Junko Takeuchi is a voice actor uniquely capable of delivering performances for the kinds of characters you can’t help but idolize. While most well known for voicing Naruto throughout all of his ages and appearances in the Naruto franchise (as well as its sequel, Boruto: Naruto Next Generations), Takeuchi-san has also voiced Gon in the 1999 Hunter x Hunter anime, young Sabo in One Piece, Lambo in Reborn!, Mamoru Endou in Inazuma Eleven, and many more. Across these many roles, she’s nurtured an impactful and prolific voice acting career.
At this year’s Anime NYC, Takeuchi-san appeared as a guest. During the convention, we sat down with her to discuss her career, how different changes in the voice acting industry have affected it, her approach to different kinds of characters, and even her perspective on interviews with anime talent.
Portions of this interview have been lighted edited for clarity. This interview was conducted with the assistance of an interpreter.
Q: You’ve had the opportunity to voice characters across longer-running continuous series as well as seasonal ones which are becoming much more common. How has the shift toward a more seasonal format affected the number of series actors work on at once and the way you engage with them?
Takeuchi-san: So as a base, this will be my opinion. Not the industry as a whole, but as Junko Takeuchi. For the longer term anime series, obviously the amount of depth and how deep you get into the series differs from short-term seasonal [series]. And so the relationship between myself and the other actors will change naturally due to the amount of time that you spend together. The shorter seasonal ones, the depth and the intimacy that you get with the other actors is a little bit shorter, which is a little bit unfortunate, but the emotions and the way I interpret each of the IPs is always the same. There’s always an amount of love and an amount of effort that is put into the series which is the same, it’s just the amount of time spent that is different. So the relationships with the other actors will differ as well. And then the way that we record in Japan, for that episode everybody that’s involved in that episode will be in the same room and you record together, whereas probably in the States each actor records individually. So getting friendly with the other actors is a lot quicker probably in Japan when you get in the same room together. And so the longer the series the more intimate you get, whereas the seasonal shorter ones, you get friendly very quickly but you separate very quickly as well.
Q: Many anime have released reboots and remakes since their original series, such as the 2020 Digimon Adventure in which you voiced Gomamon. What is it like approaching voicing characters in reboots and revisiting an IP? How do you reflect on the supply of new anime versus the supply of reboots?
Takeuchi-san: The main differences with reboots — you’re sort of comparing yourself against your old self, the previous self. But for new series you’re competing against your current self, right? How you can act as your current self versus how you act comparing to your previous self. So that’s the biggest difference.
Q: You’ve voiced a variety of archetypes, from main shonen anime heroes like Naruto to antagonists like Little Witch Academia’s Croix Meridies. Are there any types of characters you haven’t had an opportunity to voice that you’d like to, and do you feel like the fundamental nature of the shonen hero has evolved or settled into a standard?
Takeuchi-san: Previously I admired and wanted to do characters like Sasuke, where they speak very little or are very cool and very quiet and very mysterious. But over time as I got my roles I sort of gave up on that cool, mysterious type of character and I’ve accepted myself as taking on characters that are very vocal and very emotional and very outgoing in terms of how they elaborate their emotions. And then as I’ve taken on a lot of roles as the hero — the definition of hero changes as the eras and the age and the the years go on. But the commonalities between any hero that I actually acted out is all heroes sort of have a sense of hope for the future in all their characters. That’s the commonality. So we try to maintain that while trying to adapt to the different hero figures as time goes on.
Q: And the next question, this one’s about Naruto. You’ve voiced Naruto for so many phases of his life, from a child all the way to a father of his own children. What was it like making the transitions between different phases of Naruto, such as from the original series to Shippuden and from Shippuden to Boruto, both in terms of vocal technique and how you approach the character?
Takeuchi-san: So from a technical standpoint, as I voiced Naruto from his childhood to adulthood or as he got mature, obviously boys go through puberty and their voice changes. Me being female and not a male, as I voice Naruto and the changes in his age, I try to act out that duration of the voice changing as well. Speaking the same voice but making it deeper, making it a little bit heavier, making it a little bit more mature is something that I’ve challenged myself on from a technical standpoint. And trying to make sure that you get that deepness and the maturity while maintaining the same character. And then from an emotional perspective or from the acting perspective, the calmness of the character. When you’re a young Naruto, you’re obviously not as calm as when you’re an adult character. So the pace at which you talk, the way you express things, not just the phrases but the way you express them as you get older and the calmness behind that has changed as the character matures. And then the other part is what Naruto is trying to protect. When he’s a young kid he’s trying to protect himself and trying to try to express his own character. But as he grows older he’s trying to protect other characters or trying to protect his family or his loved ones. And so the emotions behind the character have changed based on the position that Naruto is in and what he’s trying to protect within the stories.
Q: Across your many roles, you’ve voiced some iconic adolescent boys, including Naruto, Endou, and Gon. What does it feel like to be the voice behind characters that likely inspired a lot of young boys? Did the distinction between voicing male characters versus female ones stop feeling as impactful after enough time?
Takeuchi-san: So first, towards acting out a lot of young boy characters, male characters. Even in the signings today, there were a lot of people that walked up and said “I grew up with Naruto,” “Naruto has changed my life,” “I’ve watched Naruto ever since I was a kid.” And getting those kinds of comments from fans directly means a lot and it’s an honor to be able to be a part of the lives of actual fans in the real world. So that’s that’s always something I treasure as I act. There’s not very much difference in terms of changing between male and female. I try to keep everything as human, or the natural character, and just try to focus a little bit more on the character of the character.
Q: Over the last few decades, the proportion of female anime fans has risen [Note: according to multiple international surveys which primarily included North America and not Japan], and the absolute quantity of shows with female leads has risen as well. At the same time, it seems like the tendency for women to voice shonen boys has decreased somewhat. What is your perspective on how the landscape of roles offered to women has shifted since the late 90s?
Takeuchi-san: As an actor or an actress, the goal has always been to try and be able to adapt and act out as many different types of [voices] with as much variety as possible. Whether you’re chosen for that role or not is is one thing. But being able to establish that variety in terms of different types of voices you can act has always been something that you try to strive for as an actress.
Q: You mentioned just now that you want to be able to match any kind of voice that could be offered to you. But what’s your perspective on how the things being offered to women, for example, has changed since the 90s?
Takeuchi-san: So being sort of a veteran in the industry itself, the types of characters that are offered to me have not changed as much. Maybe if you asked a younger actor the impression might be a little bit different. But being in the industry for so long, it’s hard to feel that impact right now in a sense.
Q: The ways in which voice acting talent interact with fans have been affected by changes to the structure of conventions and the decline of physical media. 15 years ago, it might be common to buy a physical CD for something like Naruto Radio Shippu Jinrai. Do you feel as though the shift towards streaming has affected the existence of bonus content and changed how you interact with fans?
Takeuchi-san: In terms of how we interact with fans, obviously it’s changed in that before it used to be just voice. What fans wanted from voice actors was how you voice each of the characters. But now it seems like there’s more interactions at events and conventions. There’s a lot more face-to-face contact with fans. So it’s not just my voice, it’s my appearance and what kind of person I am and how I act on a day-to-day basis. That has grown, it seems like. And me personally, how I react to that is, to be absolutely honest, I don’t necessarily enjoy that. Because I don’t like to be in front of people. My weapon is my voice. And how we interact with fans outside of the physical presence hasn’t really changed as much. You asked about bonus content, but there’s still need from the fans. And so if there’s need, there’s supply. And if I need to supply I’ll supply.
Q: Additionally, the way fans ingest anime content has changed. Now, instead of reading a full interview in Jump, your average anime fan may mostly engage with single-snippet screenshot posts from an interview like this one. Do you feel like the way anime news sites and social media distribute content has changed your ability and willingness to engage with fans and anime media?
Takeuchi-san: The amount of and the way that fans “misinterpret” the characters has increased in the current times due to the shorts and the snippets. And then even in interviews like this, I feel it’s more and more important for the way you communicate with media to have trust and be able to properly communicate what you’re actually meaning. And the amount of thought I put into how I react to different questions in media has changed because of the way media is delivered to the fans right now. It’s snippets and shorts and the way fans interpret media is shorter than reading long paragraphs in the past. So how I respond to questions — there’s a lot more prior thought put into it so that there’s less misinterpretation. So this one too. How you interpret the answers and how you write that is so much more important.
Q: You’ve had the opportunity to perform music as Gon, Lambo, Naruto, and more. By and large, a lot of these mini-albums and character songs stopped being produced after the 2000s. Why do you think that is, and do you wish you had more opportunities to sing in character?
Takeuchi-san: Yeah, if there were more and more that’d be so much nicer. If there were more and more opportunities to sing. There’s so much talent out there who are very talented at singing as voice actors. Nowadays especially, as compared to before. Not just the skill level of how good you are at singing, but more characterizing. If Naruto were to sing, nobody would expect Naruto to be a fabulous singer necessarily. It’s more the character and the fact that he’s probably not a very good singer. How you bring that into the character and how that is accepted by the fans listening to that is something that’s probably important and what I would treasure a little bit more. And hopefully fans wouldn’t expect me to be a superstar singer, but a singer that can express how Naruto would actually sing for instance. So opportunities like that are something that I would treasure if there is more need from the fans for listening to “character songs”.
Q: You’ve spoken in the past about liking dogs, especially liking cats, and liking fluffy animals in general. How do you feel about Naruto building off of the Tale of Jiraiya and featuring toads, slugs, and snakes? Would you prefer if Naruto had learned from Kakashi and summoned dogs?
Takeuchi-san: Yes, I’m a little bit envious, definitely. Sasuke is connected to the ninja cats. So I’m a little bit envious about that. But I also like Gamabunta. Naruto is [related to the] frogs, so I can’t help that. It’s important to the character so I’ll live with it. When Sasuke goes to visit the ninja cats, the cats there are Denka and Hina. Those are actually my cat’s names. Kishimoto-san used my cats’ names.
We’d like to thank Junko Takeuchi for taking the time to speak with us during Anime NYC and for such an enlightening conversation. Takeuchi-san will appear at a special Naruto panel at New York Comic Con 2026.
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