At Anime NYC, we had the opportunity to meet the man of the hour, Kenjiro Tsuda, well known for his role as Seto Kaiba in Yu-Gi-Oh!. The excitement inside the venue was incredible as fans eagerly awaited the legendary voice actor’s arrival. Tsuda-san shared his amazement at the energy surrounding him and reflected on his first visit to New York City, as well as his remarkable 25-year journey voicing this iconic character.
Portions of this interview have been lightly edited for clarity with some questions and answers from other outlets being included
Q: The rivalry between Seto Kaiba and Yugi is one of the most iconic in modern anime. How do you approach those scenes where the two of them clash?
Tsuda-san: Kaiba is a character with such a strong mentality and at times during the battle, he gets driven into the corner, but in his mind, he never loses. I admire and relate a lot to those personality traits. That’s the kind of mindset that I bring into the portrayal of Seto Kaiba.
Q: How many duels in a day did the Yu-Gi-Oh! cast record?
Tsuda-san: So probably 2. But I believe we could have done up to 3. The staff was very concerned for our health.
Q: Were there any fun stories or moments during the recording sessions?
Tsuda-san: Every recording session was always fun. Takahashi-sensei would sometimes come to the studio, and then we would hang out afterwards and have dinner. Shunsuke Kazama, the voice actor of Yugi, would show up to the studio in his school uniform since he was only 16 at the time. Having seen that and him growing up to be a tremendous actor in Japan, gives me a lot of feelings.
Q: Despite being mainly selfish and focused on his own goals, Seto Kaiba occasionally helps Yugi and his friends. Do you approach these moments differently than others?
Tsuda-san: No, it’s basically the same. To me, it’s the same motivation, because Yugi is his biggest rival. He challenges Yugi to be strong, and that’s his motivation. To achieve the strongest self, Kaiba perhaps helps him, but the ulterior motive is to become stronger himself.
I then followed up with how Tsuda-san approaches the scenes when Yugi has lost
Tsuda-san: It’s unforgivable! If Yugi loses, then it’s the equivalent of Kaiba losing as well. That kind of crazy enthusiasm to be strong is the appeal of this character, Kaiba.
Q: What was the most memorable fan interaction?
Tsuda-san: Most of the Yu-Gi-Oh! fans are really out there. They have a lot of energy. I’m very happy. So yes, this year marks the 25th anniversary of Yu-Gi-Oh!, and I do a lot of anime, and I appear on TV, and when I’m on set, in the recording booth, a lot of staff who used to be children and used to be duelists are involved in the productions now. So sometimes the staff would just walk over to me and approach me and confess to me very quietly, like, “I used to be a duelist when I was a child”.
They’re shy, so they’re not going to be overexaggerated or anything, but their face shows how a child’s expression would be, and so it feels nice that they’re seeing Kaiba in me, and having that interaction makes me happy.
Q: Tsuda-san’s opinion on Kaiba’s famous impactful lines?
Tsuda-san: He’s such a strong character and the charisma that he has you know, he doesn’t care about the rules that other people created because he is a creator of the rules, right? As a character, observing from a third perspective, it’s such a frustrating, annoying character, but if you put it to that extreme, it’s almost pleasurable. Like, that feels so good to see him, you know, push the limit like that and fans will admire that.
Q: How did you change and evolve as you played Kaiba’s voice over the years, with the series’ growth, the spin-off, and the new media development?
Tsuda-san: It hasn’t really changed, but there was a 10 year gap after the TV show ended. I did a video game commercial, as Seto Kaiba, but one fan commented “oh he aged.” This really pissed me off. So when The Dark Side of Dimensions was announced, I gave my all so that I could negate that statement.
Q: How would Kaiba react to the latest trends in dueling and technology?
Tsuda-san: He would love it and have fun with it because Kaiba is the type of person who pursues the state of the art technology, and in the film (Dark Side of Dimensions), he goes out to space. If he was here, he would be interested in A.I. Kaiba would make Elon Musk bow before him. He’s only a high schooler.
Conclusion
We would like to thank Kenjiro Tsuda for taking the time to speak with us, as well as ADK and Anime NYC for arranging the interview. You can stream Yu-Gi-Oh! and its related series on Crunchyroll. For additional coverage, be sure to read our article on the 25th anniversary panel!.
This interview was conducted by Luke So, with questions contributed by Jay Gibbs and other outlets present for the press conference.
Images: Crunchyroll
©1996 Kazuki Takahashi
©Kazuki Takahashi/Yu-Gi-Oh! DDMC
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