TOUGEN ANKI Producer, Voice Actor Discuss Blood-Soaked Premiere
by Earl Gertwagen,
Momotaro is a famous Japanese folklore hero who fights demons – “oni” – and is a figure of righteousness and protection, while the demons symbolize evil or injustice. But TOUGEN ANKI flips that on its head, portraying the Momotaro Agency as ruthless hunters, and the Oni family as undeserving of their mercilessness.
“Urushibara-sensei, who is the original manga author, said he writes both sides as villains,” Producer of the TOUGEN ANKI anime at PONY CANYON, Takanori Matsuoka, told us. He said the theme in TOUGEN ANKI — about how both sides have their perspectives and ultimately are fighting for what they think will bring peace —really resonated with him. “So if you look at it that way, they're both villains and they're heroes, right?”
At Anime Expo 2025 in Los Angeles, we sat down with Matsuoka-san to talk about the TOUGEN ANKI anime right before its premiere. Kazuki Ura, the voice of the main character, Shiki Ichinose, also joined us.
SPOILERS FOR EPISODE 1 OF TOUGEN ANKI BEYOND THIS POINT
Within the first few moments of TOUGEN ANKI, Shiki learns that he's an Oni and that, unbeknownst to him, the man who raised him was a former member of the Momotaro Agency – the very same group that hunts Oni like himself.
When a current member from the Oni-hunting Momotaro group slays Shiki's adoptive father in front of him, Shiki's anger flares, and he manifests the powers that have been lying dormant within him. When his rage escalates even further, he transforms into a massive demon beast with unbelievable – and for now uncontrollable – strength and destructive power.
And it's from there that Shiki has to learn to control himself and his feelings, starting from an emotionally immature teen with few attachments and growing into his own. How did Ura-san go about expressing that evolution through his voice?
He started by playing it very straightforwardly. “In the beginning, I acted almost like a newborn baby, so when he was angry, he was angry, and when he was happy, he was happy.” But as Shiki enters Rasetsu Academy, the school for Oni, and starts interacting with people and forming relationships he's willing to fight for, “he started developing, like letting out the anger in a different way, almost.” Ura-san likened it to a journey of growing up to be a human—a proper adult with a sense of morals.
However, Shiki also transforms into a raging demon, emitting deep, guttural yells. Ura-san shared later at the premiere that he was worried about being able to play it, and said the recording was hard on his throat.
Where does one go to practice yelling and delivering high-intensity lines? Ura-san said he used to practice the old-fashioned way by screaming into a pillow, but he recently moved into a new place with great soundproofing. Back at his old place, he couldn't practice past a certain hour of the day or his neighbors would think it was strange.
Playing a character like Shiki, who has to learn to control such volatile emotions, was an opportunity for Ura-san to reflect on his emotional maturity. “I feel that I'm quite a reasoned person. Even when I get angry, I hold it back,” he said. “[Since] I started acting as Shiki's character, I've started to allow myself to let my true self out. It's okay to let your feelings out.”
Blood is a crucial element of TOUGEN ANKI's story, so there's a lot of it, and it was important to get the visuals for it right. Matsuoka-san approached this with a lot of care. “It wasn't always depicted clearly [in the manga], so we had to think about how it would look.” He said he had discussed with the anime directors and action directors how to utilize blood as a weapon or an attack, so that viewers wouldn't be disappointed.
He paid a fair amount of attention to the music as well. “Since the story is based on Japanese folklore, we incorporated some traditional Japanese musical elements. However, the overall tone is primarily a dark, rock-inspired sound,” Matsuoka-san said. The series's dark fantasy elements lend themselves to a more hardcore sound. It's no wonder they decided to have the Japanese outfit BAND-MAID lend their hard rock stylings to the show's ending credits.
At the premiere, back in the Platinum Ballroom at the JW Marriott, BAND-MAID guitarist and singer MIKU Kobato was present alongside Ura-san and Matsuoka-san. She's effervescent yet relaxed, giving the sense that she's accustomed to being in front of a crowd. She also speaks with one of those end-of-sentence catchphrases in Japanese, so it's entertaining to hear the interpreter faithfully adding “-po” to the very end of a long response in English.
“When I first got the offer to work on the ending song, I of course read the manga, and I thought it was such an interesting series,” Kobato-san said. “There are so many exciting scenes, I'm just happy to be a part of this project-po.”
After the premiere, the audience got to watch the ending credits and get a taste of the song. Like the rest of BAND-MAID's catalog, it goes hard. It features the TOUGEN ANKI characters doing a TikTok-style coordinated dance. They're no doubt hopeful it'll manifest some internet virality, but even if that doesn't catch on in the real world, it's fun to imagine the characters themselves taking part.
Kobato-san wrote the ending credits song “What is justice?” herself, and said the idea of the characters' sense of justice being dependent on their unique perspectives as Oni or as Momotaro, as heroes or villains, is what inspired her.
The premiere even had the TOUGEN ANKI creator Yura Urushibara call in live to say hello to fans. It was his first time speaking publicly, so it was a special moment both for him and for fans.
“When I started TOUGEN ANKI, I wasn't well known and neither was TOUGEN ANKI itself,” Urushibara-san said. “But now it's crossed the sea, and so many people in the US and other places are watching and learning about it. I feel so grateful for that.”
Among manga creators, having your work adapted into an anime is one of the biggest dreams. “When I heard [the news], I knew that anime projects come and go, so I didn't believe it at first.” Now the day has finally arrived, and his creation is being realized stunningly.
So what was the premiere episode like? It's tough to judge an entire show or even a season on its first 20 or so minutes. But if the action scenes maintain this level of excitement, viewers are in for a wild ride.
The first few minutes line up with what Ura-san said – it does indeed feel like a typical shonen anime. The engines rev up quickly, though! When the Momotaro guy, whose name is Samidare, shows up and unrelentingly attacks Shiki, and eventually elicits the pure fire lurking deep within him, we get to see Shiki transform into Full Oni Mode and go berserk.
The 3D used in these action scenes is exceptionally well done. The bar keeps getting higher for mixing 2D and 3D, and TOUGEN ANKI is pushing it to its limit to achieve some cool dynamic shifts in perspective during the episode's featured fight.
One amazing detail worth mentioning is that Shiki is a gun nut. He loves guns. So when his latent blood-manipulation powers are awakened, he shapes the blood into modern-day automatic rifles. It's ridiculous, but you have to let go and roll with it.
When fighting in berserk mode, Shiki manages to pin Samidare down. Shiki leans in close to Samidare's face, then opens his mouth to reveal a blood gun barrel sticking out in a brief but incredible homage to the Xenomorph vs Ripley moment from Alien 3.
Before Shiki's caretaker Tsuyoshi dies, he says he hopes the Oni and Momotaro factions can one day live shoulder to shoulder, hand in hand, and for Shiki to be the one to bring them together. And now we have our hero's calling: get strong enough to end the fighting between the warring families and bring balance to the Force!
TOUGEN ANKI is setting a high bar with its first episode, and Ura-san and Matsuoka-san are two members of a team dedicated to bringing the manga to life. I'm excited for the blood-soaked ride ahead of us!
TOUGEN ANKI is streaming in North America on Crunchyroll, Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, and more.
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