As Kids on the Slope has recently been released on DVD and Blu-Ray in England, I got in touch with my good friend and the English voice behind Kaoru Nishimi, Chris Patton .
Chris has worked on close to 200 anime series and movies during his career as a voice-over artist and has been working in the industry for over a decade. He’s also been in over 50 live productions and lent his voice to commercials and audiobooks.
How did you feel about landing the leading role in such a unique and musical anime? I was really excited about being cast as Kaoru, mainly because I knew what sort of weight and prestige this title had behind it, and I loved the fact that it was a very simple show, supported by themes like friendship and great music. There’s not a lot of anime like that.
What was your favourite scene in Kids on the Slope? The end. Which, I suppose, I can’t really divulge here…
How many hours a week do you normally spend recording lines for an anime like this? It really varies. Most of the voice-over work I do is not anime. Anime comprises a very small slice of the pie that is my VO career. So, in any given week, I may do no anime, or I may do about five to ten hours’ worth.
Would you like to see more anime use music as a theme? I would actually, yeah. I’d love to see more music-centric anime, or again, shows that just focus on simple themes, not fantastical themes, or mech, etc. I feel there’s so much of that, and so few of the simple stories. 
You have voiced a huge range of characters, Sousuke Sagara in Full Metal Panic, Greed in FullMetal Alchemist and Guyver in The Guyver but what has been your favourite and why? My favorite character was Ayato Kamina in RahXephon. Hard to say why. I suppose I feel he’s what Shinji from Evangelion could have been, were he not such a whiner, if that makes sense.
Outside of your anime roles, what do you enjoy doing? I am a total roller coaster nerd, I love horror films, books books books, and I’m very fond of masturbating into athletic socks. … I mean… I like doing laundry. What?
Is there an anime series you wish you could be a part of? Just the next one I happen to be working on. I mean, sure, there’s a title every now and then that really strikes you as something you’d like to be in, but you don’t have much say in that. You either get asked to audition for it or be in it, or you don’t. That having been said, I’ve been very fortunate to have been in many of the shows I’ve done.
Any future projects you can tell us about? I’m working on my novel called The Train That Farted Its Way to the White House, so that’s pretty exciting. Actually, that’s not true at all. I’m actually narrating three audiobooks right now, working on a couple of anime, and probably about to start a whole new line of anime work that I can’t even begin to talk about now. Sorry, I have to be so mum about it, but ’tis the nature of the business.
Kids on the Slope is available now on DVD and Blu-Ray by the amazing MVM .