Special Fire Force Company 8’s Arthur Boyle is just one of many royals that veteran seiyuu Yusuke Kobayashi has played over the years, who is, quite possibly, the most unique because he’s not really royalty yet he truly believes he is, exhibiting a dualistic personality that swings from grandly formal to comedically clueless throughout the series.
To celebrate the third and final season of the Fire Force anime, Kobayashi joined eager fans at Anime Festival Asia (AFA) 2025 in Singapore for a meet-and-greet session and Day Stage segment organized by Crunchyroll on November 30, 2025.
Addressing the media at an exclusive roundtable interview, Kobayashi reflects on the anime’s eight-year run, discusses Arthur’s evolution in the series, and shares interesting behind-the-scenes happenings during recording sessions.
Yusuke Kobayashi shares his personal experience playing Arthur Boyle in Fire Force
Internationally famous for portraying Senku Ishigami in Dr Stone, love interest Xaiver in Love and Deepspace, and Subaru Natsuki in Re:Zero Starting Life in Another World, which he came to promote last year, Kobayashi returns for a second consecutive appearance at AFA Singapore – this time to add fuel to the fire.
A Third Generation Fire Soldier of Tokyo’s Special Fire Force Company 8, Kobayashi’s blonde-haired, blue-eyed character is molded after the legend of King Arthur who wields a plasma Excalibur sword of the same name, demonstrating excellent swordsmanship and physical prowess. Unlike the stoic king, however, Arthur’s heated personality is as explosive as his pyrokinetic abilities.
His exaggerations and arrogance clash with Shinra Kusakabe early on in the story in episode two as he quickly assumes the role of the protagonist’s rival. In the same vein, Arthur reveals his weakness – he is all brawn and no brain, and therefore a source of comedic relief in the series.
In order to play such a presumptuous character whose confidence “comes out of nowhere,” Kobayashi makes sure that he himself knows what he is doing as a voice actor when playing Arthur.
“For both Arthur’s comical and serious side, either way, I give my 200%. In the original manga, you can see scenes where he’s being comical, and a little bit funny and silly. There are also panels where he puts on a serious expression,” Kobayashi explained. “To portray that in my voice, I did not ‘try’ to be funny – instead, I went all out with it.”
After playing him for three seasons of Fire Force, he feels that Arthur as a character doesn’t drastically change much from the first to the final season. Instead, he sees him as a soldier who gradually builds experience, adding more complex layers to his personality.
“For example, my voice would – and it might not be significant – but my voice would change a little and become a little more solid and more powerful,” Kobayashi told Fanstanza. “In the very beginning, there was some experimenting with the range, whether to bring it up or down. I’ve been adjusting it for Arthur on my own, using my past experience playing princes and kings.”
Curious about whether adopting such a bold persona in Arthur has impacted him as a person, Kobayashi replied, “This may or may not be the influence from this role. To begin with, I’m not the most confident person, but I did realize that over time that I’ve become someone who is less affected by things that are beyond my control. So this may be the influence from Arthur or it may not be, but I do feel some difference in my life.”
While Arthur and the voice actor playing him doesn’t seem to have changed too drastically over three seasons, their counterparts – both the character and the voice actor – definitely did. Gakuto Kajiwara is Kobayashi’s junior in the industry who had only played one lead role – Asta in Black Clover – and many other side characters before being successfully cast as Shinra in 2019.
Kobayashi recounted how when they were recording scenes together, Kajiwara would ask him for guidance on how to play the role better and how to channel his energy. As his senior, he guided him and noticed that as Kajiwara gained more experience, he started “being more independent.” In the later seasons, they would put all their energy into scenes together in what felt like a “real time vocal fight.”
Just one year later after the first season of Fire Force aired, Kajiwara won Best New Actor at the 14th Seiyu Awards for his portrayal of Shinra, a testament to his talent and hard work.
Created by Atsushi Ohkubo and animated by David Production, Fire Force’s fight scenes only become bigger and more intense, demanding more from the seiyuus. The action accumulates in a big clash in Season 3 cour 2 where Arthur breaks his limits and gains powers beyond our imagination. “I was concerned about whether I would be able to keep up with this voice level because I’m basically shouting through the roof,” said Kobayashi.
In order to preserve his voice, instead of simply drinking ginger tea, he realized that the muscles around his throat, stretching from his neck to his shoulders and chest, are equally important. Besides going for massages, Kobayashi said that he has also been building up a home gym to help with muscle training.
Kobayashi wasn’t the only senior that Kajiwara had to work closely with. As Shinra expanded his world, more characters from the Fire Force universe were introduced. The Fire Force cast is truly lit, comprising some of the biggest names in the industry such as Kazuya Nakai (Akitaru Obi, Roronoa Zoro in One Piece), Kenjiro Tsuda (Joker, Kaiba in Yugioh, Nanami in Jujustsu Kaisen), Aoi Yuki (Tamaki Kotatsu, Maomao in The Apothecary Diaries, Tsuyu Asui in My Hero Academia), and Mamoru Miyano (Benimaru Shinmon, Light in Death Note, Rin in Free!, Dazai in Bungo Stray Dogs) to name a few.
Recording in studio together, the cast adopted the series’ buzzword “Latom” as their own meme. A reverence chant used by members of the Holy Sol Temple, Latom serves as a prayer for the souls of those consumed by the flames. It is uttered when extinguishing Infernals, showing respect for the lives lost.
The Fire Force cast themselves also utter “Latom” to each other, Kobayashi revealed – specifically when someone makes a joke that no one finds funny, when their joke falls as flat as a dying Infernal.
Fire Force season 3 part 2 airs on January 9, 2026 exclusively on Crunchyroll, concluding the series. The anime adapts Atsushi Ohkubo’s manga of the same name that ran from September 23, 2015 to February 22, 2022 in the weekly Shonen Magazine spanning 34 volumes.
