Voice Actor Konomi Inagaki Cries on the Way Home from Audition... What's the Reason? 'Secret Society Eagle Talon' FROGMAN Reveals Zero Meetings & 20 Years of Material Utilization Techniques | 'SHIBUYA ANIME BASE' #ShibuAni #85

“ABEMA”, the TV for a new future, broadcast “SHIBUYA ANIME BASE” #85 live on its “ABEMA Anime Channel” from 9 PM to 10 PM on Friday, May 8, 2026. This broadcast featured MCs Yuki Iwai (Haraichi), Sora Tokui, and Shugo Nakamura, along with guest voice actor Konomi Inagaki, delivering a program full of highlights including information on new spring anime, direct interviews with creators, and behind-the-scenes stories of masterpieces celebrating their 20th anniversary this year.

The program kicked off with a magnificent original collaboration anime for “ShibuAni” featuring Yoshida-kun and the General from “Secret Society Eagle Talon,” which is also celebrating its 20th anniversary this year. In the industry deep-dive corner in the latter half of the program, they closely followed FROGMAN, the creator who single-handedly handles direction, script, and voice acting for all his anime. FROGMAN revealed the secret to his overwhelming production speed: “There are no meetings, so communication costs are zero,” and “Thanks to doing Yoshida-kun for 20 years, I have abundant past materials, which streamlines my work.” He passionately stated, “Japan's greatest strength in content is 'speed.' Being able to cycle through PDCA at high speed makes it content that the world admires.” Furthermore, the shocking fact was revealed that in his early Shimane days, he “recorded all voice-overs in bed,” and that Yoshida-kun's voice is not audio processing but FROGMAN switching between his natural voices. This led to exclamations of surprise from Iwai and Nakamura in the studio, such as “I thought it was processed all this time!” and “It's amazing that he does it alone!”

The featured segment on “Otaku ni Yasashii Gyaru wa Inai!?”, a romantic comedy where two charming but different types of gyaru and an otaku boy deepen their relationship through shared hobbies, included an episode from guest Konomi Inagaki, who plays the cool gyaru character Amanokei. She revealed that on her way home from the audition, she “cried, thinking she had failed.” On the other hand, she also shared genuine otaku episodes from her roots, such as her first love for Syaoran Li from “Cardcaptor Sakura” and forming a keyboard-vocal band in high school influenced by “K-ON!”. She stated, “Scenes with otaku elements came out smoothly without retakes.”

Next, in the “Anime-ka Suru Kamo!? Topics” segment, as the second collaboration project with Shueisha's vertical manga service “Jump TOON,” they featured “Know Wonder,” a dark fantasy about a lonely high school student striving to survive for a friend. In the studio, guest Inagaki performed the narration, Nakamura played Ranwo, and Tokui played Iris, in a splendid live reading.

Furthermore, an interview video of Sora Tokui directly questioning original author Minato Takano was also released. Takano, who is active on the front lines as a scriptwriter for works like “Ohsama Sentai King-Ohger,” confessed his real sense of crisis regarding why he challenged manga original work: “For anime, if it's just making a script faithful to an existing original, can't AI do that? I saw a limit there. I thought it would be difficult to make a living writing works unless I created something from zero to one.” He also revealed flexible production secrets, drawing on his experience in live-action scriptwriting, such as deciding to “create an original work that brings out more than 100% of Mr. Tarumi's (Akira Tarumi, artist) overwhelming drawing power to depict cool characters,” leading him to change the protagonist from Iris to the current Ranwo.

Next week will be a hiatus, and “SHIBUYA ANIME BASE” #86, scheduled to air from 9 PM on Friday, May 22, will feature voice actor Arinatsu Nakabayashi from the anime “Awashima Hyakkei” and voice actor Hisako Kanemoto from the anime “Saikyo no Shokugyo wa Yuusha demo Kenja demo naku Kanteishi (Kari) Rashii desu yo?”.

“SHIBUYA ANIME BASE” #85, filled with deep talks about spring anime and passionate behind-the-scenes stories from creators, is currently available for free on-demand streaming on “ABEMA.” Please take a look.

“ABEMA” Original Anime/Pop Culture Information Regular Program “SHIBUYA ANIME BASE” #ShibuAni #85

Broadcast Date: Friday, May 8, 2026, 9 PM - 10 PM

Broadcast URL: https://abema.go.link/bUaAr

Performers (honorifics omitted):

Main MC: Yuki Iwai (Haraichi)

Sora Tokui

Shugo Nakamura

Guest: Konomi Inagaki

*Currently available for free limited-time streaming.

Cool Ending Theme Song: Daisuke Namikawa “UNSTOPPABLE”

“SHIBUYA ANIME BASE” #ShibuAni

This is an anime/pop culture information program produced by “ABEMA,” which boasts one of the largest user bases among domestic video services (*). Guests freely discuss “ABEMA”'s exclusive information, and the latest and somewhat niche “weekly topics” that people want to know about anime, anime songs, games, manga. In addition, there are rare talks with industry insiders and voice actors.