During this year’s Anime Expo, we had the honor to interview Japanese voice actors Daiki Yamashita, the voice of Izuku Midoriya in My Hero Academia, and Kenta Miyake, the voice of All Might and the new original villain, Dark Might.
Yamashita and Miyake made special appearances at Toho Animation’s “My Hero Academia Special Event” stage, promoting the new movie, My Hero Academia: You’re Next. Meru Nukumi and Mamoru Miyano, who voiced the two new original characters, Anna Scervino and Giulio Gandini, also made special appearances alongside them.
We got to sit down with Yamashita and Miyake to talk a bit about the movie and how their characters grew over the years.
Q: How have your characters grown and changed since you first started voicing them? Do you like the direction their stories went in? What is your favorite quality about them?
Yamashita: Deku was growing so fast at an incredible rate and I had to try my hardest to catch up with him. A part of that significant growth was his physical aspects, such as his appearance, muscles, and his power, as well as his mental and emotional aspects. Deku grew the most out of all the characters. Since he’s the main character, they’ve depicted him with great care. I hope that I could always grow alongside him. We are like partners who are always together.
Miyake: Let’s see, All Might does of course grow within the story, but I think he was already a somewhat complete character as a hero even in the first season. However, as the story progresses, he losses his power and that brought him the need to search for a different way of life or change his way of thinking. He was also thinking a bit for a different way to fight. It was relevant to his growth. He feels conflicted in his heart because he is not just a hero, but also a person and I think he has grown to become a much more human-like character compared to the beginning.
Q: This question is for Miyake-san. In My Hero Academia: You’re Next, you voice as Dark Might, who is the complete opposite of All Might. What was it like going from hero to what is presumably the main villain of the story?
Miyake: Honestly, I was shocked! I play both villain and hero, but I was extremely excited. In a world where All Might, a character that I have been playing for years exists, I had always been interested in how it would feel like to see that world from the villain’s side. So this time, I felt what its like from a villain’s perspective through Dark Might, I was very happy. However, this Dark Might is a tricky character…tricky…That’s right, he’s tricky…
*Miyake-san was repeating the word ‘tricky’ in English after the translator also pondered on how to translate ‘kusemono’ due to trying to avoid spoilers.
AC: I saw the movie at the special event. Dark Might was cool! I was surprised!
Miyake: Oh, thank you! (Jokingly in All Might/Dark Might’s voice) I am cool!
Yamashita: Noooooo!
Miyake: He really hates Dark Might.
Yamashita: That’s because I really love All Might! It’s the same voice, but different character.
Miyake: That’s why this time I dare to play the character he hates
Yamashita: When I heard about Dark Might and that Miyake-san will be playing as him, I wondered if I could fight him since he’s the voice of All Might. For Deku, he’s his most admired and number one hero. I wondered if I could fight such a person. I was a little worried. However, Miyake-san is amazing, and he performed Dark Might as a completely different character through his acting skills. I was able to punch him with full force. (Laughing).
Miyake: (Laughing, in English) They are very strong. Very strong.
Q: What are your expectations for the new movie?
Yamashita: The title, “You’re Next,” is truly the keyword for this movie. The words that All Might left behind resonated not just with the heroes and the people aiming to become heroes, but it touched the hearts of many people and characters. That sentence made me rethink how great All Might is. Once again, I felt that All Might is truly amazing and it’s an incredibly exciting story where the characters are searching for their own answers to ‘You’re Next.’ It’s really exciting to see how they will respond to those words.
Miyake: All Might’s last words [leading up to the movie] were ‘You’re Next,’ and that is what this movie is about. There are guest characters, Anna and Giulio, who are also going to really be key characters for this movie and the story. Also, it makes you think about the perspective of Quirks. How Quirks were perceived is becoming very, very critical to the story. And of course Dark Might. He is also really important. But, well, after all, this is My Hero Academia, this is HeroAka. Instead of thinking too deeply, if you can just enjoy it as it is, if you can enjoy this fast-paced world, that would make me the happiest. So, please enjoy it to the fullest.
*The translator asked about translating the ‘last words.’ Miyake-san used ‘saigo,‘ which is usually used as ‘最後,’ meaning ‘final/last.’ However, in certain contexts, it can also be understood as ‘最期,’ meaning ‘final, last part of life,’ so Miyake-san laughed and clarified that he’d meant the last part of the story rather than All Might’s last words.
We would like to thank Daiki Yamashita and Kenta Miyake for taking the time to talk with us about their upcoming movie. We also would like to thank the wonderful staff of Toho Animation and 42 West for setting this up. We can’t wait to see Deku, All Might, and the rest of the My Hero Academia staff on their newest mission on screen.
My Hero Academia: You’re Next will premiere in Japan on August 2, while it will hit U.S. theaters on October 11.
© Kohei Horikoshi / Shueisha, My Hero Academia Project
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