Chained Soldier was a hit on the anime streaming service HiDive back in 2024. It was to no one’s surprise that the second season was announced immediately after its successful first season run. At Anime Frontier 2025, Hi-Dive premiered the first episode of Chained Soldier Season 2 to anime fans at the show, which is coming in January 2026. To everyone’s excitement, Anime Frontier and HiDive also brought Producer Yuki Watanabe and the incredible Japanese voice actor Yukana, who plays Fubuki Azuma in Chained Soldier Season 2. I had the chance to speak with Yukana before they premiered the early episode at the show.
What inspired you to pursue voice acting, and how did your early experiences shape your approach to characters today?
I became a voice actor to become someone who’s not me. I don’t have to be on a camera; there’s nothing physical about it. I can become many different things through my voice alone.
When you look back at your career, what role do you feel taught you the most about acting?
So I don’t really want to pick a single role. I approach each role seriously, and I learn something new each time. That’s how I evolve over time.
How do you balance director instructions with your own creative interpretation?
Of course, I always put the director’s orders first. The reason being is that I’m not in charge of all the characters. I’m only in charge of providing the voice of one character. Perhaps the opinion that matters the most is that of the original creator, if it’s based on a manga. However, making anime is a team thing. Everyone has to contribute. So it’s a question of what’s most important I have to consider. When I’m participating in an anime project, I will offer my opinion. I will ask, “what do you think about this?” The reason I ask is that every piece of media, every anime has its own appeal point and I think that differs depending on the series, which is why I ask and feel it out.
What do you like to play more? The protagonist or antagonist and why?Â
I don’t really differentiate between the two. For me, it’s not really a question of main character or antagonist. There are cases where an antagonist can be a main character. What appeals to me most is how much of their humanity comes through in their personality and how that comes across in the voice.
What was your first impression of Fubuki Azuma when you were cast in the anime adaptation of Chained Soldier?
The impression that was left on me was that someone thought that the character Fubuki would fit me and the style that I do of voice acting. With that impression and my feelings towards the character all mixed based on that experience. Personally, what I feel about Fubuki as a character is that she’s a very serious person. And maybe she herself wouldn’t like to hear this, but I think she’s an extra hard worker.
Chained Soldier features characters who balance power, vulnerability, and emotional intensity. How did you approach portraying that complexity?
I think every character has different sides of their personality. What I focus most on is how to shift between those “different sides” of their personality, making the transition smooth.
Fubuki Azuma has both fierce combat scenes and softer emotional beats. Which side was more challenging to perform?
For me, it was smooth. Both sides of her character is something I can understand. And so I didn’t really have any trouble with it.
What do you hope fans take away from Fubuki Azuma’s journey in Chained Soldier?
So not particular to Fubuki, but I think it applies to all characters and chain Soldier, but they all kind of have a background situation that they’re in. And so I hope that fans kind of pay attention to their stories and how that affects them as a person throughout the show.
How do you differentiate between closely related emotional tones—such as confidence vs. arrogance or sadness vs. exhaustion?
Although people may think of them as similar, for me, they’re quite different. And I can tell them apart pretty easily. And so I don’t really struggle or think very much about that particular aspect of it. What I do is when I approach each of those emotions, I have to consider how to weave it into the character and how that comes across in their voice. That’s what I focus on the most.
How has the voice acting industry evolved throughout your career, particularly regarding advancements in technology, shifts in fan interaction, and the scope of creative latitude?
At the end of the day, a voice actor’s job is to convey human emotion, because human emotion is what moves all of us. And so no matter how much time has passed, that hasn’t changed. That has remained constant. With the rise of things like AI, the role of human emotion becomes a lot more critical because we have to take on a deep dive into not just the character, but our own emotions and how that conveys through the media that we consume.
HIDIVE currently streams the first and second seasons of Chained Soldier.
