[INTERVIEW] Yui Horie, I Love Anisong Concert – AFASG 2014

Yui Horie is a Japanese voice actress and singer. This girls, who has been affectionately nicknamed “Hocchan” , hosts a weekly radio show called “Horie Yui no Tenshi no Tamago”, and was the founding member of the singing group, Aice5. She won the award for Best Supporting Voice Actress in the 4th Seiyu Awards. Along with Nana Mizuki and Tamura Yukari, she is one of Japan’s foremost voice actresses and idols. By any chance, this time Hocchan will perform on I Love Anisong at AFASG 2014, and lucky for Kojacon Team, we could join the interview session with Hocchan. So let’s greet her together! 🙂

Hi Hocchan! Thanks for coming to AFASG! Is it your first time to SIngapore? How do you feel? Hi! Thanks for the warm welcome! Yes, this is my first time coming to Singapore and I’m very happy to be here. Actually I was very nervous at the beginning but all of you are so kind to me and that makes me feel comfortable. I think I’m going to make a solo live here in the future.

Could you tell us your first experience in seiyuu career as Narusegawa Naru? Actually, my first debut was not Narusegawa Naru. But for the first shujinkou yes I think it was the first time. Firstly, I read the manga then imagine what kind of voice will she do later, and I tried to be as close as possible to that character.

From all characters you voices on, who is your favorite character? Wow, this is difficult. Really difficult. Who is it. I can’t decide. Anyway, one of my favorite manga I used to read is Fruits Basket, I love the story line and the characters there. So when I got an offer to voice as Honda Tooru, I was very excited. So I’ll answer Tooru-chan from Furuba.

Until now, you’ve already voiced many types of character, is it any other character you want to try? Yes! I love detective anime and manga, but never get role there, at least, not yet. I want to try to become a detective. Even though I really understand, most of detectives are boys, not girls (LOL)

Among the characters you voiced on, which character is the most similar like you or the most close to your personality? Haruka Nishida on Kanamemo. She is an avid drinker of sake, and as such is often drunk. She is a self-proclaimed lolicon with a fetish for young girls under 15. But not that part I seem like her, I think just close to my personality.

How did you start the seiyuu career? What do you think about current seiyuu idol activity? It’s simple, I saw audition in seiyuu agency and I applied the audition. Luckily I passed the test and they called me to joined that seiyuu agency. About seiyuu idol, yeah I know lately number of seiyuu agency are increasing and if you’re joining an agency it’s not like your job only for seiyuu, you should sing and dance also for several opportunity

Which character is the hardest to voice on? It’s Riki Naoe on Little Busters anime, it was my first role to become high school boy.

Do you ever got recording schedule in one day with two or more different character voice? For example? It’s very common case, I even recorded for five characters in one day, but I forgot the details. Maybe the latest one that I remember is one day after I recorded as Sharuru in Fairy Tail, I continued with Black Bullet as Kisara Tendou.

Have you ever voiced for boy character(s)? I’ve ever voiced for boys and I don’t want do that again, it was very hard. Not just for voicing itself, humm.. I mean, you have to know the personality also. Beside that, sense for voicing girl and boy is really different. Many other seiyuu have that ability, but I think I prefer to voice for girl character.

Yesterday’s live was very fun, but the drama seems not ended yet, will you continue on your next live? Yeah, actually Singapore is my first live outside Japan and I’d like to give a prologue message for audience, and yes I will continue the story on my following live. Unfortunately all of them will be held in Japan next year.

What do you feel after your first live here? I was really nervous at first, I’m afraid what kind of reaction from the audience outside Japan, but I realized the audience last night was really great~ I’m surprised! I want to thank all of you here, I didn’t feel nervous again until I sang my last song.

Where do you get many ideas for mini drama related to your performance? For this time, I’ve already think about it since long time to make a school drama, and I made it for yesterday’s live. But not all of the idea popped out smoothly, sometimes I felt troubled because of some part not good enough.

Why you chose that Pink Bear as mascot? Haha.. Actually it was just the only color I saw in one of department store, I chose between blue bear or pink bear, finally I just picked that pink one (LOL)

Do you have any special preparation before this live? Maybe, like, a surprice MC in english or something? Yes of course! Especially for “Gekidan Horie”, it’s like a mini drama to represent a story in my current set list. I learned English in short time because actually I want to make the drama in English but I think everyone could understand simple Japanese and your Japanese language knowledge really good fortunately, so finally I’ve made it in Nihongo (LOL) sorry.. Maybe I’ll make it in English for next time.

Is there any interesting experience when you were recording your PV in England? Yes,  During the free time, there were a public demonstration. We walked through them and my director wanted to try joining the demonstration. He really did it! He walked until the finish line! Haha.. And there were some people take the video of my director in that event.

Do you have prepare something special for your next album, maybe for limited edition package? Yeah, of course. But I’m not decide it until now, anyway maybe poster or small photobook will do.

What is your favorite song in your new album? There’s a song titled “Stand Up” which became a soundtrack for SmartPhone application. I sang this song yesterday as a first song. I really like this song.

Do you have any plan holding a World Tour Concert to promote your new Album? I’d love to try to do that, I hope I could make it one day. Beacuse I should take all of my crew and staff,  also my dancers, if there’s any country would like to invite me, I’m glad to go for sure. Anyway for World Tour maybe not yet, I mean, not this time.

What is your concept for your new album? The title of my new album is “The♡World’s♡End” and itbecome the opening theme of the TV anime series Golden Time’s second-cour. The image is like, for all of the end (for example world’s end) there will be an upcoming the new beginning, it’s still related to the anime itself.

What the different of shooting in Japan and England? Surely it’s different. Firstly, the scenery is really different. For me, who born in Japan, of course I was very excited as this experience. I usually take a shoot in Japan, so first time I did it in England I should make it well as the great experience.

We saw you sing with other seiyuu as well, please give us a comment of your group activity, like maybe, who will you invite to make a group? I like group activity, especially in seiyuu group to sing Anisong. That’s why I never get troubled by which group should I join or which seiyuu to sing together with. For me, If I have to choose a partner to make a group activity, I will invite Kanda Akemi. She’s my best friend.

Is it you the first person who call the shujinkou as “oniisama” also outside the recording? In sister Princess, I roled as Sakuya, and in that anime (and game) I called the shujinkou as “oniisama” and after the recording was ended, he asked me to keep calling him “oniisama” outside studio also.

Please give us message for your fans here in South East Asia. To my dearest friends, thank you very much for the joy at AFASG this time. I’m really really enjoy this trip, this event, and also my performance last night. Thank you for the warm welcome and all of the support you give me. I hope I could join another event here, any event, Anime event, or any japanese pop-culture event. Ganbarimasu kara, wish to meet you all again and see you later!