During our time at Anime Festival Asia 2023, we caught up with voice actresses Ai Kayano and Yumi Uchiyama for an interview as part of the Mushoku Tensei: Jobless Reincarnation panel.

Aside from voicing Sylphiette (Sylphy), Ai Kayano is also best known for voicing many other famous anime characters: Shiro from No Game No Life, Darkness from Konosuba, Inori Yuzuriha from Guilty Crown and many more.

Yumi Uchiyama is no stranger to the voice acting scene either, having voiced as the main protagonist of Mushoku Tensei: Jobless Reincarnation as Rudeus Greyrat, she also voiced Puck from Re:ZERO -Starting Life in Another World, Mare Bello Fiore from Overlord, and among many others.

[Interview is edited for clarity] 

Favourite Scenes

The first question that we asked the both was what were their personal favourite scenes in Mushoku Tensei: Jobless Reincarnation when playing as Rudeus Greyrat and Sylphiette.

To which, Uchiyama replied with the scene where Rudeus Greyrat and Sylphiette for the first time in season one, and she particularly liked the visual effects of the scenes.

Meanwhile, Kayano said that her favourite scene from the anime is Rudeus Greyrat being together with his family after being reincarnated. Rudeus Greyrat didn’t have the best experiences in his life before being reincarnated, Rudeus Greyrat grew to become the character he is now thanks to the Greyrat family, which is what Kayano liked about.

Grown-up Rudeus Greyrat

The next question we asked was directed to Uchiyama and her thoughts about playing grown-up Rudeus Greyrat in the second season of Mushoku Tensei: Jobless Reincarnation.

Uchiyama mentions that this was her first time voicing a character that has a huge character growth. Physically, Uchiyama had to make her voice sound different because voicing an adult and young kids are different.

Meanwhile, philosophy-wise, feeling the way to say a word is different, and because Uchiyama is a female, she couldn’t really understand how males would think they changed, so she had to work on that aspect.

Season 2 Sylphiette

Going on the same vein, we asked Kayano were there any challenges when voicing Sylphiette, especially in the first half of Season 2 where she disguised herself as a boy.

Kayano mentions that although it’s a so-called male character, it was ultimately a girl trying to pretend to be a male, so she was trying to think of what’s the best way to represent this kind of character.

One of the challenges that Kayano had faced was having Sylphiette fake a male voice but at the same time wanting the audience to understand that she’s still a female character, without making Sylphiette feel unrelatable to the audience.

However, when Kayano is in the recording booth with Uchiyama, she feels like she could just be natural because she has a partner with her.

During The Recording

We asked both Kayano and Uchiyama whether there were any things in particular they had to watch out for during recording.

Uchiyama jokingly replied by saying that when voicing a male character and they grow older, their voices go lower and lower. In order to reach that goal, she would take some alcohol before recording sessions.

Kayano jokingly said that has nothing to do with Uchiyama’s character and that she just likes to drink alcohol everyday. Kayano brings up her YouTube channel where they talked about alcohol and the characters they play.

Both of them mention that they don’t have something that they have to be careful with during recording but when they come together, they influence and elevate each other.

Messages To Fans

Mushoku Tensei: Jobless Reincarnation is a very popular series in both Malaysia and Indonesia. We asked both Uchiyama and Kayano if they had any messages for the fans of the series.

Kayano mentions that there’s a lot of Isekai series in Japan, but for Mushoku Tensei: Jobless Reincarnation, it’s very Japanese-style because a lot of other animations are not in Japan. Kayano believes that this might be the reason that it’s easier for foreigners to enter animation work.

Mushoku Tensei: Jobless Reincarnation is considered by many as the pioneer of the Isekai genre, and Kayano is very happy that there are a lot of Malaysian and Indonesian fans here for them. Now that she’s ready for the next season, it brings her joy knowing that there’s a lot of fans of the series, and that she’ll try her best for the next season.

Meanwhile, Uchiyama is also very happy to hear that she has so many fans in both Malaysia and Indonesia, and when Mushoku Tensei: Jobless Reincarnation was first announced to have an anime adaptation, she had actually received a lot of comments on Social Media from oversea fans.

She realises that the series has a lot of fans overseas, and knows that the fans must have certain expectations for her to play the role. Now that Uchiyama knows that the series is very popular overseas, she’s very happy that fans enjoyed her work.

She mentions that it’s not only for both her and Kayano, but also the other voice actors and staff members who put a lot of passion and love to this work. With a new season in the works, she hopes that all of the fans would look forward to the new season.

We would like to thank Ai Kayano and Yumi Uchiyama for taking the time to answer our questions.