Note: this report is reconstructed from personal notes, and does not reflect the actual wording of the questions or the responses. Some questions may be omitted.
Before starting, if you don?t know who Kazuki Yao is, he?s a fairly famous Seiyu who played roles in many popular shows, such as Birth, Bastard!!, GTO, Gundam, and more. In Bastard!!, he played Dark Schneider, which is probably his most well known role in the US.
Question: Could we have a bit of a personal background from you?
Answer: When I was 18 I entered the world of theater, and practiced things such as comedy, dancing, and singing. I wasn?t paid for any of this work. When I was 20, I decided to enter the world of mass communications, and eventually made my debut in a TV drama. At the age of 25, I got a role doing voice work in an OVA called Birth.
Q: Why did you enter the world of anime (as a Seiyu)?
A: It was just another audition to me at the time, actually. I didn?t really know what a Seiyu was, but I enjoyed it, and kept going in that line of work.
Q: Do you feel that you are known for doing outrageous, over-the-top characters? If so, why?
A: Doing those sorts of characters was/is fun, but I don?t want to be limited to just that sort of role.
Q: Have you gotten a more quiet and thoughtful role yet?
A: I?ve had a few, like in Yukikaze episode 3. Doing that sort of role felt really embarrassing actually.
Q: What do you enjoy other than your job? Do you have any hobbies?
A: My job is sort of like my hobby, so I enjoy it, but other things that I like to do are traveling, especially to warm places, and playing sports.
Q: Do you like watersports?
A: Yes, things like Jet skiing and scuba diving.
Q: Do you still go to auditions, or are you asked to perform without auditioning now?
A: Both ? sometimes I?m asked, sometimes I audition. In the industry right now budgets are sort of low, so sometimes everyone has to audition nowdays.
Q: Did you watch anime as a kid?
A: No, my family was very strict so I couldn?t watch TV at home. After school though, sometimes I would watch Kyojin no Hoshi [a baseball anime] at my friend?s house.
Q: Do you work on radio dramas?
A: I have worked on many CD dramas, especially before I got into working on anime. I also did a lot of CD dramas for things like The Heroic Legend of Arslan. I?ve never worked specifically on a radio drama, but CD dramas are often played on the radio.
Q: Is there someone telling you how to act when you?re voice acting, or do you decide how to act on your own?
A: It depends on the director. Some are really picky and insist on telling you how to do every last word. Generally there is a trial run, you get feedback, and then you do the actual recording though. I?ve worked with some directors that stop me after every single word and tell me that I need to do things differently, and that?s really annoying. I feel like telling them that they should just do it themselves then (laughs).
Q: Do you read the manga of a series before performing a role in it?
A: If the manga exists, then I?ll try to read it. Lots of people in the industry now are looking for people than can replicate the feel of the original manga. If there is no manga, then I try to look at the character files or something to get a feel for how I should act.
Q: What is the funniest thing that has happened to you during recording?
A: Misreading kanji. It?s especially funny when girls with nice voices read the kanji wrong, because they sound so nice but they said the wrong thing. Sometimes we (Seiyu) misread things that schoolkids would get right, even though we?re adults.
Q: How has the industry evolved, with respect to the types of characters that show up in anime?
A: When I first started working, long and dramatic series were very common. Later things shifted to lots of late night and erotic shows ? I wondered what the heck happened to the industry (laughs). But now lots of nice, dramatic shows are coming out again.
Q: Do you watch anime now?
A: I watched/am watching a show called Hanada Shounen-shi. It was great.
Q: Do you watch things that you don?t/didn?t work on?
A: When a new season of shows starts, I try to see at least one episode of everything that?s starting that season.
Q: Have you ever seen the English dub of a show that you have worked on? How did you feel about the English voice actor?s job?
A: I saw the English version of Megazone 23, and when I saw it, I went ?dude, that does not sound like me at all?? (laughs).
Q: Have you ever voiced a female character, or wanted to?
A: I?ve played many gay characters, I think that?s somewhat similar to feeling/playing a woman.
Q: When you work on the Japanese dub of a foreign film, do you worry about losing any of the meaning from the original work when you perform your role in Japanese?
A: The hard part is that I don?t really understand the nuances of some of the things that are said in English. But I work with and trust the staff to help me through the translation difficulties and produce the best work possible.
Q: Do directors ask you to make shows appeal to foreign markets because of the global popularity of anime?
A: I have no control over the distribution of the shows I work on. If you mean in terms of the quality of my acting, I try to see the characters I play as an ?enemy? ? someone that I MUST beat. I?d like the people who work on the foreign versions of the shows to have the same attitude that I do (laughs).
Q: Do you watch foreign films dubbed in Japanese or in the original language with subtitles?
A: I prefer to watch them subtitled. The dubbed version is good for the general public, but since I know the people that are acting in the Japanese version, I can?t watch it without thinking about them. That makes it really hard to take the show seriously!
Q: Do you listen to other Seiyu?s acting jobs and think that you could do better?
A: Yes, all of them. But I?m probably the only person that feels that way (laughs).
Q: If you could change the color of the sky, what color would you change it to and why?
A: Hrm? maybe yellow. It?s not too bright, not too dark, and not too humid (sic).
Q: Have you been to other US anime conventions?
A: No, this is my first one.
Q: What is the difference between US and Japanese fans?
A: I think they?re fundamentally the same. I mean, they both do things like get nervous in front of the guests and such. One difference is that at US cons the cosplayers are cuter and/or cooler.
Q: How to you feel about live action shows made off of anime, especially ones made in the US? What if one of your characters was in it?
A: I?d love to see it. It would be really interesting.
Q: Would you be critical of it?
A: Probably. But if the actors to a good job, it would motivate me to work harder too.
Q: Did you have any fears about terrorism or anything on the flight over to the US?
A: No ? I might not be a sensitive guy, but I feel that when things happen, they just happen.
LOGIN
REGISTER
RSS
HOME
