[Signed chekis will be given away! You'd be missing out if you don't participate in this festival! Hiroshi Kamiya as Ataru Moroboshi talks about "Urusei Yatsura" and his memories of Rumiko Takahashi's works.

The TV anime "Urusei Yatsura" has finally started. Those who enjoyed the original and past anime, as well as current anime fans, are probably enjoying this work.

Among the many hot topics and big titles in the fall 2022 cool season, "Urusei Yatsura" is attracting a great deal of attention, and one of its elements is undoubtedly its gorgeous casting. Among them, the news that Uesaka Sumire will play the heroine, Ram, and Kamiya Hiroshi will play the main character, Moroboshi Ataru, has become a major topic of conversation.

Akiba Research Institute asked Hiroshi Kamiya about the 2025 version of "Urusei Yatsura" and his memories of Rumiko Takahashi's works, which he loves so much, following the previous interview with Uesaka Sumire.

The Sense of Session Created by a 4-Cour Performance

Q: The anime has finally started. How are you feeling now?

Kamiya It has been more than a year since I heard a rumor that they were going to make an anime again, so I auditioned and passed the audition. Recording began around the end of last year, so I feel like I've finally made it. During that time, I was thinking about many things, but the most important thing was that once it started, it would be over.

I am still in the middle of recording, and I am having a lot of fun doing it, but it is a dichotomy: on the one hand, I want everyone to see it as soon as possible, but on the other hand, once it starts, it will be over. ...... If the broadcast starts while recording is in progress, I can receive feedback from everyone and bring that to the recording, which is meaningful, but I also feel sad about it. So I have a mixture of emotions, to be honest.

Kamiya I think there are advantages to doing 4-cour productions.

Kamiya I am still grateful to be able to be involved in a work for a long time. As an actor, you develop many different muscles. ...... I think it's good for actors, even though the term "muscles" is a metaphor. It used to be commonplace for works to be broadcast for a year, but when I became a voice actor, it was already a rarity. Even so, I had the opportunity to be involved in several one-year series productions. The muscles that develop during these experiences are completely different from the muscles that develop during a series of one- or two-cour productions, like those of a short-distance runner and a long-distance runner.

What else is most different is the connection between actors. This is a bit off topic, but in a documentary film about the late Kenji Utsumi titled "To You, the Voice", Michio Hazama said that in the past, he used to go to every site and see everyone he knew, and that they would go out for drinks after the show, so there was a strong sense of session at the site. He said that in the old days, he used to go to all the film sites and only knew the people there. I thought to myself, "I see.

Nowadays, there are many productions where voice actors meet each other for the first time and end up without much communication, but in Mr. Hazama's time, the same group of people gathered wherever they went, and when they went to the next site, they would be there again. When that happens, you can perform a play with an understanding of the person's personal and theatrical aspects. It may have been a completely different way of performing than today. I think that may have been the reason why they were able to create such "pleasant to watch plays. But now, that kind of production method is almost impossible. It's a distributed recording at Corona.

The only hope for a one-year work is to create such a sense of session. That's why the four-cour production is very meaningful, and even though it is a distributed recording, the characters who talk to each other are recorded together each time, so I get to meet Sumipe (Uesaka Sumire), who plays Ram-chan, more times than I have met her before this production. I think that the sense of session we have developed there is even greater than before. I hope it will have a positive impact on the film.

Q: Did your impression of Ataru Moroboshi change from your impression of him when you were a child?

Kamiya Not particularly. Moroboshi Ataru is a character who has feelings for Ram, who is probably the most attractive woman in the film, but he puts those feelings aside to follow his own desires. I think what was necessary for me to play that role was to say, "Why are you doing that? I didn't really think about that when I was watching the film. I didn't think about it when I was watching the movie at the time.

In other words, the character is not based on the logic of why he acts the way he does, as I have approached various roles in the past, but rather, it is because of this.

But, for example, I didn't think about the characters in "Osomatsu-san" in this way (laughs). So when I play Ataru, I approach him more like a comedy or a gag.

It may sound strange if I say that I don't think about it too much, but since it is a comedy, there is no point in thinking about it (laughs).

Thoughts on Toshio Furukawa, who played the first Ataru

Before the broadcast, it was announced that Ataru's father will be played by Toshio Furukawa and Ram's mother by Fumi Hirano.

Kamiya I think that the two of you were probably the first cast members to be chosen when this project was launched. So I think it was decided at the stage when I auditioned. In fact, when I was told that Mr. Furukawa would play Ataru's father and Fumi Hirano would play Ram's mother, I was convinced. I thought, "What a wonderful, wonderful thing to do! (laughs).

After that, I asked our manager, "Did you two agree to this?" I asked our manager, "Did they agree to do it? Both of them are members of the same company, Aoni Productions, so their manager knows what they are doing. I thought that their attitude of being active throughout their lives was also reflected in their performance.

However, this is not the only film in which I will play the role of Mr. Furukawa. In Toei's live-action "Space Squad," I narrated in the world of "Space Squad," using the narration of "Tokusou Sentai Dekaranger," which Mr. Furukawa had done in the past.

After that, I played the role of Almanzo Winder in the 4K remastered version of "Little House on the Prairie," which is now being shown on NHK BS4K. Moreover, Mr. Furukawa played the role of the father in the episode in which the father appears. I had been involved in that kind of thing prior to "Urusei Yatsura," so I felt that there was a milestone in the making.

Q: Have you ever worked on postrecording together?

Kamiya: We had the first opportunity to work together the other day, and when the sound director said "Ataru ......" as a bad call, Mr. Furukawa said, "Yes. ......Ah, so it wasn't me," he reacted faster than anyone else (laughs). That made me smile and I was happy.

Did you feel any pressure?

Kamiya I thought the pressure was stronger, but more than anything, Mr. Furukawa was giving his all to the role of the father, so I had to respond to that, and I couldn't do anything bad in front of him. In that sense, I was really fired up.

But it is very reassuring to me that he recognizes me. So I do get nervous when he is there, but if anything, I am happy.

My brain was buggered when I heard her acting! He praised Uesaka Sumire's Ram very highly!

Q: How did you like the 2021 version of Ram-chan?

Kamiya I thought that Ram-chan, drawn by character designer Naoyuki Asano, was ere~ cute (laughs).

(Laughs.) Moreover, Mr. Asano's drawings are more effective when they are moved. I thought the same thing when I was working on "Osomatsu-san," and Ram-chan is also very appealing when moved. I think it is talent that makes the lines drawn by various animators so appealing.

Of course, this is only possible because of Rumiko Takahashi's original design, and the chemical reaction that occurs when a talented character designer like Mr. Asano moves her.

Sumipe is really a Ram-chan. I don't know how she is able to do that, but she is so Ram-chan.

Q: I really felt that when I saw the first episode.

Kamiya Of course I love Fumi Hirano's Ram-chan, but I had a brain bug once (laughs).

There is an episode in which Fumi Hirano plays Ram's mother, and Ram translates her mother's space language into Earth language, and the translation speeds up and becomes like a voice over.

The translation speed gets faster and it becomes like a voice over. At the end, Ram starts speaking completely over her, but when I was recording it with earphones, my brain started to bug out (laughs). I was wearing earphones and dubbing, and my brain started to bug out (laughs). Of course they are different things, but they both exist properly as rams. I guess he really is the one and only.

I thought, "Wouldn't it be impossible if only the voice of Ram were completely different? I was so impressed when I heard it.

Kamiya I was also wondering who could do Ram's voice. I was only thinking, "Who could play the role of Ram? I thought, "There isn't anyone. To put it bluntly, Ram-chan is a very unrefined character. Ran-chan is a painted mockery, but she is made up of natural mockery. If you ask me, "Is there anyone in the world who can make that natural part of his character come true without making it seem so obnoxious? If you ask me, there was someone (laughs).

(Laughs.) There was, wasn't there? (laughs) The anime has been animated with the atmosphere of the 1980s, including the black phone.

Kamiya I would say that the most attractive feature of the anime is that it is faithful to Rumiko's original work. Of course, there are some anime-style arrangements, but the basic premise is that we will select the best episodes from the original work and present them on film, so it is a little different from the past anime versions of "Urusei Yatsura.

We are planning to present what would happen if the original story was put into animation using today's technology, or at least that's our intention.

The frames of Rumiko Takahashi's original works are surprisingly small, but each frame is very delicate, and the frame layout is very natural. It feels weird to praise the manga of Rumiko Takahashi, the genius of ...... manga, and I know I am saying something strange (laughs).

At the time, I took it for granted that the story unfolded in those small panels, but when I looked at it with today's sensibilities, I thought it was too small. Even the gags were done within those panels, not in large panels. But it is interesting and I love the way it is done. This feeling was reproduced in the animation, so I thought, "Yes, that's how the original was funny! That's the best feature of the 2021 version. That is the greatest feature of the 2021 version.

I was able to rediscover that Rumiko Takahashi's works are interesting, and that is the most important feature of the Reiwa version! And I have high expectations that the generation that does not know "Urusei Yatsura" will also find it fresh.

Memories of Rumiko Takahashi's works that I can't stop talking about

Q: What memories do you have of Rumiko Takahashi's works?

Kamiya I don't know why I fell in love with ....... When I realized I liked it, I liked it. When I was a child, Jump was in its heyday, and there were many hit titles being serialized, with "Dragon Ball" at the top of the list. Of course I liked those, but it was Rumiko Takahashi's works that I bought and read. Well, everyone else was watching "Urusei Yatsura," but for some reason, I was unusually fond of Rumiko Takahashi's works.

Among various works, I really like "Mezon Ikkoku," but I feel completely differently about it depending on when I see it. But "Urusei Yatsura" is like a box of toys, and it never changes from the image I had when I first read it.

Among Rumiko Takahashi's works that depict such extraordinary and everyday life, I picked up a work called "Mermaid Series" because I wondered what it was about in particular, and I was really scared of it.

I was really scared!

Kamiya I was in junior high or high school at the time, but "The Mermaid" was so scary that I was surprised that he could draw such a terrifying story. Also, "The Gospel of One Pound" is a boxing piece, but it is a mysterious piece where the story revolves around weight loss and feelings for Sister Angela (laughs).

The image I had of an artist when I was a child was that I liked this kind of work, but I couldn't recognize the gap between the two, or I liked this one but not that one, or I needed time to accept something different. But Rumiko-sensei had a mysterious power in her works that made me accept them including the gap.

The scary "Mermaid Series" was fascinating, and I also really liked "Ranma 1/2," which started in the same "Weekly Shōnen Sunday" magazine (Shogakukan) after "Urusei Yatsura" ended. I was able to follow "Ranma 1/2" in real time from the beginning of its serialization. Including that, I think my manga experience was through Rumiko's works.

Q: It is perhaps a characteristic of Rumiko Takahashi that all of her works are interesting. In that sense, I think that your works are similar to those of Mitsuru Adachi, who was active in "Weekly Shōnen Sunday" at the same time.

Kamiya I really like Mitsuru Adachi, too (laughs). What I thought was bad about becoming an old man is that I can buy e-books for adults. I bought all the volumes of "Miyuki" the other day, and even though I read "Miyuki" to death, I still think it's super interesting now. Miyuki is so cute, I can't help it (laughs).

I understand (laughs). Going back to Rumiko's works, what I always find amazing about her works is that even though there are a lot of crazy characters, the story never falls apart. There are a lot of unique characters in this anime as well. Is there any character that we can expect to see more of in the future?

Kamiya It would be a spoiler, but as a matter of course, Ryunosuke will appear. That means his father will also appear. The father and the son are a set.

If these two appear, it is impossible for the characters to get in between them. Such a character is uncontrollable, so we shouldn't have him (laughs). (Laughs.) If we had such a reckless character, the story would collapse, but for some reason, the other characters, although on the outside, get involved, and the story is told as a watchdog presence, which is interesting.

Then, who could do that in the era of 2025? But then I thought, "Oh, these two! I was just having fun during the recording sessions. I think the two of them have exceeded everyone's expectations, so please look forward to them.

Q: By the way, which girl character was your favorite?

Kamiya I wasn't that interested in the girl characters, I was just looking at ....... But Ram-chan drawn by Asano-san is cute. Ram-chan's dance in the opening scene is just adorable!　I tend to think that animated dances are too obvious. But when I saw Ram-chan in action in the original, I thought how cute she was! I was so impressed (laughs).

I was impressed by the opening dance, and I felt that you respected the original work. Lastly, do you have a message for "Urusei Yatsura" fans?

Kamiya I always say this, but I think it is an event and a festival to be able to watch a new "Urusei Yatsura" every week in the era of 2025. It would be a loss if you don't participate in the festival. There are many opinions, and if I say it is an old work, it is an old work. It is an anachronism to say that "Urusei Yatsura," the debut work in the series, is being animated while Rumiko Takahashi's new work, "MAO," is being serialized right now.

But don't be so boring, it's a festival and you're missing out if you don't participate! That's what they say. As the creator, I'm having the most wonderful time while dubbing, and I wish it could go on forever, but that's not going to happen, so I'm going to enjoy myself as much as I can and do my best to make this a fun time for everyone, so please join the festival! We will do our best to make this a fun time for everyone, so please come and join us at the festival.

(Reporting and writing by Junichi Tsukagoshi; Photography by Koji Iida)

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