All Three All For One Voice Actors Appear On Stage for AnimeJapan 2025

Voice actors Akio Ōtsuka, Hiroshi Kamiya, and Kōki Uchiyama talk about their All For One experiences.

With the final season of the popular anime series My Hero Academia steadily approaching its final season, five cast members of the anime appeared at the annual AnimeJapan event for a talk show. While one would expect, what with the number of heroes in My Hero Academia, fans would be treated to a show with several of them, in actuality, fans were greeted with two heroes, Daiki Yamashita (voice of Izuku Midoriya) and Kenta Miyake (All Might), and three voice actors playing the same villain, Akio Ōtsuka (All For One), Hiroshi Kamiya (young All For One), and Kōki Uchiyama (Tomura Shigaraki). Granted, it's arguable if Tomura is also All For One, since the character did inherit the quirk. Thus, the Anime Japan stage show was a “battle” between the inheritors of the quirk One For All and All For One.

A “battle” it wasn't, though, as the voice actors spoke about some of the matchups between their characters leading into the final season. The first match-up is between Midoriya and All Might. Yamashita noted how Midoriya has become closer to his icon All Might while coming into his own. Miyake agreed with Yamashita, and added that Midoriya has become important to All Might as well. Otsuka interjected briefly and noted that Midoriya loved All Might to the point the character consumed some of All Might's Hair. Yamashita appeared shocked Otsuka remembered the moment and thanked him.

The second match-up was between Uchiyama's Shigaraki All For One and Otsuka's All For One. The first All For One talk of the night, the two voice actors not only spoke about their characters' connections to each other, but also some happenings with their performances. Specifically, Uchiyama noted in the previous season his character, Shigaraki, was taken over by Akio's All For One. Because of this and the two reading the same lines of dialog, it caused Uchiyama to reevaluate what kind of character Shigaraki is.

When asked about Uchiyama's performance, Otsuka candidly responded, “It's like a tiger grew wings.” He further elucidated that the recording staff once told him it was a shame a talented voice actor like Uchiyama must mimic Otsuka. According to Otsuka, Uchiyama had a calm expression at the time. Uchiyama, in turn, stated mimicking Otsuka was a great learning opportunity, as it allowed him to absorb a different acting style. To this, Otsuka was happy for Uchiyama, saying, “I'm glad I was your teacher.” Not missing the opportunity, Miyake quickly jumped in and joked how the villains of My Hero Academia have heartwarming experiences.

Following Miyake's joke, the third match-up, Kamiya's All For One and Otsuka's All For One, was revealed. When asked about his feelings when offered the part of a young All For One, Kamiya said he was hesitant and joked Otsuka has had, “[That] voice since elementary school. So he should do the young voice as well.” Kamiya then recalled the first time he was at a recording session for My Hero Academia and expressed those thoughts to Otsuka, but added Otsuka said he's had the same voice since pre-school. On stage Kamiya's comments garnered a large smile from Otsuka, with the latter admitting he had said that.

Otsuka then spoke on Kamiya's performance of All For One, saying that while there are likely many people who could mimic his voice, Kamiya was able to capture the essence of his and All For One's performance. Kamiya concurred with Otsuka's comments, adding since his voice has a different timber than Otsuka's, Kamiya tried to capture Otsuka's cadence and mindset.

Yamashita and Uchiyama's Midoriya and Shigaraki's matchup followed. The two voice actors spoke briefly about their characters' respective histories and how they've changed over seven seasons. Yamashita even posited there may have been a timeline where the characters Midoriya and Shigaraki were friends. Uchiyama also noted Yamashita hasn't read the My Hero Academia manga series and is careful about revealing events and plot points in the series.

The final matchup was a two versus one with Miyake's All Might and the All For One pair of Otsuka and Kamiya. Joking at the situation, Miyake quickly quipped “Bring it on,” before proceeding with the talk show. Miyake and Otsuka then briefly spoke about the All Might and All For One battle in episode 49 of the series. Miyake, the mood maker that he is, noted how it was as if he was fighting Otsuka while voice dubbing the episode. Otsuka jokingly responded because they're both older men, fighting is a bit too much for them, especially since Miyake physically ran out of breath and was down on a knee during the voice recording of the episode.

Kamiya was then asked about the voice recording for the seventh season of My Hero Academia. The voice actor jokingly said he studied the scripts, which had notes regarding events, relationships, and performances, from earlier seasons, and it felt like Otsuka's performance was mentally assaulting him. Kamiya continued his story, saying he absorbed all the emotions from the notes and on the first day of voice recording went in with the feeling of “I'll beat them all.” Uchiyama concurred with the feeling and joked because the scripts are full of All For One, it's become hard to make out which version is speaking.

Kamiya then revealed the All For One voice recording booth is separated from the rest of the My Hero Academia cast. Thanks to this, Kamiya said he was able to better channel the feelings of the character. Otsuka responded he, too, did voice recording in the same room, and the loneliness drove him to tease the other cast members. Shocked at the revelation, Yamashita, laughing, responded to Otsuka saying, “We would hear 'We'll see about that' in our headphones after we'd say something like 'We'll win!' And it was the worst.”

The cast, particularly the All For One cast, clearly had a great time speaking about the series. However, it was the conversations between Uchiyama, Otsuka, and Kamiya that brought much of the performances to light. This is especially true when you remember the three actors portray, to a lesser degree with Uchiyama, the same character. So, hearing how Uchiyama and Kamiya worked to complement what Otsuka laid down was fascinating. The AnimeJapanMy Hero Academia stage show is currently available on the TOHO animation YouTube channel.

My Hero Academia The Last Season is set to air in October 2025. The five cast members who appeared at AnimeJapan 2025 are set to reprise their roles and finish out the series.