Preparation for a future with taking It easy
Iwate Nippo - September 30, 2004
Original text:
http://www.iwate-np.co.jp/2004kikaku/toryoumosaku/toryoumosaku.htm

Aoni Production is on the fifth floor in a building facing Aoyama Street in Minami-Aoyama, Minato, Tokyo. "Thanks to Toryo High School (Toryō High School), I can get the present position. I want you to find your street, too." Ms. Hoko Kuwashima (Hōko Kuwashima), 28, who was born at Kanegasaki and graduated from the school, is sending the message to the juniors. Ms. Kuwashima, belonging to Aoni Production, is a popular voice actress known as roles of Sango from InuYasha and Rose from Fullmetal Alchemist.


In her high school days, she became a truant. The girl who wrote in the graduation writings of an elementary school, "In the future, I want to become a voice actress to play main characters in anime," went on to a high-leveled high school having a drama club in South Iwate area. However, because in addition that the drama club activity went wrong, she was isolated from schoolmates who studied hard for proceeding to a university, she got to attend not the classroom but the nurse's offices every day. (Translation note: In Japan, it is called nurse's office attendance. There are many students who spend course hours at a nurse's office of a school every day instead of going to a classroom. Nurse's office attendance is generally considered to be better than the refusal of going to school)

After all, the days attended were not enough to advance to third grade, and then the homeroom teacher recommended her to change the school. Because "I desired to graduate from at least high school and to go to Tokyo to become a voice actress," she transferred to Toryo High School. Under multi-department and credit systems (*), spending the one year not only studying but also watching films and reading books, she used times for the future, she says. "In an atmosphere that didn't let me feel a school, without forced to study, I could take it easy. I felt good very much. It was valuable to be able to consider my future in the year," she looks back.

After the graduation, he entered the Tokyo school of AoniJuku. she was selected at its graduation audition among about 70 classmates, and now she becomes a highly-targeted young voice actress who performs five regular roles. "I don't go to school for as long as several months. How do I handle the tomorrow test?" Even now sometimes she suffers from a nightmare, which shakes her out of bed. "I hated school and group action. I had suffered an inferiority complex and had been self-conscious. I have been thankful to the Tokyo school of AoniJuku for accepting me who had those conditions."

*Multi-department and Credit systems
The school operated on the three-shift system: morning, afternoon, and night. Uniform is not required. Grade system is not set. Course term is three year and over. Students themselves select subjects suitable for their aptitudes. 74 credits are required for the graduation (general high schools require 90). Flexible curriculum that meets the needs of school truants, dropouts, workers, and so on. is a feature.

(Picture: "Thanks to Toryo High School, I have the present position." Ms. Hoko Kuwashima, facing a microphone with a script in hand)