Megumi Hayashibara x Noriko Hidaka: Ranma 1/2 Interview: The New Anime is "life's reward" - Back When They Were Newcomers

Translated by: Harley Acres

October 3, 2025 7:01
Mantan Web Editorial Department

The second season of the all-new anime adaptation of Rumiko Takahashi's hit manga Ranma 1/2 will begin airing on Nippon Television every Saturday at 12:55 AM starting October 4th. Ranma 1/2 is a hugely popular work by Takahashi, also known for Urusei Yatsura and Maison Ikkoku, which was serialized in the manga magazine Weekly Shonen Sunday (Shogakukan) from 1987 to 1996. A television anime adaptation also aired from 1989 to 1992, and the first season of this all-new anime, the first of its kind in over 30 years, aired from October to December 2024. The reappearance of Kappei Yamaguchi as male Ranma Saotome, Megumi Hayashibara as female Ranma, and Noriko Hidaka as Akane Tendo is also a hot topic. In anticipation of the second season's broadcast, we spoke to Hayashibara-san and Hidaka-san about the new series while looking back on the recording sessions from over 30 years ago.

◇ Anyway, it was fun recording back in those days.

As this is the first adaptation of the TV anime in over 30 years, it seems that many fans had their memories of that time brought back.

Hidaka: That must be really nice.

Hayashibara: When I hear people say that it reminded them of those days, it makes me happy to have been able to contribute to that. The world that the new anime presents doesn't just remind people of Ranma 1/2, it also has a wonderful synergistic effect of reminding them of their lives at the time. Everyone sees the same images in Ranma 1/2, but I think there are tens of thousands of different images that each person sees in their mind. It makes me feel that there is potential for other revivals.

What does Ranma 1/2 mean to you two?

Hayashibara: Takahashi-sensei's Maison Ikkoku was my first anime, and I was still in training school and a nursing student at the time. After that, I played the heroine in Mashin Hero Wataru, and Ranma 1/2 came out soon after, so I was still a rookie. Although I'm older than Koichi Yamadera-san and the others, they were also considered to be young actors at the time, and we were all newcomers at the same level, with Nonko (Hidaka-san) being a little older than me. During the Ranma 1/2 era, I was a regular main star in one or two shows, but it was a time when it was unclear what would happen after that, so while I may have started off with aplomb, I hadn't even run many meters yet. It's a funny story now, but the letters that arrived at my agency were almost all slander. ^[1] I was a newcomer, after all. People were asking me, "Who are you?" Maybe it was a good thing there was no internet back then. If it had happened now, I'd probably be heartbroken, but I guess it would have been the same (laughs).

Hidaka: That's how much fans of the original work cared. I also received a lot of letters when I was working on Touch. ^[2] I made my debut as a voice actress in Super Dimension Cavalry Southern Cross and went on to appear in Touch, Ninja Senshi Tobikage, The Three Musketeers, and others, but as a rookie among my seniors, I felt like I was the lowest ranking person holding them back. ^[3] Ranma 1/2 was made by the younger generation working together, and Megu and Kappei were rookies, and it seemed like I had a younger sister and brother, so I had to lead them. I was in my twenties at the time and was really focused. I was so preoccupied with my own things that I didn't really appreciate or savor the environment I was blessed with. But it was fun. Of course there were the dubbing sessions, but there were also events and character songs, and it was just so much fun. I've always wanted to relive those fond memories. More than anything, I'm happy that I can still enjoy that experience at this age. I'm truly grateful.

Hayashibara: We all say it's life's reward.

Hidaka: It's rare for so many members of the same generation to come together in one place in any other anime.

Hayashibara: It makes me laugh, but kids who didn't know about the time said, "The voice actors from Detective Conan are also in Ranma 1/2" (laughs). ^[4]

Hidaka: That's right (laughs). Like Megu, quite a few of the Ranma 1/2 members have appeared in Detective Conan, so it ended up being like a Ranma 1/2 reunion. ^[5] I was jealous, but then I was able to appear in it starting in 2012, and I was kind of satisfied. I never thought I'd get to see everyone again in Ranma 1/2.

◇ Unleashed in the new adaptation!

What was your impression of Hayashibara-san at that time, Hidaka-san?

Hidaka: She had strong beliefs and felt a sense of mission to express herself well. I'm sure she was overwhelmed. But she seemed like a very determined rookie. She was very focused. When I was a rookie, I used to look around a lot.

Hayashibara: That's why she was so good at looking after rookies.

Hidaka: Kappei was a similar type to me, and he was always nervous and looking around, so our eyes would meet many times. Megu-san was brave, but I was worried about Kappei, so I watched him. But when I asked Megu again, she said she was "quivering with excitement," so you can't really know until you talk to her.

Hayashibara: I'd been receiving direction from her since the first episode, and I was told to sound masculine yet feminine, and to make my voice as cute as possible, but also dignified... I didn't know how to act, so I tried to lower my voice a little and sound more boyish, but I was told, "That's not right," and I didn't have the ball and couldn't respond to that. ^[6] I was told to "steal more from Kappei-kun," so I just looked at Kappei like I was trying to drill a hole in him. ^[7]

Hidaka: You were both playing one character.

Hayashibara: When Kappei acted differently in the audition and the actual performance, I might have asked him "Why?" or pushed him into a corner (laughs). We clashed with each other, and after a few months, Kappei's Ranma had become a part of me as a sound and a system. We started the new work with that state from the first episode, so I was able to act with a sense of freedom! We are still fundamentally aware of each other, but now the lines come to me without having to hyper-concentrate. So it feels like we've been liberated.

Hidaka: Back in the day, Kappei and Megu were both newcomers and just being themselves. I debuted in my teens, so I somehow got used to the feeling that there were people in the audience, and even at events I was like a good student and had a certain sense of what I should be like, but Kappei and Megu were just being themselves. I was a little envious of them in some ways. One time before an event, I braided Megu's hair up, and she fell asleep and took it down (laughs).

Hayashibara: That was really rude. I deeply regret it. I've learned a lot since becoming an adult (laughs).

Hidaka: That feeling was totally new to me. The two of them started to look more and more adorable to me. They were funny, and I loved them. They're now fine adults, and more responsible than I am. But even so, when I find a weakness that reminds me of back then, I feel incredibly happy.

Hayashibara: I'm full of holes. There's a huge gap between what I can and can't do. The people who understand that are the ones who get along with me (laugh).

Hidaka: Back then, there were no cell phones or email, so if we wanted to talk privately, we'd call each other at home, and that's how we developed our relationship, so I think in a way it was quite intense.

The new second season is about to begin airing.

Hidaka: There was the first season, and I think the second season began after the engine had warmed up. With each recording, I was reminded of my old feelings, and although I wasn't repeating my old acting, it was becoming easier to play a pure high school student.

Hayashibara: That's right. It's not that I haven't played any intense roles recently, but Ranma bumps into walls, falls into water, and runs while screaming, so it's been a while since I've played a role that's this high energy. More than worrying about whether my voice could handle it physically, I wondered if I could get into that mindset of looking down on Ranma—because you can't pull this character out without that kind of attitude. But in the first episode, I got irritated when I saw the panda, felt irritated when I heard Nabiki's voice, and was touched by Akane's voice...everything I had imagined I had to do was blown away in a second. It's hard to explain, but it's like getting together for the first time in a while, having a drink, and getting excited about stories from your school days, and scenes and emotions you'd never even remember coming back to you. It was an amazing experience, like the power of the images, the power of the voice, and my own past experiences were all mashed together and coming out like a bazooka through my vocal cords.

Ranma 1/2 is a legendary work. The new, Reiwa-era production also boasts even more powerful performances from the voice actors, making it a major attraction. I hope you enjoy the performances of Hayashibara-san, Hidaka-san, and the other stellar voice actors.

*The kanji for "daka" in Noriko Hidaka's name is pronounced like "hashi godaka" (with a ladder).

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Footnotes

• [1] Hayashibara spoke about some of the criticism she received in a previous interview. Hayashibara wrote a manga series Ashita ga Aru sa –SWEET TIME EXPRESS– (明日があるさ –SWEET TIME EXPRESS–) about her voice acting career where she recounts a run-in with rude Urusei Yatsura fans. Other actors such as Toshio Furukawa (Ataru Moroboshi from Urusei Yatsura have also mentioned negative fan responses when they first took on their roles.
• [2] Along with her role as Akane Tendo in Ranma 1/2, Hidaka's role as Minami Asakura in Touch (タッチ) is likely thought of as her most signature role. She has spoken about the role, the producer that both Touch and Ranma 1/2 had in common, and the casting process on the original Ranma 1/2 anime in a 2013 interview.
• [3] Super Dimension Cavalry Southern Cross (超時空騎団サザンクロス/Chojiku Kidan Sazan Kurosu) featured Hidaka as triplets Musica, Musiere and Muselle. This series is best known in America as one of the three anime that was redited and merged to create the series Robotech. In Ninja Senshi Tobikage (忍者戦士飛影), known in the west as Ninja Robots featured her in the role of Jenny Ai. In The Three Musketeers (アニメ三銃士/Anime Sanjushi) she played Constance Bonacieux.
• [4] The humor here is that viewers of Detective Conan (名探偵コナン/Meitantei Conan) are so young as not to know that the inverse is actually true- a number of the original Ranma 1/2 cast members moved on to work on Detective Conan after the original Ranma 1/2 adaptation ended. However, Detective Conan has run for so long that now Conan cast members are in the new Ranma 1/2.
• [5] The Ranma 1/2 cast in Detective Conan includes: Minami Takeyama (Nabiki/Conan Edogawa), Kappei Yamaguchi (male Ranma/Shinichi Kudo), Megumi Hayashibara (female Ranma/Ai Haibara), Kenichi Ogata (Genma/Dr. Agasa), Kikuko Inoue (Kasumi/Chianti), Koichi Yamadera (Ryoga/Tsutomu), Kazuhiko Inoue (Mikado Sanzenin/Shiratori), Naoko Matsui (Azusa Shiratori/Sonoko), Shigeru Chiba (Sasuke/Kanenori) and Ichiro Nagai (Happosai/Jirokichi).
• [6] Hayashibara litearlly says she "didn't have the ball" (ボールを持っていなかったんです/booru o motteinakattann desu), however, this isn't the English phrase of "having balls", rather an slightly old fashioned Japanese phrase about not "having possession of the ball" (such as in a ball game) and being able to make a decision.
• [7] In an interview Hayashibara clarifies this the person who used to say this to her was Shigeharu Shiba (斯波重治), the sound director on Urusei Yatsura, Maison Ikkoku and Ranma 1/2.

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