"Urusei Yatsura" Reunion: Was Sugiyama Kazuko actually aiming for the role of Lum?

Translated by: Dylan Acres

Interview with Legendary Voice Actor Kazuko Sugiyama [Memories of Urusei Yatsura]

This is an interview with a legendary voice actor, featuring in-depth discussions between actors who played key roles in the golden age of anime, and Toshio Furukawa and Aya Hirano, who are themselves legends. Our guest this time is Kazuko Sugiyama, a renowned actress who supported the growth of TV anime in the 1970s and 1980s. From classics such as Heidi, Girl of the Alps to popular 1980s works such as Urusei Yatsura, Gu-Gu Ganmo, and Kiteretsu Daihyakka, Sugiyama has been active in a wide range of fields, and we have interviewed her about her career as a voice actor!

Did you actually aim for the role of Lum in "Urusei Yatsura"?

Fumi Hirano: (hereinafter, Hirano) In 1981, Urusei Yatsura finally started. This was the first time the three of us worked together. Ten-chan, played by Sugiyama-san, appeared in the third episode and later played an active role as one of the main characters alongside Lum and Ataru. ^[1] First of all, could you tell us how the role of Ten-chan was chosen for Sugiyama-san?

Sugiyama Kazuko: (hereinafter, Sugiyama) The role of Ten-chan was decided through an audition. However, I originally auditioned for the role of Lum (laughs).

Hirano: What?! I've never heard of that! (laughs)

Sugiyama: I thought it had been a while since I'd seen such a beautiful person, so I dressed up and went there in a mature outfit. Then, I saw a picture of Ten-chan's character hanging in the hall... and I was called in (laughs). "I'm here, I'm here." So I asked the sound director, Shigeharu Shiba, if I could, and I decided to audition for Ten-chan as well. ^[2]

Toshio Furukawa : (hereinafter, Furukawa) Apparently that sort of thing happens when you act.

Sugiyama: However, there were so many people auditioning for Urusei Yatsura that they didn't have the time to cut in line, so they said they'd let me do it if I waited until everyone had finished.

Furukawa: So, if he had had to go somewhere and had gone home, someone else might have taken over Ten-chan.

Sugiyama: That may be true... No, I think it was because I really wanted to do it that I forced myself to stay.

Hirano: That's how much affection you felt about the role of Ten-chan. So, what was your reaction when you heard that you were actually playing Ten-chan?



Sugiyama: After saying that, he thought, "Ah, this is definitely fate."

Furukawa: I wanted to hear Sugiyama say "Datcha," but it's true, I can't imagine anyone other than Sugiyama speaking in Ten's voice.

Sugiyama: Actually, I often get called in for a different role at the audition site. That was the case with my role as Ganmo in Gu-Gu Ganmo (1984). I actually went in to audition for the role of Hanpeita. Another interesting one was for the 1982 film Queen Millennia. I was supposed to have been called in to audition for the role of Millennial Queen, but I ended up playing the role of the ramen shop lady (laughs).

Furukawa: What a drop!

Sugiyama: After the audition for the queen role, I happened to have some free time, so I helped out the audition partner for the ramen shop owner role, and it turned out to be a good choice. At the time, I had only heard from my manager that I had been accepted, so I only found out when I got to the scene... (laughs). I went to the scene expecting to play the queen role, but the script that was handed to me on the spot said "Ramen shop owner: Kazuko Sugiyama."

Furukawa: Wow, what a mindset to be in at that time (laughs).

Hirano: Was it okay during Urusei Yatsura? I'm sure you were upset that someone like me was cast as Lum.

Sugiyama: With Urusei Yatsura I was already full of enthusiasm for Ten-chan, so it was fine. Also, at that time, there was no one with a husky, slightly mature voice like Hirano-san, so I thought it was very fresh and perfect for Lum-chan. I can't do that. It was the best cast.



Furukawa: Fumi-chan was also unique in terms of acting theory. Perhaps because she started out as a radio DJ, she didn't act like 10 other people would. I think Shiba-san also found that interesting.

Hirano: I was an amateur voice actor at the time (laughs). But that's why I was so surprised by the acting ability of the veterans, including these two. When you look at a picture of a round character like Ten-chan, you can't imagine what kind of voice she'll use to speak, right? Then Sugiyama-san just stood in front of the microphone and perfectly played Ten-chan with "that voice"... I was really surprised from the bottom of my heart.

Furukawa: Urusei Yatsura had many actors who could not be imagined, starting with Shigeru Chiba (who played the role of Megane in Urusei Yatsura), and Machiko Washio, who played Sakura, was also unique.

Hirano: Moreover, right after Sugiyama-san spoke Ten-chan's first line, she smiled calmly and asked Shiwa-san, "Is this okay?" When I saw that, I learned that acting requires this kind of "room to breathe," and that you have to be able to do this with 80% of your strength.

Sugiyama: No no, Shiba-san was very strict about acting, so I was desperate too (laughs). During the filming of the movie version, he told me, "If Ten-chan's acting is good, I won't put in any background music."

Furukawa: That's a lot of pressure.

Sugiyama: I was nervous the whole time until I actually got to see what happened in the cinema (laughs).



Furukawa: Shiba-san was the kind of sound director who would set high standards for his actors. He would think about what would happen if he were to do this right now.

Hirano: He was someone who really saw my potential.

Sugiyama: And when you overcome that hurdle, the role gets better. That was the case with Shigeru Chiba's role as Megane. At first, it was just an unnamed character, but Chiba's acting was so good that an episode was made with Megane as the main character. That's the greatest joy of being an actor.

Hirano: The characters in Urusei Yatsura are all unique, and I think each voice actor was able to establish that character. Of course, it's all thanks to Rumiko Takahashi's original work, but I think the extreme duality of Shutaro Mendo, played by Akira Kamiya, also had a big influence on subsequent works. The animators were also inspired by it, and it became a good kind of competition.

Sugiyama: It's hard to imagine now, but it was a work with that kind of power.

Hirano: Speaking of memories of Urusei Yatsura, Sugiyama-san's eldest son, Chihuahua, was born while Urusei Yatsura was being aired. ^[3]

Furukawa: You used to make stickers with your kids' pictures printed on them and hand them out (laughs). I still have one stuck in my planner.

Sugiyama: The only people who I've ever done something like that with were the Urusei Yatsura team. There was something about that set that made it okay to feel that way.

Do you want to publish a photo book someday?

Hirano: Well, we're almost out of time, so could you tell us in closing what you would like to do and what challenges you would like to take on in the future?

Sugiyama: This has nothing to do with my voice acting work, but I actually love photography. I bought a single-lens reflex camera when my child was born, and I got really into it. Nowadays, I take more and more photos with my smartphone, but I feel like I want to study photography properly at some point.

Hirano: What other subjects do you photograph besides your children?

Sugiyama: I want to take pictures of animals. I'm daydreaming about publishing a photo book of smiling cats. They say cats don't laugh, but they do. However, since I started teaching at Osaka University of Arts in 2011, it's been hard to find the time... I still have to grade the students, which is hard (laughs).

Furukawa: If I could say what I want you to do, I would like you to do more acting work. It's good to teach, but I want to see more of your own acting. Well, I can't really say much about other people.

Hirano: I too would love to see more of Sugiyama's "skills"!

Sugiyama: It's scary to hear that (laughs). But let's do something together again!

Profiles

Kazuko Sugiyama

Born April 9th ​​in Nagoya, Aichi Prefecture. Belongs to Aoni Production. Started voice work in 1967 as Tomato in Adventure Cactus Island. Major animation works in which she has appeared include the main character Heidi in Heidi, Girl of the Alps, Ten-chan in Urusei Yatsura, Ganmo in Gu-Gu Ganmo, and Korosuke in Kiteretsu Encyclopedia. She voiced Licca-chan in Takara's Licca-chan doll telephone service and Licca-chan Telephone for over 25 years, from 1967.

Toshio Furukawa

Born on July 16th, from Tochigi Prefecture. Belongs to Aoni Production. Active since the 1970s, he has played a wide range of roles, from cool second and third-rate characters. His main animation works include the TV series "Mobile Suit Gundam" (Kai Shiden, 1979-80, TV Asahi), the movie and TV series Urusei Yatsura (Ataru Moroboshi, 1981-86, Fuji TV), the movie and TV series Dragon Ball (Piccolo, 1986-, Fuji TV), the movie, OVA and TV series Mobile Police Patlabor (Yuma Shinohara, 1989-90, Nippon TV), and the movie and TV series One Piece (Portgas D. Ace, 1999-).

Fumi Hirano

Born in Tokyo in 1955. After working as a child actor and a DJ on the late-night radio show Hashire! Kayokyoku, she made her voice acting debut in the 1982 TV anime Urusei Yatsura as Lum. She has been active in a wide range of fields, including dubbing anime and foreign films, narrating questions and reporting for the TV show Heisei Education Committee, and narrating documentary programs. In 1989, she married Koichi Ogawa, the third generation owner of Tsukiji Fish Market, through an arranged marriage. Her book My Arranged Partner is the Fish Market Prince was also the basis for the NHK drama Fish Market Princess.

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Footnotes

• [1] When Urusei Yatsura began the episodes were divided into two 15-minute "stories". So while Ten did appear in the third "story" it was actually the first part of the second "episode".
• [2] Shigeharu Shiba (斯波重治) was the voice director on Urusei Yatsura (うる星やつら), Maison Ikkoku (めぞん一刻), and Ranma 1/2 (らんま 1/2). Additionally he worked on Angel's Egg (天使のたまご) and many Studio Ghibli films such as Laputa: Castle in the Sky (天空の城ラピュタ), My Neighbor Totoro (となりのトトロ) and Only Yesterday (おもひでぽろぽろ).
• [3] Chihuahua Shibukawa, who is also active as a singer-songwriter, actor, and voice actor. Yes, that is his actual name.

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