The album “Hello Kitty 50th Anniversary Presents My Bestie Voice Collection with Sanrio characters,” which includes many of the long-loved Sanrio character songs and other classic songs that have captivated a wide range of generations, as well as heartwarming readings, was released on Wednesday, June 26th.
The voice cast includes Miyu Irino, Wataru Urata, Takeo Otsuka, Kazuki Kato, Ryohei Kimura, Ryota Suzuki, Shinnosuke Tachibana, Toshiyuki Toyonaga, Shugo Nakamura, Shun Horie, Hikaru Makishima, and Shuto Mori (BUDDiiS) (in alphabetical order). The album also includes the songs “KAWAII FESTIVAL” and “Hello Kitty” sung by the entire cast.
In addition, a concert featuring Sanrio characters and the entire cast will be held on Sunday, November 24th!
To celebrate the release of the album, Animate Times will be delivering interviews with the cast for 12 consecutive days. This is the fourth installment, and this time we have Kazuki Kato, who sings “Label of Happiness” [Cinnamoroll]. He talked about his memories with Sanrio characters and his thoughts on this project.
–How did you feel when you heard about doing an album of Sanrio character song covers?
Kato Kazuki (hereinafter, Kato): To be honest, I was surprised, but I was also really happy to have been asked. I think everyone has been in contact with Sanrio characters as a child, so I’m really happy to be able to have that connection even as an adult.
–Please tell us about your memories of Sanrio characters.
Kato: At that time, I was a big fan of Kero Kero Keroppi, and I even used Kero Kero Keroppi merchandise for my lunch box and school lunch bag.
Also, my sister loved “Hello Kitty”. When “Local Kitty” was popular, she would often tell me to buy “Local Kitty” whenever we went to various places around the country for live performances (laughs). So I think my sister has quite a lot of “Local Kitty” goods. A while later, when I went to Tokyo Station, I saw “Local Kitty” goods from all over the country being sold, and I remember thinking “Tokyo is amazing” (laughs).
–Are there any characters other than your own that you’re interested in?
Kato: “Kirimi-chan.” I was very shocked to see a fish fillet turned into a Sanrio character. The idea of turning something like this into a character is something that doesn’t even occur to me very often, so I was surprised by the boldness of the idea.
–Looking at the Sanrio homepage, it’s amazing to see how many characters they have available.
Kato: “Kero Kero Keroppi” and “Hangyodon” debuted in the same year as me. I think the charm of Sanrio characters is that they blend into our lives without us even realizing it.
–What do you think are similar to the characters you play?
Kato: Cinnamoroll’s dream of becoming a restaurant chef and making everyone happy is connected to my work, which is about wanting to give people an opportunity to change something through singing and acting. I can’t fly, though (laughs).
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