We previously reported about the imminent release of the new 5th CD in the “Disney Voice of Prince” series of popular Disney songs-cover by Japanese male voice actors – “Disney Voice of Prince Voice Stars Dream Selection”. After a nearly 9-weeks’ wait and anticipation, fans may now finally get their hands on the much-awaited CD album after its official release on 6 October 2018.
As commemoration for the CD’s release, the cover-songs project’s production committee held a special talk-show event on the release day on 6 October and four out of the 12 popular male seiyuus who participated in the project attended the event as featured guests. They were (as pictured below): Wataru Hatano – who covered “If I Didn’t Have You” from ‘Monsters Inc.’; Takuya Sato – who covered “Beauty and the Beast” theme-song from ‘Beauty and the Beast’; Takuya Eguchi – who covered “Under the Sea” from ‘The Little Mermaid’; and Shunsuke Takeuchi – who covered “Friend Like Me” from ‘Aladdin’.
The four made their appearance amidst the applause from fans and the playing of the familiar Disney music over the broadcast system in the event venue. After a brief round of greeting the fans and self-introductions, the seiyuus took their seats – previously occupied by Disney character plushies – and the talk-show event began in earnest.
The emcee started the session by asking the voice actors on their impressions of being selected to participate in the cover-songs project, and Takuya Sato said his parents, who are pretty big Disney fans, are very proud and happy with his involvement in the project and he is grateful that they are fully supporting him in his endeavours.
When asked which piece of the music left the deepest impression on them, Wataru Hatano recounted that he thought Takuya Eguchi’s heartfelt rendition of “Under the Sea” to be extremely adorable – ‘One can totally feel his excitement!‘ he said.
When asked to share if any special efforts or voice/musical training were required of the seiyuus involved in the project, Shunsuke Takeuchi mentioned that he did his best to dig around to find and get his hands on records of past performances by original singers, Japanese covers, Broadway musical renditions and even different language-editions covers/arrangements of his cover song “Friend Like Me” from ‘Aladdin’ so that he can listen and learn from them to get the perfect intonation and nuances, as well as feels by ‘putting and imagining myself in Aladdin’s shoes‘ when performing the song.
Takuya Eguchi shared an anecdotal moment of when he was recording the cover songs from ‘The Little Mermaid’ with fellow-seiyuu Natsuki Hanae-san (who was covering “Part of Your World” from the series). Apparently according to Natsuki-san, Ariel is a ‘precious jewel of a character and her life under the sea is great because as the daughter of the Sea King she is being taken care of with no worries… hence she should be kept protected from the silly prince under the sea in her beautiful underwater kingdom forever!‘
To this, Shunsuke Takeuchi also chipped in and shared his own hilarious anecdote of him being chided by the studio staff when he fooled around during a break in one recording session and sang songs from ‘Frozen’ (not included in this new CD’s songs line-ups) in a low deep voice and was told that he’s ‘being creepy and scary so please just pack up and go home!‘.
The emcee also asked what the voice actors feel about their promotion photoshoot trip for the project to Tokyo Disney Resort® with one of the seiyuu magazines prior to the actual CD release, and Takuya Sato recounted that instead of buying the iconic Mickey Mouse ears headband like normal people did, he ended buying a lot of glow sticks instead! Wataru Hatano also recounted buying a lot of the themepark’s popcorn packages and going around distributing them to his fellow voice actors and the staff involved in the project.
The talk-show finally moved into Q&A session where the voice actors answer questions from the fans/audience before wrapping up. Some memorable questions included:
- “Were you able to fully convey your feelings into your cover-songs?”
- “Whom amongst the Disney Princesses is your favourite?”
- “If you wake up one day in the world of Disney, what character would you be and what would your role in that world be?”
To the ‘Disney Princess’ question, Takuya Eguchi replied ‘All the animals in Disney’s works are Princesses to me and I love every single one of them!‘ – to which his fellow seiyuus jokingly mocked him with comments like ‘You’d get your hands full with Zootopia ‘princesses’ then!‘ and ‘So you like the 101 dalmatians, and the Cheshire Cat, and the Three Little Pigs too??!‘. Shunsuke Takeuchi’s favourite Princess is Cinderella; and Wataru Hatano likes Princess Jasmine. Takuya Sato’s comment about his heart being more with the villains side sparked off a new round of hilarious”heated debate” but the emcee took it upon herself to keep the situation from blowing out of control.
The event finally came to a close after the voice actors shared their thoughts about their involvement in the upcoming live concert for the “Disney Voice of Prince” series in June 2019.
The “Disney Voice of Prince Voice Stars Dream Selection” CD is currently on sale at all major music stores and retail outlets. The product price is JPY 3,000 and includes 12 cover songs from the 12 seiyuus involved; as well as a 13th bonus track of an all-star recording cover of the “Mickey Mouse March”. For more information on the CD as well as the live concert in 2019, fans may visit the project’s official website; or follow its official Twitter account.
Source: Pash+ Online
Be the first to write a comment.