| Yasunori Matsumoto | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Name | Yasunori Matsumoto |
| role | Mr. Cat |
Yasunori Matsumoto (松本 保典 Matsumoto Yasunori, born February 7, 1960, in Matsudo, Chiba) is a Japanese voice actor. He currently works for Sigma Seven, formerly for Production Baobab. He is the Japanese voice of Mr. Cat.
Interview[]
Since the name of my character was "Mr. Cat," at first I thought Princess Tutu was a story about animals. But when I actually heard the story, I discovered it's about humans. So then I thought the character must be a person who was nicknamed "Mr. Cat." But then I saw a picture of him, and he totally looked like a cat! So my character surprised me.
In terms of what I paid special care to in performing Mr. Cat… when the topic of the conversation turns to marriage, he becomes a completely different person – or rather, cat – so I was careful of that moment of change. In the beginning, I monitored myself and didn't go overboard with my performance, but the director made greater and greater demands of my acting as we went on, and eventually, I was told, "Please go more overboard with it." [laughs] I hadn’t really had much experience playing humorous characters like this before, so I had a lot of fun with it.
In the second half of the show, you start to see the great evil that is the Raven , so I thought “I’m sure Mr. Cat must have some kind of important duty to carry out, too!” Is he really an advisor to the Raven? Or will he maybe fight at the side of the prince? Those were the kind of things I was imagining, but I’ll let you watch and see what ended up happening. [laughs] Well, as long as he’s happy it’s fine.
Anyway, I was overwhelmed by the minor characters in this show. Particularly Anteaterina in Akt 2. We call the movements of a character’s mouth when she’s talking “lip flaps,” but in Anteaterina’s case, they’re tongue flaps. [laughs] I’d by all means like to call your attention to that kind of thing as well.
What I’d like to say to Mr. Cat is this: “Slow down and take your time with life.” I’d tell him, “There’s no need to rush into marriage.” After all, sometimes it may be a good thing for feelings to remain unrequited. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying I think that way. [laughs] I’m just saying there’s no need to rush.
We’ve successfully reached the last episode, and the broadcast is ending. I have mixed feelings about that, but if we were able to entertain you all, there’s nothing that could make me happier. Thank you for loving Mr. Cat and the rest of Tutu.