An Exclusive Interview With The Voices of Dr. STONE

For the 34th year of Anime Expo, two staff members from the popular series, Dr. STONE paid a visit to the convention. Game Rant was privileged to sit down with them for an interview to gather insight and the inside scoop of their experiences working on the series as well as facts about themselves! Yusuke Kobayashi, the voice of Senkuu, has been in the VA industry since 2009 and hails from Tokyo, Japan. During the 11th Seiyu Awards in 2017, he won Best New Actor. Kenji Nojima (Dr. Xeno), has been active since the 1990s and serves not only as a voice actor, but also as a singer. Some of his most notable works are Nobuchika Ginoza from Psycho-Pass and Tuxedo Mask from Sailor Moon: Crystal.

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Game Rant: From your experience of voicing these characters, what are your thoughts on them as people? Are they the type you would want to be friends with?

Kobayashi: To be honest, it’s a little bit under investigation whether I’d want him as a friend or not [laughs]. I think it’s moreso if he would accept me as his friend, because, you know, he is a little bit hard on the edges–rough around the edges, in the sense that he’s very direct and very tunnel visioned into the way he sees science, and his scientific procedures. I think he has a lot of knowledge to share with me, and I respect that about him. He’s very smart – but I do wonder frequently if he would accept me as his friend.

Nojima: I think Xeno is portrayed as a character that really acts on his own, and seems…very secluded at times. But his passion for science and a love for science really comes through, which I think kind of breathes life into him. But I don’t know about having him as a friend [laughs]. I love Xeno as a character. I love him more as a character [laughs]. I definitely would never want him as a friend, though [laughs].

Game Rant: I completely get that [laughs]. Is there anything that you learned (academically or scientifically wise) while voicing these characters?

Kobayashi: I don’t know… I think I didn’t know more in comparison to what I did know going into the series and the characters. There’s like a completely different world that I don’t think I’ve ever had the chance to come in contact with, in the amount of scientific information – especially about cooking. Like Senkuu always says, “Cooking is science”; I learned about cooking through the lens of science the first time through the character. I think now when I cook, I have that scientific lens, which makes it a lot more enjoyable – and adds that extra layer of dimension I think that I’ve never felt when cooking before.

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Nojima: Usually when I take medicine for my health, it’s either western medicine, as we know, or there’s Chinese medicine, as well. On top of that, I also love throwing in vegetables, and there are three different elements to nurture a plant to its full potential…calcium and two other things [laughs]. But I guess what I’m trying to say is there are always two different elements that were useful in order to make something come to life – whether it’s completely natural or scientifically related. I think I’ve gained that perspective through Dr. STONE.

Game Rant: Have either of you read the manga beforehand or was this a blind production?

Kobayashi: So when I got the audition part, I started reading the manga and the original works, and at first, I was thinking about doing a spark note situation, where I would read what I needed to read [laughs] – but it was just so fun to read that I got hooked, in a sense that I essentially just started reading more and more, and thankfully I passed the audition. Maybe that had a little bit to do with it.

Nojima: Hmm, so during the audition, I only had time to watch the anime itself from season 1, and during the audition, it takes a lot of courage to watch through the entire series, knowing that maybe I might not get the part, since there is so much volume. However, thankfully, I did get the part, and I spent a lot of time reading the original works afterwards. It’s just so fun to read and entertaining!

The second season of Dr. STONE is now available for streaming on Crunchyroll.