We’ve all had that one teacher. The teacher who epitomizes the ability to transform a kid’s world not just through education, but also genuine care and authenticity. The one who, against all odds, gets their students to look forward to class. Being a teacher often means more than what’s on the syllabus, as students bring the good, bad, and ugly of their lives into classrooms every day. Good teachers know how to navigate those often turbulent waters and ensure students walk out of their classrooms knowing more about the world and themselves. Great teachers, like Promise Masoct Agency’s Miss. Wambui, do the same, while also helping free a cursed town from its hilariously corrupt mayor. 

Promise Mascot Agency, the open-world mascot management sim, yakuza soap opera from Kaizen Game Works, has no shortage of interesting characters and good voice acting, featuring the likes of Takaya Kuroda as Michi, also known as Kazuma Kiryu from the Yakuza series, and Ayano Shibuya as Pinky☆, also known as Purah from Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom. I sat down with another member of this stellar cast, Reina, who played the bright, delinquent-taming teacher Numa Wambui. As a character who even stoic Michi says could have made a difference in his life, Miss. Wambui is the kind of teacher parents hope their child has when it’s time for class assignments. Reina, a British native and Tokyo-based voice actress, brings a performance that highlights the teacher’s cheery nature without adding doubt over her ability to command a classroom. 

I asked Reina about how she prepared for her first video game performance, its divergences from voice acting in television, her numerous similarities to Miss. Wambui that made art imitating life uncannily true, and what anime she thinks Kaso-Machi’s teacher would be watching today. The interview has been edited for concision and clarity.

Wallace Truesdale: You did a wonderful job playing Miss. Wambui in Promise Mascot Agency. Because she’s a teacher, the first question that I have to ask you is, did you have a favorite teacher from your time in school? And if so, why were they your favorite?

Reina:  School has been many, many, many decades ago. I can’t say I have a favorite, but I do have a few who left a good impression. And the first was my teacher from the first two years of primary school, which is age four to six in the UK, who introduced Chinese and Indian mythology to us, as well as teaching the other core subjects. But I remember learning about Chinese New Year customs because she gave us all small red envelopes. 

Other teachers who really left a good impression on me, and I really adore them, are those who treated me no different in voice acting school in Tokyo, despite never having taught a non-Japanese person. I was assessed and held to the same strict standards as all my Japanese classmates. And I was really, really, really grateful for that. Weird thing to maybe say, but yeah, I appreciated that as an adult as well.

WT: Did your fellow students also notice the same thing where there’s this expectation for you to get treated differently because you were a non-Japanese person doing voice acting school, or was everyone else pretty much saying we’re here for the same thing, so let’s get the same treatment?

R: No one, as far as I know, no one really said anything. It was more like, why are you here? What’s going on? Because there’s only me, who’s the non-Japanese human in the entire school. I wasn’t too worried about that. It was just, all the teachers, like they looked at me, and I can see they were nervous. It was like, “What are we gonna do?” kind of eyes, but I really, really, really appreciated that they just treated us all the same. Everybody got scolded, everybody got help, everybody was supported. Yeah. 

WT: How many people on average go to voice acting school? How big was your class? 

R: Oh, my situation was very, very different. My situation was very different because I happened to start voice acting school one month after the Great East Earthquake in Japan in 2011. That’s another story. 

So what happened, basically, at that time, our world was not normal. Of course, in East [Japan], a majority, both Japanese and non-Japanese, canceled their tuition, canceled their enrollment. People had to leave Japan, flee Japan. Things were blowing up, of course, in Fukushima. It was not a usual thing. The earth was shaking every day. The school at that time also had freshly opened. We were the first generation [which] is also incredibly unusual in Japan. It means we didn’t have any senpai. There was no one higher than us. 

We stayed, and we risked our lives, and we started, you know, voice acting school. But there [were] only, at that time, 45 of us, and only two classes, and that was it. 

WT: Wow.

R: 14 years later, there’s hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of students in my school right now. So many classes and so on. But my situation 14 years ago was very, very, very, very rare. It was fairly small back then. 

WT: Definitely unusual circumstances, but you got through and you’ve had [an] interesting voice acting career since. Which brings me to my next question. Miss. Wambui is actually your first video game voice acting role. How did you end up getting attached to Promise Mascot Agency? What was that leap like from a TV acting role to this video game one?

R: Yeah, for the video game one, if I had to put it in a nutshell, it’s a literal case of art imitating life. What happened was Kaizen Game Works were specifically looking for a bilingual voice actress based in Tokyo. They happened to find me, and then they got in touch via the Japanese localization team, [who then] contacted me. 

As you mentioned, voice acting for video games. Now, this one was new, because different to the anime training that we did — we did training for anime, we did training for narration, we did training for radio — we did not do training for video games. Number one, there’s no screen. So that’s the first major thing that I had to take in when I was in the studio. Okay, no screen. I’ve been trained to look at a screen and act with it. 

Our teacher said it as well. Our teacher said it in voice acting school that, you know, you guys are in school, you can make your mistakes, you’re going to learn things, but the real classroom is going to be when you’re at work in the studios. Doing it for real, that’s when you’re going to learn the most from that situation. It was so true as well. So that was a very, very, very, very grateful experience. 

WT: The life imitates art part that you described right before you started getting to the answer, is that because there was no screen, that you felt like that melding happens more, or is there something about just what you were asked to do in the recording studio that felt distinctly different? 

R: Art imitating life was more with the character herself and of what Kaizen Game Works was looking for.  I just happened to exist, that kind of situation. 

To your question, how did I get attached to this? They found me. I was gonna mention a bit later on, but I will say this, they created her, and I asked about this, they created her many, many, many, many, many years ago. They didn’t know I existed until recently. They had their own criteria. They did the search, happened to find me, and then all these coincidences [now exist]. We were like, whaaaat? So yeah, that’s what I meant in terms of art imitating life. 

WT: That is amazing. So then moving along to talk a little bit more about Miss. Wambui specifically, was there any inspiration that you had for her performance? How exactly did you prepare to act like a teacher who tames delinquents?

R:  Yes, I did, but not in this same way you’re probably thinking. Because first off, I professionally act in my second language. Second acquired language. I wasn’t born and raised speaking Japanese. Getting my Japanese down perfectly, that’s always my top priority. That’s the first major part I have to do in terms of preparation. And then for the characterization aspect, she’s a teacher. I had her basic bright and warm personality notes that I got. That was about it.

I didn’t know about the taming delinquents aspect until I saw the game and I saw her introduction panel. I was like, so cool! I didn’t know that at the time of recording, so I went to the studio with a lot of faith and a lot of focus on the day. So yeah, there wasn’t much to prepare. It basically is the linguistic side that I really, really focus on. 

WT: It’s funny that you got such simple, straightforward notes with Miss. Wambui’s character, because even with the bright and warm personality aspect that you bring up, it feels like that other aspect that you didn’t know still comes across really clearly in the game with the way she interacts with characters like Pinky☆ and the other people of Kaso-Machi.

Another quick question I have, did you get a chance to talk to the other voice actors for this game? Did you guys get to do any kind of lines together, or did you mostly do your own and then see what the final product was after the fact? 

R: What you just lastly said. Majority of us all took it separately. That’s another thing where it’s like, ah, this is not like anime.

WT: So then I’m assuming anime voice acting is done more in a group setting, or at least, you get to interact with people more. 

R: Exactly right, like stage or TV. We bounce off each other. And so when I mentioned this to a different peer of mine, they’re like, yeah, that’s how it is for gaming voice acting. No one told me. Well, I’ve learned now, and I’ve got my debut [in game] voice acting. [laughs] I’ve learned now. 

For [anime] voice acting, usually they’re in a group, so even though you are in a group and you’re focused, it’s very different from focusing and acting to then looking at yourself later objectively, to see it all together. So it’s the same deal for me this time. When the demo version came out, and you see it kind of completed with the music and the color and the movement and everyone’s voices when it’s put together, it’s like wow, wow this is cool. I forgot that I’m even in the game. [laughs] It’s just a whole new life experience. I’m just fangirling over the entire beautiful, completed product. 

It’s a nice… not surprise. I should say, what can I say? It’s a nice present, for lack of a better English word, present to look forward to. When you’re doing it, you’re not really thinking of anything but performance. It’s a second first time [for voice acting for me]. It’s a very weird experience to go through. It’s interesting.

WT: Thank you for answering the second follow-up question. So then moving on to the next one, talking more about Miss Wambui, as you’ve hinted at earlier, you guys have some major overlaps. There was so much going on between you both being originally from the UK, both of you sharing your love for anime. How much did that personal experience of yours inform your performance?

R: First off, the numerous coincidences scared the hell out of me. Right now, because the game only came out three weeks ago, it’s still scaring others who’ve known me for decades. The same question you had, how was this created? They asked me, did they create her off you, you create [your portrayal] off her? 

So I seriously thought I was a cameo role at first, when I got the basic profile sheet. And then I was told by Kaizen Game Works later, way later on, that they had created her back in 2022. I was like, why did we have 10,000 things in common?

WT: It is uncanny. It is absolutely uncanny. 

R: Absolutely petrified. I’m just like, you know how many black British people [are] on this planet? 2.5 million out of 8 billion. How did you know my story, but make this character two years ago? There [aren’t] many of us on this planet. It still kind of freaks me out, and I can only say I’m just incredibly grateful and divinely blessed. It was the perfect video [game] voice acting debut for me, for two reasons. 

Number one, I didn’t have to put on an American accent, as is often standard in most English dubbing or games or anime, and I didn’t have to completely mask my voice to be Japanese, which I can do as I was trained. But this time, for the first time as well, I was able to use my natural British English register. So that is what I brought to the role. That is [Miss. Wambui] as well. And this combination, I don’t think it’s ever really been done. It’s just me as a [bilingual] voice actor in Japan. So for this role, I simply had to be myself, and it was perfect. They naturally created her, but she is from London. I am from London. She’s black. I’m black. What’s going on?

I just had to be myself, vocally. Also, the love for anime as well. And, yeah, teaching, I’ve had some experience with that in Japan. So it’s not so far off my life at all. However, once I was in the studio, I had to slow down my Japanese a fair bit. Very challenging. In other words, I was too fluent for the director.

WT: What an interesting problem. Can you actually explain that a bit more, being too fluent? As in just speaking too fast? What does that exactly mean? 

R: The natural Japanese rhythm and tempo that I would normally speak Japanese from day to day, was too fast. I had to slow it down. If you listen to the performance, somebody would have to know Japanese to some degree. There are prepositions like WA and GA and DE, which break up a sentence, but there’s quite a lot of pause between them, and my pacing is about [slows down speaking speed by what feels like half] this, if I have to speak in English, I would be speaking this much to you and talk and this is not easy to do.

I’ve learnt my lesson. I wasn’t wrong in going for just a normal fluent speaking level, because that always has been the previous challenges in previous jobs. I better keep up with the natives, or there’s going to be a lot of hell to pay. So that has always been my goal, my personal minimum line, minimum standard. Keep up with the natives. Do not be slower. They’re not going to slow down. So that’s how I took on preparation for this role. It was like no, no you need to slow it down and break it up. I was like, really? Really? Slow it down. So basically, I would say to take away with me next time, when I practice and prepare, is to experiment with pacing, both normal speed and, just in case, slower as well. 

WT: Thank you for answering that follow up question, which brings us to our last question. Just to talk about the last similarity a bit more with your love for anime, I had seen you mentioned [it] in an interview for the MFiles on the YouTube channel [The Black Experience Japan].

R: Yeah. Thank you for watching all of that.

WT: No problem. It was an interesting interview, and I had noticed that you had brought up Fist of the North Star actually helped you spark your interest in anime. I just wanted to ask, do you think Miss Wambui would also be a fan of that show, and what else do you think she would be watching as of late? 

R: I think she definitely would be a massive fan of Fist of the North Star. Have you played the game perchance? 

WT: No, I have not. I have seen several screen craps and videos throughout the years, but I’ve never actually got my hands on it. 

R: Okay, not gonna spoil too much, but basically, there’s a quest and the anime DVDs you have to find in the game.

WT:  Oh, wait, you mean the game Promise Mascot Agency! Yes, I’m sorry I thought you were talking about Fist of the North Star. [laughs] Yes, I’ve completed Promise Mascot Agency, and I completed Miss Wambui’s quest as well.

R: Yes. So you have to find all the anime DVDs, and those are all parodies of actual titles. When I saw Japanese streamers play the game, it seemed to be from the late 90s, early 2000 era of titles that Kaizen Game Works was kind of parodying. So I think from that, she would definitely be a fan of Fist of the North Star. I also think she would be into GTO, which is Great Teacher Onizuka. So definitely, I think she would be into that anime. 

But if I had to pick one in the present age, in the last five years or so, I think in general, if she’s like me, our situations are very similar when I had to read the lines and everything, but I think definitely shounen anime would help her keep her spirits up. Living abroad as an immigrant in a pretty difficult circumstance that she does in the game. Shounen anime definitely, spiritually, gave me a lot of strength through some real dark times. So even though it’s on hiatus now, the anime is on hiatus, the manga is still going. I think she would enjoy Black Clover. She’ll be watching that now, just for that spiritual kind of rejuvenation of keeping her head up high while trying to help the kids in Kaso-Machi. 

The story is very similar. The Black Bulls are a group of misfits overcoming their insecurities and traumas, and getting stronger. So it’s almost the same as the mascot agency that Pinky☆ and Michi are running in Kaso-Machi. The mascots they pick up are misfits, or, you know, those who don’t quite fit into Japanese society. They get stronger through their jobs and through Michi and  Pinky☆ looking after them. She also looks after delinquents in the school. So, it’s same kind of vibe as Black Clover.