We Sat Down With A REAL Japanese Idol (ft. @sallyamakiofficial )| Trash Taste #167
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- Hello everyone, welcome back to another episode of the Trash Taste podcast. I'm your host Joey and I'm with the boys as per usual and I have a special guest sitting next to me. Please introduce yourself. - I've never been laughed at after asking that question. - The way that Sally just looked over at you being like, "What?" - I was like, "What the hell did he just say?" - I'm sorry, I just got here three minutes ago

- You literally spawned, I'm so sorry. Today we're on a rather tight schedule and I appreciate you being so accommodating. - Thank you so much for coming on by the way. - Thank you for having me. Hi everyone, I'm Sally Yamaki, an idol and voice actor here in Japan. Thank you so much. - Thank you so much for coming on because we've tried to get you on like so many times. - I heard, we have mutual friends.

- I hear from my friends. - Yeah, yeah. - I hear from them. So I go talk to my manager about it and she doesn't reply to me. - Like so many times we miss Sally that I just thought she didn't exist for a while. I was just like, who is Annie? - Very popular request. People were like, we'd love to hear about Sally's experiences and get to hear about it. - Thank you guys. - Unique perspective. - Thank you. - So do you wanna maybe just do a quick run through of like what you do for people who might not know who you are?

I'm in a Japanese voice acting idol group called Nanabun no Nijuni. So we have like a character

but we also, the voice actors also work as an idol as well. And I don't know, I guess I also do a lot of MCing. - Okay. - Yeah. - A lot of events. Not good at public speaking though, so. - It's okay. Nor am I. And I don't know how I found myself in this job either 'cause I've always been shit at public speaking until kind of like trial by fire. They put you on a stage and you're like, I don't know.

but I'm just going to pretend and just- - Wait, but that makes more sense for you because you're a YouTuber, right? Like you're an idol. Isn't the main job to be on stage or? - I'm an idol by mistake though. - Okay. - How do you become an idol by mistake? - How did that happen? - So I came to Japan to become a voice actor and I couldn't really read that much Japanese. So for the audition for Nanabun no Nijinni,

I didn't really read like the information, but I saw characters. So I was like, okay, so it's a voice acting group. And then I got in and then they were like, well, you're gonna be an idol too. And I'm like, oh, okay. - And then you got baited to being an idol. - I'll roll with it. - You basically went for a job interview and you're like, I don't know what the job is, but I see a cute anime girl, so I'm gonna apply to that. - I should have known though, because by the third round, like usually in voice acting auditions, people would be doing like vocal warmups. Everybody was fixing their makeup. So I'm like, I should,

Like that's when I should have known. - Wasn't on dancing. - Yeah, no, there was a dancing part too and I'm like, I don't know why you guys need to see me dance.

- I'm like, okay, weird, but okay. - I wanna go even further back, that's okay. So where did you originally grow up and then how did that go from, 'cause obviously that's a big leap to be like, I wanna go to Japan and be a voice actress. Like that's a huge leap. - Oh yeah, I was born and raised in Los Angeles all my life up until like seven years ago, 2016. And I wasn't really into anime when I was really young, you know?

- But in middle school, I met Gintama. - Let's go. - You met Gintama? - I met the real Gintama. - Yeah, I met Gintama and like before then, I went to like a school where there weren't many Asian people

So like, this is a really bad thing to say but I was kind of ashamed of being Japanese. You know, I was like, why am I not like the other people? You know, like bringing, you know it's like really typical story, but you know you bring your Japanese school lunch and everybody's like, ew, what is that? - I feel that. - Yeah.

So I was like, why am I not like other girls? And like, you know, I pretended like I couldn't speak Japanese in front of my parents and stuff. So yeah, I was like shutting every Japanese aspect in my life like out. But I met Gintama and I got into the anime culture and it finally made me like...

really like who I was, you know? - Like embrace the Japanese side. - Yeah, yeah, yeah. - Appreciate my culture. - Yeah, it's insane that you say that because you know, you're saying you grew up in LA, which is now like, if I would think of a city that is like the biggest cultural melting pot I've been to in the world, it's probably LA. LA has so many different cultures and you know, has it changed over like the years where you've grown up in LA where now,

it's like more accepted to be every kind of like different culture and ethnicity. - I heard with COVID and everything, like anime became pretty mainstream and- - Very, very popular. - Oh yeah, definitely had an explosion over COVID for sure. - So yeah, I think like it changed a bit in that.

- Yeah, because I actually like, I think I went through something similar because I grew up in Brighton and I was also, I think like the only Asian kid in my school. - Same. - Yeah, same for you as well. And now like Brighton is like the super progressive city with so many like different cultures. And I look at,

my city now and I'm like, I do not recognize the city that I grew up in that. - Yeah, what was like, 'cause you know, you're from LA, what was like little Tokyo like when you were growing up? Was like, was that even like a thing at all? - It was a thing while I was there. You know, people would have a little meetup with their cosplay community and stuff. I was there too. - Oh, hell yeah. - Dressing up as like,

Attack on Titan. - Nice, nice. - Yeah, and then like we would be all bloody and people would give us weird scares, being like, "Why are there bloody teenagers on this thing?" - 'Cause they're just like calling the cops, just being like, "I think there's been a crime." - You guys have been in Japan for around the same time, right? Seven years? - Yeah, I moved about seven years ago as well. - Oh, okay. - Yeah, yeah. Back in like 2016, something like that, yeah. - Same. - So I feel like, and weirdly enough, like, you know, with you it's America, but for me it's Australia. Like, I feel like we,

it sounds like we had very similar kind of upbringings in that sense, because like, I also had like a period as well where like, you know, because being half Japanese and a predominantly, you know, white country like Australia, even with all of like the different nationalities and everything, I definitely felt like a bit of like a weird connection

cultural identity crisis almost where it's like, I was the only Asian kid in my school. I got bullied for it to an extent. And so I was kind of like, not ashamed, but I guess like I wasn't like upfront as much about like being Japanese, which like, I think, you know, my mom didn't really take that all too much.

Well, you know, she was like, no, you should be proud to be Japanese, you know? And everything like that. And I don't think for me it was Gintama, but it was like, it was something else. I'm some other anime, but Gintama is a great choice. - Which is insane because you know, when we went to visit Sydney, I was like, oh, that's a lot of Asian people here. - There's so many Asians now. - There are so many Asians. - Not to mention like Sydney especially has, I think is like the biggest Japanese like,

like group in all Australia as well. There's a huge Japanese community in Australia now, but I feel, yeah, that definitely changed over time. I don't know what it was. Maybe it was anime. - Okay, here's a big test, right? Was it easy for you guys to find like good Japanese food when you were like growing up in LA or Australia? Because now, you know, now us visiting there, I think it's pretty easy to find good Japanese food, especially in LA. Was it like the same way when you guys were growing up?

- Well, because my parents were born and raised in Japan, we wouldn't really go out to eat Japanese food. - We had the benefit of having Japanese parents that could cook. - I just thought that makes sense, right? - Yeah. - If someone's going for like a roast dinner.

- No, no, it's like the same for me as well, except like, you know, if I wanted to show my friends like Thai food, they'd be like, oh, is there, I don't think like Thai food restaurants was like even really a concept, 'cause we got like one Thai restaurant that I knew of.

And it was mine or it was like my parents. - But you could have used that as the hook, right? Like to your friends, you'd be like, I know this bomb ass Thai place and they just invite them to your house. - Yeah, if you've never told that story, you could just lie to everyone online and be like, this is the best Thai restaurant in the world. - That was back in the day when you'd take your friends to try a new cuisine and like, what do you mean you eat rice with everything? - Like you fancy motherfucker eating rice? - Yeah, you eating rice? What is that shit?

- Okay, so I wanna ask a question. Gintama, why was it Gintama that got you onto anime? - It was just a moment in my life where I was just like hitting rock bottom. Yeah, and you know, it was just a moment in my life when I wasn't really laughing at anything and I was in my room skipping a lot of like school days and stuff just because I didn't wanna go to school. And I was on Tumblr and this like Gintama. - Oh God. - Yeah. - That's a whiplash.

- Well, I think I know what the problem is now. - And this like Gintama collage just came around and I was like, what is this? Like, it was like a really stupid joke that was like really funny, you know? And I feel like that kind of joke was something that I needed in my life, you know? Like something I can kind of laugh at, like being like, what is this, you know? And I started watching it and then I started listening to Sugita Tomokazu-san's radio and I was like,

I found out like that you could pursue a career in voice acting and that's where it kind of got me to. - And then you were just like, "Fuck it, I'm going to Japan." - Yeah. - "I'm just gonna figure it out." - Yeah, well, before I came to Japan, my cousin's friend who lived in Japan also wanted to become a voice actor. And so we went to a voice acting school over the summer for like one day, like a trial day. And I thought you could only pursue voice acting as an adult because every single time I would search like,

Wikipedia for a voice actor's name they'd be like oh I started at 18 or I started after college so I thought it was like an adult thing but when I went to the voice acting school in Japan like the girls in that class were like oh sorry oh sorry about that so when I went to the voice acting school in Japan the girls in that class were like 16 17 they were like my age so I was like

you can be that young and like start. And you know, I felt kind of rushed. I was like, I'm already, you know, behind these girls. So I need to go. - I need to go now. - Yeah, 'cause I'm already late. - Yeah, yeah, yeah. - So, yeah. - So like, what, was there like a specific point where you were like, okay, I really, really want to pursue voice acting or was it just kind of like, hey, this seems like kind of like,

a fun thing I can try to pursue. - Yeah, was there something you always wanted to do as like a child, like from a young age? - Oh no, it was, I basically never really had a dream. Like it's, I don't wanna make this a really dark story, but. - That's humorous. - Tell if you're comfortable with it. - Yeah, yeah, yeah, if you're comfortable with it, please, yeah. - You know, when you're just experiencing something like really bad, if when you,

know that there is an end to it like it just you know gets better like if you have a class presentation you're like it's okay it'll be over in like an hour so yeah you know my nerves will be over for a while yeah so like somewhere in middle school I was like you know what my life is gonna end at 18 I just I just you know I was like this whatever I'm feeling right now like it's okay like I'm good it's

all going to be over by 18. So I'm just, you know, going to live until 18. And then I never really had a dream or anything, but I met anime. And when I was like 15, I was like, Oh, maybe like voice acting is something that I want to do. And you know, it really,

like anime really made me into a more happy and like better person. So like, I kind of want to be somebody that can do that for people who are struggling as well. So it was the one and only dream, like still to this day that I have. - That's so inspiring. - You almost made me cry.

- You're talking about "Ging Tam" five minutes ago. - Yeah, "Ging Tam" saved my life. Everybody's like, what's the meaning of life? Why are we living? My meaning of life is like, well, I still haven't seen the last episode of "One Piece" or like the-

that I started reading. Like I haven't, it's not done yet. So I got to live until then. - That's an awesome story because I guess like, I mean, I mean,

- In the period I was growing up on the internet, it was almost frowned upon to be like, "Yo, anime is important to me and has done something important to me." But I think for a lot of people out there, even if they don't want to admit it, for me personally, it's played a huge influence in my life and has definitely helped me through some tough times as well. So I think that's an awesome and inspiring story for a lot of people to hear that,

It's not fucking, it is just fiction, but it can have a real tangible real life effect on people. - Definitely, yeah. - It makes me curious though, because you talked about your childhood and like you kind of like kind of always like pushed away the Japanese side of you to kind of like fit in better. How much were you in touch with your Japanese side when it was like not around friends, when you were just like at home with your parents?

I would talk like half in English and half in Japanese. And I would always call my grandma. We have a really good relationship with my grandma. So those were the only times I usually spoke in Japanese. Like my brother and I would always speak in English. So still to this day, my brother has like an American accent when he speaks in Japanese. Right. So it wasn't all that much. It was like 20% of my day was Japanese. Right. Was it kind of hard to...

adjust and then be like, all right, now everything's gonna be Japanese and I can fully change everything, my lifestyle, all the approach. - When I first came here, especially because, well, you know, my parents are Japanese, so I look Japanese. So people expect me to speak perfect Japanese. But I'm here with like kind of broken Japanese. - You guys are in like a very similar yet opposite situation 'cause Joey is obviously very, very, very good at Japanese. Obviously half of it. So I think you both have very like,

interesting parallel stories. - Yeah, definitely. Yeah, there's a lot of aspects of your story that I very much relate to, but almost in like, yeah, it's kind of said like in almost like an opposite perspective or I guess like an opposite upbringing almost. But you know, I think like one thing that's really interesting is like, you know, you watched "Gintama" and you know, you saw like, oh, you know, this is something that I finally want to do. And then the fact that you went and fucking achieve that,

is like insane. That's so fucking awesome. And I guess now that you are kind of in this dream position that you put yourself in now, do you now have a brand new goal that you want to achieve in terms of like, I'm sure as any Gintama fan would relate, meeting Suita Tomokazu one day would be,

- That's a dream of mine. - I met him. - Oh, you met him? - Let's go. - He gave me a birthday present. - Oh shit. - I brought it today. - Oh shit. - Oh wait, I don't know where my man. It was in my little makeup bag. It's like my good luck charm now. - Such a wholesome ending. - Yeah, hell yeah. We got the good ending guys. - I mean, how was meeting Sui Sato-Mokazu like?

- It was amazing. Well, first of all, you know when people go into the entertainment industry, they expect so much, like they expect glamor. So, oh, thank you so much. I'm sorry. I don't need anything else. - There you go. - I'm sorry. It's like a little key chain. - Oh, cute. - Yeah. So I use it as like a good luck charm, but yeah.

- I think it's like a neck tie, but yeah. He gave it to me this year for my birthday. So whenever I go into auditions, like I have this, but it makes so much sound. The last time I was in the studio, they were like- - The goat is overlooking me. I got him with me. - They're like, can you please stop making noise? - Yeah, no.

- I was in the studio doing a tape recording and my manager was like, "That's making too much noise. "You need to take that off." Because I was having it right here. - It's like, "No, you don't understand what this is." - First time I did voice acting, I turned up in a buttoned shirt and they were like, "Can you not do that?" And I was like, "Why?" They're like, "It makes too much noise. "Can you swap to a t-shirt?" And I was like, "Oh, I didn't even think about that." - Yeah, I didn't know how quiet you had to be. You had to be silent. - Yeah, yeah, yeah. - You really hear all those mouth noises you made. - Yeah. - Clearly.

- Can you drink water please? - Do you wanna? - Do you wanna put it away or? - This stays. - That stays, that stays right there. - Have this in focus, blur me out. - This episode is sponsored by ExpressVPN. Going online without ExpressVPN is like not having a case on your phone.

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- I fully memorize like two episodes of Gintama. - Like every single word? - Yeah, the first two episodes, like I wrote it down and- - That's impressive considering how dialogue heavy Gintama is, especially- - A lot of people say that, they say you should rewatch the same movie over and over again. - Actually, I did that. - Yeah, I've heard it's great. - Yeah, and Gintama's actually a really good textbook.

- Oh yeah? - Because there's so many like ways of speaking, you know? - Sure. - Like, "ore, watashi, uchi." So, and like the characters are really distinct. So it's like, okay, so people who act like this, like they say "watashi" and people who act like this, they say "ore." Like it's really like, it really helped me a lot. - Sure, sure. - And I would also,

watch the news programs and because you know, their intonation and their pronunciation is like perfect. So I would basically just listen and like say what they were saying. - Yeah, I mean, I think like input is like one of the most important things when it comes to Japanese learning. Yeah, when like how I got my listening skills up was like very similar. It turned out to be like dress up darling.

that I chose for some reason, just because- - I wonder why. - Okay, wait, wait, hold on. Let me, let me, let me go for a second. Just because like I thought in terms of like the genre of anime, I think like high school romance is kind of like at a level where it's,

much more comprehensible for someone just starting to like get to learn Japanese. 'Cause I try listening to fucking Isekai or light novel adaptations, impossible. I cannot even comprehend half the stuff they say. - Yeah, because like half the Isekai is just like makeup words. - It's true. Japanese people won't even know. - Japanese people are like, so why is it written in Kanji but it's like a German word? Like, how does that make any sense? So I was like, huh.

I think like going for like a high school kind of romance is the best way to go about it for something that's like beginner level for me and "Dress Up Darling" just happened to be airing at that time. And I just like chose an episode and I watched, rewatched it like about 20 times. - Damn. - And then like, honestly that really, really helped at least my listening skills. - How did you get your listening skills up?

- I don't think it's dress up, darling. - I don't know really. I guess just existing around here. I kind of feel forced to like hear it all the time. The way I view it is like, it's like building a bridge made of Legos, but you can only put like one block down at your feet each time. You can only pick up and build the connections and use muscle memory. I've still got a long way to go. And also I think,

when you learn a language in the way that I think we probably learned it, I feel like you do a lot of lazy things where like, sometimes I won't listen to the full sentence. I'm waiting for you to say keywords. So I can like, it'd be like this, this, this, with this context, I understand what you're saying. Which is like a bad habit, which I need to get out of. 'Cause sometimes I'll just listen to the sentence and he'll be like, oh, he said it's hot. But he said like five, he said like a bunch of different things around it, which I didn't really pay much attention to.

- I feel sometimes I do that as well. - In English I do it too. - I think that's just like a natural progression you go through where it's like, I can't be like, you know, maybe like- - It helps you understand the surrounding words more, but it's all a slow process. - I think consciously you're trying to listen to every single word that makes up the sentence, but subconsciously you're like, oh, he said hot and today. So he must be just talking about the weather. - Yeah, it does feel like you're like on like a game show where you're listening to a question and you're just waiting for like some key part of the question to be answered. - And so you're buzzing. - I got it.

It's kind of like that. - Yeah, yeah, yeah. - Makes sense. - Did you have to learn Kanji at all? - Yes. I mean, I still can't read that much Kanji, which was a problem for me actually this year when I was hosting the Crunchyroll Anime Awards. - I saw that. - Oh yeah, yeah, yeah.

- But did you ever read people's names? - People's names, but also the script was really long, but I got the script like a day or like two days before, but usually for like AOF 2020, like for this year, like every year we would have the script written in front of us. So I could write like how to read the kanjis, but.

- For Crunchyroll, they wanted to make it like an American award show. So you couldn't have the script in front of you. Like there was a prompter in front of you. So I couldn't write what the kanji like meant or like how to read it. But I literally got the script last night. So I'm like, I don't know how to read that. And also I'm like, my eyesight is really bad. So like usually the words would be like this small but I had to like have them

- Expanded. - That's pretty bad for a teleprompter. - Yeah, and it wasn't like the sentences were like all broken into lines 'cause I had to make it that big. - Just imagine it's like, and the award goes to. - I can't read that. - There was a moment where it was like

or something like that. Where it was like, you know, it was like really popular all over the world. But I just remembered that, you know, like the Ken part while reading the script, but like during the actual award show, I didn't know how to read it. So I said, which is like, yeah, got discovered.

- You're not wrong, to be fair. - Yeah, but so people who already knew the script was like, oh my gosh. - It's all the stuff that I just like. - I saw there was a moment on the award show where like your contact lens or something fell out as well. Just to add like insult on like everything you had to like juggle at the same time.

- I couldn't sleep for like two weeks after that. 'Cause during the stream, you guys can't hear it, but people, the second my contacts fell out and I looked like behind me to fix it, you can hear the crowd being like, "Nani, nani, nani, nani, nani." And that voice haunted me. - That's what I hear in my nightmares. - Yes, it haunted me. And you know, I was like, I'm probably never gonna be invited back.

- Whatever, I'm just gonna like wing it. - Excuse me, you handled it like a professional. The way you handled it, I was just like, nah, I'm all right. This is a professional, I should be taking notes. - I don't think there's many other people they can ask. - Yeah. - Really? - You got like a handful of people they could ask. - I went backstage after that and I was crying into my management. But they were like, you need to go back in five minutes.

It's like, shut up, go back out. - But I can't even read the script. - God damn. - As long as people watch and that's all that really matters. - It is always interesting whenever we have to do live promotion stuff with working on more of the Japanese side, 'cause they always want a script.

- Yeah. - And we're like, no, we don't. - We don't do that here. - We just do it. And I'll be like, you can tell me what to say and I'll fit it in naturally. They're like, what if you say something bad? I'm like, why would I say something bad? I know what I'm doing. - I don't have Tourette's, I'm fine. - Yeah, there's always just kind of that worry though. You just wanna know exactly what you're gonna say. It's like, oh, it's life, you know?

But it's also that, you know, ironic thing of like, you know, they prepare like these like insanely long scripts. And then I've been in situations where it's like, you know, a five to 10 page script for something. Right. And it's like,

- Yeah, so we just finished and we only actually read like three of these pages. - Sometimes you'll give them, sometimes they've asked for a script or they want the rough of what you'll say and you'll send it to them. And then on the day, just when you're reading it, you're like, ah, this isn't the vibe. I'm just gonna change it. - Yeah. - Live. - Yeah, yeah. - Normally everyone's always happy. It's like, you know, I think you as the MC, you normally have a good read of what it's all doing and you can be like, I think this is a better idea.

- Yeah, like out of all like the live shows and like events I've done with Japanese companies, the vibe I get is that they want everything to go on scripts, word for words,

before the event happens. And then the event happens and you turn up and you're like, "So is it okay if I just get the gist of it?" And everyone's like, "Yeah, yeah, sure." - There's no way you can memorize. - I feel bad for the script writer. - Sometimes they force us to memorize like 10, like you've mentioned, like 10 pages. If you gave me five years, I wouldn't go to memorize. I can barely memorize my own birthday. It's not gonna happen. I'll figure it out. - But for me though, because I'm so bad at public speaking, that kind of helps me.

- I guess there's a lot of that as well. They don't know, they don't wanna assume that you're comfortable always being able to just be like, yeah, I'll do it. - Yeah, I suppose it's your voice acting experience has played into that as well because that's where you definitely have a script that you have to read off of that can't be changed. - So you're a voice actor and an idol, right?

Is that like a percentage of which side you tend to do more? Or is it like, I'm mainly an idol who voice acts or am I a voice actor? - When people ask you what you do, do you say voice actor or idol?

- I say voice actor just because I want to be a voice actor. - Okay, okay, okay. - But like sometimes when, like in situations, you know, when, you know, saying an idol would work better, you know, like if I screw up so badly as a voice actor somewhere, I'm gonna be like, I'm sorry. This isn't- - I'm an idol. - This is just a side gig actually. - I'm sorry. So like sometimes I would pull the idol

- I also do have a YouTube channel for the title. I use idol and voice actor depending on which one would be funnier in the context. - So you didn't know you were gonna be an idol. You passed the audition, you're like, you're an idol. And you're like, oh God, what happened? - Was this the first audition that you did?

- No, I took a lot of voice acting auditions, but I failed a lot of them because I usually make it to the final stage with my English. But during the final stage, they would usually give you a script and they're like, look at it for 30 seconds and read it. And I'm like, okay, well I could look at it, but I can't read it. - You could give me an hour. I wouldn't know how to read it.

- Yeah, but it was also a problem when I first went into voice acting school. - Oh my gosh, this has never happened before. - There's something wrong with our... - Epic snap. - Oh, that's the click. I think it's overheating. I think the fan might be jammed or something. It should last the episode. - We'll be able to keep doing it, sorry about that. - Yeah, the voice acting school that I went to,

for you to get in, there was a written test as well, which I didn't know. - Oh. - Yeah. - What's on this written test? - It's to see if you know basic Japanese, you know? - Oh, I see. - 'Cause there's a lot of people who wanna be voice actors, but they're like, you know, like we need you to have like basic language skills. - Of course. - Okay, okay. - But I couldn't read a single thing. - You're just sweating. - Yes. I'm like, oh no. So I took out a red pen and I wrote, I'm sorry, I'm from America.

- That's such a power move. - And I circled it really big. - I can't imagine that went well. - But like right after that, there was also like an acting test too. So my pronunciation was like, okay. So like, you know, even if I couldn't read or write, you know, it was like, I could like speak, you know,

you know, well, so. - That just sounds like every exam experience I've had. I'm just like, I can't do this section, but I'm gonna try and ace this section. Hopefully this section carries me for the section that I suck at. - How many schools did you go to? 'Cause I actually did a video filming at one of the schools

And it was one of the most embarrassing experiences of my life. 'Cause I had to voice act in Japanese in front of people who were doing this seriously. They were all very kind about it. And they all came basically just to film this video that I was making. I felt so bad there to sit there and listen to me.

- Butcher, the language. But like, there was like, one thing I found really interesting is that it wasn't like you, it's not just one voice acting school. There's like, you'd have to work your way up the different tiers of voice acting schools. And the one that I filmed at was like an agency would select you to join it. And you were in like kind of like the upper echelon of the like,

trainees wanting to get into voice acting. - It's like a weird like cost. - I was put in the beginner class. - Okay, okay. - 'Cause I had no acting skills, but also my Japanese sucked. I had every reason to be in the beginner class. - Do a lot of people progress? That's one thing that I didn't really get to ask them or learn about is I didn't know the rate of like progression, the rate of people who would drop out.

- I mean, I know by the time I was only there at that school for like six months because I got into this group that I'm in, Nanabon no Nijini in like six months. So, but by those like months already half the class was basically gone. - Wow. - Okay. - Yeah. - So a lot of dropouts or a lot of people that just- - Yeah, a lot of people dropped out. - I imagine it's just expensive as well, right? - Yeah, it's really expensive, but like,

the one that I went to was like one of the cheaper ones, you know? Yeah. But I was, so I was put in the beginner class, but honestly,

but on day one, there was a girl that was fluent in French. I was like, damn, I was gonna pull my English card. Like this is how I was gonna get into this agency. But this girl who knows perfect Japanese, she's so pretty, she has a beautiful voice and she speaks perfect French. - What an asshole. - I'm like, I can't do this right now. - But if you'd be like, I see this as a negative. - But this is the beginner class and I'm like,

if I can't be the first in this beginner's class, like there's no way I'm gonna get into the agency. - It's so anime that you're like, I gotta be the best in the beginner class. - Yeah, and it's like, if I can't be like the best here, like even if some miracle happens and I get into an agency, there's no way I can compete against my seniors who are already so good at it. So then I started going to a different like school who taught you privately. And that,

- The principal at that teacher was the one who actually introduced me to Nanabun no Nijin. Like the audition. So he also thought this group was a voice acting group. - Nobody had a clue. - Nobody had a clue. - Are you sure they just didn't pivot last minute? They were like, everyone is just really good at dancing and pretty. Maybe we should just pivot. - No, the dancing part, oh my God. The audition process was so stressful because for Nanabun no Nijin. - Did you ever dance before?

- I did competitive figure skating. - Oh, okay. - That's a whole other can of worms you just opened up. - There are ice rinks in LA?

and just ballet and there's like slow movement dance. It's just so different from idol dance. - Yeah, yeah, yeah. - So, but like when I first got the call back to be in the third stage of this audition, it was two days before the third stage. And they were like, you need to memorize this dance, like this so-and-so group's dance. But they didn't have like a video.

sent to me. So they were like, just look for it online. - So they gave you a transcript, but you're like, here's the- - So the right link goes up, left slide, here's the source, look it up. - Yeah, but like they gave me the title, so I looked it up. You know how they're really strict with copyright stuff? So I see the music video, but first of all, it's the short version. Second of all, it's a music video, so there's barely any dancing. Like it's like lip sync of these pretty girls.

- What do you want me to learn? Yeah, so I went to the audition not knowing any of the choreography. - Yeah. - Right. - And the girl that sat next to me, luckily she's my, you know,

as well. - Yeah. - But she was like, "Do you wanna go practice the dance in the hallway?" And I was like- - Yes please. - Yeah. - Yes please. - But I didn't wanna be like, 'cause I don't know the choreography, 'cause I don't wanna, you know, seem like- - You stand in front. - Yeah. - So I'll let you take the lead. - Yeah, I was literally like, "How about we watch each other dance and like give each other like constructive criticism? You go first." And so she would dance in front of me and I'm like, "How about you do like-" - No way that worked. - Yeah.

- But she was like, but I, you know, she knew that I was from America and my cousin was a dancer. So I borrowed her clothes. So I looked like a dancer. I looked like I knew what I was talking about. So I was like, you should do the movements really slowly because you know, dance is just a lot of poses put together. So you should just like do it.

"Do it more slowly, here I'll do it with you." So she's like, doing it really slowly. - She's like doing it slowly. - Walking me through the steps. - Can I film it? Can I just film it? Can I replay it? - You just like violently stare, just trying to remember everything. It's like, "Do that part again, just one more time please." - Yeah, so then, but then once I memorized it, I'm like, "I think we're good, we should go back."

- That's great, I will now ace this exam. - Did that work? - And then it was the time for the dance audition, all these different groups, we were put in different groups.

And while we were dancing, I saw that one of the judges had a video camera going around filming us. It was obvious he wasn't filming us dancing. It was like our face. So I was like, they don't care about the dance. It's about the charisma. So I was like, you know what? I'm gonna wink at the judges. - Oh shit. - So yeah.

- Everybody else is like dancing really seriously. And you know, I just learned dance though, halfway through I forget it. - I'm not one of those face on dance. - Yeah, I don't have any like dance moves. - Just like, just film me up here. Don't film any of my body 'cause I'm not moving at all. - I don't know what I'm doing here. - I don't know what I'm doing. - This sounds like an entire anime.

- This literally sounds like the Naruto test they did where like the actual test was- - Oh, the training exam? - Yeah, the training exam. The dancing was the red herring. They didn't care about the dance, you know. - Dude, the plot armor kicked in for you, bro. That's crazy. - I watched enough animated, no. - It's like, I know your scheme. - That's crazy. - Somehow worked. - At which point did you find out that you were auditioning for an idol group?

- Well, once I got in and yeah, once I got in. - You know, people who like enter like squid game and stuff, you're like, man, they just had no idea. It sounds so much more believable now. People will just audition for shit they don't know what it is. - Yeah. - They don't know. Yeah, like once I got in and they started caring about my weight and stuff,

I was like, why would you care about my weight? - Wait, how does that conversation go? Are they like, hey, what is that? Is that like a granola bar? How many cups? - So, you know, everybody, like majority of the members were teenagers. So my parents had to come in for a meeting before, you know, signing the contract. And right then and there they told me, they were like, you should probably lose like 10 kilograms. - Jeez. - But the thing was,

- I wrote on my resume. Oh, should I stop talking? - Yeah, that's very loud. - So many distractions. - Very unfortunate. - Yeah, so I lied on my resume saying like I was 10 kilograms lighter.

- Do you feel that they were just arbitrarily picking a number that they were like, this is thin. - Yeah, because it's really different, you know, like muscle mass and everything. So they're like, you don't know what you're talking about. - So I would go up to- - I'll have you know my BMI is perfectly normal actually. - I do like that throughout this entire thing, you've been like pushing back in your own way against every single like almost,

unnecessarily stereotypical thing they've been asking for. You're like, no, I'm not gonna do that. - You've somehow successfully uno-reverse card every conversation you've had. - So you lied and it worked? - Yeah, I mean, I guess it didn't work 'cause they told me to lose 10. - Yeah, I mean, it worked during the resume part, but I guess they were like, you're lying kind of thing, but yeah. - Did you lose 10? - No. - Did they care?

- Well, the thing was that meeting was during winter and I was wearing like my mom's coat that was this big. - Oh, okay. - So during the summer next, like the next summer, like I, you know, I have like a fairly skinny waist because with like figure skating and everything. So like I got a lot of fat on my face. So like during the summer I would wear like a really tight clothes and be like, since last winter I lost 10 kilograms. I just took the coat off. - Like damn she did it.

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Okay. Can we get some... Do we have any ice or cold stuff that we can put it on? Yeah, maybe...

- All right, sorry about that. This has never happened before. - It's okay. - Of course the one day we're on a crisis. - Yeah, right. - Okay, so you got in, lost, okay. - So how did they explain to you that you were gonna be part of an idol group? Was that part of the conversation when the contracts were being signed? - They never really explained it, explained it. It was more like the more interviews you do with all these magazines and the way the staff members would explain to you how you should explain the group, they always use the word idol group. And I'm like, where's the voice acting part of it?

- It kinda sounds to me like they didn't really say anything until you got on stage and you kinda realized what the hell am I doing here? - Is this like a new concept as well? Like idols who are voice actors, is this like a first of its kind or? - I mean, there was like, of course, Love Live and Idol Masta and stuff, but I think it was the first time Akimoto Yasuhisa, a producer for a lot of idol groups. - The godfather of idols. - Yeah, it was the first time he produced an idol group, like voice actor and idol group. So I think that's why the idol part is really strong. - He's the guy who created like AKB48.

- Yeah, so he's considered like the godfather of the idol world, yeah, basically. - Right, okay. - What was the first gig you had when you, like, was it like a, it must've been a shock, just the first time actually having to do idol stuff. - It was just a lot of dance lessons. Like, it was like two days of dance lessons and like two hours of voice acting lessons. - Okay, that makes sense. - The ratio seems a bit off. - He's going, oh God. - Could you strap Lysol into it? - Yeah. - Okay, okay, sorry.

- That sucks. - Yeah, I bet. - Do you want to show like we swapped so that like when that switches off since it's overheating. - I mean, it's still gonna look weird. - Okay, okay. - We can just make a note of it that we just keep turning it on, I think. - Your first concert. - Oh yeah. - Yeah, so what was that like? - Our first concert.

- Oh gosh, I feel really bad for saying this. Like we had a meeting with our boss and our boss was like, you're always gonna remember your first concert because like this is a life changing experience. - That sounds really threatening. - You'll remember this. - But it's like, it's gonna be such a magical moment in your life. - Sure, sure. - I was so nervous. I don't remember a single thing. So every single time, like every anniversary that our group has, we always have this interview where it's like, you know,

like look back at your past and be like, what do you remember at your first concert? And I'm like, I don't remember a single thing. That was so nervous. - I just spawned, bro. I don't remember anything. - But our first live actually sprained my ankle. - Oh shit. - Yeah. - Oh my God. - It was like an open rehearsal where people could watch on the first number I fell. - Oh shit. - And sprained my ankle. - Oh my God. - So that part I remember, but everything else I don't.

- Wait, so how many, did you have to continue with the rest of the rehearsal? - Yeah, I didn't even know how bad it was sprained, but like the next day I went to the doctors and they gave me crutches and I'm like, oh, so it's bad, bad. - Oh, shit. - Oh my God. - God damn. - But the adrenaline and everything got me going and yeah. - Like damaging it more.

- It was my left leg, but it was already kind of screwed up with figure skating for so long. - Yeah, so that's one thing I wanted to get into. Like, how did you get into the figure skating thing? - Figure skating, there was this Japanese drama called Puraido. - Okay.

Ah, there was a hockey drama called Paraido and my dad was so into it. And he was like, do you want to go figure skating tomorrow? Like this, the next day he saw an anime. Yeah. So we went and apparently I was really good. Like I got scouted by the coach. So I started, but then again, the problem was I was so bad at like, you know, pubs.

the public eye. It just wasn't my thing. So the reason I quit was because I had a panic attack after my short program, my last competition. I was like, this thing is just not for me. So like, because that happened still to this day, I don't know how I'm an idol still in

performing in front of people. - Yeah, sounds like this is the worst line of work. - It's funny because it's like considering how nervous you are on stage and how, as you say, you're not good on stage, like you've managed to find yourself in situations where you have to perform on stage. - Yeah, so I pretend that when I'm an idol, I just pretend that I'm an undercover spy.

- Wait, wait, so explain the thought process of that. - So, you know, like as somebody who wanted to be a voice, like a voice actor only and you know, who didn't really want to perform on stage, if you think that you're a spy, you know, and

You're like, I'm only doing this. Like, this isn't my job. Like I'm only here to know what happens behind closed doors, you know? So I can experience what like other people can't see, you know? Even the documentaries won't show you. I feel really cool while doing it.

- You are literally the definition of fake it till you make it. - That's crazy. - That is impressive. How long between like you getting the audition was there between like doing your first live and performing for the first time? - It was only like six months. It was even before we debuted, we had our first live. So yeah, it really wasn't that long. - Okay, so after this first performance, did you just like have fans right away? - Yes, because...

The producer was, of course, Akimote Asayasan. So people, yeah. And, you know, Sony Music and Aniplex. How was that? It was overwhelming. I was like, people.

- People who like me? That's a first. I'm not used to that. - There's even like fans, Japanese fans as well, right? It must be so bizarre thinking like, damn, I just showed up here and you guys like me? - Yeah, but like I felt really happy because again, my goal was to be somebody like Sugita Tomokazu was to me.

So I felt really happy when people were like, you motivated me to pursue my dream as well. You make me really happy. That makes me really happy as well. - I'm curious, like what the training process for an idol is. You said there was like six months. Like what is the process between you becoming an idol and doing your life? - Because majority of our members were still in school and

almost half weren't even from Tokyo. So we only had lessons during Saturday and Sunday. - Okay. - And it was like the full day we would have dance practice and also voice acting lessons as well and singing lessons. And we would have like acting tests on Christmas day.

- Happy Christmas. - Yeah, Merry Christmas. - Give me some cash or something. - Have a drumstick, recite the entirety of Pulp Fiction right now. - But I mean, I guess because we had an upcoming anime coming up and we also had characters, but

- Those characters weren't really official yet. - Right. - Right. - You know, so we had to have like a lot of acting tests to see like who would fit which character. So everybody was like really serious about it. But I was like, really on Christmas day? Don't you guys have families? - I guess Christmas isn't that big of a thing, right? - I guess, yeah. - Especially in Japan. - Especially the KFC corporation. - Yeah. - We would have really stressful acting tests and they would give you like a report card. - What does an acting test look like in Japan?

- So for our group, it was reciting . It's like a tongue twister in Japan. Like a lot of voice actors do it in voice acting school. - Yeah, yeah, yeah. - I saw them all practicing tongue twisters constantly. - It's like a 10 minute tongue twister. - What the heck? - It's really, really long. - I just wouldn't associate your quality to act with your ability to do a tongue twister. I just feel like that's- - I feel like, especially in anime though, like tongue twisters are really important. - Yeah. - Right.

- Especially if you have to like speak fast and make the enunciation sound perfect and natural as well. Like I think tongue twisters is a great way of like kind of practicing enunciation especially. - Yeah, I could see how it's practicing enunciation, but I wouldn't, in my mind, I wouldn't think that, I wouldn't want to be judged on my ability to act based on if I did like red truck fucking blue truck.

- I can't even say that. Do you mean red leather, yellow leather? - Like whatever, there's like a bunch of say, like, it's just so arbitrary. Kind of be like, no, you can't act. Why? Well, he failed on the tongue twister. - He didn't say Peter Piper properly. - She sold she sells somewhere else. I don't know where. I just feel like it'd be such an arbitrary decision, but I guess it makes sense as well, the way you described it. Just can't imagine it.

- It was based on like how loud your voice was as well while you did those. - Really? - So you had to like shout it? - Yeah, because you know, in Japanese, hasse, like how you say things. It's really important, I guess, especially in the voice acting industry. So hasse and your tongue twister and those things were like just the basic things that you had to be perfect at. - I feel like it's the opposite problem when I was doing voice acting. People were too loud.

- Oh, yeah. - You get too into it. - Yeah. - Stop. Less is more. - Yeah, true. - What do you mean? - People sometimes get, they emote too much on lines, right? They get too loud. It's a shouting line, but you're not trying to blow the mic out. You're trying to shout, not be, like there's a difference between shouting and just having a lot of volume. - Yeah. - And those two things are very different. It's like, the way I'd describe it is like, you know, sometimes your dad would shout at you, but he wasn't loud at you,

but you knew you were in shit. - Yeah. - It's kind of like that. It's like you shouting and the- - Depends on the dad, right? - Yeah, the intensity definitely got across. - In my dad's case, the quieter he was, the more shit I was in. - Exactly, exactly. - Conveying intensity without relying on volume is kind of a concept

- I think there's well, there's like an interesting, I guess like cultural difference with like Japanese acting versus English acting. Whereas like, you know, a lot of like, say like Hollywood movies, you know, there's a lot of like scenes where it's very quiet and very like, you know, expressive, but in a very like subtle way, you know, like to the point where like, you'd watch like a Matthew McConaughey movie and you'd be like, I actually can't make out what the fuck he's saying because he's so quiet and so mumbly. Whereas with a lot of like Japanese stuff, like not just anime, but like even live action stuff,

It's all about like projecting and like, it's more like a stage play than like how you would do in a movie, right? - I mean, I guess that's just like what you described is basically just a lot of like anime voice acting, which is, I guess more over the top and emotive than you would say get in a Hollywood film because it's so weird.

seeing live action Japanese actors, you know, in like a live action TV drama. 'Cause sometimes I see the way they act and I'm like, they are not acting like people. They're acting like anime characters. - Yeah, yeah, yeah, totally. - I think that's why one of the,

- One of the most critically acclaimed films came out of Japan, most recent memory was, God, was that one where they were driving around a lot and the husband died or something? I forgot what it's called. - Literally every J-drama. - I guess 'cause it was way more of a subtle and way more, a lot more toned down and more realistic. I forgot what it was called. I think it was nominated for an Oscar. I think, I can't remember. - Yeah, well, I guess like, you know, this is going completely off topic now,

that's why I really enjoyed the voice acting of Beastars. - Yes. - Because it felt way more natural and way more, it was almost like live action. They weren't speaking over the top, even if there were some really intense scenes there, it felt way more like,

a Western Hollywood film in terms of like its approach to waxing and its approach to like- - And then I feel especially with Beastars, like when that got translated to the English dub as well, I feel like the dub voice actors just sounded so much more natural than a lot of other like dubs that I've heard because it's like the nature of the show already with like, you know, the fact that the whole thing was mo-capped and the actors were actually mo-capped while doing the lines and everything. So it's like, it just felt more like,

Oh, I'm actually like listening to people talk rather than like anime characters in a weird way. I don't know. - Yeah. Like out of curiosity, when you were doing the voice acting school and the voice acting training, was there any kind of like lessons or training in terms of like actually getting into a character as opposed to just kind of like emoting and saying lines? - It was,

- There was actually no acting at all for the first couple of months. - Okay. Well then, I actually have a question. Did you have much of an acting background in the States before? - Never. I took acting as an elective in middle school for one trimester. - Okay, so like nothing. - Yeah, and I didn't get a single line. - I was just there. - I was the bunny C.

- There was absolutely no way for me to practice acting before I came here. So I would have to like make up my own ways of practicing. - Acting is very clicky in the West. At least when I was growing up, I wanted to try. I remember I wanted to try and do it.

it was already the theater kids were already well established who the theater kids were. And it was like, you cannot become a theater kid. - Don't pretend you're one of us. - You are in between a kid. You belong in the middle. You don't associate with a group. Stay where you are. Don't come in our group. I think that happens a lot.

At least you were able to make it work here. - Somehow, luckily. - So, like, you know, you joined the idol group. Were you like, I guess ever interested or had an interest in like the idol culture of Japan before you decided to get joined? - I always loved watching idols, you know, like,

and like just the Hello Project groups and stuff. I loved them, but it was like really never a career option. I didn't even think I could be one, you know? So I didn't think I could be one, so it was never a career option. So yeah. - What do you think the appeal of being an idol is? - Appeal of being an idol? - I'm just trying to imagine, 'cause obviously our audience is very Western and I think that

a lot of people struggle to really understand the appeal of idols in like kind of a Western perspective. Like we don't really get it, even though they very much have their own version of it. In terms of the way that they do it in Japan, I think a lot of people, they don't really get it. - Yeah, I think when most people in the West hear the word idol, they think of like Japan or Korea.

or like some kind of Asian country. Whereas like, you know, not to say that like, you know, we had fucking back in the day, but- - We definitely have it. It's just, it's like a different- - It's a different beast entirely. - Even the K-pop and J-pop that like, I feel like it's so different. - Oh yeah, absolutely. - I feel like K-pop- - The standards are very, very different. - Yeah, and K-pop is more like when you debut, like you need to be perfect. But in J-pop it's more like they want people that's not Wallace Taupo's, and like they want,

- They wanna see the glow up. - Yeah, they wanna see the glow up. - They wanna see the progression. - The more you look like a potato. Yeah, so that's why a lot of people say when you go into auditions, you should never dye your hair because it should be natural. - Yeah, right.

- 'Cause they just like want to see you go from like a normal girl to like- - They wanna see you in the purest form. - Are they like done with you after you've crushed it? They're like, "I'm done. I'm gonna find someone else who's-" - I hope not. But yeah, that's- - Okay. - Like I'm curious because, you know, especially in like idol culture, I guess marketability comes into a lot of plays, especially with the Japanese idol culture. Did you, were you ever like,

- Not like, were you ever kind of like, not pressured, but were you ever like, kind of like given a kind of like a niche or a character to fulfill as you're like public stage? - Well, I mean,

they didn't really tell me to be like, you know, act really cute and stuff. But I mean, they would tell me to not cuss, of course. You know, they're like, you know, watch your language and those kinds of things. But I feel like our group isn't really as strict as, you know, it's not like act like this certain way.

- That's very like, that's what you, in a lot of like Western media, we get told a lot of time from like journalism, whatever. It's so tough, it's so strict. You know, you have to do this, you have to do X. It always seems like that. But I mean, that's great to hear. - Yeah, I feel like, especially groups with Akimoto Yasui-san, like rather than him producing you, it's more, 'cause there's so many girls. - Yeah. - It's like,

how you can produce yourself. - That makes sense. - I'm not taking care of all you motherfuckers. - It's literally like we gave you the chance, we gave you the stage. So whoever can blossom on their own. - That makes way more sense than being like, you should be this character 'cause we think it'll work. - So that was actually one of the reasons why I started Twitter as well. Our group, we weren't gonna have any social media at first,

but I was like- - Don't you mean X actually? Come on now. - I forgot, I'm sorry. - Yeah, 'cause like I was doing a little bit of research on you and I saw that like, you know, now you have quite actually, you know, not only a large fan base in Japan, but also in a lot of English speaking countries, well obviously because now everyone knows you can speak English.

And I heard that one of the big reasons why you got a big English fan base is because you were memeing a little bit on Twitter. - Yeah. - You're a little meme star on Twitter. - So I really respected Sugita Tomokazu-san. - Yeah, yeah, yeah. - And Gintama. - You literally looked up to the biggest meme star in the voice acting community. - So, you know, I just wanted people, I didn't wanna use like social media as like,

advertisement I wanted it to be something that would brighten somebody's day you know like I wanted it to yeah so um which turned out to be an amazing decision because I think I discovered you through either your Twitter or your YouTube um because there wasn't like you know back back when you first became an idol there weren't a lot of

I don't know if there are like any other idols that spoke English in a Japanese idol group. So kind of like, I think for you, you just bridge the gap, especially for Western audience to like, kind of like make it more approachable.

- Not to mention you had that like almost personality gap as well of like, you know, in "Nanabu no Nijinou" you had, you know, you were the idol girl, right? You know, playing the role in the group. And then meanwhile over on Twitter, you're like memes, you know? And I think just like that almost like disparity between the two personalities was just like, oh, that's actually kind of dope.

It's like, she can be an idol girl, but also be a memester. - Thank you so much, yeah. - I feel that's how it worked out. But like, how did you like, I guess, you know, when you decided to start the Twitter, like, and you started to like, you know, post memes and you know, just be you, like how did that reception, I guess, like come about? - Well,

Like I said, you know, a lot of idol groups from Aki Motoyase-san, it's how you produce yourself. And when the first single came out, I was in the very third lane of the new single. And it was like, it was pretty obvious. I was not the favorite, like group's favorite. And so I, but- - There's politics on the side. - Yeah. I mean, like it would have been fine if it was just me, you know? - Right. - 'Cause it's like, you know,

you know, like more people not seeing me the better, but it was my character too. Like if I was in the third line, that means my character was also in the very back and I didn't want that. Like I wanted her to shine. So I took dancing lessons and, um, so, you know, to get better at dancing and then go to the front line and then also, um,

I was like, how should I get more fans? And I knew I didn't, I couldn't really make a lot of friends in person, but I had a lot of friends online in America. So I was like, you know what? I'm probably better on the internet. So, you know, so I was like, I don't think I can get a lot of fans during the live. So can I just like,

- Have my own like internet section. - Just get a lot of followers. - Yeah, so yeah, that was one of the reasons why I started. I was like, you know, I can't really show my personality in person because I get so nervous, but online it's like total different. It's like, it's easier to talk and everything. - Right, you said that you like kind of mentioned, you know, don't cast or anything like that. How much freedom do you get with like the online stuff and the online content that you do?

- For Twitter, it's literally, you can post anything you want. I mean, unless, you know, it's like really political and stuff. But for my YouTube videos- - You're the first idol politician. - But for my YouTube videos, I have to show my like staff members first. - Right, okay. - That was one of the reasons why my YouTube video right now, my subtitles have nothing to do with what I'm saying.

- Yeah. - What do you mean? - Like for instance, if I'm saying, "Konnichiwa, Minna-san." And like, you know, like, "Hi everyone." My subtitles would be like, "Today's the worst day of my life." - Wait, wait, wait, wait. - What? - You've got to be serious. - On purpose? - On purpose. - Wait, do you put the subtitles on? - I put the subtitles on. - Oh my God. - Wait, why do you do that? - You're such a villain. I love it. - I just really like dark humor, you know? And it's just like,

- Self-deprecating jokes is how I cope with my life. - That's very American of you. - But when I do it in Japanese, like my manager stops me, like my whole entire management team stops me being like, "Stop." - That's so gigabrain that you can keep the Western audience like amused with what they love. - Yeah, so the only way I can,

the only way I can like go past them is if I write it in English. - Right. - 'Cause like, how are they gonna check? - What are you gonna do, read English? - How are you gonna know what I'm saying? - You are like absolutely like limit testing like the idol industry. - This is like five heads right now. - That's so GigaBrain. - Everything you've done sounds like a subversion of every expectation. - I wanna start doing that but with Japanese subtitles.

- Just being like, "Hey guys, we're here right now doing this video." And the Japanese is just like, "Koroshite kure." That's such a good idea. - Yeah. - Hell yeah. - You do this for your tweets as well. - Yeah, for my tweets as well. - Oh wait, so you tweet out both in Japanese and English? - Yeah, so for the Japanese part, be like, "Haya gozaimasu." Like, "Kiyomi arashika nigaishimasu." Like a heart emoji. And the English part would be like, "Why did I wake up today?"

- Like the nightmare starts after I wake up. - Do they not see the translate? - There's a translate tweet button. - Don't tell them that. - It's like Google translation, so it's a mistranslation. - They do, but then when they're like, why are you tweeting this? I'm like, that's a mistranslation.

- Why are you believing the AI? - It's like a pun. - It's hard in English. - Yeah. - I'm like, the joke's really hard to say in Japanese. Don't believe that. - Holy fuck, you're like the Kira of the idol industry, dude. You're just subverting everyone's expectations. That's crazy. - What the heck? - That's so funny. Okay, now that I'm hearing that, I can totally see why all the English speakers are like, this chick's hilarious. - If Oshinoko had this story, I'd be way more interested. - I'm gonna say it, okay?

- This is so interesting. This is so fascinating. Every single like chance you've had to like push it or nudge it, you're like, "Yeah, I'll try it." - Have you seen "Oceanoke"? - "Oceanoke", yeah, yeah, yeah. I thought you said ocean something. - Do you feel like it's accurate?

- I mean the part where like the very first episode, you know, where the producer's like, oh, because they're a big, like, you know, like I don't even know who they are. I kind of relate to that. You know, I feel like a lot of people are like, oh, like welcome, welcome because of like the big agency. And I kind of feel that as well. So I relate to it and I get scared. - I didn't think you were the second off of this.

- Well, like, do you feel like, okay, this is going on Oceanica and you can like stop me if I'm getting in too intrusive, but like, do you feel like you have like a public and stage persona versus like your personal life and how'd you balance that? - Definitely, but that also, I feel like that goes for anybody who's not even like in the entertainment industry. You know, you have a face when you're with your boss, like you're not gonna be like, hey, what's up? You know? So I feel like,

like also I'm a people pleaser, you know, I've been a people pleaser all my life. - God, I feel that. - Yeah. - So I feel like, you know, on stage, like I have to act a certain way that like people want me to, you know, like, I can't be like, I can't,

act sad just because I'm actually sad that day. You know, you have to be like, you know, I'm gonna be everybody's ray of sunshine and stuff, you know? So I definitely think that there is a gap between my personal life and how I am on camera. And usually that gap also kind of is the reason I sometimes get sad and just kind of have a mental breakdown because people expect you to be this like, because- - Be positive all the time. - Be positive and also be like super crazy because of like the way I tweet and like,

my Japanese fans think I'm a big deliquent because I'm going against the management so much. But like reality is like if like behind closed doors, I'm not like, you know, telling my managers what to do. And like, you know, I'm more like, hi. - I'm just existing shit posting on Twitter. You know how it is. - Like two shit posts on Twitter, you need a lot of trust from your management.

- In order to be like, you know, super crazy, like you need, like people need to trust you. Be like, it's okay. Like, you know, like she's a decent human being in front of her. - Did you ever get in any trouble for maybe pushing it a little too far?

- No, never actually. - I'm still trying to find the limit. - Not that I remember. - That's good, that's good. - Do you feel like you said there's a disparity and you get a lot of stress from how you feel pressured to act. Do you feel like the pressure to be a certain character or be like,

I guess like a sort of like perfect person when you're like on stage and you know, you're presenting and everything. Yeah. Do you feel that pressure or are you just kind of like more chill with it? - I used to feel a lot of pressure, but then again, I don't know.

- What was the question again? Do I feel pressure with trying to be perfect? - Yeah, okay, so, you know. - Okay, I'm sorry. - At least with my experience with like idols from like an outside perspective, there's a lot of like the image of an idol being like perfect, I guess, like the perfect person. Do you feel like you have to act like that as well? - Oh, for me,

- I feel like a lot of people actually expect me to not be perfect. - Okay, okay, that's good. - With like the way I act. But the problem with me is sometimes people would think that I'm super outgoing, you know, based on my YouTube channel and everything. So whenever they meet me and they give me like a script for a variety show, they're like, can you do this crazy thing? And I'm like,

- Not really. - How much are you paying? - So the thing is, you know, Uchiage in, how do you say Uchiage in English? - It's like an after party kind of thing. - Yeah, I actually never go to those because I don't want people to- - You don't want to socialize?

One, I don't want to socialize, but two, I don't want people realizing that I'm not as funny as I am when the cameras are rolling. Like, you know, like I'm a lot funnier when the cameras are rolling and like when I'm online. - Right, right. - But if it's just like, you know, in the private area and I have to talk to them as a normal human being, like my normal self is gonna come out. - That's so funny, I feel like at least in like the more Western side, that's what people actually like. They like it when they get to meet the,

other creators or celebrities or whatever, who are like, "Oh, it's cool. Nice to talk to you." And you're the guy. - Yeah, it feels like I'm actually meeting the person rather than the personality. - It kind of like humanizes that person to a point where they're not on like a pedestal anymore. And they see them as,

like more like vulnerable, I guess. - It's like, oh, they're just, you know, they're just like another human being like me, you know, with faults and, you know, good things. - She just like me for real. - Yeah, she just like me for real, yeah. - And then that's like a much bigger appeal as opposed to, you know, being this perfect idol that has no flaws. And I think that's the, like, I think that's an interesting difference at least from what I've seen from like a Western audience and a Japanese audience. I'm not sure if like the Korean audience is different at all.

I would assume it is because every K-pop idol group I've seen are fucking perfect in every way. - So beautiful. - It's crazy.

- I forgot what we were talking about. Yeah, going back to idols. So what is like the normal schedule or like the idol side of things as opposed to like the voice acting side of things? - What's your week looking like? What's a normal week for you? - It's honestly different every week. And my schedule is also very different from my members because I'm one of the few members that is like actually pursuing a career in voice acting right now. So it would be like in the morning I would go to like the,

anime like the studio and do some voice acting and then in the afternoon I would do rehearsals with my group and just like that everyday and then I'd have like radios I have like two radios and one Nico Nama is

- Yeah, so I would film those and yeah, it's basically- - Damn, you're doing everything. - Yeah. - Geez, grinding it out. - Yeah, the grind is real, bro. God damn. - Do you get much of a say in what kind of projects you take on or is it kind of like, "Hey, this week you're doing this, see you there." - As long as it's not really out of my comfort zone, you know?

I'm like, I will do anything, especially if it's like voice acting things because, you know, that's what I want to do. And build up the experience. Yeah. And, you know, as a person that's just like starting out, you know, like yes to everything. Yeah. I don't really want to like choose. And I also want to be like the type of person that is able to, you know, act as anything, you know, flexible, right? It's always better to be that person. Give me a box and I will be that box.

- Have you ever done any, you know, you've done voice acting. Have you ever done any live action, like TV acting? - Never TV acting. Like I did one musical.

- Yeah. - They did a musical? - For "Aku no Musume", the Vocaloid song, "Aku no Musume". - Oh shit, yeah, okay. - I played Mikaela, which is like Hatsune Miku. - Yeah, yeah, yeah. - Oh wow, right. - It was the most nerve wracking. - Really? - Yeah, there's so like real people right in front of me while I was acting. And also, I feel like the stage play, like the actors, like the community over there is also very different in the voice acting and the idol industry. It's like,

you gotta get to know each other so we can create something amazing, you know? - Yeah, it's all communication based, right? Yeah. - Like my communication skills is like terrible. Terrible. - It's like I don't have a script. - Yeah, it is terrible. - How do I communicate? - So every single time during rehearsals, I would,

- I already have a script in my head, but I would pretend that I was like looking at my script. So like, you know, to make sure, you know, be like, sorry, I'm not talking to you. Not because I'm shy, but because I'm focusing on my script. I'm so sorry. I have to act all the time so that people won't feel uncomfortable around me. I'm so sorry. The script is so important, I'm sorry. - I'm sorry guys, I'm busy. - I'm very professional, I'm sorry. - It's very awesome that you've,

there's a lot of social anxiety there. You still haven't let it stop you at any point. You're like, I'm gonna do it, but I'm just gonna work around everything. I'm gonna find a way to make everything work. - Yeah, has there been, I guess, ever a point where like, I guess your social anxiety kind of got like the best of you in like your position? - Yes, during the, you know, idols have handshake events.

- Like a nightmare difficulty level of social interaction. - Do you wanna explain handshaking events for people that don't know? - Yeah, so handshaking event is like basically something that comes with a certain amount of money

- A CD, so you buy a CD and you get 10 seconds with your favorite idol. - Which is like a crazy trade. - You say 10 seconds, how strict is the timing? Is it just like one handshake? - Well, aren't there people with like stopwatches? - Yeah, there are stopwatches and there are people that are like,

- Are you serious? - Have you seen videos of dudes not letting go and then five guys dragging them? - I've seen that, but- - Yeah, there's literally a dude at the back with a stopwatch being like, "All right, your time starts now." - Tell the story, I'm sorry. - So yeah, so,

- My social anxiety started way before I became an idol. As I said, the reason why I quit figure skating, competitive figure skating was from my social anxiety. So like, but I hid it from my management team, like during the audition too. - Of course. - Yeah, I never told them.

so um during the handshake events i was really thankful for people coming you know and um i loved them but my brain and my heart was just like telling me different things like i would get rashes on my body and like i couldn't like breathe yeah it was it was you know a lot of things were happening to me so then i had to stop and um but my management team was like really really nice about it you know um

we decided whether we should inform the public that I wasn't going to do any more handshake events because of my social anxiety, or should we just say, she's just not going to do it for personal reasons. And, and,

At first my manager was like I think we should hide it Because you know Just these things Especially in Japan It's not you know Really a good thing to say publicly You know like Yeah You might not get Many like job opportunities So she was really worried for me She was concerned for me But um

The reason why I decided to say that I had social anxiety and that was the reason I stopped the handshake event was to let people know that, you know, people with social anxiety can still work, you know, like I feel like a lot of people hide it and that just makes it a lot harder. You know, once you just come out with it, it's a lot easier to have people help you, you know, like when you're about to have an anxiety attack, if you're hiding it, you gotta be like, I'm

oh my god, oh my god, oh my god, like I can't let it show. - And they won't be able to help you out with that, right? 'Cause they don't know what's happening. - But if you already tell people, you can be like, today's not the day. - Right, right, right. - Yeah, so now is not the time. And I feel like by me saying it and proving to people that I can still work in the entertainment industry while still having social anxiety, I feel like,

I can be, you know. - You're just breaking every stereotype that I'd all like. You're just like, "Hey, I'm too anxious to do handshaking events." Okay, you can still make it work. - Yeah, honestly. - Was there anything that happened during any of these events that gave you particular anxiety towards them or was it just the idea of it? - It was just the idea of it. And I don't know, it was just,

- So many different people coming in. - It's a lot. - Yeah, it's a lot. - Yeah, so it's not like there was like somebody that did anything to me. Like I really, as a person, like every single one of them, I loved all of them, but it was just like a thing as a whole. - Yeah, yeah, I mean, I get it. There's a lot of people and there's a lot of interaction in the short amount of time. - Yeah. - There's a common conception in Japan that I guess mental health stuff isn't really taken as seriously as it should. I mean, how has your experience been with that here?

Well, once I came out with it, everybody was really supportive of it. That's good. And the people around me are like, you know, like I didn't, I didn't really have an understanding with social anxiety. And I also didn't think like somebody as outgoing as you on camera could have social anxiety, you know, like I didn't think that was a thing, you know, but so I feel like with me saying it, you know, well,

about a better understanding in my perspective. - I mean, it's better than zero. - Yeah, it's better than zero. - And honestly, it's like massive. - I know you're a good spy. - Honestly, it's like massive props because as you were saying, I feel Japan is still very much behind when it comes to the awareness of mental health, especially compared to America. - I think there's a lot of jobs that'll be like, "Oh, you have anxiety? "No work?"

- I'm guessing a lot of people in Japan, especially have social links. - Oh my God, are you kidding me? - Just a guess. - Are you kidding me? - Just a guess. - Bro. - Yeah, 100%. - Yeah. - Yeah, so honestly, like, yeah, like I think it was really brave of you to say that publicly because I'm sure like, you know, you are by far not the only one, even I reckon like in the idol industry in itself that, you know, suffers from

that kind of anxiety like you do. So I think just the fact that you were even being like, you know what? No.

I'm just not gonna like run around the fact, like I'm just gonna tell it how it is and you know, it is what it is kind of deal, right? So yeah, I think that was really cool of you to do. - How was the response to the announcement, I suppose? - The people that supported me were also really nice and you know, it just made life so much easier after that. - Yeah, 'cause you stopped needing to feel like you had to pretend. - Yeah, definitely. - Just be like, "Hey, I got this."

Please understand if I'm not acting the way that you think I should act and people move on. Would you say that you like out of like your fellow members that you have, you deal with the most social anxiety? - Don't, I feel like everybody experiences things differently, but I feel like not many girls have like panic attacks as much as I do. So yeah, maybe. - Or they're really good at hiding it.

- Everyone is a spy. - Everyone is a spy. - Just lie a game on the game. - Everyone is lying to each other. - So I guess go into your voice acting. I saw that you got a role in "Toma-chan" recently where I think it might be a first where you voice both the Japanese character and the English dub character as well. - It was like somebody did it beforehand, but

- But it was the first where the English dub and the Japanese version were streamed on the same day. - Oh wow. - Yeah. - Usually there's a gap, like several months, you know? - That must have been fun getting to do the language. - Oh, it was really fun. - I didn't get to do that with...

- When I was on "Pop Team Ambict". - That's 'cause licensing stuff is really complicated. - I'm just like, "What the fuck Funimation? You could have just called me, bro. I would have been down to do it." - I think it actually takes way more work to be able to hire you to do it again. It's like a whole thing. - Did you have to audition for both the English dub and the Japanese dub? - Yes. - Really? - They sent me both the scripts. - Oh, wow. - But you know how...

A lot of people don't know that acting in a different language is so different. Just because you can act in Japanese doesn't mean you can act in English. So that was my problem. I was like, I've never acted in English before. I was like, I don't know if I can do it, but I'm going to send my, in my audition anyway, see how they like it. And I somehow got the

- Did you want to voice in English or was it something that like your agency was just like, "Hey, you should try dubbing in English as well. That'll be an awesome experience." - Well, my agency really didn't say anything. I think just the production team of "Tomo-chan is a Girl" was like, it would be cool if, you know, Carol, the character that I voiced was voiced by the same person. - That is indeed cool. - That's a flex. - That is a flex. - Yeah, it was so fun. - Which one did you record first? Was it the Japanese or the English? - The Japanese version. - Oh, okay.

- So you got like a sense of the English session. Like I already know. - Guys I know the character, in my first time. - I don't know if you know, but I voiced this character actually. - It was actually really funny.

- It was actually really easy to do in English. At first they were like, we need two weeks. Like you need to, we recorded in Texas. They told me I needed to be there for two weeks because- - Oh, you went all the way to Texas for it? - Yeah, at the country roll building. And they were like, this is your first time dubbing in English. So you probably need two weeks because you don't know the process. But I finished it in less than four days.

- You just had like a week off in Texas. - Oh no, it was just one week I was there. - Oh, right, so you flew back. - Was there a reason why they didn't wanna do the dub here in Japan remotely?

- They said it was because it was my first time and they wanted to like, really like have me experience. - How was the, like, I guess difference between like, you know, a Japanese voice acting session versus an English voice acting session? - It was so different. First of all, like the Japanese voice acting studio, you're there with majority of the class. - Everyone wants, yeah.

Well, once COVID hit, it's more like three to four people per session. But still, I was there with the four main cast members. So we would...

just acted out altogether. But in the English dub, it was just me in one studio. It was also really small too. - Right. - Yeah, so, and the lines, you have to say the lines after this like three beeping noise. - Yeah, yeah. - Oh yeah. - Yeah. - I gotta like match the lips as well. - That's like a curse in my nightmare.

So the Japanese version, there's like a 30 minute anime. There's an A part and a B part. And like one is like 15 minutes and you would test the A part like without stopping. And then you would have like the real thing. It's just like two takes, you know? But the English is like,

- Line by line. - Line by line, yeah. So that was really interesting. - Yeah, 'cause with the Japanese side, did you have to worry about matching the lip flaps or was it just kind of just say the lines and we'll animate the lip flaps for you? - It was like say the lines, but in this timing. - Okay. - Yeah. - They normally don't care about lip flaps as much.

- Yeah, I've noticed sometimes you watch Japanese like anime and now it just doesn't match at all. - There's like a half a second extra lip flap after they start finished talking. I'm just like, whoa, what was that? - Yeah, English is very, very strict. - Yeah, the English, they have to match the syllables with the Japanese lines. So that was interesting. - Very tough, 'cause you're like, this sounds unnatural. And they're like, well, there's no- - Welcome to Dubs.

- They decided to use this word in Japanese. It was 15 syllables long. - Yeah. - To find a replacement. - Did you get the script beforehand for the English dub as well? - I got it like a week before, but they told me not to look at it that much because it's gonna change on the spot.

- Yeah. - So I kind of like flopped through it. - Japan being like, we can do it. - I had my first like voice acting experience in an anime role as well recently. And I just kind of like turned up on the day. I didn't even know- - That's normal. They normally don't give you the script before. - Yeah, I didn't know this. 'Cause I turn up on the day ready to like film like a vlog, right? And I'm like, so what are we doing today? Who am I voice acting? 'Cause I thought I was just gonna be like voice acting like background characters or something like that.

And so they get me in the booth, they showed me the script and I'm like,

- So I'm a named character? What the fuck? I die in this scene? - His name is Giga, okay. - I got to do some acting, acting, and they were like, "Yeah, here's the script, here's your lines." I'm like, I did not get any prep for this whatsoever. - Were they just like, "We've seen Ava Bridge, we know you can voice act. Come on, don't lie to us." - They saw a Hong Kong star. - Oh, they saw a Hong Kong star. - They were like, "This guy, this guy can." - They were like, "This vagrant right here?"

- This is the guy. - We were in a Gacha game and it was, we had like very funny lines and Garnt just sounded exactly like Garnt. - I just sounded myself. Everyone was like, oh, it's Garnt. - Immediately recognized his voice, yeah. - But yeah, it was the first time that I had to like not use my YouTuber voice and I actually had to like, I guess. - What kind of voice did you do?

- Oh yeah, I'm so interested. I can't wait to see this vlog. - Yeah, because like every time, like, you know, even like with your older bridge stuff, right? I know immediately I'm like, oh, that's gone. - Oh, it's still me, right? It's still definitely me, but it's not like, hey guys, it's a good, filming a vlog. - I remember, okay, so I've seen like the first draft of my vlog, which is not out by the way, it should be out by the time this episode is out. So yeah, I voice a character in Mashal.

- Oh, crap. - Oh, hell yeah. - Yeah, yeah, yeah. I've always carried to the masher. I get like kill. I'm one of the characters that got killed. - Spoilers. - Yeah, yeah, yeah. - And I remember like, I'm watching this vlog back and I do like, okay, so we're gonna try the first take of the line. And I didn't even know that we're just gonna like just jump right into it. Didn't really find my voice at all. So I just started reading in my usual like,

- You got voice? - Yeah. - Which looking at the vlog, I'm just like, this sounds so fucking bad. And then they're like, okay, let's take it like three octaves lower. - Right. - And I'm like, oh, I've never done a voice like this. Something like that. And,

somehow I had like excellent like directing and I somehow like stumbled through it and I'm pretty proud of it. It doesn't sound like anything I've done before. - Good direction helps a lot. - Yeah, good direction does help a lot. So I kind of like realized the power of like good directing. - Did you ever have to with any of your roles, like maybe be asked to do like a different voice or like a different tone or anything like that? - Yeah, there was,

I went with a really high pitched voice, but they were like, no, we need an adult lady. And I was like, no,

- Oh no, I practiced all my lines and this kiddie like, "Konnichiwa." - Yeah. - Suddenly I had to be like, "Konnichiwa." And I'm like, "I didn't practice for that." And yeah, that was a hard day. I went home crying. - You put way too much pressure on yourself. - Yeah, you do, yeah. - Minor life inconvenience, I will die. I'm literally gonna die. - Guess I'll die.

- God damn. - Yeah. - Oh my gosh. - Yeah. - Yeah. So how many other like voice acting roles have you been able to get more now since you've kind of like opened the door?

- Yeah, slowly but surely. Right now I'm doing this character called Katarina from "World Dice Star." We have a game that's a rhythm game that's already out. We haven't downloaded it yet. But a lot of the times the characters I voice are people who speak another language as well. They're bilingual. And it's really hard because sometimes people would be like, "Oh, she only got that role because she can speak English." - You mad, bro?

- Sometimes they need English. What are they gonna do? - Yeah, we've all seen Crokino basket when they go to America. It sounds awful. Yeah, they should've got English people. Someone should've got the roll call this week. - Sure, sure.

- I think that's just, so what? It's like, oh, you were qualified for the job. - It's like, oh wow. Like, woe is me that you have a skill that I don't have. - Yeah. - It's like, wow, that's crazy. - Like I used to get really down about that being like, like, I guess, you know, it's not really my skill, it's just my English, but then- - No, it is a skill. - Yeah, but my best friend was like, well, you see that girl, like she got in because of her singing, that girl got in because of her appearance, like, and you got in because of your English, like, what's the difference? - Yeah, take it with stride. - Yeah. - Wow.

- You're right. - It's not your fault that you're qualified. - You should be prideful of that. - Yeah, hell yeah. - Yeah, you have a skillset that not a lot of people have, especially in Japan. And also you can act on top of that as well. - If anything, you have a skill that I think

a very large proportion of Japanese people wish they had. - Yeah. - You know, which is the just being fluent in English. So it's like, you know, I mean, I certainly take that with stride whenever I'm here, you know, just being like, oh wow, you can speak Japanese and English. That's insane. And I'm like, and in my head, I'm like, yeah, I mean, it's not, I'm not the only one who has that skill. But then when you think about it, it's like, no, that is a skill that not everybody can achieve to, you know, the certain level. So like, yeah, I think you should be very proud of the fact that you,

- Can speak both languages. - Yeah, we have generally no skills. We're not gonna take anything. - Yeah, I'm taking anything. - All the time, I'm like, hey, so what? That's the game. - I know how to edit a video in speaking English. That's my two skillsets. - Yeah, I don't know. You kind of just have to, I mean, I think a lot of entertainment, personally I find is,

- You'll never have the perfect skillset or what you need to always be the best at everything. But it's like, how can I currently take what I have, learn more whilst also applying the current skills that I have into the situation to the most useful they can be. So it's always just a battle, right? Of trying to figure that out. But you're in a way more intense environment. You sit here and chat shit on the podcast. - We just look at a camera for two hours a day. - That's so hard though.

- I just want to announce right now, I have never held a two hour conversation with anybody before. - Wait, wait, wait. - Like off camera as well? - Off camera as well. Like I've never, like of course, like you know, I've been in a situation where people are talking for several hours, but I was never part of it, you know? Like I was just there. - Your manager's just crying. - What? - Like what about the conversations

- You're the best spy. - I was so nervous today 'cause I was like looking at your podcast and it's like, everything's almost two hours.

- Now I feel even more bad that like, okay, literally today, Sally just like came in and we're like, all right, we're starting guys, sit down. Don't even like, we say hi and that's just it. And we're like, all right, we're starting the podcast. - Yeah, normally we have like a 30, 40 minute, like just kind of chat off camera to get to know each other. But we were just like, sit down right now, we're talking. - Yeah, it's like, I'm so used to the Japanese like work environment. I thought I was sitting down to have like rehearsals or something.

- Oh no, no, no. - Like suddenly- - Not at trash days, baby. - Suddenly you were like, "Hi everybody." And I'm like, "Oh, hi." - That's why you were laughing. - Yeah, I was like, "So we're starting, starting." - Were you laughing or was that just a, "Oh shit, we are?" - No, it was a, "Oh shit, we're starting." - I thought my intro was just really weird. I'm like, I was getting like- - It was weird. - I was getting self-conscious. I'm like, "Oh." - It was just hilarious. - Thank you. - I have to go in like five minutes as well. - Okay. - You have to.

- I called the taxi. - Okay, no worries. - So are you okay staying for a little bit longer? - Of course. I wanna be part of this show forever. - Are you having fun? - Oh yeah. - All right Connor, you can fuck off. - We're replacing Connor with Sally after this. - Yeah, I wanna sit there because that's my good side action.

- I gotta leave in five minutes, I gotta go to the airport. 'Cause that's how tight we had to schedule today to make sure it all worked. - Yeah, I don't know if this, did we say this on camera that we tried to get Sally on three times before in the podcast. - It took like a year to try and get you on. - It's taken over a year and every time we tried to schedule her on, either her schedule has been mismatched or our schedule has been mismatched. So we booked this day in and then,

- Literally a week ago Connor's like, actually I got a chess tournament. I need to go. - If I win, I gotta go to LA. I thought we were gonna have to cancel, but I was like, wait, hold on, let me cook. I can make this work. So the moment I landed in LA, I gotta do press stuff. - Gotta flee the country. - I gotta get out. - Meanwhile I was like, Connor's gonna throw.

- Connor's definitely gonna throw one of these chess games. - I thought I would, I thought I would lose. - And then he just kept playing well. I was like, what the fuck? - First time Connor won and I was just like, damn it. - I joke a lot when it matters the most, it's my thing.

- I feel you, I feel you. - But I'm super competitive and I can't like willingly throw something. I just cannot not perform. - I respect that. - There's something in my brain that won't allow me to not try. - I will not be a failure. - I feel you so hard because like I said, you know, in the idol group, like I don't mind being in the back, you know? - Yeah, yeah.

- Thinking about the rehearsal time, you know, like where all the members are there for the same time. Like if I'm gonna do it, I'd rather be where like, you know. - Yeah, of course. - I'll be like, this dancing's dumb, I don't care. And then literally when I get home, I'll be like, I'm gonna try my fucking back. - Me too, me too.

- No more playing games. - I'll not play video games. - That's what I'm doing, that's my day. This is a whirlwind of a day. - Yeah, so yeah, anyway. - It's not about me, it's about you, okay? - What were we talking about before? I completely forgot. My taxi is four minutes away, so I'll probably just say my goodbyes now. - All right, all right. - I'll let you continue. You can have the good chat. - Do you wanna come here?

- You can take this chair. - All right, let's do it. - I mean, it's fine. I'll go back in the normal position. - We're operating Sally from guest to now host.

- This is a real trash taste first right here. I don't think we've ever switched seats mid episode. - You know, since Sally is giving us just her first two hour conversation, we must do a first on trash taste as well. - You can take my cut of this episode. - Thank you.

- It's all right, I have the spirit of Sugita Tomokazu right with me. - So now that you have Connor seats, I gotta ask, what's your hottest food take? So we're known on Trash Taste for- - Shut up Connor, shut up. - Oh my God. - Okay, so we're known on Trash Taste for having some controversial food takes. Do you have any like food takes that you think are like a little bit weird or-

- A little weird. - So why don't we give some examples from the past? So Connor, for example, hates oranges. Like with a passion. Like he doesn't just dislike oranges, he despises oranges. You leave. - Yeah, I famously said on the podcast once that all bread tastes the same. - They do though. - Oh my. - Oh my God. This is amazing.

- You really are just a female Connor. - Okay, thank you, thank you. I've been like- - Okay, Sally, you can not tell me. You can not like legitimately tell me- - You came to the right side, Sam. - That Wonder Bread and pretzels taste the same. - It's just different seasoning.

- It's like, you know, cheese or not cheese. - I've never been more happy in my life. Oh my God, this is amazing. - I'm sorry, am I gonna get canceled for this? - No, your idol career is over now, you're banged up. - No more bread commercials for me.

- All right, all right, I gotta ask. Do you eat the pizza crust? - I don't. - Yes, yes! Oh my God. This is one of my favorite moments on trash days. - You know what, I'm glad you're not so messy now 'cause. - 'Cause I mean that's where you hold it.

- It's a handle. - Okay, but Americans figured out that, oh, we can add dipping sauce, like ranch or something, so that if you have just the crust left, then you can just dip it in some ranch and you can eat it deliciously, right? - That's just bread in it. - Yeah. - Pizza's better. - Bed with different seasonings.

- Why are you so obsessed with Caesar? - Wait, wait, she's onto something. - No, she's not. - Hold up, hold up. - She's not onto something. - God damn, bro. - What is your least favorite American food? - Least favorite? I don't really have like a least favorite. My just like no to food, like no food is egg whites, uncooked egg whites. - Uncooked egg whites. - Oh, damn. - The texture is really weird. - Yeah. - It is a little plasticky, isn't it? - Yeah, and it's- - It's like styrofoam.

- And it's like, when I was really little, I thought it looked like a snail. And ever since then, I just can't eat it. That kinda looks like a snail. And then suddenly, you know. - Yeah, 'cause it's like very slimy, isn't it? - Yeah, yeah, yeah. - Do you eat natto then? - I love natto. - Oh, thank God. - Okay, okay. - Finally a good food test, let's go. Thank God. I was about to revoke your shoes, actually, if you had said no. - I love natto, but yeah. - That was a test and you passed. - Yeah, you passed. - No one in Japan cares about bread.

- We've seen you guys' sandwiches. No one here cares about the bread. - True, true. - But the natto, okay. - The natto, you don't fuck with the natto. That's facts. - How often do you get to go back to America? - I haven't gone back for four years. - Four years, wow. - 2019 was the last year. - What was it like, I guess, like once you, the first time you went back to LA after being here for however many years you did? - I forgot like how friendly and unfriendly people in customer service can be.

- Like, you know, like it's both a good and bad thing. 'Cause in Japan, everybody's like, "Inasemuse, kochidai." And like, they're so polite. In America, it's more like- - What do you want?

- Yeah, it's like I've noticed it's, you know, I know why this is, but it's like, is this customer, does this customer service position have a chance to tip? If the answer is yes, you'll probably have good customer service. If the answer is no, you will have the most dog shit customer service

of all time. - Yeah, but like what frustrates me more is like, you know, the few who are like, oh yeah, you know, I really want the tips. I'm gonna try and be like a nice, you know, waiter or waitress, right? But then, you know, when you give them like a lower tip than they expect, they turn around being like, what do you mean you didn't give me 18%? I filled up your water three times. That's great service. And I'm like,

- It is how it is. - Yeah, I just wanna say this isn't like a dig at people who work customer service. - Oh, no, no, no. - They don't get paid enough. - No, you guys are getting fucked over by the system. - Yeah, it's the system. Because yeah, I've noticed that when there's not a chance to tip, people don't care about the customer service job, 'cause why would they? - Yeah, definitely. - But yeah, I mean, going back to America this time, 'cause I just came back from America, the tipping culture has gotten like even more insane. So I'm all for tips, right?

But you go to like a coffee shop or a Starbucks and you order a coffee and the only interaction you get is, "Hey, can I have like a latte please, venti or fucking..." No, it's not venti. It's a medium size. - Yeah. - And they like turn around the tablets and the 20% tip is like there by default.

- It's usually like a choice, right? It's like 20, 10, five or no tip. - Yeah. And it's just like, I don't want to be an asshole and say no tip, but also I kind of feel like it's kind of like a dick move to have it just like default on like 20%. - Yeah, yeah, yeah. - You know what I mean? - Yeah. - That is true. - So did you find any experiences when you last went to America that like changed when you had grown up there? - So when I was there,

- I would only go out with my parents as a teenager. So I never had to pay for anything. I actually didn't really know the tip system. - That's that privilege. That's that parent card. - Yeah, so I don't know. I almost never really went out. So I can't really speak for like the culture difference. - What's something you wish that Japan has that LA has? - Japan has that LA has?

that Japan should maybe implement perhaps? - I feel like there are many things, but it's like my head is going so blank. - It's okay to say nothing. - Yeah. - You can say nothing. - Well, I mean, oh, the no honorifics part, the no keigo, everything's like so-- - Oh, like everything's casual? - Yeah, yeah. - That is true. - I'm so bad at memorizing names, you know? So, but in Japan, you can't be like,

to some like a boss. In English it could be like you, even if you don't know their name, you could be like, "Hey, how are you doing?" - I never thought about that because it's the same way in like when I'm in Thailand and I'm that motherfucker who someone introduces themselves and I make a mental note to like not forget that name in three sentence, I've forgotten it. - Yeah, me too. - I actually do this thing where every time I meet someone or I meet like a large group of people, I'm like,

I always have my phone in my hand and or in my pocket. And what I do is like, I sneakily write the name down, like a general description of where I met them and a general description of what they do. And so when I get their phone number, I kind of write it down as like, it's like Jacob. And then in brackets, it's like the guy I met at this place.

And so every time like, you know, I'm messaging it. 'Cause like, you know, after you meet so many people, you know, doing what we do, right? - Yeah. - There's only so many Sato-san that you can meet where until you're like, wait, which Sato-san was it? Or like, is it a Kato-san? Is it a Suzuki-san? Like, I don't know. Like, 'cause you know, you learn not on a first name basis in a lot of ways in Japan, but on a surname basis, right? - Yeah. - So it just gets even more confusing when you're like, wait, so.

So you talked about me meeting a Sato-san the other day. I'm pretty sure I met like four of them last week and I don't remember which one was which. - I had a moment from my nightmares in the recent trip I had, which is related to this. So the reason I flew back to America was to go to my wife's family reunion. So I've met her family a bunch of times, but also she has a massive family. Like it's a big Midwestern family, so many cousins, so many uncles.

And I remember like meeting like one of her cousins, right? And I'll be honest, she has a lot of cousins. I don't remember all of their names. I know it's, I know like there's like a pool of names. I don't know he's like one of those names. You know what I mean? It's either like a Tommy or Ryan or Tim or something. It's like in the pool of like names. So I go in and I've met him like a few times before.

I shake his hand and he goes, "Hey Garnt, nice to see you again." I'm like, "Hey man, nice to meet you." Dead ass, he like shakes my hand, looks me in the eye and he goes, "What's my name?" - Worst nightmare ever. - I literally just like blue screened. - Oh no. - I like literally, I just, I literally, I blue screened as a human, I'm like,

And then he's like, "Ah, don't worry, man. Don't worry about it. It's Ryan." And I've realized now why he did that. - What if he was like, "Just kidding, it's Tommy." I told you. - I realized because we had like a party afterwards and some other like friends came over and he was there.

And when they met Ryan, they're like, "Oh, hey Ryan, I remember it this time. I actually remember it this time." So I think he says that to everyone so nobody forgets his name. And it fucking worked because that like, I think he's instilled PTSD into me. But I will now never forget his name when I see him. - I mean, it's a bit of a double-edged sword because now everyone who is associated with Ryan knows who Ryan is.

But at the same time, I feel a lot of people are gonna be like, "What an asshole." - I can't believe you just put me on the spot like that. - I mean, yeah. Yeah, that's the thing you see in your nightmare. That actually happened. I'm like, "Oh no, oh no." But luckily, luckily we got the good ending. - That's good, that's good. - Just put me through personal trauma for that. - Goddamn. - Yeah, my manager calls everybody since it.

- That's small. - Even like in like an honorful way and also like a frank way being like, like, hey boss or like, hey boss, you know, she uses it for everybody. She uses it for me too. I'm like, you don't know my name? - I do the equivalent in English where I just call everyone dude.

Like it doesn't matter like how many times I've met you, what gender you are, what age you are. Like I'll call a 90 year old grandma dude. Like I'm just like, just so I can get out of the situation and be like, I apologize, I don't remember your name, but I wanna be friendly with you. So I'll just throw it, I'll throw it. It's the magical word to just be like, oh yeah, no, he's cool with me. Does he know my name though? I don't know, probably not. - Have you ever met someone and you're like,

they refer to you as like dude or someone, or you just know that they do not know your name at all. - Oh yeah, oh definitely. - And I don't wanna be an asshole about it, 'cause I've been in that situation so many times, but sometimes there's a look in their eye, where there's like the slight panic where I'm like, I hope he doesn't ask me. - I'm actually really sympathetic for people

- Same here. - Do that because I'm exactly the same. So like, you know, any chance I can get, like I'll maybe like throw in my name or like clues to my name, like in the conversation. - I do that as well. - You know, like sometimes like I'd be telling a story about like, you know, an anecdote about something that happened to me and then I'll switch to like third person being like, Joey, you fucked up. To be like quickly grab it. I said my name, remember it. - And like, you see like the light bulb pops up. - Yeah. And they're like,

- That's his name. - That's so smart. - Yeah. So that's like a little thing I like to do. 'Cause you know, I get it. I wish people did that more for me. - Definitely. - Sometimes I do like the alley-oop.

- Okay, so there's been times when I know my wife can't remember her name and I do like the alley-oop, I just like call to them or something like that. I'm like, "Yo, yo Rob, how are you doing?" And you know, I know Sydney's listening at that point. So, you know, sometimes people do that to me as well. And it's just like, all right, everyone gets it. - Yeah, but to be fair, you have a very memorable name.

- True. - I've met a lot of Sally's in my life. I've met a lot of Joey's in my life. You are the only one and only Gant I have met in my life. - My biggest problem is making sure people actually can pronounce my name. Once they get the pronunciation, then most of the time they remember it. - Yeah, true, true. - Do you have a technique of like when you're in the industry and you don't know someone's name, do you use the sensei technique or? - I run past them.

as fast as I could, as if I'm in a hurry. Like I'm like checking my phone, 'cause I don't wanna be rude. So I usually like pretend I'm only running because I'm late to something. I would talk to you if I had the time, but I can't. - Sally, I gotta ask, kind of personal question, but not really. Social anxiety, have you ever pretended to be on the phone?

- Yes. - Okay, you do that as well? - And also, life hack, if you're left with somebody that you feel really uncomfortable with or you're really nervous, I put my timer for like two minutes and then I like leave it on the table and then it rings and I'm like, oh, I got a phone call. I gotta go. I'm just, I gotta go.

- That's so smart. Holy shit. That's so good. - I gotta take this. I'm sorry. - I'm stealing that too. - It works all the time. - This is just social anxiety life hack. How would you fake it until you make it? - Dude, I'm giving all these tips and tricks to get out of this situation. Sally's just like, "I'm a fucking dick. "I'm not even in this right now. "I'm just gonna go."

- That's so funny. Well, I guess, yeah, like, you know, none of them needs you, like what's your guys' next steps? Like what do you have going on? - We have a second album coming out in November 22nd. - Oh yeah. - And we have an online talk event as well. Yeah, so if you guys are interested, please come. - Hell yeah. - Bye, yeah.

- Hell yeah. - Do you have anything else you, I mean, it seems like you've done so much already. Is there anything else you want to do or like a role in voice acting or like a project that you like dream of getting? - A jump anime. - A jump anime. - Yeah, I love Shonen Jump so much. So hopefully one day. - What if it was a jump Shonen Jump anime and you get to voice act with Sugita Tomokozu?

- Would you just explode at that point? - I mean, there would have to be like an ambulance there every week. - You know what, I feel that. I would probably build that too, to be fair. So Sally, are there any like future events we can see you at or your fans can see you at? - I'm actually gonna be the MC for AOF 2023. - Another MC role. - Yeah. - Was it enough?

- But yeah, Anyplex online fest 2023. It's happening on September 9th. September 9th. 99. Now I won't ever forget it. - 99 September 9th. - I'm gonna be scared. - Yeah. From 8:00 PM.

- PDT. - Yes. - PDT. - You look like someone just like is pointing a gun at you off camera. - Say the line. - Okay, September 9th. Yes. We're gonna be announcing a lot of new "Aniplex" titles. - Oh, okay. - Yeah, a lot of new information. - Link twice if you are okay.

- Yeah. - If I'm okay. - Okay, actually, I blink twice. - Blink twice if you're not okay. - Yeah, hell yeah. And you know, with that event as well, I think there might be even like a little secret like trash taste appearance maybe? I don't know. - Do you know how long the event's gonna be? - Last year was like five hours. This is the fourth time this year. I've been the MC for four consecutive years.

- Is that all scripted or do you get to like go off script? - It's like 500 pages. - I get to go off script a little bit, but yeah, it's like really on time. And we have a lot of artists coming too. - Awesome. - Yeah. - Right on. - I wish you the best of luck. - Yeah, best of luck with that. - I hope your contact lens is no more. - I will go in my glasses and they're still there.

- You're still gonna fall off and crack knowing me. - Yeah, thank you very much for coming onto the show. We appreciate you again. - Thank you for staying the entire two hours and not running off after an hour. - Wouldn't it be funny if she's like, actually guys, I got a phone call. - Oh, that's my alarm, gotta go. - Gotta go, sorry. - Sorry, the girls are calling. I just like, it's a family emergency actually. - You know how it is.

But hey, look at all these patrons on screen right now. Do you see all the patrons flying up on screen, Sally? Point to your favorite patron right now. - Just point to anyone. - Just point to- - This one. - You lucky bastard. If you got pointed to, God damn. But hey, if you wanna support us and like the show enough, then head on over to our Patreon, patreon.com/trashtaste. Also follow us on Twitter, send us some memes on the subreddit. And if you hate our face, listen to us on Spotify. - Is there any socials you wanna shout out? - I mean, I do Twitter, I do Instagram. TikTok is like...

- I mean, I'm on it, but like I just do English daily business English lessons. - If you want to see some premium shit posting. - Is it actual daily English lessons? - No, it's more like it's past five, I gotta go. - Or it's like I would like to kill myself.

- I teach business English like I would like a raise. - I will politely say fuck you to your boss. - But yeah, and I also have a YouTube channel so. - Yeah, links to that is all down in the description but hopefully you guys enjoyed this episode of Trash Taste and we will see you all next week. - Bye. - An official message from Medicare.

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