It has been announced that actress Sairi Ito will be making a guest voice appearance in the latest film in the popular anime series " Crayon Shin-chan," the 33rd installment, "Crayon Shin-chan Shin-chan the Movie: Strange and Mysterious! My Yokai Vacation." This will be Ito's first time participating in the " Crayon Shin-chan" movie series, and she will be playing Yako, a nine-tailed fox yokai. It was also announced that the comedy duo "Mayurika" will be making guest voice appearances, with Sakamoto playing the squid yokai and Nakatani playing the flounder yokai in the Edomae Sushi series.
Regarding his first appearance in the "Crayon Shin-chan" movie series, Ito expressed his joy, saying, "After 23 years in show business, I feel like I've finally reached this happy place! I've watched the success of so many guest voice actors with envy, and even my brother (Shunsuke Ito, who voices Oswald) is voicing a character in 'Our Dinosaur Diary,' which will be released in 2024, so I thought, 'How can I be left behind like this!?' So this time, I really feel like, 'It's finally here!'"
Regarding her role as Yako, she commented, "She looks like a very cute girl, but she's actually a yokai (supernatural creature) and is 500 years old. It was quite difficult to grasp Yako's image, and even though I had experience with voice acting, I struggled. However, thankfully, the Nohara family drew me into the world of the work through my ears, and I was able to act while letting my imagination run wild, feeling like I was also in this work, which was very enjoyable. I was nervous because I didn't want to spoil a work that I love in any way, but I'm relieved that I was able to finish the recording without any problems."
Nakaya, who plays Mayurika, commented, "As a yokai flounder, it was difficult to play because the way I express emotions like anger and joy is different from humans. It's also different from how I normally speak, so I tried making the endings of my sentences a little punny and experimenting with my voice, checking to make sure it was right as I gradually created the character." Sakamoto said, "I also found the yokai squid difficult. It was hard to get the hang of the tension, like adding '~ika (squid) suu!' to the end of my sentences. I felt more like a yokai than the yokai flounder that Nakaya played, and I was the kind of character that would mutter strange things to myself, so I wish I could have interacted with Shin-chan more..."
The latest film, "Kikikaikai! Ora no Yokai Vacation," follows the Nohara family as they stumble into the land of yokai (supernatural beings) and embark on an unpredictable adventure. The family was supposed to go to Hiroshi's hometown of Akita to see the Omagari Fireworks Festival, a summer tradition in Akita Prefecture, but instead find themselves lost in the land of yokai. Masaki Watanabe, who has been directing the TV anime series since 2022 and handling storyboarding and part-direction for the "Crayon Shin-chan" movie series since 2024, is directing the film series for the first time. The script is written by Yoshiko Nakamura, who has previously written the TV series scripts. The film will be released on July 31st.
The "Crayon Shin-chan" film series began in 1993 with the release of its first film, "Crayon Shin-chan -chan: Action Mask vs. High-Grade Demon King." The 2023 release of "Crayon Shin-chan Shin-chan: The Movie - Superpower Great Battle - Fly, Fly, Hand-Rolled Sushi," the first fully 3DCG animated film in the series, also generated considerable buzz. The 2024 film "Crayon Shin-chan -chan: Our Dinosaur Diary" (directed by Shinobu Sasaki) grossed over 2.5 billion yen, setting a new record for the highest-grossing film in the series' history.
