During AniManGaki 2026, we had the incredible opportunity to interview Jacob Takanashi, a voice actor best known for his role as Kinich from Genshin Impact. Here’s what he had to say about his experiences as a voice actor!
Disclaimer: The following interview has been edited for clarity and ease of reading.
1. What’s the strangest or most unexpected direction a director has ever given you, and how did you turn it into a performance?
The strangest direction I’ve ever gotten was on a video game called Azur Striker Gunvolt 3. I voiced a character named Stratos, and he eats people. He’s a cannibalistic character, and he’s very unhinged. I was struggling to find his voice for a little bit. Diana (the voice director), said “I want you to laugh maniacally,” and she demonstrated it for me. Took me awhile to get into Stratos’ mindset, but the director eventually got me there.
2. How do you create a believable emotion when you’re recording alone in a booth with nothing to react to?
Putting yourself in the shoes of the character—what I mean by that is not “becoming” the character. For example, let’s say the character is a medieval peasant in 12th century England. What I want to do is I don’t want to become a medieval peasant, because then I would just be the character and there’s none of that special sauce.
I want to imagine myself as Jacob, if I had the same background and upbringing as that medieval character. That really helps connect myself with the character—it’s not how a medieval peasant would act, but it’s how I would act if I were in a medieval peasant’s shoes. It’s a similar sounding but important distinction.
3. Have you ever heard your own voice in a character and thought, “Wow, I didn’t know I could sound like that”? What happened?
Chibi Godzilla. A lot of people think that Chibi Godzilla is pitched up in software, but no, that’s all me! His voice is way up high. My voice’s timbre is naturally a little bit high so when the director went, “We would like to have you try”, I listened to Jun Fukuyama’s performance (it was incredible) and I tried to get as close to that voice as I possibly could. It worked out.
4. If you could transform into any of your characters for one day, who would it be and why?
I would say Griff from Far-Fetched, it’s an indie animation. He is the lead singer of a metal band and I think that would be a really really cool experience to live through. To be a rock star up on stage, rocking out with my friends—that would be an incredible experience for a day.
5. What’s one voice-acting skill you think audiences completely underestimate?
So it’s called voice acting, right? Acting being the thing. I see so many newcomer voice actors who believe that they can be voice actors simply because they can do an impression of this or that actor, and that’s great—being able to do voices definitely helps. But, the question remains: can you deliver a believable performance using those voices? To sound like a character is one thing, but to deliver a performance that audiences believe—one that they can resonate and feel emotions from, that is the more important part. I would say that 80% of the roles that I’m cast for are my natural voice.
For example, if you listen to Kinich from Genshin Impact, his voice: the timbre and the way it sounds is not far from my own. It’s just how he delivers the lines that matter—he’s very logical and serious all the time. If you notice it’s the dictation and speed that have shifted, the voice is the same. Me and Kinich thus feel very different.
We’d like to once again thank AniManGaki and Jacob Takanashi for the interview opportunity! You can connect with Jacob on Instagram and Twitter/X.
