Toru Furuya in 2011 C3 in Hong Kong

Throughout the 2011 C3 in Hong Kong event there were various people invited to give talks on the main stage of the venue. On the third and last day, Toru Furuya (Furuya Tohru, 古谷 徹), well known for his role as Amuro Ray in Mobile Suit Gundam, started the programme by rocking the entire hall with his well known line: "Amuro, ikimasu!". As soon as this was heard, crowds of people were swarming towards the main stage even from the other side of the hall, myself included while I was still watching gameplay of Gundam Vs Extreme. It was just too good to pass up!


The whole talk lasts for about 30 minutes. Furuya firsts addresses his words of condolence for those who are suffering from the recent earthquake and tsunami in Japan, before he talks about his seiyuu career.

When asked about what he likes about Hong Kong, Furuya answers food, massage, and cute Hong Kong girls (whether the last one is an obligatory answer or not, it's funny how we often say foreign girls are cuter than those near us ^^;).

The talk mostly involves his roles as Amuro Ray in the Gundam series. Furuya talks about how Amuro's voice changes from the first Gundam series to Char's Counterattack as the character grows up in age. In Mobile Suit Gundam, Amuro is a 15 years old boy who has shown much youth and energy, so Furuya described how he 'let himself go' while doing voice acting then. During the time of Zeta Gundam, Furuya has given Amuro hints of restrain in his voice to show the character's hesitation in the series. By the time of Char's Counterattack, Amuro is 29 years old already, and Furuya has given Amuro more of a 'manly', mature voice.

I do not record or upload any of the videos shown below, as they are found on YouTube and are uploaded by cekehechu. Many thanks for his effort and others who have kindly uploaded their videos to share this experience with us!


Furuya voicing as Amuro Ray in Mobile Suit Gundam (age 15), Zeta Gundam (age 23), and Char's Counterattack (age 29), showing slight differences in his voice as Amuro grows up in age. This was followed by the host mentioning Furuya also takes the role of narration in Gundam 00, and soon crowds were chanting "Ribbons, Ribbons" in the background (as Furuya did do voice acting for another character under a pseudonym).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HnTR-6AFDcg


Furuya voicing as Ribbons Almark from Gundam 00. As he cannot voice as another character other than Amuro Ray or narration in another Gundam related media, he has to take a pseudonym of Noboru Sougetsu (Sougetsu Noboru, 蒼月 昇). Furuya expressed an eagerness to take part in voice acting for a "good looking guy" for Gundam 00, and among the "good looking guys" he chose Ribbons XD
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1aMGhhY-NTs


Furuya voicing as Pegasus Seiya from Saint Seiya
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Dz5PHJaO2c


Furuya voicing as Yamcha from Dragon Ball. He commented that he thought Yamcha seems like a powerful guy at first, but slowly became weaker and a joke character throughout the series to his surprise ^^;
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GQC5-xzYrGI


Furuya voicing as Tuxedo Mask from Sailor Moon (I seriously didn't know he did Tuxedo Mask as well lol)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3H3sSuZYlEs


Toru Furuya is also going to voice a character called Shuren in recent Bleach movie Jigoku-hen (Hell Chapter). Furuya commented his voice acting for this role (powerful, charismatic, and... Sexy lol), and that he was actually a bit nervous while doing this role compared to other series he has done before. A brief clip from the movie was shown as well with Shuren introducing himself to protagonist Ichigo before they start dueling.


Clip of Shuren in Bleach Jigoku-hen
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yjqoHrnhcVo


And here's one lucky purchase: One of the 100 clear files personally signed by Toru Furuya himself.


It was a really nice experience to see Toru Furuya on stage and watch him reenact the anime characters, as well as him giving comments on the roles he has voiced on. It's still amazing for me to hear him reenacting the characters so well, especially all 3 ages of Amuro Ray, after the original series have been aired (32 years ago!). Given that he is still active on voice acting, he sure has been labelled as a "veteran seiyuu" for a good reason. I do hope we get to see more of such events and guests in the future, and that this year's C3 event will encourage more Japanese hobby companies and artists to come to Hong Kong again for future years!