{"id":743260,"date":"2026-08-08T07:30:36","date_gmt":"2026-08-08T04:30:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/sport-rivalries-and-voice-acting-in-blue-box\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T07:30:36","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T04:30:36","slug":"sport-rivalries-and-voice-acting-in-blue-box","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/sport-rivalries-and-voice-acting-in-blue-box\/","title":{"rendered":"Sport Rivalries and Voice Acting in Blue Box"},"content":{"rendered":"
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At Anime<\/a> Expo 2026, Anime Trending was given the incredible opportunity by TMS Entertainment to interview Yoshino Aoyama<\/strong> for her new role as Yumeka Kido in Blue Box <\/em>Season 2! Known for roles like Bocchi from Bocchi the Rock!<\/em>, Yoshino Aoyama is the third voice cast member Anime Trending has interviewed for the series<\/a>, having interviewed both Shoya Chiba<\/strong> and Akari Kito<\/strong> when Blue Box <\/em>Season 1 was announced.<\/span><\/p>\n\n

Welcome to Anime Expo! How do you feel now that you\u2019ve arrived after a long flight?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Yoshino Aoyama:<\/strong> This is my second time coming to Anime Expo \u2014 actually, it\u2019s the third time! But I got to go sightseeing a lot more than before. I went out today to do some shopping, and tomorrow I\u2019m going to Universal and Hollywood. I feel like I came here to play as well as for business!<\/span><\/p>\n

Also, welcome to Blue Box<\/em>! You will be voicing Yumeka Kido, a new character whom we haven\u2019t met in the first season. Can you describe her to us?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Yoshino Aoyama: <\/strong>Yumeka is a childhood friend of Chinatsu, and they were former teammates. Back then, Yumeka was actually better than Chinatsu as a basketball player, and she used to teach Chinatsu how to play basketball. But then time passed, and now we see them together again, but their friendship is in a very rocky place. So what happ<\/a>ened and what is going to happen? Those are the things you can look forward to in Season 2.<\/span><\/p>\n

When did you audition for the role, and did your audition require voice acting together with any of the original cast?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Yoshino Aoyama:<\/strong> Actually, I don\u2019t remember when the audition was, but it was basically a tape audition. In Japan, a lot of the time you send in the recording of you reading the script, and the production committee decides. This time around, we didn\u2019t have a studio audition, so after I sent in my tape, they picked me.<\/span><\/p>\n

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\u00a9 Kouji Miura\/SHUEISHA, Blue Box Film Partners<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Yumeka Kido is especially important to Chinatsu\u2019s character. Can you describe what it was like working with Reina Ueda on this anime?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Yoshino Aoyama:<\/strong> Ueda is my senpai <\/em>in the same agency, and I\u2019ve always admired her and always wanted to act alongside her, but to act in this kind of relationship is something I didn\u2019t expect. So when I first heard the news<\/a> that I got the role of Yumeka, the first thing that came to my mind was, \u201cOh, I\u2019m gonna have to fight with her!\u201d in a sense.<\/span><\/p>\n

In what ways do you find yourself similar or dissimilar to Yumeka Kido, and why?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Yoshino Aoyama:<\/strong> In Blue Box, Yumeka is a very rare or unique character in that she\u2019s honestly kind of mean. [laughs] We don\u2019t have a lot of characters like that in Blue Box<\/em>, but that\u2019s what makes her really human, and I really love that about her. She\u2019s experienced setbacks, and I have personal experience with setbacks as well. It\u2019s a fictional story, but there\u2019s a non-fiction element to it. All those setbacks that I personally experienced made this character of Yumeka so relatable to me, and I\u2019m really happy that I get to play her.<\/span><\/p>\n

Have you ever experienced a relationship like the one Chinatsu and Yumeka have with each other? How has that relationship impacted you, if at all?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

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\u00a9 Kouji Miura\/SHUEISHA, Blue Box Film Partners<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Yoshino Aoyama: <\/strong>Now that you mention it, when I was starting out as a voice actor, I had this VA unit. There were seven members, including myself, and we experienced a lot of fights. Sometimes we would talk behind each other\u2019s backs. In the end, we laid all our grievances out on the table and asked each other, \u201cWhy didn\u2019t you say something to me back then?\u201d We were able to become very honest with each other, and now we\u2019re the best of friends! Instead, we created a deeper bond with each other. So yeah, I have that kind of experience as well.<\/span><\/p>\n

Aoyama-san, you\u2019re most famous for Bocchi from Bocchi the Rock!<\/em>, but truthfully you have a wide range in your voice acting. You were Meg Raspberry from Once Upon a Witch\u2019s Death<\/em> and Sakura from Agents of the Four Seasons<\/em>. All of these characters are vastly different from each other. How does Yumeka Kido compare to your prior roles?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Yoshino Aoyama:<\/strong> Yumeka is a character that holds deep resentment. I had to remind myself of that darkness all the time when acting, because when you look at characters like Taiki, Hina, and Chinatsu, they\u2019re so positive, they\u2019re so bright, and they have the spirit of don\u2019t-give-up. And seeing that from Yumeka\u2019s point of view, it\u2019s such a hard thing for her to swallow. That\u2019s unlike any other character I\u2019ve played in the past, so having to feel and convey that resentment all the time was really tough for me.<\/span><\/p>\n

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\u00a9 Kouji Miura\/SHUEISHA, Blue Box Film Partners<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

As a general<\/a> question about your voice acting, how do you even go about embodying such different characters? I see you as a chameleon with how well you just fade into your characters.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Yoshino Aoyama:<\/strong> When I work with different characters and try to come up with a voice for them, I think about their skeleton \u2014 literally the biological structure of the character. I imagine what that\u2019s like to be in that body. For example, if the character has an overlapping canine, when they smile, the tooth is always showing. So I ask myself, \u201cWhat does it feel like to have that mouth, and how does that impact the voice?\u201d And if it\u2019s a tall character, then probably the throat is longer, so maybe they have a deeper voice. I try to get into the character from their skeletal level.<\/span><\/p>\n

Going back to Yumeka and Blue Box<\/em>, all the characters are involved in sports. Were you ever involved in sports growing up, and if so, what were they?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Yoshino Aoyama:<\/strong> I did ski competitively, but there were only two people who ever made the qualifying round out of three total qualifying competitors who could make it, so I was able to compete at the national level. So yes, I did ski competitively\u2026maybe? Since I was guaranteed a spot due to the lack of competition? But it\u2019s my sports experience!<\/span><\/p>\n

Did your involvement with the sport influence how you voice act as Yumeka?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Yoshino Aoyama:<\/strong> Actually, there are a lot of experiences I could pull from my skiing experience. I\u2019m from Kumamoto, where it doesn\u2019t really snow, and when I go to competitions, there are people from Hokkaido where it\u2019s snowing all the time. They have lots of experience and good equipment, and they would make fun of me for having poor equipment. Even my senior members, my senpai<\/em>, would be mean and wouldn\u2019t let me use the maintenance equipment. So yes, I have a lot of experience that I could draw from to play Yumeka.<\/span><\/p>\n

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\u00a9 Kouji Miura\/SHUEISHA, Blue Box Film Partners<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

What are you most looking forward to for the fans to see in the anime?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Yoshino Aoyama:<\/strong> Well, of course, the appearance of Yumeka, but the relationship between Taiki and Chinatsu changes drastically in Season 2. While Yumeka tries to heal her estranged relationship with Chinatsu, Chinatsu is also going through this romantic relationship with Taiki. So each character has so many emotional rollercoasters, but it\u2019s something fans can look forward to in season two.<\/span><\/p>\n\n

Blue <\/em>Box<\/em> Season 2 will be streaming on Netflix starting October 4, 2026. Catch up on Season<\/a> 1<\/a> before this fall!<\/span><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n