To Your Eternity is an introspective, emotionally layered anime featuring incredibly compelling characters and perhaps one of the best displays of character development seen in anime in years. Fushi’s journey and evolution is quite literally a reflection of the human experience; every bit of laughter, suffering, and betrayal shapes the character into a syncretic being that is more than the sum of its parts. The first season of the To Your Eternity anime aired in 2021 with a second season airing from October 2022 to March 2023. A third season is set to premiere in October of 2025. Ahead of that soon-to-come premiere, we had the amazing opportunity to speak with two of the series’ most pivotal characters at Anime NYC. Namely, we spoke with Reiji Kawashima, voice of Fushi, and Kenjiro Tsuda, voice of The Beholder. Both gave us some insight into how they’ve approached their characters in past seasons and how they plan to approach the upcoming season, as well as some thoughts about the series as a whole.
Portions of this interview have been lightly edited for clarity.
Q: Kawashima-san, Fushi has quite literally evolved and changed over the course of the seasons as he’s met more people and had more experiences. How has your approach to voicing Fushi changed as the character has?
Kawashima-san: Fushi started as an orb and is not even human to begin with, and then acquired the form of a wolf. And just like a baby he had no words. And then gradually, just a like a Japanese person who may be learning English, he gradually acquired language skills and started to develop a heart, or a soul, growing from a boy to an adult. So, I kind of back-calculated how that progress for Fushi happens, and depending on which episode, how much of that progress needs to happen in that episode. And that’s how I approached his progression.
Q: Tsuda-san, The Beholder, from the very beginning of the series, has had an otherworldly element to them. What strategies do you make use of to convey this and keep it consistent?
Tsuda-san: Playing the character The Beholder, he’s very unique. He’s not even an animal or a creature, right? He’s an existence. So I’m trying to be consistent with having no emotion and having no temperature, being kind of cold. And keeping monotone; there’s not a lot of up and down. I try to keep that in mind.
Q: Season 3 of To Your Eternity places the characters in the modern world. Compared to the world of centuries prior, how does the experience acting as your characters now feel?
Kawashima-san: In the previous seasons, Fushi’s growth is kind of linear and it’s clear to see. It’s easy to see. In this modern world, achieving people’s dreams is his goal. To help people achieve their dreams and attain their goals, Fushi gets confronted with different kinds of walls and challenges. So, I’m finding that he struggles more in this contemporary world.
Tsuda-san: Playing the character of The Beholder hasn’t really changed, because he’s timeless. But with Season 3, one secret is revealed. If you’ve read the manga then you know what it is and if you’re only following the anime then it’s going to be a bit of a surprise for you.
Q: How familiar have you each been with the original source material? Do you read ahead to fully understand the story, or have you experienced it alongside the audience?
Kawashima-san: For previous seasons, as I mentioned about back-calculating Fushi’s development, I was strategic about how much to read ahead. But then coming to this modern world arc, I asked Oima-sensei, “How should I approach this new Fushi in the modern world?” and I was told that chasing the challenge right in front of you is what he’s going through. So I go into the recording booth and it’s almost like I’m running along with the character. It’s kind of simultaneous in a way.
Tsuda-san: I make a point of reading the original manga before the recording starts, but I want to keep it fresh, so I don’t read the whole thing. I read it in chunks.
Q: Do you ever have any opportunities to record together? If so, what are those sessions like?
Tsuda-san: In the beginning, because it was during COVID, the recording had to happen separately, but [later] Kawashima-san requested that he pretty much be present for all the recording sessions. It doesn’t mean that we could always record together, but he was there and sometimes we could record together.
Kawashima-san: What I remember from recording is that, while we were waiting, we got to talk about random things during breaks, like what kind of fashion designer is your favorite. But once we’re in the recording booth, then we would record something serious, like the live dubbing that we just did in the panel. And so that switch in gear from being very casual and personal to this real, heavy, emotional scene was what I remember the most.
Q: Sounds, especially voice acting and music, are incredibly important to the anime. Did you ever get a chance to listen to the music for the series while recording or before delivering any lines?
Tsuda-san: I don’t think we ever had the opportunity to do that. We recorded with no sound, no sound effects or music whatsoever. So we’re looking forward to seeing the episode go on air because that’s when we find out the whole package with the sound effects and music and we realize, oh, this is how our acting sounds together.
Q: Have you had opportunities to work directly with Oima-sensei? Has she given any advice or specific direction about how to approach your characters?
Kawashima-san: For Season 1 and Season 2, actually, Oima-sensei was still publishing weekly. I think that she was present for every recording session, and we find that to be really amazing. But she really trusted us with the basic core of the character. And when we have specific questions about where the story goes or where a character stands in a particular scene or a story, then we would ask that question and she would provide us with advice.
Tsuda-san: So, for myself, I didn’t really have an interaction or discussion about the character with Oima-sensei, but I trust that she will approach me and correct me if I’m doing something wrong. But I really was surprised to see that she was working on the storyboard and things at the recording studio.
Q: Without spoiling anything, what do you hope viewers are left feeling or thinking after To Your Eternity Season 3?
Kawashima-san: Fushi is in the modern world, sort of an extension of our world that we live in. And so, our struggle that we feel every day, it’s kind of reflected in Fushi’s eyes and he verbalizes what that is like for us. So that’s one of the things that we can look forward to.
Tsuda-san: When this story started we were removed from the story. But now Fushi is in the present world and it’s sort of a continuation of our society. And so, initially, it’s going to feel like something is really off because that story was so removed, but now it’s close to us. But maybe you can enjoy that something-is-off-ness of the story, if you will. And enjoy that Fushi is in our world and seeing our society and our world as a human. That’s something that you can enjoy in Season 3.
We’d like to thank Reiji Kawashima and Kenjiro Tsuda for taking the time to speak with us during Anime NYC this year and grant some insight and perspective into what it’s like voicing two incredibly important roles in To Your Eternity. The anime revealed a new trailer today along with four additional cast members. To Your Eternity Season 3 is set to premiere in Japan on October 4, 2025. Crunchyroll will stream the new season for members in North America, Central America, South America, Europe, Africa, Oceania, the Middle East, CIS, Indian Subcontinent and Southeast Asia. You can watch Seasons 1 and 2 now on Crunchyroll.
©Yoshitoki Oima,KODANSHA/To Your Eternity S3 Production Committee
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