An Unusual Approach to Voice Acting: Shūichirō Umeda and Yui Ishikawa on “Dusk Beyond the End of the World”

Premiering on September 25, 2025, on the MBS/TBS "Super Animeism TURBO" block, the original TV anime “Dusk Beyond the End of the World” has garnered significant attention, with animation production by P.A. WORKS. As an original series, its story is still shrouded in mystery.

In this article, we interview Shūichirō Umeda, who plays the protagonist Akira Himegami, and Yui Ishikawa, who plays the heroine Yūgure. We delve into their unique approach to voice recording for this series.

── This is an original series, and we heard that you, Mr. Umeda, intentionally chose not to read the full script before recording.

Umeda: Yes, that was the result of a conversation I had with the sound director at a different location. He told me, "It might be better if you don't know the full story, so you can choose to either read it thoroughly or not." It made me a little nervous, but I decided to go into it without knowing.

Once the recording started, whenever the sound director needed to explain the story to the other cast members, he'd say, "Umeda, you have to leave!" (laughs).

Ishikawa: The protagonist gets kicked out (laughs).

Umeda: They would tease me about it every time (laughs). As I was playing Akira, I was just as surprised as he was by the mysteries of this world. It was a fresh experience to discover things and search for Tōwasa's whereabouts with no prior knowledge, just like my character.