The TV anime series “My Hero Academia” premiered the other day. We report the additional dialog recording for the anime performed on a certain day in March for the broadcasting!
On this day, the cast members who voice students of the prestigious Yuuei High School fostering many heroes took part in the recording for the first time, in addition to the cast who had joined the anime series from the beginning, including Daiki Yamashita voicing the protagonist Izuku Midoriya and Kenta Miyake voicing the No.1 Hero, All Might. Junichi Suwabe and Hiroyuki Yoshino, who voice act the teachers of the high school, were also participating.
The protagonist Izuku has been made fun of by the people around because he is “Quirkless” (Quirk = special ability). Even in such an adverse situation, he has a strong belief that he “wants to become a hero”. In addition to this strong will, he has hidden qualities.
One day Izuku happens to meet All Might, a hero that he adores. Their relationship begins with a coincidence. The first part of the story depicts the drama focusing on the two characters, Izuku and All Might. This is the beginning of the entire story. Then the scene changes drastically. In the episode recorded on this day, various characters surrounding Izuku appear one after another.
Just like the class in Yuuei High School depicted in the anime series, the ADR studio was also in a lively atmosphere during breaks as if it were a “school”. But when the recording started, the cast members began to act their respective characters seriously, focused, just like the students of the anime who aim to be a hero. Some directions were given in detail by director Kenji Nagasaki and director of audiography Masafumi Mima. We got a glimpse of the processes of creating the anime carefully while respecting the original manga. The cast members were building up their respective characters soundly since many of them were the seasoned readers of the original manga series “My Hero Academia”. The recording on that day took the full scheduled time to end. These several hours boosted our expectations for the anime series.
After the additional dialog recording, we had a chance to interview the leading actor Daiki Yamashita on behalf of the entire cast.
Daiki Yamashita (hereinafter called “Yamashita”)
“I’m just really enjoying it! At first I wondered ‘what kind of character he was’ or ‘how I should act him’. But gradually I have come to feel closer to Deku. I might have learned “what kind of boy Deku is” through the dialogs with co-actors and the given directions. I should say I have come to feel with my body rather than understand with my brain.”
Yamashita
“I think I have different feelings when acting Deku from those I had in the beginning. I had an ‘image of Deku’ originally (by reading the original manga series). The readers have built their ‘images of Deku’. The staff including the director, Mr. (Kenji) Nagasaki have their ‘images of Deku’. I feel these images are coming closer to each other as the recorded episodes progress. I think that I might be approaching ‘the images of Deku for various people’ by taking on challenges in acting performance. I’ve had more and more fun each time of recording.”
Especially among them, Deku shows different faces. How do you act in that respect?
Yamashita
“I hope I can show the width or richness of Deku’s expressions by using the full range of my voice effectively. I try to use ingenuity in my own way by giving a cry, using a voice suppressed extremely, or letting out my voice while breathing in. When I hear various human voices and sounds in my daily life, I sometimes think that ‘this voice might be used for such an expression’.”
Yamashita
“At first, I was just desperate partly because I thought I had to clearly show the adoration that Deku had for All Might! Meanwhile, Mr. Miyake has been turning into All Might more and more in the course of acting! Though I felt excited about ‘how this All Might’s line would sound’ when I read the original manga series, Mr. Miyake shows the presence of the hero only by using his voice.”
Yamashita
“Yes, he is! And I feel that the individual characters, including All Might acted by Mr. Miyake, are being carefully built up by not only the appropriate actors but all of us. The feeling that everyone loves this anime is shared by everyone. The staff members also address their work without making compromises. They never tolerate things by saying ambiguously, ‘This is good enough, isn’t it?’ I strongly feel their resolution: ‘If we do it at all, we do it perfectly!’ in the studio.”
Yamashita
“I really feel it. They are making this anime series while valuing and respecting the original manga. They show the fun and expressions unique to the manga by using the features special to the anime, such as video, music, and voices. Though they are creating this anime soundly and carefully, based on the original manga, each piece of the video and each of the characters really let you extend your images and discover new aspects. The recording brings me great joy!”
Yamashita
“Though I think you have your own style of watching anime, I hope you will watch the first episode with a pure heart. Then, I’m sure you will feel excited just like a boy or a girl. And a lot of characters with strong individualities will appear. I bet you should find some characters you like. It would make us happy if you become passionate about the story, get excited at battle scenes, support your favorite characters, or enjoy the anime series in your own ways. We are also doing our best at full power with love until almost making our voices hoarse in each recording. Please watch the anime!”
Additional dialog recording full of “passion” characteristic of the work
The anime series “My Hero Academia” filled with passionate affections of the cast and staff members is aired on the MBS/TBS network consisting of 28 TV stations throughout Japan from 5 o’clock in the evening on April 3rd (Sunday)!
Official Site http://heroaca.com/
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(C)堀越耕平／集英社・僕のヒーローアカデミア製作委員会・MBS
Can you already smell the sea? Can you feel the sun on your skin? Have you already had your first slice of watermelon? Well, the only certain thing is that the summer anime season is coming this July!
