Volume 4 of the yoi DVDs came with a special episode of the Yuri!!! on Radio, hosted by the seiyuu of Victor (Suwabe Junichi) and Chris (Yasumoto Hiroki), so I figured I’d isolate the most interesting and most relevant part of it and translate it for you guys.

If you’re looking for reasons to listen/read this, I can tell you that you’ll find out about the following:

whether anyone at Mappa died during the production of the anime

who wanted Stephane Lambiel’s autograph that he gave after recording his lines for the anime (and who ended up getting it)

the manga-format storyboards that Kubo drew for the anime and whether or not they will be published

how working on the anime changed Suwabe’s and Yasumoto’s way of looking at figure skating

their experiences (or lack thereof) with figure skating

their thoughts on Makkachin and poodles in general



their take on Georgi and Otabek

and their experiences with voicing their characters



I’m putting the translation under the cut because this thing is 16 minutes long and the translation won’t be short either. (If you’re on mobile and can’t see what’s under the cut, do tell me.)



Victor’s VA will be marked as (S)uwabe and Chris’s as (Y)asumoto. Without further ado, let’s get to it!

Disclaimer: This translation is imperfect, so if anyone would like to correct it, you are more than welcome to. I’m confident about most of the lines, but some translations may not be as accurate as I’d like. Still, I think it gets what they’re saying across, even if it may not be word for word at times.



I’m also putting in time-stamps because I realized that for someone who doesn’t know Japanese it’s hard to know which line corresponds to what they’re saying, so I’ll mark the start of each minute and that will hopefully help.

Personal notes: Yasumoto speaks too quickly for me sometimes and I really have no idea what he’s saying in a few places, though you can assume what it is from Suwabe’s responses. At least his laugh is a blessing upon this world.



In any case, enjoy. :)



Yasumoto: Yuri!!! on Radio. Special episode.

Suwabe: I’m the voice of Victor Nikiforov, Suwabe Junichi.

Y: I’m the voice of Christophe Giacometti, Yasumoto Hiroki.

S: So then. Now, we’re meant to look back at the anime and thoroughly talk about it.

Y: It’s the anime’s radio after all. So, episode 12 is over.

S: It is. It’s great that it managed to come to an end without problems.

Y: Maaan, it was a real scramble.

S: Right now on the other side of the glass there’s a person from Avex so I just wanted to ask: Is everyone at Mappa still alive?

Y: *laughs*

S: No one died? Really? That’s good.

Y: It really is. And episode 12, that was something else.

S: Can I say this? [He’s asking the Avex staff member in the studio]

Y: I think you can say a little about it.

S: They were correcting the art in the anime until the very last moment. I was really surprised, I thought “Wait, are you serious?”

Y: And then the pro did a fine job of participating in the project.

[01:00]

S: Until the very end, they wanted to correct the art and in the end an important person-

Y: A top skater

S: came to Japan and they decided that “He MUST be in the anime”, and Victor was needed for that scene, so I was there too.

Y: That’s amazing.

S: It really made me think that Yuri on Ice is amazing.

Y: The sound director really did his best. [not sure about this line]

S: He even got an autograph. From Stephane!

Y: Ohh, really? *laughs*

S: Yeah, he showed it off to me like “It’s nice, isn’t it?”.

Y: Didn’t you think “I want one too”?

S: I did, like “Get one for me as well!”

Y: *laughs* That’s awesome.

S: And Stephane Lambiel was actually a Swiss skater, just like Chris. And he’s a handsome man, just like Chris.

Y: When it comes to the tender quality of the ass, Chris is superior though.

S: *laughs* And in making the ice wet.

Both: *laugh*

Y: [I can’t tell what he’s saying]

S: Yeah, he was really cool. And he’s a coach now, so in some way he’s just like Victor. He’s raising a younger skater right now.

[02:03]

Y: It’s the charisma.

S: It really is. On a different note, how should I put it, because this was a completely original project, we didn’t know how the story would unfold, but Kubo Mitsurou-sensei created the storyboards and she wrote them all in manga format.

Y: We got them in advance.

S: Yes, and this is the script for the anime, so to speak. But they’re actually really well-made and I figured that they could just publish them as a manga on their own. They’re interesting after all. Did you see them?

Y: I did, I got all of them, even the ones that weren’t animated.

S: Oh you did?

Y: Yeah, they were funny.

S: Yeah, they’re amusing on their own. And they’re not identical to the anime, in some ways they expand on the story and the characters of the anime, but we’re the only ones that get to enjoy and compare these original storyboards to the anime.

[03:00]

Y: [I can’t tell what he’s saying again]

S: Can’t they like make a pocket-edition out of these? [Asking the Avex person again] No? Are there no plans to attach them as exclusives to DVDs or something? There aren’t.

Y: That’s such a waste.

S: Can’t Kubo-sensei secretly put them together and sell them at Comiket? She can’t, can she?

Y: That’s the most rogue way of doing it. *laugh*

S: I guess that’s too reckless. I guess she can’t.

Y: If they get an opportunity though, I hope they will.

S: So in the anime, in this 1 cour we were showing figure skaters - male figure skaters.

Y: I watched a bit of figure skating before, but what I knew was very vague. I only knew that Japanese figure skaters were doing well, and were really cool and amazing, but that was it. I never thought about the internal conditions of the sport, I didn’t know what skaters were feeling when they were heading to the kiss & cry - even though there must be a lot of drama in their lives - and I watched competitions without knowing, but now my way of watching has changed and I actually consider these things.

[04:00]

S: Now it feels like you can imagine their mentality, like when they’re about to start their program, when they’re sitting in the kiss & cry, when they’re about to step on the ice, what they’re thinking all throughout it.

Y: When they speak to or hug their coach right before skating and such.

S: Yes, so I’ve talked about this in some interviews about this anime, but through acting I was able to guess the thoughts and feelings of actual figure skaters and deepen my understanding and enjoy figure skating even more. It really made me care about figure skating. Even after the Grand Prix Final ended I’ve been paying attention to what’s been going on in figure skating. Now I think that I’d really want to see a competition live.

[05:00]

Y: Apparently it’s really hard to get tickets now. It’s really popular.

S: I’d really like to see some competition with Yuzuru Hanyuu or other Japanese skaters.

Y: Or Uno Shouma, he’s also amazing.

S: He really is.

Y: Even though he’s so small.

S: I wonder if the figure skating association could organize tickets for us with their adult power, since we’d like to see it.

Y: Wouldn’t they let us see one. *laughs*

S: Since Yuri on Ice has so many songs, I was wondering if they could use them for their own programs. Obviously they wouldn’t do the identical programs because in real life most people can’t jump that many quads.

Y: Like the stuff JJ does would be impossible.

S: Yes, it would be difficult to do what Yuuri and Yurio did by the end of the anime. But just using the songs, you know? Something using the songs, I think many people would like to see that.

Y: It’d be nice if we got something like that.

S: Have you seen any figure skating events live?

[06:00]

Y: I haven’t seen any live! Only on TV.

S: It must all be faster than we imagine, the way they go whoosh on the rink, you know? It must be faster than it looks on TV.

Y: The cameramen must be amazing. Then again they have an understanding of the programs, so they’ll know when the jumps are and such, and that’s how they can record it all so well.

S: Basically, that’s what I think. They know best what’s coming next. But anyway, I really got interested in figure skating.

Y: I’d like to see it live.

S: But it’s also not like I could do all of that in real life either. But I began thinking that I want to skate! I’d like to do some skating.

Y: Not just frontward skating, but also sideways skating.

Both: *laugh*

Y: Like, skating and painting a picture.

S: Though I think I’d probably be really unsteady.

Y: Man, I haven’t skated in years.

S: Me too. The last time I skated was… I wonder when.

Y: I think I haven’t skated since university. [For reference: he’s 40 years old now]

S: I really don’t remember, I think the last time I skated was as a child.

Y: It’s been almost 20 years for me.

S: Near Shinagawa Prince Hotel there used to be an ice rink, and I think the last time I went there was as a child.

Y: There was one in Toshimaen ​ too, I think.

[07:00]

S: There was definitely one in Seibuen. [They’re places in Tokyo]

Y: I’ve been to quite a lot of them.

S: Also in Hibiya, in Toshin.

Y: [Can’t tell what he’s saying again]

S: Yeah, there’s a lot of them everywhere and I’d like to go- well, not anymore, by the time this is released, they’ll be closed because of the season. But I did feel like I wanted to go skating, and on a different note, we got a lot of responses from fans in all sorts of places. During the airing of the anime I was tweeting about it, and especially on Twitter, people from all over the world replied to my tweets with their thoughts about the anime and whatnot.

Y: They did, I also got some.

S: And then actual skaters were also tweeting about it, like Evgenia Medvedeva.

Y: She even had an onigiri plushie. *laughs*

S: She did. Generally, I’ve seen stuff like that. Even Plushenko in his comments seemed to be aware of the existence of the anime. And even Johnny Weir!

Y: How many years has it been since Plushenko [I can’t tell what he’s saying], and the way he skated with his fists clenched was really cool.

[08:00]

Both: *laugh*

S: He’s really been a very skilled skater. But yes, I’ve heard in many different places people saying “Yuri on Ice was really good” within and outside of the industry and I’ve been told that personally from many people, so I’m very glad and grateful to be a part of this project.

Y: It’s good that it spread so far. I’m happy to know that even at our age something we work on can get so popular.

S: Yes, that’s also what I thought. On a different note, halfway through the show people thought that we might be in a pinch but fortunately Makkachin survived til the very end and we saw him in the last scene. I was personally happy that he was there and healthy in the end.

Y: It would have been really sad if he’d died. *laughs*

S: It really would though. Like we just wanted to be told that it was a joke and Makkachin would be fine in the end.

Y: I mean, he really is a cute dog.

S: He is. But after the first episode I think there were many people who thought “Wow, what a simple dog.”

[09:00]

Y: Well, he’s just a ball of shaggy fur with eyes so *laughs*

S: Like the human characters were drawn with a lot of details, why does the dog look so sloppy, but that’s what makes him cute.

Y: Not to mention real life poodles also look like that sometimes.

S: That’s true. I changed my mind on poodles.

Y: *laughs*

S: Because I wasn’t really into poodles before.

Y: Is that so?

S: Now I think that poodles are really cute.

Y: I mean standard poodles have their own sort of cuteness.

S: The large ones are really cute. That’s why recently when I see a poodle in the city I can’t help exclaiming “Makkachin”.

Y: Poodles are really smart.

S: Yeah, that’s true.

Y: Especially the large ones are really smart.

S: The large ones are nice. But it must be difficult to keep a large one.

Y: They don’t shed though.

S: Oh, they don’t? Even though they have so much fluff.

Y: But if you run them down with a furminator you’ll get an unbelievable amount of fur.

S: Enough fur to create another dog.

Y: It’s like “You’re kidding, right?”

S: *laughs*

Y: No matter how much you pull out, there’s still more. You start wondering what the hell is going on.

S: Infinite fur. Wait, did you have a poodle?

Y: I always had a toy poodle.

S: Ah, I see, I see.

Y: [I can’t tell what he’s saying again]

[10:00]

S: I guess you have no plans to have a poodle in the near future?

Y: Welllll, if I was going to buy a poodle, I’d probably go for a large one this time.

S: A big one?

Y: Yeah.

S: If you do, then call him Makkachin.

Y: If I do get one then I will, no doubt, I’ll name him that without any shame. Though everyone will tell me “That’s not your dog.”

Both: *laugh*

S: I’ll allow you just on this occasion. They can overlap just this once.

Both: *laugh*

S: I feel like we should be talking about the characters we voiced, so how was Chris?

Y: Well, he was difficult to voice. I can’t just say he was weird, so although he wasn’t a sniper [I also have no idea what he means], he wanted to stand out somehow, but at the same time he seemed quiet, but also not really. In truth, during the recordings at first I tried to do his lines in a high spirit, but then when I tried to read the notes that way, they… well, I don’t want to say that they became lines in which I would sweat, but it just gave them a weird feeling, so I kept that in mind.

[If someone can translate that^ better, please do. It’s just such a bizarre explanation, I can’t make sense of it.]

S: You have to watch out with the whole “getting wet” thing.

[11:00]

Y: He was a character with a pretty weird balance. But even with that, Ucchi mentioned that Chris goes “Yoisho!” [it’s an expression of effort or strain, and that’s the sound Chris does during his jumps, sort of like the English “there!”], so I really found the balance to be a bit off.

S: The colloquialisms, actually, like the yoisho, or Michele’s Hiroshima dialect [that’s what he spoke with in the anime fyi]

Y: Hiroshima dialect in an Italian

Both: *laugh*

S: What was up with those? I’ve always wondered. I guess that makes them funnier. They went with the funnier option. But Chris hmm, I guess it’s the eyelashes that speak for him.

Y: I think it’s the ass, the eyelashes and the beard.

S: [can’t tell what he’s saying]

Y: Like how during his first proper appearance on-screen, he grabs Katsuki Yuuri’s ass. He’s making a face like he’s always been there but it’s actually his first appearance so I was quite surprised.

Both: *laugh*

S: But there are older men like that out there.

Y: *laughs* People that just naturally don’t distance themselves from others.

S: Yeah, people naturally physically close with others. I think there’s like 2 or 3 of them in every company. But among the most important skaters in the show, Chris seemed almost elderly.

Y: That’s true, since he’s 25 years old.

[12:00]

S: That being said, 25 is still young. But compared to others he was pretty much a grandpa.

Y: Isn’t [Georgi] Popovich older?

S: I thought they were the same age? [he gets corrected through his headphones] Oh, 27? I see.

Y: So Victor and Popovich are both 27.

S: I feel sorry for Popovich.

Y: But that’s what makes him funny.

S: Both are Russian skaters, but he’s been in the shadow of Victor, the genius, forever. And they’re the same age, so you know that he’s always been unable to surpass him. There’s something heartrending about it.

Y: Though he was amusing.

S: He must have some mental issues. Or maybe he just appears weird. Then again, skaters competing at such a high level are probably mentally different from usual people. You’d imagine they’re a little touched in the head. I mean, there are no ordinary people among them, are there?

Y: Well, there’s Otabek. Though he was funny too; Like, tell me immediately: will you be my friend or not? *laughs*

S: Are there only two choices?

[13:00]

Y: If I said no would you get upset or sad or what exactly? *laughs*

S: He also, like, randomly uses proverbs and whatnot.

Y: Oh, yeah. But Yurio just easily became his friend. *laughs*

S: Since Yurio was lonely.

Y: They even shared a “davaaai!”. *laughs*

S: You know how Otabek made an appearance on a motorbike, right? But if you think about it he came from a foreign country, so where the hell did he get a motorbike.

Y: *laughs*

S: Did he rent it?

Y: Maybe he took the land route

S: He took the land route?

Y: He came all the way from Kazakhstan on a motorbike by taking the land route.

S: Really? All the way to Spain?

Y: *laughing* All the way to Spain.

Both: *laugh*

S: I mean, he’s really cool, but how he got that motorbike remains a mystery to me.

Y: *laughs*

[13:40]

S: Anyway, Yuri on Ice was really fun. And regarding Victor, I’ve decided to stop explaining what sort of a person he is. I mean to be honest, when it comes to acting, the sound director would tell me to do the lines “with this sort of feeling”, “with this motivation”, and I myself read the script and the storyboards and from that tried to decide how I should act, but it’s not like I could get it right 100% of the time. On the contrary, sometimes my interpretation was the complete opposite of what they wanted, and we had to figure out how to compromise, so we kept playing that sort of tug of war and that’s how I came to voice Victor the way I did. That’s how it was from episode 1 til episode 12. So… how should I put it… through the shakiness of that tug of war, well, he’s established as a character, but there are many approaches you can take with him, and through that consideration of would he or wouldn’t he is how he came to life in my mind.

Y: It may sound easy because he’s so elusive, but it’s because he’s so elusive that makes it difficult.

S: You’re always wondering what he’s thinking.

Y: No one really knows his deep psyche.

[15:00]

S: So really, what is Victor thinking, what does he mean by this thing he said or by that expression, what is he thinking underneath these words and actions - there’s a vision of that in Kubo-san, in director Yamamoto, in the sound director and in myself, but in the end there is no ‘right’ answer. And this is because, and Kubo-san said it too, the fans of the anime have their own ideas of Victor-

Y: I’m sure they do, especially since he’s been there from the very beginning.

S: Rather than saying “that’s the right answer”, we prefer thinking that if that’s what you think then that’s true to you, and that’s fine. In fact, that’s what we want. That’s how we want you to enjoy the show, and I agree with it.

Y: And there’s a hell of a lot of takes on Victor out there.

S: I’m sure there are many people out there who want clear answers, but this is how it is.

Y: It’s almost like Evangelion.

Both: *laugh*

S: And that’s that.

Y: There are many things to talk about, but that’s it for our thorough looking back at the anime.

[End]



If anyone could help me with the parts I couldn’t hear or perchance got wrong then I’d really appreciate it! (Just please be gentle. :’) )

