[INTERVIEW] Tsubasa Yonaga, CardFight!! Vanguard – CharaExpo 2015

Tsubasa Yonaga, who has been nicknamed “Wingu” (tsubasa means “wing” in English and written “wingu” in Japanese katakana letter), is a voice actor and singer. He works for a seiyuu agency “Ken Production”, debuted in 2006 and got his first main character role in 2007. He is one of TRIGNAL member from Kiramune, male seiyuu entertaiment record which labelled under Lantis and Bandai Visual, along with Takuya Eguchi and Ryouhei Kimura. In 2008, Wingu won the award for Best Newcomer Seiyuu in the 2nd Seiyuu Awards. Recently he is hosting an internet radio program on “Genkidan” together with Yuka Nishigaki and Fumihiro Okabayashi, and also NicoNico radio program “Abenaga No” together with Atsushi Abe.

In this opportunity, Kojacon team is really happy to have the interview session with him. Today, Wingu just came as Aichi Sendou to CardFight!! Vanguard Special Stage at CharaExpo 2015 in Singapore and he shared some of the story of the event with Kojacon Report. So let’s greet him together!

Hi Wingu! Welcome to CharaExpo 2015! Thanks for coming today! Is it your first time coming to Singapore?
Thanks for the warm welcome! Yes, this is my first time going to Singapore.

Please tell us your impression about Singapore and this event!
I’m very happy to be here. It’s been a long time I wanted to go to Singapore and finally I could come! Glad to see you all attended Vanguard Stage just now and bit surprised about many fans know Japanese culture well.

Is there any different between anime/manga/game event in Japan and overseas like this?
Honestly speaking, I feel like no differences between Japan and overseas because I saw many people who like anime came to the venue from all over country and you all enjoy the event. I think anime event in overseas like this created more passion than in Japan itself. We’re very grateful that many people love Japanese pop culture, also I can see the enthusiasm about Japanese anime by overseas fans and so on. Thank you very much for loving Japan!

But as you know, most of the audience cannot speak Japanese language or doesn’t understand well about Japan itself. What do you think?
No problem! I think we could deliver the excitement and how was our feeling, really well to everyone who came to this event, even though maybe not all of you understand what we were saying LOL.. I saw many people come here by cosplaying very well and bring anime/manga merchandise to the stage. I’m very happy about that.

Is there any special preparation for going abroad?
Particularly nothing special. Maybe just to memorize English words so I can greet the audience well or something like that. But I already repeated it many times so I hope there’s no problem with my English.

Oh yeah, can you tell us how did you ended up becoming seiyuu?
I really really like theater. From long time ago I often go to watch theater, I want to be an actor or stage performer in the future, just like what I see on theater. Further, I know about seiyuu when I was still in elementary school. Since I was a little kid back there, everyone said that I have a complex voice so most of my classmate teased me because of that. But my homeroom teacher said “you can be a seiyuu someday with that voice”. Thanks to my teacher then instead of joining theater, I decided to become seiyuu after all.

What do you think about current “seiyuu idol” activity?
For me, I’m enjoying this kind of activity. As we know now becoming seiyuu is not only casting an anime or game character, we could sometimes go to somewhere attending anime event, sometimes we should also sing some songs such as chara song or sudden concert (laugh) and it’s fun to meet you all from those activity. I can see that all of you are supporting us, cheering at us, and that’s make me happy.

Regarding today’s Vanguard Stage, we continue with Vanguard related question. Could you tell us the difference of Aichi Sendou in TV series, 1st season to Asia Circuit – Link Joker – Legion Mate, then Aichi Sendou in Vanguard the movie?
In 1st season, Aichi is still a middle schooler. He is quite particularly short compared to other characters of the same grade.  Aichi is a timid young boy in his third year of junior high school who doesn’t stand out, lonely boy who is frequently bullied at school, but is always kind and nice to everyone. The one thing that keeps him going is his trading card from a trading card game that popular throughout the world. When Aichi’s card is stolen by his classmate, he chases him to a local card shop. There, Aichi has his first cardfight with Toshiki Kai, an aloof and cold-hearted high schooler who has outstanding abilities and who originally gave Aichi his card when Aichi was little. He wins the fight and begins to enjoy a fulfilling life as he delves deeper into Vanguard and eventually places high enough at a local tournament to form Team Quadrifoglio then enter tournaments.

After Aichi gains PSY Qualia, in 2nd season he begins to act very much like  arrogant and obsessed with growing stronger. Aichi starts to doubt himself, but quickly get’s over it shortly after Q4 wins the national tournament in TV Series Asia Circuit.  Throughout the circuit, Aichi encounters a mix of familiar friends and new rivals. After losing at the Singapore, Seoul, and Hong Kong Stages of the VF Circuit, Q4 finally manages to win the Japan Stage. Afterward, life returns to normal, except that Aichi now has a new deck featuring his signature Royal Paladin units as Gold Paladins.

In TV series Link Joker as third season of Vanguard, months have passed after the VF Circuit, and  Aichi enters his first year of high school at Miyaji Academy, where the instructors and students focus on looking towards the future and studying. Aichi has short hair but still maintaining his signature right hair bang and has significantly grown taller.  Aichi has short hair but still maintaining his signature right hair bang and has significantly grown taller. He thinks Vanguard can be a future that people can believe in, and he tries to establish a Cardfight Club on his school. It is shown that Aichi, outside of any Cardfight!! Vanguard-related event, is still quite unsure and nervous, but this side of him completely vanishes whenever he plays. He also starts to act more like a leader in the Cardfight Club. After many battles, Aichi and his friends emerge victorious over Link Joker.

Based on his Card Fighting Ability, Aichi is highly intelligent and perceptive, though this is mostly hidden by his shyness. His intellgence is seen in his cardfight stratgies and ability to keep his deck evolving. In Vanguard The Movie (Neon Messiah),  Aichi is shown to have shorter hair, dull eyes and he may have possibly grown slightly taller. He also has a cold and cruel look on his face due to Link Joker’s effects, and the signature black and red aura. To follow Aichi and Kai as they enter the Messiah Scramble, a major tournament involving many of the series’ previous characters.  They team up to a confront an enemy that threatens the peace they’ve just regained and engaged in a tag fight. Aichi in the movie also covers the events leading up to his disappearance in next season.  In the fourth season, Legion Mate, Aichi mysteriously disappears from the world, and no one except for Kai and eventually a few of his friends remember him. However, he had a slight change of heart when he realized that everybody was willing to take his burden in order to end his misery of being the host of the Seed.

Do you also play card game? Is there any fave deck?
Actually I don’t play card game, and never played before. I just start to play Vanguard, but I think I could manage to play it after all. My fave deck of course the same deck as Aichi, it’s Royal Paladdin Deck.

Is there any difficulty when voicing Aichi?
Basically as the main character, Aichi is quite different than another main character of anime generally, and card game anime specifically. Usually as the protagonist, the character will be an ambitious or sometimes hyper-reactive boy instead. But Aichi, even though he always face forward, but his appearance is very calm. That’s why I’m kinda confuse how to make Aichi as a shy boy, for not being hated by fans. So I tried to bring Aichi to be loved by all of you.

Any interesting experience while recording Vanguard?
Not really. Glad to know that everything went well. Maybe just I often messed up with senior seiyuu and junior seiyuu every recording. I learned many thing from my senior and try to help my junior if they’re having problem, and we talked a lot after recording. Like how to behave on stage in front of the audience for upcoming Vanguard event, or how to make more people love Vanguard.

Do you feel more comfortable by recording with senior seiyuu? Or is it more enjoyable if you take recording with junior seiyuu?
For me, both are interesting. When I have recording with senior seiyuu casts, I got various lesson from them, since take recording with one senior seiyuu is always different from another senior seiyuu. So I think that will be a good experience. In the other hand, I feel excited to have recording with junior seiyuu. I could teach them many things and sometimes I could find new things which I didn’t know before from my junior seiyuu.

Which one is most difficult, recording for anime? Game? Or radio program?
Of course recording for radio! I usually read the script before recording for anime or game, so I could prepare the timing for voicing the character better at the following recording session. Different thing when I record for radio, I just got the general discussion theme before the program started and sometimes I’m not sure what to say or what to answer when it’s airing live.

Before become a seiyuu, did you ever come to seiyuu event as a fans?
When I still in seiyuu vocational school around ten years ago, I watched seiyuu event for the first time. I came to Neo Romance Party with my classmate in 2005.

What seiyuu event did you first attend as a seiyuu?
“Ookiku Furi Kabutte” pre-release event in 2007. It was my first role as main character in anime.

How about Kiramune? As one of Kiramune member, could you tell us your impression about Kiramune?
Yeah, Kiramune is kind of different things from seiyuu activity. In Kiramune we should sing in front of the audience and eventually show ourselves, which honestly I don’t want to show my face to public. I’m so shy LOL. But anyway, it’s so fun to get excited together with fans.

Which one do you like, attend seiyuu event or Kiramune concert?
Both of them are interesting! In the different way,  let’s say, in seiyuu event I could once again voice the previous anime/game with new script and usually, it feels like a reunion with senior and junior seiyuu after long time not seeing each other. While Kiramune concert is only a concert and not related to anime/manga/game, but  it’s still fun for me! I could sing together with other seiyuu and sometimes we could greet our fans directly in a fan meeting after concert.

Beside TRIGNAL members, do you have any close friend in Kiramune?
Well.. Actually as seiyuu, everyone in Kiramune is close to me and I’m getting along with all of them. We often go hang out together here and there. Beside Kiramune member, lately I went out together with Daiki Yamashita and Nobunaga Shimazaki.

Lastly! Wingu! Please leave a message to everyone here!
Hi everyone! I’m Tsubasa Yonaga, voice actor of Aichi Sendou! Many thanks for all of your support and thanks for coming to Vanguard stage today. It was very fun! I really enjoy Singapore, and I hope I’ll come again here together with Takuya Satou (cast of Toshiki Kai) and Atsushi Abe (cast of Ren Suzugamori) next time. They also wanted to see all Vanguard fans outside Japan, but unfortunately they couldn’t come this time. And for everyone who loves Vanguard but didn’t attend today’s stage, I wish to meet you all in another anime/manga/game event in the future! Once again, thank you very much and see you later!

Fyuuuh~ what a long interview we had with him! He’s an easy going and lovable person on stage or off stage. We’d love to talk with Wingu more about the event and character he voiced in but sadly the time is very limited. In the end, we hope to see similar event in the region soon~

Special thanks to:
CharaExpo 2015 Committee
Bushiroad South East Asia
Ken Production Overseas Staff