"I think I'd try a different route": Voice actor Yuto Uemura on what he'd do if he could redo high school? [Interview: Haibara's Teenage New Game+]

"Haibara's Teenage New Game+" (written by Kazuki Amamiya), published by HJ Bunko (Hobby Japan) and winner of the 2020 HJ Novel Grand Prize, has been airing as a TV anime since April 2026.

The story begins with Natsuki Haibara, a lackluster young man who spent his high school years in a "gray" funk after a failed attempt at a high school debut. Just as he is about to graduate from university and start working, he suddenly leaps back in time to the period just before his high school entrance.

As the title suggests, he launches "The Rainbow Youth Project" to redo his high school life and turn it from gray to vibrant. Before entering school, he throws himself into getting into shape. With a fresh start, he finds himself in the same social circle as the top-tier clique in class and his crush, the beautiful Hikari Hoshimiya. However, as he builds these friendships, new problems arise in his dream high school life—all depicted through the lens of a high schooler's relatable worries and inner conflicts.

The protagonist, Natsuki Haibara, is voiced by actor Yuto Uemura. Although Haibara lived a "gray" youth the first time around, he has a stoic side, dedicating himself to fitness and practicing singing at solo karaoke. A key point of this series is how he uses the abilities gained through his own efforts, combined with the experiences carried over from his previous life, to get his youth right this time.

Since Uemura actually holds a teaching license for middle and high school, we asked him during the interview how Haibara would appear to him if he were observing him objectively as a teacher.

"I think he would definitely come across as a model student," Uemura prefaced. "From an objective standpoint, he probably looks perfect. But from the perspective of playing him, I feel like he's not necessarily trying to be perfect; rather, he's doing things with the hope that they'll turn out well, and as a result, he ends up looking perfect to everyone else."

He continued, "I realized that 'perfection' isn't something you decide for yourself; it's how others perceive you. I think it’s the result of Haibara facing his own weaknesses, but your view changes when you shift perspectives. From a teacher's standpoint, I’d want to know the backstory of why he works so hard."

In the story, there is a scene where Tatsuya Nagiura, who becomes Haibara's friend, struggles with his own feelings of inadequacy after seeing Haibara's behavior. A fascinating aspect of this work is how the feelings of those around Haibara change as a result of his efforts to transform himself and redo his youth.