Hidenobu Kiuchi
- Anime
Convention Personality of the Week - December 17, 2006
You know you've got a good role
and have acting talent when your fans want to marry you. That's
happened to Hidenobu Kiuchi, the voice of Oshitari Yuushi in Prince of
Tennis, when meeting with Japanese fans of the anime. Kiuchi had the
chance to meet American fans of the series at SugoiCon, and had a story
of how one young woman went up to him and and told the bearded actor
that "Oshitari does not grow a beard." His response: "I told her, 'Of
course, I'm not Oshitari.' That's how it should be." Kiuchi has handled
Oshitari's animated voice, a role that remains his biggest and favorite
in his acting career. "When we started the show, none of us thought it
would be such a big show," Kiuchi told fans at SugoiCon. "We couldn't
imagine that each character would be so individually popular and have
their own CD's. The cast members were the most surprised it ended up
becoming a milestone show." Kiuchi started his career wanting to be a
stage actor and took stage training, but one of his sempais, an older,
senior actor, "casually" recruited him for a voice acting job - just as
with many dub actors in the U.S. That's grown to a series of roles,
including parts in the recent Beck, One Piece and Nana series. Kiuchi
thinks that Japanese fans and American fans have a lot in common, and
he was interested to learn that many American fans prefer to hear
Japanese voices in anime. He's found the same to be true in other Asian
countries where anime is popular, such as China and Korea, but didn't
expect to meet subtitle fans in the U.S.
You know you've got a good role
and have acting talent when your fans want to marry you. That's
happened to Hidenobu Kiuchi, the voice of Oshitari Yuushi in Prince of
Tennis, when meeting with Japanese fans of the anime. Kiuchi had the
chance to meet American fans of the series at SugoiCon, and had a story
of how one young woman went up to him and and told the bearded actor
that "Oshitari does not grow a beard." His response: "I told her, 'Of
course, I'm not Oshitari.' That's how it should be." Kiuchi has handled
Oshitari's animated voice, a role that remains his biggest and favorite
in his acting career. "When we started the show, none of us thought it
would be such a big show," Kiuchi told fans at SugoiCon. "We couldn't
imagine that each character would be so individually popular and have
their own CD's. The cast members were the most surprised it ended up
becoming a milestone show." Kiuchi started his career wanting to be a
stage actor and took stage training, but one of his sempais, an older,
senior actor, "casually" recruited him for a voice acting job - just as
with many dub actors in the U.S. That's grown to a series of roles,
including parts in the recent Beck, One Piece and Nana series. Kiuchi
thinks that Japanese fans and American fans have a lot in common, and
he was interested to learn that many American fans prefer to hear
Japanese voices in anime. He's found the same to be true in other Asian
countries where anime is popular, such as China and Korea, but didn't
expect to meet subtitle fans in the U.S. 