Toshio Furukawa Debut
Toshio Furukawa, best known for voicing Piccolo from Dragonball Z, Shin from Fist of the North Star, Ataru from Urusei Yatsura, and more recently Ace from One Piece, made his Anime Expo debut yesterday during a panel where he talked not only about working as a voice actor, but also about his hobbies.
To start, he explained that when he originally began his voice acting career, the word "seiyuu" had not yet entered popular speech, even in Japanese. Voice acting was just a part of the job of any actor, so if he said specifically that he was a "seiyuu" for a living people would assume he worked at the grocery chain, Seiyu. Furukawa, in these situations, often didn't miss a beat and would play the part and say, "Thanks for shopping at Seiyu!"
His career actually did start off in TV, though. He appeared in jidaigeki (period piece) samurai dramas, which were actually great voice training—he said doing the action yells (like "tou!") during swashbuckling scenes ended up being great experience he could use for fighting as Piccolo or Shin.
At this point he demonstrated the characteristic attack yell from Fist of the North Star "TA-TA-TA-TA-TA WA-TAAAAA!" which the audience appreciated greatly. He said during practice they would often joke around, either putting no feeling into the repetitive syllables or making a pun in Japanese: "wa-tatatatata, owatta, yokatta" ("wa-tatatatata, it's over, I'm glad,") but he was quick to emphasize that they were serious during actual takes.
He also revealed that for, say, an episode of DBZ during the budokai tenkaichi tournament where Piccolo and Goku were fighting for an entire 30 minutes, it was often hard to come up with novel attack screams. They couldn't just say, "tatatata" "tatatata" back and forth, so he and his fellow actors would look around the studio for words to twist into action yells (water, piano, curtain, coffee cup). Once they ran out of surroundings, they relied on their breakfast for inspiration. The fermented soy bean item known as natto came up, although he said the time he wasn't careful to enunciate sloppily, his director would say, "err, did you just say natto?" His reply, a pun on the name of his adversary in the animation vs. the popular Japanese breakfast combo of natto and rice: "Well since I'm fighting Gohan, gohan should go well with natto," but the director declared it NG (no good) and they retook the clip.
Usually when you're attacking actors use sounds like ta chi tsu te to, but Furukawa mentioned that if the character is getting beat up, they generally switch to da de do type sounds. For some reason in the Fist of the North Star manga, though, beat up characters say "hidebu" so in the script there was just a direction for the actors to come up with something that sounded like "hidebu." The key was the three syllables, so he found himself shouting his shampoo brand, while his co-worker shouted "nukege" (lost hair). Turns out they had both used their morning shower for inspiration and his cohort was lamenting a clump of his own hair he saw washing down the drain. Furukawa joked that you wouldn't be able to get away with "nukege" if your director were balding.
Turns out Toshio Furukawa is a huge figurine collector. He has an entire room at his vacation home, including a walk-in closet he took over from his wife, full of about 700 (so far?) figurines of various characters he has played throughout his career. When in Tokyo around Akihabara, at the Mandarake, or overseas in SF or LA, he likes to check out figurine shops and play lots of crane games and gatchapon, considering these pastimes part of his vacation routine. He speculated that part of the reason he likes tiny figurines is because he himself is not such a tall guy.
During the Q&A period, the first question was asked by an emotional Japanese fan of the band Toshio Furukawa was in. Called Slapstick, it featured Furukawa on guitar and the voice actor of Amuro Ray, Toru Furuya. They put out 14 albums and a CD box came out in '06, but Furukawa was saying that lately his guitar feels heavy to him so he hasn't felt like playing. That said, the band members are all still great friends.
Many of the audience questions resulted in further voice demos, including a more obscure role he played, Lupin III for an OVA. He got the part because his manager knew he loved to imitate the voice over drinks with Yamada Yasuo (the regular voice actor for Lupin III), and suggested the audition. He also did Ataru from Urusei Yatsura, noting how high the voice was compared to Piccolo, and later stated that he would love reprise the supporting role of Kai Shiden in Gundam Unicorn or another project, if the chance came up.
He demo'd a particularly poignant line from his character Ace in One Piece, noting that during the scenes leading up to [spoilers!] it got harder and harder to go into the studio and finally it ended up that during the most difficult scene there was not a dry handkerchief in the room. He delivered the lines with tears streaming down his face opposite an also crying Luffy (Mayumi Tanaka). He noted that on that show all the members of the cast are so talented that he feels like the worst one.
Possibly the most interesting piece of information for Fist of the North Star fans that came out of the Q&A, is that he and Akira Kamiya were initially both considered for both roles, Shin and Kenshiro, but they decided Kamiya had the better screams. Up until the end of the audition though, the casting could have gone either way and Furukawa nearly ended up as Kenshiro.
Before bidding his fans farewell for now, he introduced some sketches he drew (another hobby of his): one of himself as a super-deformed character performing a battle yell from Fist of the North Star, and one rough sketch of Piccolo which he noted was drawn on a Royal Hawaiian Hotel notepad since no other paper was available at the time. These two drawings and a picture of Toshio Furukawa himself were made into postcards available exclusively to fans attending his special exhibit hall event that occurred later in the afternoon.
To start, he explained that when he originally began his voice acting career, the word "seiyuu" had not yet entered popular speech, even in Japanese. Voice acting was just a part of the job of any actor, so if he said specifically that he was a "seiyuu" for a living people would assume he worked at the grocery chain, Seiyu. Furukawa, in these situations, often didn't miss a beat and would play the part and say, "Thanks for shopping at Seiyu!"
His career actually did start off in TV, though. He appeared in jidaigeki (period piece) samurai dramas, which were actually great voice training—he said doing the action yells (like "tou!") during swashbuckling scenes ended up being great experience he could use for fighting as Piccolo or Shin.
At this point he demonstrated the characteristic attack yell from Fist of the North Star "TA-TA-TA-TA-TA WA-TAAAAA!" which the audience appreciated greatly. He said during practice they would often joke around, either putting no feeling into the repetitive syllables or making a pun in Japanese: "wa-tatatatata, owatta, yokatta" ("wa-tatatatata, it's over, I'm glad,") but he was quick to emphasize that they were serious during actual takes.
He also revealed that for, say, an episode of DBZ during the budokai tenkaichi tournament where Piccolo and Goku were fighting for an entire 30 minutes, it was often hard to come up with novel attack screams. They couldn't just say, "tatatata" "tatatata" back and forth, so he and his fellow actors would look around the studio for words to twist into action yells (water, piano, curtain, coffee cup). Once they ran out of surroundings, they relied on their breakfast for inspiration. The fermented soy bean item known as natto came up, although he said the time he wasn't careful to enunciate sloppily, his director would say, "err, did you just say natto?" His reply, a pun on the name of his adversary in the animation vs. the popular Japanese breakfast combo of natto and rice: "Well since I'm fighting Gohan, gohan should go well with natto," but the director declared it NG (no good) and they retook the clip.
Usually when you're attacking actors use sounds like ta chi tsu te to, but Furukawa mentioned that if the character is getting beat up, they generally switch to da de do type sounds. For some reason in the Fist of the North Star manga, though, beat up characters say "hidebu" so in the script there was just a direction for the actors to come up with something that sounded like "hidebu." The key was the three syllables, so he found himself shouting his shampoo brand, while his co-worker shouted "nukege" (lost hair). Turns out they had both used their morning shower for inspiration and his cohort was lamenting a clump of his own hair he saw washing down the drain. Furukawa joked that you wouldn't be able to get away with "nukege" if your director were balding.
Turns out Toshio Furukawa is a huge figurine collector. He has an entire room at his vacation home, including a walk-in closet he took over from his wife, full of about 700 (so far?) figurines of various characters he has played throughout his career. When in Tokyo around Akihabara, at the Mandarake, or overseas in SF or LA, he likes to check out figurine shops and play lots of crane games and gatchapon, considering these pastimes part of his vacation routine. He speculated that part of the reason he likes tiny figurines is because he himself is not such a tall guy.
During the Q&A period, the first question was asked by an emotional Japanese fan of the band Toshio Furukawa was in. Called Slapstick, it featured Furukawa on guitar and the voice actor of Amuro Ray, Toru Furuya. They put out 14 albums and a CD box came out in '06, but Furukawa was saying that lately his guitar feels heavy to him so he hasn't felt like playing. That said, the band members are all still great friends.
Many of the audience questions resulted in further voice demos, including a more obscure role he played, Lupin III for an OVA. He got the part because his manager knew he loved to imitate the voice over drinks with Yamada Yasuo (the regular voice actor for Lupin III), and suggested the audition. He also did Ataru from Urusei Yatsura, noting how high the voice was compared to Piccolo, and later stated that he would love reprise the supporting role of Kai Shiden in Gundam Unicorn or another project, if the chance came up.
He demo'd a particularly poignant line from his character Ace in One Piece, noting that during the scenes leading up to [spoilers!] it got harder and harder to go into the studio and finally it ended up that during the most difficult scene there was not a dry handkerchief in the room. He delivered the lines with tears streaming down his face opposite an also crying Luffy (Mayumi Tanaka). He noted that on that show all the members of the cast are so talented that he feels like the worst one.
Possibly the most interesting piece of information for Fist of the North Star fans that came out of the Q&A, is that he and Akira Kamiya were initially both considered for both roles, Shin and Kenshiro, but they decided Kamiya had the better screams. Up until the end of the audition though, the casting could have gone either way and Furukawa nearly ended up as Kenshiro.
Before bidding his fans farewell for now, he introduced some sketches he drew (another hobby of his): one of himself as a super-deformed character performing a battle yell from Fist of the North Star, and one rough sketch of Piccolo which he noted was drawn on a Royal Hawaiian Hotel notepad since no other paper was available at the time. These two drawings and a picture of Toshio Furukawa himself were made into postcards available exclusively to fans attending his special exhibit hall event that occurred later in the afternoon.