Solid Snake's Japanese Voice Akio Otsuka Cries as He Comments on Death Stranding and Hideo Kojima

DualShockers

By Iyane Agossah

Published Nov 14, 2019

The Japanese cast of Death Stranding appeared at the World Strand Tour event in Tokyo, with Akio Otsuka crying and sharing his love for the players.

The World Strand Tour 2019 event organized for Death Stranding's promotion is still ongoing. The Tokyo event of the tour happened on November 10, and featured Hideo Kojima along with the following seiyuu:

Kenjiro Tsuda/Sam
Akio Otsuka/Die Hardman
Kikuko Inoue/Amelie
Nana Mizuki/Fragile
Kazuhiro Yamaji/Cliff
Satoshi Mikami/Higgs
Akihiko Ishizumi/Deadman

Akio Otsuka, who voiced Solid Snake in Metal Gear Solid, was most notably asked about the difference between Kojima's most popular series and Death Stranding. He talked about his own voicing experience, and how he realized the difference between voicing a protagonist in a Kojima game and voicing another character. In Death Stranding, Akio Otsuka's character Die Hardman is giving instructions to the players, meaning he had to be conscious that he's sort of a guide and properly reflect that in his acting, in order to not lose players midway. Kojima added how Die Hardman's actor Tommie Earl Jenkins speaks in a really gentle way, so they had to be careful about that as well as Akio Otsuka tends to sound more severe.

Later on, Akio Otsuka also shared an "I love you" to the fans, and started crying when chatting about Kojima and everything they went through to release Death Stranding. Most notably he was moved about the fact many decided to leave Konami and follow Kojima to Kojima Productions. Akio Otsuka is really happy the game connected everyone on the development team together and hopes it'll help connect many players around the world. You can hear him at the time stamp linked below.

The other video I've included also has some comments from the rest of the cast. In summary, everyone said they liked all the characters in the game. Akio Otsuka mentioned he likes "the woman with glasses who appears at around halfpoint". Kikuko Inoue mentioned she particularly liked BB and was surprised at how the final game exceeded her expectations. It turned out to be even more interesting than what she imagined.

Akihiko Ishizumi jokingly said he didn't have the time to play the game yet besides powering up the PS4 and entering his PlayStation ID.Â Kazuhiro Yamaji cryptically mentioned you should enter your date of birth in your PS4 before playing.

Nana Mizuki said she ended up voicing a character with a dark story again and hopes players enjoy the game and Fragile's story. And how we need to get out there like Sam and directly meet people.

Kenjiro Tsuda mentioned it feels like forever since when Kojima DM'ed him on Twitter to ask if he wants to voice a game character. Death Stranding's development was like a long journey he experienced with all the staff. Meeting players at events makes him believe this long voyage was worth it.

After the event, Kojima shared a short backstage video, with Akio Otsuka saying "I didn't think I'd end up crying there."

A talk show with the seiyuu in Death Stranding was held at Tokyo Game Show 2019.

Death Stranding will be coming to PC via Steam and Epic Game Store in early Summer 2020.