apart is hard.
Life is so precious. Our stories are precious. Creativity, art, voice acting. It’s all precious. It’s what we show the world. It’s what we give to ourselves, our families. The world will always need more to bring us comfort in their own ways. Everything keeps moving faster and faster, both happiness and depression are served to us in doses between drives to work, and the experiences that are life constantly feel like they are slipping away. The American dream we grew up believing is nothing more than a memory. Shattered by facade after facade, our generation lives like one cursed by broken mirrors. Yet, we hold hands together, and we rise again and again. Our tears made of hope. We believe in ourselves more than ever.
We experience everything all at once. Crushing empathy, challenging it. Taking our hearts and minds to the limit because we must. Because if we don’t we lose part of what makes us human…. Because we can’t forgot. Not one life lost in violence, to disease, to cancer.
We are a generation that watched towers fall. The first generation to practice hiding in a classroom. Our lives are fragile, meaningful, and blessed. And our stories mean something.
Billy’s death just reminds me how fragile it all is. An actor I’ve never known, but whose voice I’ve heard dozens of times, whose voiced characters who inspired me and will continue to inspire me. The voice of characters who have given me hope so that I may keep on going, keep on living. It’s not just entertainment, it is life, it is energy, it is… Hope that one day I will be that voice for someone else, older, younger, it doesn’t matter. I hope that today we light the forge and work stronger, better, that we create a world as beautiful as the one we believed in as children growing up.
Billy will be dearly missed. By fans, by friends, by family, and by the many who have yet to discover him.
Billy was born March 22, 1987 and voiced characters in anime series such as Naofumi in The Rising of the Shield Hero, Galo in Promare, Nicolo in Attack on Titan, Boruto, Demon Slayer, JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure, Ren in Pokémon Journeys, and Shigeru Neon Genesis Evangelion. (Full IMDB: https://imdb.com/name/nm6446676/)
Nintendo fans will know him best as the voice of Ferdinand Von Aegir in Fire Emblem: Three Houses and Fire Emblem Heroes, Blue in Pokémon Masters, Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne HD Remaster, Triangle Strategy, + many more. (Source:Nintendo)
May 2022, Billy had to start a gofundme to help pay for cover travel, insurance costs, medical bills not covered by insurance, and everyday life necessities.
Billy Kametz died from his cancer on June 9, 2022. RIP.
Nature may be unstoppable but we can do a hell of a lot better than we are. Only through empathy, creativity, and kindness can we make this world a better place. Be the change. Follow your dreams. Follow where hope guides you.
I’m Stephen Landry, I write about alien worlds and magical swords. I write stories about coming of age, humanity, and our relationship to ourselves, to each other. I write about what could be and what shouldn’t. And today I’m feeling a little more human, a little more fragile, a little more slow, and a little more heartbroken.
https://linktr.ee/stephenlandry
Billy’s Gofundme and obituary can be found here: https://gofundme.com/f/support-billy-kametz…
Donations in Billy’s name can be sent to the colon cancer coalition here: http://coloncancercoalition.org
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