The voice actor of the Spy x Family anime character Franky, Hiroyuki Yoshino, opened up about his experience of playing the character, likening it to a comedy duo where each has the other’s back. Since Franky’s backstory hasn’t been shown much in the anime, Yoshino feels free to just have fun. He detailed one of the best examples of this from episode 5 where he admits to ad-libbing (improvizing/making up original lines on the fly) his iconic “Mojajajaja” laugh in his villain role.
“To be honest, it’s not like I do it with the intention of ad-libbing,” Yoshino says. “That episode adapted a few pages of the original manga into a longer anime-original story, so the script and motions were original too. I was matching the lines to that, so it doesn’t feel like something I came up with. However, there was just the one word ‘Moja’ written for a line in the script, so I thought repeating it rather than just saying it once would be funnier. Especially in a scene like playing pretend with a child, the better way is to really get into it. So in a scene of Franky laughing, going ‘Mojajajajajajajaaaa!’ Also, that’s like the ‘symbol’ from the anime we watched as kids. Attaching something like ‘Moja’ to the end of lines was a characteristic of bad guys. I figured it’d be easier to understand that way.“
He described ad-libbing again in the Spy x Family‘s season 2 premiere. “Fundamentally, I want to include ‘Moja’ as much as possible,” he says. “For episode 26 [season 2, episode 1], I feel like sound director [Shoji] Hata-san said to use ‘Mojamoja’ there too since I used it in the previous episode. Ad-libs have to naturally arise, it’s not a place to insert meaningless stuff. I guess you could say it’s living on from season 1 into season 2 as well.” As he and Anya tail Loid’s date with Yor, Franky calls Loid “Mojajajadasee” which is a mojajaja-fied version of “dasee“, meaning “loser.” The original line was a simple “dasee.” Anya asks if Franky has a rotten personality after all.
These examples are why Franky is beloved by the Spy x Family fan base, but Yoshino doesn’t think he’s all that popular. With all the Spy x Family merchandise available, “I don’t really feel Frankie’s popularity (laughs),” Yoshino says. “Everywhere I go, I see the merchandise, and with all the collaborations with various places, I think, ‘Mojamoja, he’s not here at all!’ (laughs), but in all honesty, I think he is very popular. I hope to be able to take advantage of that popularity someday.“
Spy x Family‘s more recent collaborations include a Halloween visual with popular anime Jujutsu Kaisen, and Duolingo, which can be viewed in Anime Corner’s Halloween Wrapped. The article is filled with visuals celebrating the spooky season. Similar to Yoshino, Jujutsu Kaisen‘s voice actor for Jogo Shigeru Chiba didn’t think he compared to his fellow characters in another sense. The voice actor spoke on his sense of defeat and exhaustion fighting Sukuna, knowing that his power paled in comparison.
Hiroyuki Yoshino was born on February 6, 1974, in Chiba, Japan, and got his first role in the Saber Marionette J series. Yoshino has voiced many iconic characters, including Sket Dance’s main character Yusuke Fujisaki (Bossun), Present Mic in My Hero Academia, and Genthru in Hunter X Hunter 2011.
Crunchyroll streams Spy x Family in both sub and dub, which is described as:
World peace is at stake and secret agent (aka Loid Forger) must undergo his most difficult mission yet—pretend to be a family man. Posing as a loving husband and father, he’ll infiltrate an elite school to get close to a high-profile politician. He has the perfect cover, except his wife’s a deadly assassin and neither knows each other’s identity. But someone does, his adopted daughter who’s a telepath.
Source: MantanWeb
© Tatsuya Endo/Shueisha, SPY x FAMILY Project
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