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Published

3 months ago

September 12, 2024

Nir Regev

Interview: Japanese voice actor Toshio Furukawa, known for voicing Piccolo throughout every iteration of the Dragon Ball universe spoke to The Natural Aristocrat® at Anime NYC 2024.

When: Toshio Furukawa fielded questions from the media in a New York City press conference at Javits Center on Saturday, August 24, 2024.

Yuriko Miyake is the Japanese to English translator/interpreter in the video above assisting Furukawa-san. This English transcript is written by Nir Regev.

Piccolo cosplayer at Anime NYC 2024. Photo Credit: © 2024 Nir Regev / TheNaturalAristocrat.com

THE NATURAL ARISTOCRAT (NIR REGEV): I often hear from voice actors that working on video games kind of strains your voice. When it comes to working on games like Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot and so forth what’s been your experience like vocally?

Piccolo in Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot. Art Credit: ©BIRD STUDIO/SHUEISHA, TOEI ANIMATION
Game © Bandai Namco Entertainment Inc.

TOSHIO FURUKAWA: So in terms of a recording session in the video gaming industry, it’s a fairly quick recording session but we record pretty much three types of every line. Let’s say a character is getting ‘damaged’, there’s a ‘soft damaged’ and ‘medium damaged’ and ‘heavy damaged’.

Piccolo protects Gohan in Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot. Art Credit: © BIRD STUDIO/SHUEISHA, TOEI ANIMATION / Game © Bandai Namco Entertainment Inc.

It was quite challenging to vocalize three different types for every single line. But it’s only me in the recording booth, so it ends like ‘boom, boom, boom. It’s a very productive recording session.

Pretty much, every time I get it right from the first recording session. I normally get the job done with 300 words in half an hour and I’ve never really experienced taking an hour for 300 words. The earliest case is maybe 10 minutes for a hundred words.

Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot. Art Credit: © BIRD STUDIO/SHUEISHA, TOEI ANIMATION / Game © Bandai Namco Entertainment Inc.

There’s one line for laughing, one ‘Hah’. Then there’s 2, 3, 4 beats so to speak. So I’ll say one, ‘Hah’ and then take a little moment and then two ‘Hahs’, then take another a little moment then three ‘Hahs’ etc. That way, the editors can easily edit it later on.

Piccolo teaches Gohan in Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot. Art Credit: © BIRD STUDIO/SHUEISHA, TOEI ANIMATION / Game © Bandai Namco Entertainment Inc.

Essentially, I do one ‘hah’, pause two ‘hahs’, pause three ‘hahs’, pause four ‘hahs’. It’s really quick.

The longer it gets, the harder is to to count all those ‘hahs’ for the laughing. (performs villain style laugh).

Piccolo in Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot. Art Credit: © BIRD STUDIO/SHUEISHA, TOEI ANIMATION / Game © Bandai Namco Entertainment Inc.

The laughs that I just demonstrated (seen in video at the top) were villain laughs. There’s a shorter version of villain laughs and the little longer version and then the really longer version! So there are a lot of variations that I have to bring up to the table.

(Does another live performance)

In the Fist of the North Star, the laughs in that series just like I demonstrated are softer starting and elongates into the big laughs. There’s also three types laughs for that series as well.

THE NATURAL ARISTOCRAT: In terms of challenge, what role would you say you’re most proud of performing in your career?

TOSHIO FURUKAWA: Any of the characters that I played weren’t easy at all. They all had challenges in certain ways… But especially, I thought a very feminine role was quite hard like Hawk’s Eye from Sailor Moon and Burū Shōgun (General Blue) from the Dragon Ball series.

Toshio Furukawa Interview. Photo Credit: © 2024 Nir Regev / TheNaturalAristocrat.com

In the Swordsmith Village arc of Demon Slayer, I played Hantengu, one of the demons and it was quite hard for me because he was scared pretty much throughout the whole episode for a lot of episodes. And the only voice I vocalized was ‘Heee-!’, that was it.

Then one day, I just had this one word in the recording session and I went home. It was a quick day, yes, but it was quite hard to vocalize through expressing only one word.

I entered the recording room and said, “Hey, how are you?” and then I yelled “Heeee!” and that was it, “Alright, good work guys! Bye!” A minute, literally a minute of work.

THE NATURAL ARISTOCRAT: When it comes to acting technique, what do you hope fans remember about your vocal approach to Piccolo?

Character designs for Piccolo in Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot. Art Credit: © BIRD STUDIO/SHUEISHA, TOEI ANIMATION / Game © Bandai Namco Entertainment Inc.

TOSHIO FURUKAWA: So my vocal range is not so low, it’s fairly high, a higher pitch. It’s A to F, that’s my vocal range. During my audition, I demonstrated a line and the sound director would say, “Could you try a more lower pitch?” and then “Oh, could you try a little more lower voice?”

(Toshio performs lower pitch voice for press)

Then my last pitch, they said, “Oh, that’s it! Let’s go with that range!” That was kind of a tough moment. (laughs) But yeah, I got it. (smiles)

Toshio Furukawa on early acting career:

TOSHIO FURUKAWA: I was mostly a theater actor to start my career. But right then, my boss was like, “Hey, why don’t you do voice acting?” My boss was also a voice actor, so he just kind of called me in and that’s how it started.

So I met the boss and he was voicing for the TV series, FBI, and he was voicing for the main character in that show. And he took me to the recording session and the director asked me, “Hey, why don’t you try voicing now?” And then that’s how we started.

My very first work was, a TV show called CHiPs. It’s a traffic officer TV series and that’s my very first work. So I did the voice for Erik Estrada. Ponch was the character’s name.

Toshio Furukawa on favorite character he’s ever voiced:

TOSHIO FURUKAWA: Piccolo! The character appeared in the TV series as a villain at first, but then as the series goes on, he became a friend to Goku and all the friends and they build a friendship & fight together.

Piccolo in Dragon Ball Super: SUPER HERO. Art © Toei Animation, Crunchyroll, Sony Pictures

Also, Piccolo has this gentle part of his personality and he has the strength to protect his peers. So he has both elements within him. I think it’s very cool. That is why I love him so much!

Nowadays, Piccolo has become a household name.

Toshio Furukawa on Piccolo taking ‘center stage’ in Dragon Ball Super: SUPER HERO movie:

Dragon Ball Super: SUPER HERO Film Poster. Art © Toei Animation, Crunchyroll, Sony Pictures

TOSHIO FURUKAWA: I’ve been acting out this Piccolo role for a long, long time and he doesn’t really transform into other forms… But in this film Piccolo got to transform into Orange Piccolo! I was very excited ’cause that’s something that I was wishing for.

I always thought it would be nice if Piccolo could transform into some different form.

Toshio Furukawa on most memorable moment voicing Piccolo:

TOSHIO FURUKAWA: When Piccolo stands in front of Gohan to protect him and there’s a hole in his stomach… That’s my favorite, favorite memorable scene.

Toshio Furukawa on Dragon Ball franchise creator Akira Toriyama:

TOSHIO FURUKAWA: Normally, we didn’t get to see each other so often ’cause he doesn’t come to recording session every time and on a regular basis. But we often met at the industry parties and he would say to me like, “Oh, next movie is gonna be very tough! So I’m wishing you the best!”

He was kind cheering me throughout the series and the films. The recent film ‘Dragon Ball Super: SUPER HERO is also one of the most memorable works for me.

Toshio Furukawa on Piccolo and Ace’s (One Piece) cultural and worldwide impact:

TOSHIO FURUKAWA: So both for Piccolo and Ace, when I received these characters to play, I wasn’t expecting them to last long… I thought that this character Piccolo would be killed soon enough and gonna stay gone. But then, I was very surprised that he survived through all the episodes. I’m so happy to live as Piccolo for this long.

Spoiler Warning for ‘One Piece’ ahead

Toshio Furukawa on the end of Ace’s story in ‘One Piece’:

TOSHIO FURUKAWA: On the day of the recording session of the very episode, I really didn’t wanna go to the recording studio because I knew what was gonna happen.

But before then, before the the recording day, I kind of casually asked the producer, “Hey, is Ace going to die?”

So then he didn’t tell me of course because it was confidential and all that jazz. But then I had read the manga so I knew what was gonna happen… And it was very sad to find out that he has to be gone.

Toshio Furukawa on his first thoughts when he heard the ‘Urusei Yatsura’ anime was being rebooted:

Urusai Yatsura. Art provided by HIDIVE. Photo Credit: David Production / Sentai

TOSHIO FURUKAWA: I was at the agency office and my manager kindly mentioned that it’s gonna be rebooted… And also he kindly asked whether I was okay with being the role of Ataru Moroboshi’s father?

He said, “Is that okay or would you like to deny the request?” That’s kind of how I found out about that.

Toshio Furukawa on most memorable episodes voicing Ataru Moroboshi:

TOSHIO FURUKAWA: So there’s a episode where only Ataru and (Shutaro) Mendo appeared, just two of us in the entire episode. The director told me and the voice actor for Mendo, “Well, you know, since you guys know each other very well, I guess we could just wing it.” and we did it! (laughs)

We recorded an entire scene, the first half was 13 minutes, and the second half was 13 minutes, 26 minutes total. And we just winged it, both of us, for a total of 26 minutes, without any rehearsals or talking about it beforehand like, “Okay, I’m gonna do this and that.”

There was none of that. We got it right the first time. So that day I got to go home very early. That’s the most memorable moment for me while acting as Ataru (Moroboshi).

Toshio Furukawa on Ataru Moroboshi’s personality:

TOSHIO FURUKAWA: To start with the, the Ataru character had lots of different assets in his personalities. He can be very serious but then next second he becomes a very comedic character. For example, there’s a beautiful lady to his left, he would say like, “I love you” in a very sincere voice.

And also on the other hand, if on his right side there’s another beautiful lady, Ataru might be touching her butt, comedically. (laughs)

It would happen at the same time in the same scene. So it was very challenging but it was quite fun to play!

(Toshio performs Ataru “I love you” voice)

Toshio Furukawa on returning for the ‘Urusei Yatsura’ reboot anime adaption

Urusai Yatsura. Art provided by HIDIVE. Photo Credit: David Production / Sentai

TOSHIO FURUKAWA: The new voice actor for Ataru Moroboshi is Hiroshi Kamiya, who’s part of the same agency as mine. So I was very glad that he’s playing him because we have a very close relationship as a Senpai and Kōhai.

Before the series started we even had like a, “Hey, good luck and oh I’ll do my best!” kind of special moment together.

Toshio Furukawa on anime now being a worldwide industry, if his job has changed:

TOSHIO FURUKAWA: Throughout my career when I started I thought I loved my job, but I found out that it has more than that. And nowadays, throughout the world anime is part of pop culture.

Manga is a worldwide, well-known content. I was invited to all kinds of conventions all over the world throughout the years. Then one day I got invited to this party with the government related upper scale party.

Ambassador Mikio Mori. Photo Credit: © 2024 Nir Regev - The Natural Aristocrat®

With the government related people, I was invited to an Ambassadors’ official residence. He said that in this world there is a lot of stuff that’s taken care of with power, like the political speaking and war is happening, that’s never ending.

They said that was taken care of with strong power. But then what I was very impressed by were his next words… The Ambassador said, “What you are doing is through your performance, like anime culture, manga culture, it takes away all the boundaries, culture, ethnicity and language.”

I thought, “Oh, this is not only my favorite job, but I have this mission that I can still pursue.” So my mindset kind of shifted in a good way because of that.

Toshio Furukawa on interacting with fans in USA compared to Japan:

Creepy Nuts Concert crowd fans at Anime NYC 2024. Photo Credit: © 2024 Nir Regev / TheNaturalAristocrat.com

TOSHIO FURUKAWA: When I come to America, every time I enter a stage with an American audience, they just shout! (laughs) They’re very excited and they show their emotions out loud and vocalized.

But on the other hand in Japan, they’re very, very quiet. It’s really interesting to see those differences.

Back in the day, I went with legendary voice actress, Masako Nozawa, who voiced Goku, to anime conventions in America. Masako-san asked, “Shall we do the Goku line?” And then she did the ‘Kamehameha!’ to the American audience…

When 3,000 people in the audience stood up and did the ‘Kamehameha!’ back to us! That was great memory. I was very surprised!

So, I thought, “Alright, then I can try my line too!” I did the ‘Makankōsappō!’ to the audience and people did the Special Beam Cannon back. Oh, I guess that’s different in this language, huh? (laughs) I realized that it’s a different language. It was very funny!

THE NATURAL ARISTOCRAT: Thank you!

TOSHIO FURUKAWA: Thank you so much!

– You can also watch this Toshio Furukawa Interview on YouTube. Like, Comment, and Subscribe for more exclusive content!

– Relive Dragon Ball Z on Crunchyroll, subbed and dubbed!

– You can also get the Dragon Ball Z Season 1 Blu-ray at the Crunchyroll Store or Amazon and rewatch the iconic Raditz vs Goku and Piccolo fight!

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Be sure to watch:

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– Fantasia 2024 Interview: KIZUMONOGATARI -Koyomi Vamp- Director, Producer (Video) – (Mention of Piccolo’s regeneration power as inspiration)

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Nir Regev

Nir Regev is the founder of The Natural Aristocrat. You can directly contact him at [email protected] for coverage consideration, interview opportunities, or general comments.