We sat down with singer / ballad maker and actress Rina Sawayama ahead of the 9th Crunchyroll Anime Awards to chat drawing inspiration from anime , novel music and a surprise spokesperson acting task .

British-Japanese musician and actress,Rina Sawayamahas been quietly booked and busy since her acting debut in 2023.

In an exclusive chat with BuzzFeed ahead of the 9thCrunchyrollAnime Awards, where she’ll be presenting, the singer-songwriter turned actress expressed her excitement for the incoming projects — including new music.

Outside of her presenting gig, diehard Sawayama stans have flooded the feeds with questions of where she’s been and what she’s been up to and now, we know. Cue roaring applause.

Here ’s everything Rina reveal about her coming music , connection to anime and sexual love for her fan :

BFOZ: We’ve loved seeing you taking on so many different types of role in acting — especially inJohn Wick 4and you’re starring alongsideAyo Edebirivery soon — what’s the transition been like between acting and music?

Rina : Oh god , it ’s so different in the good way possible . I reckon with euphony , it ’s all about what you may create andyouhave to come out the process . Youhave to save the Song dynasty , youhave to guess of the concept for the video , andyouhave to think of the duty tour of it . Everything falls on one person .

So then to actually lose yourself in a project and give up to whatever someone else — the director or the writers or the movie yield is so gracious . So that ’s one part . Also acting on - filmdom for music versus play on - screen for acting , it ’s very dissimilar .

Rina : You’re trying to look as blistering as potential when you ’re doing euphony , you know what I stand for ?

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And you may prescribe the angles and you ’re in the edit rooms and you may be like , " No , that ’s uncomplimentary . Take that out " . Or you may get it send off somewhere and they ’ll FaceTune your face . You know what I mean ?

There ’s so many different thing , but with film , there ’s none of that . So it ’s really scary , but I kind of like doing scary things .

BFOZ: So many fans are yearning for new music. Is there any projects in the works that we can hint to them?

Rina : Oh yes . So someone on Instagram was joke that I ’m " thawing " , I ’m " defrosting " because I ’ve been on put on freeze for a year . But I ’m so honestly grateful that my fans have just stood by and listened to my old music and just let me have that space .

I just was simply quite overwhelmed by all of it in a good and bad way .

There ’s just so much happening . So yeah , I ’m back in the studio . I ’m go to be doing an LA misstep soon and writing music . And I ’ve actually been sort of stealth writing since August last year .

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Rina : But I intend now with this record album , I ’m trying to do a bit of a different process where I write a raft more euphony for the criminal record before , I ’d kind of write 15 songs and be like , " Alright , 13 of that can go on an album , off you go " . So I ’m trying to compose 50 or something , just trying to indite more and just acquire the ideas .

I have in mind there ’s a song that I revisited recently or my director mentioned this song that I had written peradventure five , six age ago that I never exhaust . And I was like , " Oh my God , we should totally make over that to fit the yield of this record " .

BFOZ: You’re here in Tokyo to present at this year’s Anime Awards, if you could pick one of your tracks to be an anime opening song, which one would it be?

Rina : Ooooh , I have a few of those , to be honorable , I think " Paradisin ' " from the first album is quite ~that~. I think " To Be Alive " from my second record album would be also really good as well .

Yeah , there ’s always one very anime - ish song . The Zanzibar copal songs are so good nowadays .

BFOZ: Anime feels very influential in your music, what was your earliest memory of it? How did it come into your life?

Rina : So my mom used to always say that I would watchTotoroevery single daylight , maybe when I was three or five or something , and I would holler every exclusive day for a year and a half , two years .

It ’s actually not even an upsetting picture , but maybe it was coming to an closing . So yeah , that was my earliest memory board .

BFOZ: What role does anime play in your life now?

Rina : It ’s the perfect in - between of nostalgia , even if it ’s a new series , but also it make me feel quite calm in a way . It also expands the purview of what ’s possible , visually . And also it ’s also quite a ' brain - off ' activity for me . So I seek to watch Zanzibar copal rather than reality TV , which I ’m sort of a number haunted with right now .

BFOZ: You’ve taken on different roles as an artist from making music to acting, would you ever want to add anime voice actor to that list?

Rina : I would love to voice over ananime character .

I ’ve actually done the voiceover project , like a very modest cameo , but it ’s coming out , I remember animation takes years . So I ’ve recorded it maybe like six month ago , so I ’d probably get out in the next two years or something . I dunno .

That ’s literally what they secern me . They ’re like , it ’s in all likelihood going to take two yr .

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BFOZ: What was the process for voicing over that character?

Rina : So I did n’t jazz this , but with living all , at least the one I voiced over , there was no visuals in front . It ’s literally you ’ve scram a music director on Zoom , all the writer on Zoom , and they ’re basically like , " Okay , can you do that a bit faster ? " , " young woman , can you do it like this ? " .

And so you ’re doing lode of different takes , which is a spot dissimilar to if you are voice over films — I mean it ’s called the ADR mental process — and you do it exactly to the thing [ onscreen ] , so you could imagine .

Rina : But I did intend , " Oh my God , this must experience the same as when you ’re act in front of a green screen " . I also did n’t know what the animation style was sound to be like . It was just like I had no musical theme what it ’s going to look like .

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So I did lots of dissimilar yield . I hope one of them is useable .

BFOZ: And finally, if you could voiceover any existing anime character, who would it be?

Rina : I’m really obsessed withDan Da Danand I ’m obsessed with the gran with the monolithic bosom . She ’s the medium granny . So , I think I would want to do her voiceover . She ’s really iconic .

Watch Rina present at the Crunchyroll Anime Awards onTwitchandYouTubeon 17 January 2025 — the pre-show kicks off from 6pm AEST.

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