Since the second eldest was announced, I think it's about time we move on to the actual eldest of the Hamato, Hirohito! I am so very pleased to say that Rob Schwarb will be the wonderful voice actor bringing this Hamato to life. Like the others, I kind of did have a voice in mind when writing Hirohito. That being of the 2003 TMNT's Leonardo. And I think no one would be surprised to hear that at all. Now I don't know that I'd say Rob's performance for Hirohito sounds like Michael Sinterniklaas' take on Leonardo; but I would say is that I physically threw up my arms when I heard it and proclaimed, "f*%kin' come on, well- that's it, he is Hirohito, that's exactly how I imagined, so I guess he's the one." I'm paraphrasing of course, but this was about what actually came out of my mouth. Now, I knew of Rob because I believe auditioned for Lee McCormick when I posted that casting call. Unless maybe he just reached out to me before. Regardless I knew he was talented, and I knew I wanted to work with him. I guess I just didn't expect him to so perfectly nail Hirohito to the point where there was literally no contest. Well- almost no contest. There was only one other person I ever considered which was prior to hearing Rob, and the only reason after Rob I even toyed with the idea of casting them was because for their take of Hirohito they did a Japanese accent. And I bring this up for a reason (bear with me). On paper it would make sense for Hirohito to have an accent, he lives in Japan, he was raised there, and Japanese of course is his first language. But it's also undeniable that TMNT is what influenced the Hamato, they're both my love letter to a franchise that meant so much to me growing up as I'm the eldest of four brothers (ignoring the fact I'm genderfluid for this discussion). As well as my own sort of spin on the idea, so the turtles are Japanese Americans, raised in America naturally that's their accent. Because the Kappa are sort of intrinsically linked to them for better or worse means again the voices I imagined for them were that of the turtles. So I never imagined any of them with accents. This might bother some and hey that's valid. But for me, it was partially just because that's what my brain did and partly because when I write these characters I try not to lock them into sounding a certain way, because I have no idea who may be interested in the project. Additionally, if you need an in-universe reason mine has always been that Hirohito and Haruki are studious, borderline to their detriment. So to me, it would make sense that they would adopt an American accent when speaking English to speak it as correctly as possible or be as authentic as possible, I'd imagine it would vary depending on which of them you asked. So- I say all this to illustrate that while one audition arguably made more sense from a logical perspective. Only one made sense from a sort of wish fulfillment, uh-homage? Perspective, there was just no other choice other than Rob, because Rob was exactly what I imagined in my head. And outside Ray O'Hare as Haruki, no other actor so far has done that for me. Others (performances) I've heard and known that was the voice, but I don't know that any have been such a sort of I don't know what you'd call it uh- just- "my arm is complete again moment." I don't know, again- Ray is the only other VA to have gotten that kind of reaction from me that I recall. It's just like this visceral response that I clearly can't explain well. Anyways now comes the part where I sing Rob's praises. (Insert Magneto perfection meme here) that's all I can really say. Rob's performance feels so natural and real. Like I don't think you'd heard it and say, "that guy is doing his best Leonardo." I hear it in its entirety and it just sounds like Hirohito to me and he didn't need a lot of direction he just kind of seemed to be able to read a line and be like, "yeah got it." And then he'd give me like three solid variations of it. He really didn't need much further clarification from me which I think is a credit to his understanding of the character and being able even with what may have been limited info to sort of infer what was going on or assume the nuance in the tone that should be conveyed with each line. He's incredibly talented is what I'm getting at and I'm lucky to get to have him be a part of this project. He's been supportive of the project on his Twitter, has really put himself sort of in my crosshairs by reaching out asking about characters, and updates. Plus he's a fellow TMNT fan which is fantastic. I'm just thrilled, and I think- if I may be dramatic for a moment, I really think Rob was born for this role. It's not Leonardo, but hey could be the next best thing universe permitting, and who knows maybe this is just the stepping stone to that fabled dream role. So Mr. Rob Schwarb welcome at last to Pleasant Sparkle Academy. Maybe you forge your own sort of brotherhood, with your fellow teenage turtles- er Kappa.
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