Suuuper Overview
In the UK, for the month of October, we celebrate Black History Month and as part of our celebration here at Suuuper Anime Podcast, we reached out to some incredible super talented, entertaining, awe inspiring – I could keep going with the superlatives but I will stop – guest in the anime industry.
Along with talking to the guest about anime, we also asked deeper thought-provoking questions as it relates to real race and diversity issues that exist in the anime industry. Topics such as diversity, talent, representation - both on and off the screen with regards to the lack of black anime characters as well as black animators and illustrators. This is just the beginning, we speak about so much more including the fun Suuuper quick fire round where guest have to choose between 2 options, such as Naruto or Bleach, Goku or Vegeta. Which one would you choose?
Below is a summary of each of the 4 guests we had across the month of October in order of appearance. Have a look at each of our guest and click on their link to hear their full podcast interview.
Theo J Ellis
Theo J Ellis is the founder and owner of the number #1 site in the UK - Anime Motivation.
Anime Motivation is the #1 website for anime quotes, life lessons and everything in between for anime fans. You can listen to Theo talk about diversity, representation and free anime.
Listen to the suuuper podcast interview here.
Kevin D. Thelwell
Kevin D. Thelwell has been in various blockbuster anime’s such as Fireforce, BlackClover, My Hero Academia, One Piece and Fairy Tail and Kakushigoto just to name a few.
You can listen to Kevin talk about what it takes to be a black voice actor and why race shouldn’t matter when playing an anime character even though stereotypically it still does in the industry.
Listen to the suuuper anime podcast interview here.
Esther Ajibade
Esther Ajibade is a Layout Artist who is currently working on the Netflix show Deadendia. She has also worked on high profile project such as Disney’s ‘101 Dalmatians Street’ and Mr Bean.
Listen to Esther talk about what it means to be an illustrator working in animation, her love for the anime Card Captors and her view on black anime characters and their drawn.
Listen to the suuuper anime podcast interview here.
Kimberly Woods
Kimberly Woods is a multi-talented award-winning actress who has played the voices of Tiese Shtolienenin on Sword Art Online Alicization; Hinaki Ubuyashiki and Naho Takada in the anime Demon Slayer and Xanastaku in the upcoming anime Onyx Equinox to name a few.
Listen to Kimberly talk about the importance of representation in the anime industry and have role models to look up to, why colour should not be a main factor when getting picked for a voice role but rather it should be based on talent and skill along the iconic character she played in space. Can you guess who it was?
Listen to the suuuper anime podcast interview here.
Thanks again to all my guest for the month, we really appreciate your honesty, insight and passion around the topic of inclusion and diversity. A Suuuper anime thanks and we you all the great success and hope to have you on the show in the future.
