Subaru Natsuki’s voice actor from ReZero, Yusuke Kobayashi, was the focus of the anime’s featured day stage panel at Anime Festival Asia Singapore 2024 (AFA SG) held on November 30, 2024.
ReZero: Starting Life in Another World is a popular Japanese light novel series authored by Tappei Nagatsuki, with illustrations by Shinichirou Otsuka.
The series first began as a web novel in 2012, gaining significant popularity. This success led to its official publication in print in 2014, followed by a manga adaptation released in the same year.
The light novel and manga’s popularity paved the way for an anime adaptation. The first season debuted in 2016, followed by the second season in 2020 and the third season in 2024, which Kobayashi came to Singapore to promote.
What is ReZero about?
ReZero’s story centers on Subaru Natsuki, an ordinary Japanese teenager who is unexpectedly transported to another world after a trip to the store. In this new realm, he discovers that he possesses a unique power called “Return by Death.”
This ability allows him to be resurrected at a previous save point each time he dies, giving him the chance to try different strategies to overcome challenges. However, the power comes at a great emotional cost as Subaru repeatedly endures death and failure.
As Subaru navigates this unfamiliar world, he meets a half-elf named Emilia and vows to protect her. Together, they face numerous dangers and uncover the mysteries of the world they now find themselves in.
Season 3 shows Subaru and his allies face new challenges and enemies, including the Witch Cult and the Sin Archbishops.
Subaru’s voice actor Yusuke Kobayashi on auditioning for the role, then playing repeated deaths
Kobayashi had auditioned for the role of Subaru and another character — Reinhard van Astrea. He said that he did so because the roles he played before Subaru are “princely,” so he thought that he would be suitable for Reinhard.
Getting the lead role, Subaru is the first character where Kobayashi needed to get in the trenches. “Subaru is going to get his butt kicked every single time, whereas Reinhardt does the butt kicking most
of the time. So during the audition process for Subaru, I acted as though I was getting attacked,” he said.
“There were three different scenes that were very long. One was when Subaru was fighting with Emilia. The second one where he was resting on Emilia’s lap,” Kobayashi continued, recalling that each audition scene was about six paragraphs long, which felt tiring.
“I felt a bit oxygen deprived. I then did the actual recording every week where Subaru basically dies. There’s a lot of different ways that Subaru dies in the different episodes, so I have to find different ways to express how he’s feeling in each scene when he is dying,” Kobayashi added.
For example, when Subaru’s left arm gets cut and it’s close to the heart, he imagines blood will gush out if he breathes normally, so tries to limit that. On the other hand, when Subaru’s legs are cut, he portrays heavy breathing because the overall blood movement in the body remains the same.
“I always do my best to portray how painful Subaru is feeling every time he’s about to die,” said Kobayashi. “Once I’m done recording, I fall down in my chair as if I’m dying. Other voice actors ask if I’m okay, if I need candy or water because they’re concerned.”
He also revealed that he intentionally avoids reading the light novel so that he doesn’t know what’s coming next because he feels that’s the best way to portray Subaru — to be like Subaru by learning what happens as the story goes.
