The Rising of the Shield Hero Season 4 returned on July 9, delighting longtime fans and bringing us yet another segment of Naofumi’s journey. Alongside that exciting premiere, during our time at this year’s Anime Expo we had the opportunity to sit down with Kaito Ishikawa, voice of Naofumi Iwatani, and Producer Ten Kimura from The Rising of the Shield Hero Season 4.
Our conversation went through aspects of and approaches to Naofumi’s character, insight into the differences in production across the various seasons, and how some of the most constant and critical aspects of The Rising of the Shield Hero come together.
Portions of this interview have been lightly edited for clarity.
Q: Ishikawa-san, Naofumi has gone from an outcast to a successful hero in his own right, with many allies having his back. As Naofumi has grown as a person and developed more, how has the change in character affected the way you voice him?
Ishikawa-san: I would say there was a huge influence on Naofumi’s growth on not just how I perform him but for me as a person. If you look at the very beginning he was betrayed and lost everything that he had and that’s the starting point. So a lot of how he interacts with other characters was based on either hatred or rage. A lot of the source of energy was negative and how he released it. But through his journey all the way up to Season 4 you see a lot of his interaction with other characters and it’s not as negative. Some of his driving factors become he either wants to protect a character or perhaps build something. So his energy is coming from a much more positive place which I think is a big change in his character development arc. And most importantly, I think he became much better at relying on others. Until now, Naofumi and his relationships — how he interacts with other characters — were largely based on “How can I take advantage of this person, how can I profit off of this relationship?”. Whereas now it’s much more about “Can we create a win-win scenario that we both will find fruitful in this relationship?”. So that to me was a huge change and I think I’m also learning on myself how to rely on others which was something that Naofumi did in his journey as well.
Q: Kimura-san, on the production side, is there anything about the overall approach to The Rising of the Shield Hero that has changed from Season 3 to Season 4?
Kimura-san: In terms of Season 3 to Season 4, it was the same director, Director Haga [Hitoshi Haga] and his team. So I would say there weren’t any major changes in the overall approach. With that being said, I would say the bigger change lies in between Season 2 and Season 3 where Director Haga was assigned to the project and there was a new animation team. So in Season 1 we had 25 episodes, Season 2 we had 1 cour and now between [Seasons] 2 and 3 — what we’ve established in Season 3, we had to really re-examine what the original [source material] was trying to say — a lot of thematic elements — and interpret that as we rebuilt the team. So that Season 3’s new team is what we’ve inherited for Season 4, so we’re continuing along that storyline.
Q: Ishikawa-san, how did you originally construct the type of voice you use for Naofumi? Was there a lot of initial direction or did much of how he sounds come from you independently?
Ishikawa-san: I want to say in Season 1, Episode 1, there was a lot of direction because we’re thinking about this young man who’s just been teleported into an isekai and he’s thinking he’s going to go on this dream-like journey and adventure, so there’s a lot of almost bright and optimistic feelings in the beginning. But after the betrayal by Myne, the director actually pulled back a little bit on the direction and said, “Hey, Ishikawa-san, I just want you to act as if you were angry.” And I drew a lot on my own emotion. So between Episode 1 and Episode 2, the amount of direction I got decreased in that respect. And the director said, “Well, don’t try too hard. Just think about this character who’s angry, who has a lot of hatred, who has at the same time this level of ambition.” And we carried that all the way through to Season 4.
Q: Kimura-san, how is the staff approaching making changes compared to the original source material over the course of many seasons?
Kimura-san: For me, as I produce, I try to think about what makes something really interesting or fun from the reader’s perspective. So for the original work, trying to understand what the sort of core is and then animating that is something that I think needs to first be understood before translating that into a different media, which is anime. Anime has a much different range of expression than the original novel has in terms of what the words can do, so what’s the best possible way to almost translate that idea and the underlying ideology into an anime? In doing so, I rely a lot on the studio’s expertise, the director’s expertise, and their experience, and we try to figure out what works the best on the screen. And certain scenes might have different challenges. Other scenes might have different approaches that we would take, but every time that we deviate or think about it, we would go back to the original author as well and consult and say, “Hey, we think there’s going to be these challenges in this scene. This is how we want to adapt it, and this is the best balance we’ve come up with,” so there’s a lot of going back and forth in terms of how to take something and translating it into a different medium. And that’s just my style of producing and finding the right balance between.
Q: Ishikawa-san, what’s your overall impression of Naofumi? Are there any aspects of his character that you feel are relatable or similar to yourself?
Ishikawa-san: For me, I think Naofumi is a very calm and composed character, very smart, but he’s also a realist. So in terms of how that translates into the story, I think at its core, there is a sort of kindness, however, and that kindness is almost a lens through which he views life. And the reason why Naofumi even embarked on this entire journey, the way he lives, is because he saved his brother. And whenever there is someone in trouble, he can’t help but extend his hand. So I try to really cherish that kindness and rely on it a lot as I perform the character. But I think that’s one of the pillars of what defines Naofumi as a character.
Q: Kimura-san, for the more game-like elements of the show, who is most involved in deciding the look and feel of it?
Kimura-san: The game-like elements that you see all the way back to Season 1, the UI, if you will, and Naofumi’s first-person perspective — we actually had a UI designer visualize what that might look like, and that person acted as the central pillar in terms of how that view [looked] and how that would interface to how Naofumi sees the world. The director from Season 1 and at the studio, Okasawara-san [Muneki Okasawara], he really helped define that look and how, through Naofumi’s eyes, audiences would see the game-like elements. And it really worked. So we carried that all the way through to Season 4.
Q: For both of you, who are each of your favorite characters from the series overall?
Ishikawa-san: I’m going to pick two. I have to say Filo and Raphtalia. Raphtalia, of course, really, I think, mentally saved Naofumi in many ways. And Filo saved Naofumi in battle. So I’m going to pick those two.
Kimura-san: I think Erhard the blacksmith. Because all the way back in Season 1 when Naofumi lost everything and he lost the trust of the general public and he was really angry at the world, Erhard was the only character that at least still listened to Naofumi, what he had to say. And I think it’s because of how he treated Naofumi that Naofumi didn’t lose all hope in the world. And he gave Naofumi a reason to believe that he can affect change. So moments like that, to me, make me feel that perhaps kindness is one of core elements that makes the world go around and maintain balances. So Erhard is going to be my pick.
We’d like to thank Kaito Ishikawa and Ten Kimura for taking the time to speak with us during Anime Expo and thank Crunchyroll for assisting with setting up the interview. You can stream The Rising of the Shield Hero Season 4 on Crunchyroll.
© Aneko Yusagi, Seira Minami / KADOKAWA / Shield Hero S4 Project
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