While I’m still hot on muscles, here’s the first in a series of Web Newtype features with the Dumbbell cast. Rookie Fairouz Ai plays MC Sakura Hibiki and I’m finding her a breath of fresh air in this industry. She’s one of a handful of ‘half’s that have emerged in the seiyuu biz in recent years, with a bit more of a unique flavour to her given her Egyptian heritage where most others are half-Caucasian (Arthur Lounsbery, Lynn) or half-Filipino (Mark Ishii, Nakajima Megumi).
If you’ve heard her on radio she seems like a pretty fun character – very open-minded with no filter and not afraid of joking around with her seniors. It’s early days for Fairouz yet, but her performance in Dumbbell is polished to the point where you wouldn’t believe that it’s her first major role of any kind. She trained at the Pro-Fit academy and is still a junior (azukari) there but the agency has good form, having produced the likes of Okamoto Nobuhiko, Ishikawa Kaito, Kayano Ai, Ishigami Shizuka, Kito Akari, Iwami Manaka and Horie Shun despite taking on very few talents (generally 2-3 per year). Keep an eye on this one!
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The high school girls’ comedy manga ‘Dumbbell Nankilo Moteru?’ has been adapted to anime! The main character in this series is high school girl Sakura Hibiki, who starts going to the gym as part of an attempt to diet, and she’s voiced by up-and-coming seiyuu Fairouz Ai. Web Newtype will deliver a series of interview with the main cast and staff.
We kick off the project with Fairouz-san. The child of an Egyptian father and Japanese mother, Fairouz talks about the many detours she took until she arrived at her debut in Dumbbell, all in a bid to become a seiyuu.
Q: First of all, let’s talk about your background.
A: I was born in Tokyo and mostly lived in Japan. I did spend some time in Cairo in Egypt, from my 5th year of primary school ‘til I graduated. I don’t know if that period of time had that big of an influence on me but I’m often told that my personality is ‘very Egyptian’. Apparently Egyptians say that they’d rather die than shut up and not talk (laughs)
Q: Do you still speak Arabic?
A: It’s sort of faded away over time but I can still manage normal daily conversations. It seems my parents wanted to raise me as bilingual so we’d speak Arabic whenever my dad was at home. Once I got to junior high, everyone around me started saying ‘it’s fine now’ so I’d just speak Japanese normally.
Q: It seems like you’ll be the leading Arabic seiyuu in future. How did you end up in Egypt?
A: When I was in primary school I was the kind of kid whose head was always in the clouds. I was looking at a website for a Japanese school in Cairo and they had fun school events like pyramid endurance running and parent-and-child mango picking and I thought, ‘That looks fun! Maybe something in my life will change if I spend time in my other home’. So I talked about it with my parents and they agreed, thinking ‘it’s a shame that she only knows about the Japanese side of her heritage’. So they sent me to live with my paternal grandmother and I attended Japanese school there.
Q: Before we move on, allow me to mention something that’s piqued my interest…a pyramid endurance run, what’s that?
A: Yes, that’s a marathon event where everyone runs around the pyramids in the desert. We had 50 primary and junior high school students from Japanese schools all running together and it was fun. The celebrations after Ramadhan fasting were enjoyable too!
Q: Your Egypt stories are very intriguing but let’s get back on track. When did you decide that you wanted to become a seiyuu?
A: I returned to Tokyo to enter junior high, but I found that I didn’t really fit in. That’s when I first came across JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure. I was reading it and thinking ‘Everyone is fighting for what they believe in or fighting to protect something. But I am only thinking about myself and that’s no good’ – I realised that my troubles seemed so trivial by comparison…
Q: Which arc were you reading?
A: The 6th part, Stone Ocean. I was greatly encouraged by reading it, thinking ‘I’ve gotta be strong like Jolyne!’. I started meeting fellow JoJo lovers online and it was common for fans to post videos of themselves reading the lines from the manga. I’d take part in JoJo-related Skype reading sessions and got a lot of good feedback. I was really happy, and these recitals made me feel like I was a resident of the JoJo world…the sessions were only held sporadically but I was impatient and I ended up reciting the entirety of Volume 1 of JoJo by myself – not only the dialogue but the sound effects too. While I was doing all this I started thinking ‘I should become a seiyuu for real and appear in JoJo when it gets animated!’, and that’s how I got started on this path.
Q: So if they do animate the 6th part I suppose you would definitely be going all out to voice Jolyne.
A: I want to be Foo Fighters!
Q: Not Jolyne?
A: Jolyne is the one I adore. So I want to be Foo Fighters, the one who lends her a hand.
Q: Your love for JoJo is pretty full on. Could it be that the Horse Riding Skill Certification Level 4 that I see from the qualifications column of your profile is related…?
A: Of course I read Steel Ball Run (JoJo Arc 7) and thought ‘I wanna ride a horse!’. I can now ride across the Americas!
Q: I see. Did you not read shojo manga etc?
A: Almost not at all. I prefer masculine works like Prison School, Sakigake!! Otokojuku and Fist of the North Star, as well as Fukumoto Nobuyuki-sensei’s works such as Akagi and Kaiji.
Q: I see you love hot-blooded series. Back to the topic, did you start on the voice acting path while doing all those recitals and after graduating from high school?
A: Nope, my parents were against it so I gave up on it for a while and went to graphic design school to study illustration. By my 3rd year I still hadn’t lost that desire to become a seiyuu so I told my mother, ‘I’d like to attend a seiyuu training school after I graduate’. Her reply was ‘you’re only saying that ‘cos you don’t wanna go job-hunting. I’ll only agree if you get a proper job, work for a year and pay your way through school with your own savings’. So after I graduated from graphic design school, I worked as a dental assistant for 1 year while attending seiyuu training school on the side.
Q: And then you graduated from training school and became a seiyuu. Are you friendly with any other seiyuu, including those from your training days?
A: I hit it off with Uchida Shu-san who’s in Kantai Collection etc, ‘cos we both spent time overseas as kids – we do go out for meals. I’ve also become friends with Amamiya Sora-chan (who plays Sōryuin Akemi) after working together on Dumbbell. Just recently, the two of us went for a date where we had a meal and went shopping for clothes. I find that our personalities are compatible so we get along very well…ah don’t worry I’m not doing yuri business, it’s 100% true (laughs). We started talking about how I’d like to draw a caricature of Sora-chan and [showing picture] this is what I sent her.
Q: Let me see….isn’t this way too good though?
A: Nah, it’s not that great really. I’m just good friends with Sora-chan so we send each other stuff like this.
Q: You do list ‘illustrating’ under your hobbies and skills so I am quite convinced of it. Have you been drawing for a long time?
A: When I was in junior high it only went as far as trying to copy my favourite manga, but once I got to high school I bought my own graphics tablet and started drawing in earnest.
Q: Had you not considered going down the art route instead of voice acting?
A: I did, but it’s just a hobby for me to draw the things that I love.
Q: Let’s talk about Dumbbell. How did you prepare for recordings?
A: Everyday I’d read aloud all the lines for every character in the manga. I’d record myself, play it back, do some corrections, memorise the lines. It was first time taking part in afureko sessions so I was just trying my best not to be a burden on my cast-mates.
Q: How did you feel about the actual recording process?
A: When recording started I was thinking ‘there’re still 12 more episodes to go’ but they were soon over in the blink of an eye. It goes without saying that my cast-mates were way better than the performances I’d recorded at home and I learned a lot every week. Many people have been saying to me ‘I’m looking forward to Dumbbell’ when I attend recording sessions for other shows so I’m truly glad that Dumbbell was my first series.
Q: It appears that you go to the gym on a regular basis. As someone who works out, how do you view the series?
A: For me, strength training used to be a silent, inner battle with myself. Once I read Dumbbell, I realised that working out with friends could be enjoyable. Strength training is pretty tough, especially for women, but I’m sure that once you look at the fun aspects of the process through Dumbbell, you’ll definitely be intrigued.
Q: For this series of interviews we’re interviewing the 4 main cast members. Do you have any thoughts on them?
A: Time is always of essence during recording sessions and I don’t really get much chance to chat when I’m away from my seat. So it’s great that we’ve got a chance to talk through this feature and now I can understand things better, like ‘Oh, so he or she is actually like this’ – I appreciate being able to get closer to the rest of the cast.
Q: It seems everyone enjoys chatting with someone as cheerful as you, Fairouz-san.
A: Do they really?
Q: It seems that Amamiya-san’s started working out thanks to your influence.
A: That’s right. She’s got a personal (one-on-one) trainer so we can’t work out together, but we’ve started talking about things like ‘what (muscles) are you working on today?’, like training buddies would. I’m happy that we’ve managed to paint Sora-chan in the same colours as people like myself and Ishikawa Kaito-san.
Q: We look forward to future interviews with the other cast members. Lastly, please tell us about your future aspirations as a seiyuu.
A: Yes. I’m gonna use these abs that I’ve trained to produce better acting with an improved voice – do my best, I mus(t)-cular!* [note: while doing macho body building pose]
*she says Ganbari-muscular
Q: …is that how you want to end this first interview?
A: I actually thought about it & came up with this as the closing line (laughs) I’m gonna do my best!
[Interview & text: Haruno Oto]
Seiyuu+ 