In her panel at Otakon 2022, Mariya Ise, the voice actor for Killua from Hunter X Hunter got candid about her personal and professional life. She revealed that she had almost lost the role for the famous deuteragonist of Hunter X Hunter due to prior commitments.

She further revealed that her manager intervened at the last most which led to her getting a call from Hunter X Hunter‘s sound manager Chiaki Yamada.

Ise enacted the whole call to the audience present at the panel, she said, ” He said to me, ‘I’ve got two people on the line right now, the girl who got the part, and you for Killua. I called you at the same time.‘”

However, she later found out that the other voice actress wasn’t on the call, meaning Yamada had called to confirm her role as Killua.

Ise further added, “I’m so glad I picked up the phone that day. Otherwise I wouldn’t be Killua.“

She then asked the crowd to not relay this outside, “And this is something that has never before been told in Japan. So this is gonna be just between us, right?” ensuing a laughter from the crowd.

Furthermore, when she was asked about her experience on voicing male characters she said, “Sometimes being a woman playing a male role is difficult, o to study up I’d read the manga and imagined what the character would sound like when he’s speaking out loud. I’d lower my voice a bit. I’d also look at other kids and try to observe their mannerisms so I could replicate their styles to fit the characters I was trying to play.”

She further revealed that Killua was her first love when she read the manga in high school.

In addition, when she was asked about her Instagram photo with Gon’s VA Megumi Han, she said that despite their characters being best friends the two VA’s never used to hang out earlier. Apparently, they didn’t get the chance to do so. However, since the anime is over, they usually meet up.

She further revealed that she has been cast as an undisclosed character. She said, “So there’s a character I wanted to voice and I had an audition for the role……and I got it…….and I can’t tell you yet.” The anime will apparently be a comical mystery.

Mariya Ise started voice acting at the age of 16 she initially got to play characters around her age. It includes characters like Cure Lemonade in Precure, Levy in Fairy Tail etc.

Her other roles include, Ray in The Promised Neverland, Midari Ikishima in Kakegurui – Compulsive Gambler, Reg in Made in Abyss, Eureka (Bonnie in the English dub) in Pokémon XY.

Source: ANN