Sakuracon 2015 – Haruka Terui Interview

Japan-A-Radio was granted one on one access with Yuki Yuna voice actress Haruka Terui. Yuki Yuna is one of Pony Canyon USA's debut launch titles.

Q: Obviously this is your first time at Sakuracon, were you surprised at the reaction you got from the fans in the States?

A: Yes, I was very surprised. So what I was surprised by was that people understand Japanese here, what got me first was at the opening ceremonies when someone on stage said "Ohayou" and the fans said "Ohayou" back and I was like "oh they know the word, that's great!", and then when I got on stage and said a lot of words and even before it was translated people laughed so I knew some people understood. Also I'm really happy that a lot of people love the Japanese culture and I noticed that in the States the audience reaction gives me a lot of energy and it makes me very happy too.

Q: You've been voice acting for a little while now but more recently you've had more prominent, lead roles as opposed to the supporting roles that you've had recently, did you feel any pressure in becoming a lead voice actress as opposed to the supporting roles you've had in the past.

A: First off, thank you for watching my works, I'm glad that I'm doing main roles now, but I don't think there's a difference between small roles and big roles. For me every role that I play I put all my feelings and effort into it. What's different about a main role like for Yuki Yuna is that I get to meet a lot of new characters, I get to meet a lot of new voice actors so I'm glad about that fact. So I used to just focus on recording, but after getting main roles I'm also singing, and talking in front of other people more so I'm greatful for that, but I want to be a kind of voice actor that can continue being greatful for whatever roles I have. Oh, and one more thing, for the Yuki Yuna role I got the role through an audition and it was different from usual audition process I was used to, because I used to get roles without having to audition before, like for games for example. What it meant to me, to get the Yuki Yuna role through an audition is that they said "Terui-san, you're the best for this role, you need to do this role." It might be a contradiction but I was really glad that they expressed that I was the best for this role. Of course I'm going to be greatful for all my characters but this Yuki Yuna role will remain a precious role that has good feelings for me.

Q: You mentioned in your previous answer that you started to sing theme songs for some of the shows you worked on, is that simply part of the contract for getting the voice actress role, or is that something that comes up after, how exactly does that work?

A: (after some explanation from the Pony Canyon staff). Basically, when I'm auditioning for the roles they'll tell me that there's a possibility that I'll be singing as well.

Q: You had mentioned that sometimes you don't need to audition for some roles, is there any difference in voicing for anime versus voicing for video games?

A: (Translator): Are you asking about if they audition for anime and not for video games, or just the differences...

Q: It's more just the process they go through, because some games are nothing but grunting and screaming and some other games like visual novels have lots of text to go through while anime generally has more dialogue...

A: It really depends on the game, some games have a lot of lines, some games have a few lines, some games even have a few books, thousands and thousands of words. So the biggest difference between anime and video games is that in anime all the voice actors come together and we sort of have a conversation, we all record at the same time, but when I record in gaming I do it alone 99% of the time so I need to imagine what the other actors act like... we have books but while looking at the books I need to imagine what they would sound like so that at the end all the voices need to fit together so I need to be very careful about that.

Q: Did you grow up wanting to be a voice actor and if you weren't a voice actor what would you be doing instead?

A: Even before I knew there was a job as voice acting I always wanted to be the voice of anime characters or animals and mascots, and when I was young I would pretend to be animals or creatures, and when I found out about voice acting I thought "this is it!". If I wasn't a voice actress... I think if I had any other life I'd always want to be a voice actress... I face challenges every day in this job but it's still a lot of fun, I'm sure every other job has it's challenges but at the end of the day I know that this is the job I want to do.

Q: Looking ahead to the future, what type of roles would you like to do in the future?

A: Let me see.... (Laughs)... This is kind of a complex issue so this might be a long answer.... there are roles I've always wanted to do since I was young... I'd like to be in children's animation.. a mascot character... like Pikachu! Something like that that gives children dreams and makes children laugh. When I was young I'd always pretend to be Pikachu... so I'm thinking I'd like to be a character like that. But now, the dream is really strong, all the characters I voice are really lovely, and that dream hasn't gone away, but any characters I voice I want to put all my heart into it, so when you ask me about any characters I want to voice, I want to voice everything. That's it.

Q: When you think about all the characters that you've voiced, which ones have made the most impact on you, or which ones do you feel have imprinted some of their characteristics onto you?

A: The best one...... ahh this question is the hardest one so far! Hmmmmmm..... Without meeting all the characters I've done so far I couldn't meet the next character, so all the characters are important to me... but..... the first main character I did in a TV series (Kobeni Yonomori, Engaged to the Unidentified), and the next one Yuki Yuna, what those characters gave me cannot be measured. They're so lovely its almost kind of scary. The first one, Kobeni, in En... En.. (she tries her best to pronounce the English title, with assistance from the Pony Canyon staff) Engaged to the Unidentifed.. I got it through an audition. When I voiced her, everyone there, the director, the author, said that "Oh, she's Kobeni, right there!" So she's kind of natural for me. When I think about her feelings I can just be Kobeni right there. So she's precious to me. Yuki Yuna I got through an audition as well, and was the first time I voiced that type of character. The first time I got that role I got a lot of advice to be like her. Then I thought, in the audition I put all my effort there but in the first episode when I was recording, I was able to understand Yuna as a girl that was really kind, so she became more and more lovely and precious to me. The story becomes difficult, so I became almost stressed in my real life, so that's how important she is to me. I don't want to spoil anything here but I've always wanted her to be happy. When I was voicing Yuna I was becoming more like her. Other than that I've always wanted Yuna to be happy.... um what was the question again?

A: (after a brief pause) I talk too much, sorry!

Q: No, thats ok! Thank you very much.

A: Thank you!