Ranma Voice Actors Discuss the Secret to Sustaining a Career Spanning Over 30 Years

Translated by: Harley Acres

Junya Yoshida
September 26, 2025 12:15

The second season of the anime Ranma 1/2 (NTV), which was remade last year for the first time in over 30 years, will begin airing in October. The main voice actors will be continuing from the previous series, which began in 1989.

How have they been able to continue working in the highly competitive voice acting industry for 30 years?

Noriko Hidaka-san (who plays Akane Tendo) recalled a time from the previous production, saying, "At the time, only young people were cast, and I wondered if it would be okay. There were some fun parts and some anxious parts about being with people from my same generation, but I was very well-trained on set."

Megumi Hayashibara-san (who plays female Ranma) ^[1] commented on how she approaches the production, saying, "Everyone is fundamentally quite serious. They have their own philosophy and think about how they can get into the production. That shows in their work."

Toshihiko Seki compares the previous and current production

Rei Sakuma-san (who plays Shampoo) said, "Everyone puts in all their effort and is very straightforward. It's not like we're fighting or competing, we're inspiring each other." She said that even now, the set is filled with friendly rivalry.

Kappei Yamaguchi-san (who plays male Ranma Saotome), who was cast in a leading role for the first time in the previous project, said, "Everyone was my role model. I had never improvised anything when fighting, so I learned by watching Hayashibara," as he looked back on the time when he followed in the footsteps of his fellow cast members. ^[2]

Toshihiko Seki-san (who plays Mousse), who will be joining the cast starting in the second season, said that before taking on the role, he compared the first season of this series with the previous one. "I realized that when you combine everyone's unchanging charm with new animation technology, it becomes something tremendously wonderful."

Junya Yoshida
Opinion Editorial Department

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Footnotes

• [1] A note of clarification, "male Ranma" and "female Ranma" are differentiated in Japanese by the way the name is written. Male Ranma is always referred to via kanji "乱馬" (Ranma), while female Ranma is always written, "らんま" (Ranma), in hiragana. Here it is translated as "male" and "female" to clarify this.
• [2] The 1989 adaptation of Ranma 1/2 was indeed Kappei Yamaguchi's debut role. You can read an early interview with him from the beginning of his career.

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