Anime North 2009: The Nobuyuki Hiyama panels
So some coverage of Anime North 2009 has been getting out to the aggregators, but I have yet to see any mention of the con's Japanese Guest of Honour: Nobuyuki Hiyama. This must be rectified.
In all honesty, I'm not one to keep tabs on voice actors, or any actors for that matter. But in going over his ridiculously long resume, I figured it would be worth checking out his panels. All told, he is cast in 6 series and 1 OVA that I've seen.
Mild curiosity turned into iron-clad committment once I met up with my friend, who's a pretty big Bleach fan. On a related note, someone recorded his panel Bankai for posterity.
There were 2 hour-long panels, one on Saturday, the other on Sunday. Someone was recording the bulk of both sessions, so they may be made available someday.
On the language barrier
It was apparent that the translator had a bit of a rough time. Mr. Hiyama could speak for upwards of 30 seconds at a time, and that somehow condenses into two sentences of English. There were also moments during the Sunday panel where the translator had to confer with a backup (at left).
And then there was one question that proved sufficiently difficult that it warranted a translation from a member of the audience…
So I can see the attraction of asking questions directly in Japanese, provided you don't mess up and look like a total idiot, of which there were a few. On the other hand, there were at least 5 fluent Japanese speakers present, on both days.
The translator also kept referring to "condition" as in, "if my condition isn't 100%" or "my condition isn't so good." Literal vs localized go!
Requiring a translator does have comedic value, though. Pausing to allow the translator to do his thing is an indirect way of setting up a punch line. I've tried to convey these pauses by line breaks.
I didn't take notes, so whatever is below is not all that happened, and my account may differ from someone else's (see the P.S.). There's no particular order, although I tend to put the ones that elicited the most audience laughter first.
Do you ever call people and use a different voice to freak them out?
He doesn't do it personally, but he knows colleagues that do.
A bunch of them will get drunk at the bar, and get the idea to crank call people.
Sometimes, they'll crank call him.
It's definitely no fun for him.
[Someone demands names, but he deflects that one]
He says that they call as a group. They take turns saying "It's me!" and pass the phone around.
When he's sufficiently annoyed, he says, "Who the heck are you!"
When they figure out just who they're crank calling, one of two things happen.
If the person on the other end is a rookie, they'll quickly apologize.
But the veterans, they get to pull rank.
And make him apologize for being rude to them.
It's really quite unfair!
Do you have any advice for people who want to shout as a hobby?
Eh? Are you one of them? Can you do one?
[Admirable attempt by fan, dominated by Hiyama]
For him, shouting is more like a job than a hobby, because it can strain his vocal chords. [Hint, hint]
If you had an immortal body like Viral's, what would you do?
Hm…I'd probably try to cross during a red light.
By the way, I noticed that in Canada your traffic lights change so fast!
[Fan interjection: Only the stupid ones!]
I've walked around, like outside this hotel [Double Tree, across from the TCC], and the walk signal changes to the timer really quickly!
Everyone must be in a hurry.
If Link could speak, what would he say?
But, Link doesn't speak.
Similar Zelda question, but may be same. Memory hazy
Nintendo targeted Ocarina in Time for an international audience.
So, Link could not speak any one language.
Therefore, Link does not speak English, German, Chinese, Korean, Japanese, etc.
Another Zelda question
Since Zelda, Nintendo hasn't asked him back to do another voice role, which is kind of disappointing.
Maybe his grunts weren't international enough.
A Bleach related question
He always has to shout his attacks (i.e. BANKAIII). But his co-worker can get away with,
bankai
Despite that, they get paid the same.
What (kind of) character would you most like to voice?
The person he looked up to most was voice actor who did very calm, collected characters. So that would be the kind of role he'd most like to do.
But for now, he remains a hot-blooded shouter.
[intro: He has gotten some of those roles.]
What characters are the most difficult to voice?
Really cunning [intro: should be knowledgeable] characters are the most difficult, because they say a lot of things that I don't have any idea about.
There's a lot of terminology and concepts that I'm not familiar with, but I have to speak as if I were an expert.
Related question about a specific character (couldn't catch which, possibly a school character)
He's really smart, has a lot of plans and such. But at the end of the day, he has a short temper,
So he resorts to shouting.
Because of swine flu, a number of Japanese guests have canceled their con appearances. So the asker was wondering what made Mr. Hiyama go to Anime North
It's true that swine flu [intro: Okay okay, H1N1] has been getting a lot of attention in Japan.
But he was actually more concerned that Anime North would be canceled.
So when he found out that it would proceed, he was all too happy to attend.
[If this is true, Anime Boston was pretty fortunate to have Kalafina.]
Are there any other countries that you've been to?
Canada is actually the third country that he's visited. He's also been to Taiwan and Germany [2007].
Because Taiwan is fairly close, he was there and back in the same day.
For Germany, he was there for one day,
And in the airplane for two.
"Touch and go. Touch and go."
So he's grateful that he could spend more time in Canada.
On Tokusatsu
He's used to playing the good guy [in anime], but it always seems with these things that he ends up as a bad guy.
So he always asks the producers for a good guy role and they assure him he'll get one.
He's been waiting for 10 years. [intro: Insert 10 Years After reference]
On making it in the industry
Talent, hard work, luck. People will recognize talent eventually and begin to send requests for roles.
[The importance of management.]
Well there is always a balance. But I don't think that an agency can take an untalented individual and turn them into a good voice actor.
[Incidentally his manager, or one of his agency's representatives, was present for both panels.]
On Canada (Saturday)
He'll answer as if one of the characters he plays.
Cold
[I think. Didn't quite catch any of this exchange.]
I have a question for the audience
To all the cosplayers in the audience, don't you find it a bit cold?
[The lot of us, not just the cosplayers, are in short sleeves, whereas he's got a denim jacket on.]
[Someone remarks that over here we just find this temperature warm.]
On Canada (Sunday)
He went to Niagara Falls and got soaked while on the Maid of the Mist.
He's surprised at how much food there is in Canada.
I think that I'm someone who eats a lot, but for lunch just now, I had a plate of pasta and…
I could not finish it.
[He should go to a Chinese restaurant in Boston for dinner, where they give you the rice cooker instead of individual bowls of rice.]
On his radio show
Surprised that people outside of Japan know about it.
Originally, they were supposed to sing a lot. But he and his colleague aren't really singers.
So in the end they were classified as a comedy routine,
But they aren't comedians either!
Ironically, some consider their show to be better than a lot of comedy acts on TV.
[The radio show was a popular topic among the Japanese speakers in the audience.]
On the difference between dubbing anime and foreign films
Because the animation is produced at the same time that we voice our lines, there's a degree of flexibility. With live action films, the video is set in stone, so we have to be more careful, and we need a thorough understanding of the script beforehand, so as not to take away from the visual appeal of the film.
On shouting CLAIRE
[Only caught the last bit, a bit of a funny story.]
He has a reputation as a shouter, so they [Bandai?] always bring him in to shout CLAIRE at live events [as a parody].
After taking a request
I'd just like to note that this is a question and answer session, so I prefer to take questions over requests.
After taking more requests
Of those who have their hand raised, how many of those are requests?
[The most unique request of both days was for him to say something in his hometown dialect. I guess that would make it Hiroshima-ben?]
On his most memorable role
His first. [intro: Safe route]
On his least favourite role
He likes all of them! [intro: Ditto]
Do you have a motto?
My motto would be, "You can do anything." That's how I approach my work.
On future voice roles
He'd like to know himself!
He'd be the most interested party concerning such information.
On future game roles
Please make a request [to the game company].
Have you ever deviated from the script? And how long does it take to a series?
[Some translator confusion, see Cyberfanatix interview about on-the-job pranks.]
He doesn't write his own scripts, so no he's never gone off script.
As for an anime series, they typically come in for recording once per episode, so it lasts as long as the series is airing.
[Clarification, time taken on episode basis.]
A recording session is typically about 4 hours.
Do you find Shiro Amada to be more clever or naive?
[Last question on Sunday. 08th MS Team needed at least token representation.]
He doesn't find Shiro to be too bright, so he's more naive than anything. However, he is someone you can relate to, so for him it was a very important role.
P.S.
In a response to a question about a game that he voice acted for, he said that he played that particular game a lot. Which one I didn't catch, but I think that it was Tatsunoko vs. Capcom: Ultimate All Stars. Don't quote me on that, though. Or any of the above.
Part 1 of an interview conducted by Cyberfanatix, Animestation, potentially filmed by TorontoTV.
In this /m/ thread are some points from the panels. There is some overlap with points that I covered, but I try to go into a bit more detail.