I Was Searching For A Very Specific YOI Interview That I Read Many Years Ago And Found The Exact Translator

I was searching for a very specific YOI interview that I read many years ago and found the exact translator whose translation of it I read back then, and wellp, browsing through their twitter in search of said interview I stumbled upon this gem

we need a season 2 so bad :(

i miss when yoi was still airing and we got to see viktor and yuuri’s Iconic Gay Adventures in Being Wildly in Love with One Another unfolding in real time every single week :\

Today’s translation #758

Spoon.2Di Toyonaga Toshiyuki's interview

Part 1.

-- Yuri!!! on ICE finally started airing - please, tell us honestly, how you felt after it was decided you got the role of Katsuki Yuuri?

Toyonaga: Personally, I really like figure skating, so when my agency contacted me about a figure skating anime, I was very happy. My manager likes figure skating even more than I do, though, so I was asked very fervently to get the role no matter what! (laugh) 'I can't really promise anything' - I thought then, but Kubo Mitsurou-san told me later that during the audition, she felt instinctively: 'Toyonaga-san is Katsuki Yuuri!', so I was very happy to hear that. Yuuri is an ordinary guy from a province, so even if it's an anime, I wanted to try to play the role as realistically as possible. During the audition, I tried to speak my lines as if they were my own words, and not make them sound anime-like, as much as it was possible. But I was worried that if this style wasn't what they were looking for for this anime, they would just think that I'm a very bad voice actor. In the end, it turned out that they liked it, so it was a relief. When they told me that I'd got the role, I was so happy I almost cried, but my manager was so excited and so extremely happy, that I couldn't keep up with them (laugh). Later, when I finally realized that I really got the role, I felt a bit of pressure too, because I set myself this challenge to play the role in such a way to not make it feel like anime voice acting, and I wasn't sure if I could really do for a whole season. Even though, that was all my of own doing (laugh).

and yuri is DONE~~

...also i apologize for how ugly he ended up, i tried my best but this boys face is just SO DAMN DIFFICULT TO DRAW ;A;

anyways, now that the icons are done, i'll need to do the logo for my doujinshi and then FINALLY i'll start with the first chapter lol

SO BEAUTIFUL!!! 💖💖💖

fall skating

Today’s translation #759

Spoon.2Di Toyonaga Toshiyuki's interview

Part 2.

-- So a natural way of acting, that doesn't sound like anime, requires a lot of energy?

Toyonaga: That's my personal impression, but for voice acting, that has to match characters drawn in anime-style, there is a certain template that can be used as a base for it, but my plan was to ignore all of this, and instead make all lines my own, and in order to do that, you have to think about 'why is this character saying this line right now?', their background etc., all of it. I care quite a lot, to make this feel real. So it's maybe not very much exhausting physically, but mentally, it can be exhausting, sometimes. Because the longer you do it, the more you identify with the character that you play, and then you cry (laugh), so I try to balance it all well.

-- It makes sense! So, this time, Mitsurou Kubo-san is resposnible for producing storyboards - what was your impression, when you first read them?

Toyonaga: I feel that reading them is just like reading a new comic series by Kubo-san, and it's really so interesting, that it's a perpetual 'what is going to happen next?!' for me (laugh). The overall construction of the story, I should say? The comedy parts and the serious parts fit together so well, and it makes the storyboards very easy to read. I was also very curious to see how the world that she portrayed was going to be translated into anime. And you can feel that the love that Kubo-san has for figure skating is also a part of these storyboards, and I felt that we mustn't let that go to waste.

[Notes: Oh, those storyboards...😆 Yuri!!! is a special case anime for many reasons, but one of them, one that I personally was fascinated by ever since I became a fan, is why they are so unwilling to share this story and the characters etc. with fans.

I mean, the storyboards were there all the time and are still there, all somebody needs to do is to bind them and take them to a publisher. How much could they cost? Let's say they split it into episodes, and it's something like 5000 yens per book, 60000 yens total... (Expensive, but feels so cheap, when I'm thinking about it, rn😆) So many people would absolutely buy them, no matter the price. But you just know they will absolutely never ever publish them (and it was confirmed that they are absolutely perfectly readable, btw, and a lot of material had to be omitted to meet the time constraints).

Imo, it's always been a sort of Sayo&Mitsurou's protectiveness over the characters and the story, a kind of 'only we really know them, and it will stay forever this way ✨'... Yk, that's why there are only 12 episodes and one short comic by the original creators and an extremely small amount of quasi-canon stuff. It's really 'our story&our characters' >∞> money. Compare it to how animes usually have an endless stream of new content, like cd-dramas, short comics, games, collab games etc.]