Hideo Ishikawa

Hideo Ishikawa is a voice actor who has voiced characters from video games and anime such as DBZ, Bubblegum Crisis, Récord of Lodoss, One Piece, Tales of Eternia, Naruto, Bleach, Death Note, Hell Girl, JoJo, and more. Most notably Jushiro Ukitake from Bleach, Itachi from Naruto, Auron from Final Fantasy X, Cait Sith from Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, and Squall from Final Fantasy VIII Kingdom Hearts.

Billlie

Otakon, Washington, D.C. August, 2025

Billlie is a seven member K-pop group from South Korea who performed at Otakon on Friday night.

Their names are Tsuki, Moon Sua, Osatu Haruna, Sheon, Suhyeon, Siyoon, and Haram.

A group of four members of the press interviewed them the next day, with each of us taking turns,

one question at a time. For this interview, I chose to only include my questions and Billlie’s

responses. The other media’s questions were great and thought provoking, and I enjoyed listening to

those replies as well.

Ryuuza Media: My name is Nick, and I'm with Ryuuza Media. Welcome to Washington, D.C.

Basic question - what is your recording process?

Suhyeon: So, my name is Suhyeon, and I think that during the recording process, emotions are an

essential element. So, after we think about those emotions, we kind of play around with them, and

we think what would be the best way to express these emotions.

Billlie: So we think of the sound of music almost like a scene. So we really try to work hard to create

something beautiful.

Billlie: So before we go into the recording, what we really try to do is understand

the lyrics as they are and have a set interpretation that way we can express those emotions as

well.

Ryuuza Media: In between touring and recording times, when you're on break, do you find

yourselves missing everything? Or do you feel a moment of relaxation? Because a lot of people who

tour a lot, when they're back at home, they kind of miss the excitement of everything. So when

you're on break, do you feel a moment of relaxation? Or do you just miss the fans on stage?

Sheon: My name is Sheon. And whenever I'm not on stage, I actually do reflect a lot on the time

that I spend on stage. Even whenever we're quote unquote resting, I'm always thinking about

different ways of how I can advance myself and different projects that we could potentially

work on. Actually, whenever I'm not on stage, because I think so much about being on stage, I think

I go into this head space of where I start to miss being on stage and I really want to get back up

there. So every time I step on a stage, I think of it as it could be my last. So I do everything full

out and with my whole heart.

Suhyeon: And if I could add just a little bit more, whenever I'm not on stage, yes, my body is

resting, but my mind continues and I continue thinking, what could we work on next? What could

we do next? And during this time, we also think a lot about the fans and what the fans would like.

And that's how we kind of naturally always end up going back into the practice room and going

from there. So even during our times of resting, we do end up finding ourselves going back to

that practice room and practicing with other members and just kind of talking it out and really

thinking about what we can continue doing in the future.

Ryuuza Media: What is your choreography rehearsal like? Can you explain a little bit of how you

work through learning your dance routines for your songs?

Moon Sua: So one thing that we do is we kind of check to see our formations quite a bit, and we

also like to pay attention to a lot of the little details whenever we practice. We also think about the

event that we're about to go to and think about how we can communicate with each other while

we're on stage. We really think about and consider how we can best show who Billlie is for each

stage and try to prepare accordingly.

Ryuuza Media: Do any of you cosplay? Do you have plans to cosplay?

Tsuki: Hi, I’m Tsuki, I’m a Japanese member. Ever since I was little, that's just what I've watched

and grown up with. And actually, I used to do some cosplay back when I was little in Japan. So it

was actually really interesting to be able to experience something new like this. There’s one I really

want to do, Sawako. The black hair and the full bang character. So I really like that character, and I

think that it would be fun to maybe one day try it out.

Haenuli

Chris

Chris is an illustrator and mangaka who has illustrated for Hatsune Miku “Magical Mirai”, Snow Miku, Pokemon featuring Hatsune Miku, support illustration for Zenless Zone Zero, manga in anthology comics for Disney and Aniplex’s game Disney Twisted Wonderland, and more.

Otakon, Washington, D.C. August, 2025

Ryuuza Media: Chris is an illustrator and mangaka who has illustrated for Hatsune Miku: Magical

Mirai, Snow Miku, Pokemon featuring Hatsune Miku, support illustration for Zenless Zone Zero,

manga and anthology comics for Disney and Aniplex's game, Disney Twisted Wonderland, and

more.

So, in 2013, you were the original designer and main illustrator for the Hatsune Miku

Magical Mirai event, which is basically a live 3D computer graphic concert with virtual singers.

How did you come up with your design?

Chris: I did Magical Mirai in 2013 and the theme for that year was magician. If you look at that

illustration, you can see a magician hat. If you hit the magician's hat with a rod or a stick, a lot of

things pop out. That was kind of a visualization to represent that this is about Hatsune Miku and

everything that's related to Hatsune Miku. The company that has a license for Hatsune Miku is

called Krypton and has six other characters. Officially, including Miku, they are

called Piapro Characters.

They will bring all the people they have worked with before, collaborated with. Basically, they want

it to be where they will try to bring everything you can meet at one place. They kind of made a fun

play on words with Magical Mirai. In Japanese, it would be Maji, which is real, or true to heart.

Karu means culture, because in Japanese it is Karucha. Mirai means future. People who are very

dedicated to the culture and thinking about creating a future where they wanted

to create an event for the future where a lot of people who love the characters come together

and have fun together. According to what Chris said [interpreter speaking], she tried to portray that.

It's a fun of explosions [the hat in the illustration]. When you hit it, everything is going to come out.

The charming point of that specific illustration was the big hat and the musical note of the rod that

she hits the hat with. A lot of the people that she has worked with actually love that musical note

rod. She believes that those two are the charming points for that specific illustration.

RM: Were you at the event? Because on August 30th, at the Yokohama Arena, there were 15,000 fans there. Were you able to witness it yourself?

C: Of course, I was there. I was in the crowd on that day. If you look at the official Twitter, now

what we call X, I made an official Twitter account for Magical Mirai. It was created in April or May

of 2013. The event itself was in August. It was a very short time period to plan an event at that scale.

The planning portion was extremely short. It had a lot of things. A lot of the companies that

collaborated were there. The 3D hologram live was there. It was an amazing event that moved her a

lot. This must be the magic. This must be the magical day. This must be the magical future that

they were trying to portray in the title.

She would like to express all the thanks to the hard-working staff who are not seen in the

foreground. They were working hard in the background.

Jong Hoon Chae

Otakon, Washington, D.C. August, 2025

Jong Hoon Chae is a music publisher and founder of Plum Tree Songs.

Ryuuza Media: So you are a publisher, master recorder, licensor, and you also founded Palm Tree Songs.

Jong Hoon Chae: To be very accurate, it's fair to label myself as a music publisher. Because master recorder implies that it's a record label. And licensor is also something that you use for third party usage for music IPs. So I think it's better to just put it as music publisher.

RM: Music publisher. Okay, sure. And so what is your role at Palm Tree Songs?

JHC: Well, I founded the music publishing company. So primarily, I am administering music copyrights, and primarily K-pop. And labels usually ask music publishers or writers, they are looking for a certain type of song. I sales pitch for that for creators, writers, producers, or publishers, whoever wants me to pitch their clients songs and stuff. And once I get a song placement, that's when the writers and everybody gets involved in terms of sending over the files to record labels for them to record for their acts, and sending over the credits for them to put it on the CDs and all that, and properly register the songs worldwide. That's the whole job that I do.

RM: And as a publishing and production company, what does Plum Tree Songs do?

JHC: In terms of music publishing, just what I said, administering music copyright and also play songs, new songs with K-pop labels. That's what I do as a music publisher. And in terms of production company, the production tasks, when I place a song with a label, normally the labels do a production deal. And on behalf of the creators that I work with, I handle the production agreement. So they are the usual production related tasks that I do, handling the legal side of it, and also handling the production tasks. Like sending over the files and see if there's any missing files and stuff for them to record.

RM: Some of the artists that you work with with Palm Tree Songs are Suho of Exo, Chung Ha, Key of Shinee, and Cravity, right? So going back, you've had a love for music, such a love for music that you actually went to college for it and studied music business at Columbia College, Chicago. What drove your passion and why did you choose music business?

JHC: I was studying business administration first, and then before entering the last semester, I decided to do something that I love. And that's how I got to know that there is music business course in the United States. Back then it was more than 6 or 7 years ago. Korea didn't have any music business related bachelor's degree-ish schools for offering that program. So that is the reason why I decided to go to Chicago as they have more affordable tuition fees compared to the ones in LA and New York. So that's why I went to Chicago to study music business.

RM: And who are your musical influences?

JHC: I'd say U.S. indie pop like Elliott Smith, Jeff Buckley, some of the minty fresh or soft pop records artists, like Portoise, and labels like Phil Jockey records. The indie pop in general in the U.S. really triggered my interest in music. So those are my favorite genres that I consult.

RM: So one of the things that you worked on, the Beatles weren't released on iTunes until November 2010 in the U.S. and you were part of the promotion campaign for the digital launch in Korea while working as marketing manager for Universal Music Group. But what roles did you play during this huge event? That had to have been quite the experience. I vaguely remember when the Beatles actually released that because there were certain things that weren't released that everybody wanted, like Tool. Tool didn't put out their stuff because they were like, oh, we don't want individual songs. We want people to experience the whole thing, the whole album.

JHC: It was 2015. But that's when, the Beatles' estate allowed their records to be out on streaming websites like Spotify. Korea came in a little bit later because Spotify and some other digital service providers, they weren't that active in Korea. Also, Apple Music wasn't a thing in Korea back then. So they had to negotiate with Universal Music.

And that was such an awesome experience because we could get as many product placement and promotion as possible from the label because if you're a DSP and you don't have Beatles, then it's like you don't have the classics of classics. So we got all the product placement online,the first flow case and promotional sites that were dedicated to Beatles releases and all that. It was a great pleasure to be working on that project.

As a market manager, I worked closely with the sales team, digital sales team, since they were the one who were the initial contact with the digital service providers. But it was me who had to get the approval from Universal Music's headquarter for what the DSPs want to do, which is the digital service providers, and do a lot of marketing campaigns with them to successfully launchthe digital campaign in Korea. Since as a marketer, I had to promote that news to the general music fans. So that was what I was doing.

RM: And a few years after that, in 2018, separate from that, you co-founded Musikade, which is a music publishing company, which had 10 songs on Spotify with over 100 million streams, and has also now sold over 10 million physical units. And there you were vice president of publishing and intellectual property, working with A&R artists in repertoire and creative licensing. Could you talk about those responsibilities and working with various artists?

JHC: I was working with a producer called Ryan Jeon. He is one of the well-known producers in K-pop. The way how we work is to collaborate with a lot of songwriters. And Ryan Jeon and myself and other of my co-workers, we as a music publisher, for us to bring revenue to the table, we have to do a lot of sales pitch with labels. And Ryan Jeon, he placed a lot of songs with SM and other labels, but I also did a lot of placements with them. We all collectively placed a lot of songs in the K-pop industry, and that's the result of what you just addressed.

RM: And how did you shift into Plum Tree Songs?

JHC: I think it was the right timing for me to make an independent company of my own. So it was just the right timing, again, to start my own company. So after working five years at Musikade, that's why. It's been a little bit over two years and seven months that I started working, and I'm still enjoying the life.

Ayana Taketatsu

Otakon, Washington, D.C. August 2025

Ayana is a seiyuu and singer who has lent her voice to both video games and anime. She has released multiple singles and albums throughout her music career.

She has voiced anime characters from Sword Art Online, Frieren, Guilty Crown, Highschool of the Dead, The Quintessential Quintuplets, Bleach 1000 Year Blood War, Akiba Maid War, Kakegurui, Classroom of the Elite, Berserk, Space Dandy, and a lot more and video game characters such as Chiori in Genshin Impact and characters from Shin Megami, Emberstoria, Fantasy Life, Fate Trigger, Nikke, Arknights, World of Final Fantasy, Persona 3 and 5, Xenoblade Chronicles 2, Dragon Quest Rivals, and more.

Ryuuza Media: So today we are with Ayana Taketatsu. She is a seiyuu and singer who has lent her voice to both video games and anime. And she has released 15 singles and 5 albums in her music career.

I’ve listened to your solo music, Petit Milady, and Ho-Kago Tea Time. They’re all very good. Who were your musical influences?

Ayana Taketatsu: I listened to Sailor Moon, Cardcaptor Sakura, anime songs, and seiyuu character songs. I've lived my life with anime songs. I listened to a lot of anime. But my favorite artist is Oku Hanako. She's a very nice person. I sing her songs in karaoke a lot. She plays the piano in a very delicate way. Her voice is very delicate. And the lyrics are very soft and it touches my heart. I really like those lyrics. She's well known for doing the song for Toki wo Kakeru Shoujo. I also listened to voice actor character songs.

RM: When recording voices, has it become second nature for you? Or do you still find it difficult fitting into a character?

AT: I gotta say, it depends on the character. There will be characters that are much more difficult to me. But there are characters that also come to me naturally. So it really is by character.

RM: What was the most challenging role that you've performed?

AT: Actually, I think tsundere is very difficult. Tsundere is a character that has two different feelings and two different emotions in one and there’s a mix between like and hate in there and it’s difficult to get the true meaning behind what they speak because they don’t really feel how they speak. So what kind of percentage of like and hate is behind each line is difficult in terms of having the character be cute at the same time.

RM: Is the recording process different for video games than anime? What are the key differences in voice in anime and video game characters? Such as methods and equipment, and your approach.

AT: That’s a difficult question. I guess if it was in terms of approach, for a game I keep to my pace because in a game I’m oftentimes recording by myself as opposed to in an anime, there’s lots of other people recording at the same time. There’s lots of words I have to speak for a game, it’s so thick it feels like I'm carrying around an encyclopedia. I have to sit down and record, so that’s opposite of anime where I stand up and record. There was a comment about the distance to the mic and how it’s different between music and recording lines.

AT: Also I would say in terms of games, having the amount of emotion being expressed is a bit different, you can’t have them all in one package, because every game is a bit different. Visually in anime, you have more information there. In games, you are limited with visuals. In games I try to make my emotions a bit more obvious than in anime. This is a more personal view, I’m not sure if this is more widely held.

AT: It's a bit difficult to express in words, but then I kind of feel that acting on an anime seems like you're watching something in 4K as opposed to in games, maybe 1080p. It might be due to how many people are involved in an anime. There will be very precise requirements of how the emotion has to be as opposed to in games where I need to be a lot more obvious in terms of anger, sadness, all that. In games, you don't have as many people making the order. It is probably a bit more due to how many people give directions.

Kouki

Otakon, Washington, D.C. August, 2023

This interview was conducted by Amishmoth for Ryuuza Media.

Ryuuza Media: Alrighty, so good morning guys. We are interviewing Kouki, the vocalist from the

visual kei rock band D=Out. Thank you for taking the time to speak with us today, we do

appreciate it. Now first question is, for people who aren't familiar, what is visual kei rock?

Kouki: So in Japan, male makeup is sort of seen as like, sort of not welcoming and it's sort of

discriminated. So I think for visual kei rock, visual rock, free expression is really at its core and also

just really like self-expression, expressing myself. It's a group of people who want the most

attention, who want to be flashy.

RM: Alright, so next question, how did you become interested in music?

K: So when I was a student, I had a lot of insecurities, but when I was able to find visual rock, I

really felt saved and freed and also it's just that I really want to have the most attention.

RM: Now how did you create the idea of visual arts within your performances? That's the

next question.

K: Out of all the visual kei rock bands, I think our group is unique in that we display Japanese

traditional culture. And we're the only ones who really use shamisen and use sensu, Japanese fans, in

our performance. So I think our goal is really to be the only one.

RM: Nice, okay, well speaking of incorporating traditional Japanese music, it says here that you are

described as being a mood enka singer. I'm somewhat familiar with the idea of enka, but if you

could go ahead and refresh on how you would describe enka and that style of being a mood

enka singer.

K: So nowadays in Japan, music is largely made to be overseas export, but enka is more of a

traditional music. So I felt like I really wanted to protect this traditional music rather than relying on

overseas exports. And I still am learning from enka to this day. He wants to sing enka in America too

someday.

RM: Oh, that'd be really nice. Alrighty, so now next question is, it says you've performed in both

the US and in Europe. Is there a favorite place that you've been to and do you get to explore when

you tour and go to the US and Europe?

K: Well, every year we would go to Taiwan. But since I want to live in America and go to

Hollywood and Disneyland, and I really want to just go on Route 66 someday.

RM: Oh, wow. Those are really nice places to go. Alrighty, next question is, what are the challenges

of incorporating visual and audio art?

K: I feel like people should be always updating and improving. So the music that I create, it should

always be better than the last music song that I created.

RM: Yes, of course. Artists are always improving, especially the older artists that I've noticed.

Speaking of, are there any particular artists that you look up to? Whether they are Japanese or

American? Or whoever you really think deserves to be put on a pedestal?

K: He really admires Yasu from John Dark.

RM: Next question is, do you have any advice for aspiring musicians?

K: People tend to just look at other people and compare yourself to them but really just look at

yourself and just see what you can become and what you can do.

RM: That’s really good advice.

K: I really only focus on music, I really don’t do anything else. So I talked earlier that I don't watch

any TV or shows. I really want to learn English and be able to just talk with people without

needing an interpreter.

RM: Hopefully one day you will be able to learn English. I'm sure the fans would enjoy that a lot,

actually.

K: I think I'll just study abroad and stay somewhere.

RM: Alright, last question. Do you have any favorite band memories, by chance?

K: I don't think there's anything more fun than performing live. I think that's the most fun thing

in life. I don't think there's anything more fun than that. For example, there's a problem with drugs

in Japan right now. But performing live feels the best, so I don't need anything like that.

Ryan Colt Levy

Voice Actor Ryan Colt Levy at Katsucon 2025.

Ryan Colt Levy is best known for voicing the English version of Denji on Chainsaw Man. He has also voiced characters from My Hero Academia and Jujutsu Kaisen.

Mario Castaneda

Spanish Voice Actor Mario Castaneda at Otakon 2023.

Mexican voice actor Mario Castaneda is best known for his work as the Spanish dubbed version of Son Goku for Dragon Ball Z and Latin American versions of Jim Carrey, Jackie Chan, and Bruce Willis films. He was the announcer for Latin America’s Boomerang from 2001-2006. He has voiced the Spanish versions of characters from Naruto Shippuden, One Piece, Sailor Moon, Spider Man, Iron Man, and more.