From Old Country Bumpkin to Master Swordsman Cast Gets Tipsy — What Japan Said
「片田舎のおっさん、剣聖になるⅡ」キャスト飲み会に日本ファン反応
The official YouTube channel for From Old Country Bumpkin to Master Swordsman posted a full drinking-party talk special with the Season 2 cast, timed to the season's ongoing broadcast. The video's top comment, with 148 likes, wasn't a joke about the drinking at all — it was praise for veteran actor Hiroaki Hirata's hosting style, letting his younger castmates do the talking before jumping in himself.
The recurring theme in the replies was old-fashioned industry warmth: several commenters contrasted the visible ease between senior and junior cast here with complaints elsewhere about veteran actors losing their footing on junior-heavy sets, while others traded long-running trivia about Hirata's own career.
By the time the video wound down, plenty of fans weren't just watching the party from outside anymore — they were arguing over who deserved an invite next.
The official YouTube channel for From Old Country Bumpkin to Master Swordsman posted a full drinking-party talk special with the Season 2 cast on August 7, timed to the season's ongoing broadcast. Fronting the table is veteran actor Hiroaki Hirata, who voices protagonist Beryl Gardinant, pouring drinks for a group of younger castmates who — much like their characters in the show — spend the whole night treating him as the resident sensei.
“Hirata's probably just an amazing host, isn't he”
平田さん良い座長なんだろうなぁ
That instinct — staying quiet and letting the room run itself — turned out to be exactly what the comment section fell hardest for. Right next to it, another top comment spelled out precisely what viewers meant.
“Hirata doesn't say a word until someone calls on him — he just lets everyone else talk. What a great mentor.”
平田さん 振られるまで みんなに喋らせてるの。良いお師匠様だ
Comment after comment landed on the same read: Hirata wasn't performing host duties so much as actually teaching, on camera, without anyone having to ask him to.
Plenty of other commenters marveled that the shoot happened at all. Every actor on camera works constantly, and getting that many schedules to line up for a night like this wasn't something fans expected.
“Everyone here is so busy, I can't believe they managed to line up schedules for this. What a luxurious project — it's just fun to watch.”
忙しい方々ばかりなのによくスケジュール合わせたなぁ。 とても贅沢な企画で楽しい。
The gathering also read to some fans as a quiet rebuttal to something they say they don't see enough of anymore in the industry.
“These days you hear a lot about junior-heavy sets where veterans end up feeling out of place, so seeing senior and junior cast get along like this is oddly reassuring.”
今は若手主体の現場が多くてベテランの方が肩身が狭い…なんて話もあるくらいなので、こうやって先輩後輩がいい関係でいるのを見られると何故だか安心する。
One especially detailed reply tried to explain exactly why the room felt this relaxed, breaking the seniority at the table down player by player.
“Honestly, I think the vibe is this good precisely because the host — Hiroaki Hirata, the protagonist's voice actor — is such an overwhelmingly senior industry legend. People lump the women together as 'the young cast,' but Nao Higashiyama, who plays Alushia Citrus, is a full tier above the rest in both career length and skill. She's probably intimidating for the other women just by being there. The more junior members, like Hinaki Yano and Arisa Nakada, are clearly deferring to the seniors seated across from them. But because the host, Hirata, is such a towering senior figure, he flattens that whole hierarchy among the women — which paradoxically makes the newest, most junior members feel safe. In any industry, honestly, the scary ones aren't the seniors who are old enough to be your parent — it's the ones just a little bit above you.”
むしろ座長(主人公声優)の平田広明さんが 圧倒的大先輩の大御所だから雰囲気が良いのでは？ 『若手？』と一括りにしているけど女性声優の中では アリューシア役の東山奈央さんが 声優歴も実力も頭一つ飛び抜けている先輩ですからね 他の女性陣から見れば恐れ多い相手だろう 下っ端後輩の矢野妃菜喜さんや仲田ありささん辺りは 明らかに反対席の先輩たちに気を遣っていますよね｡ そんな女性陣の絶対的な上下関係を吹っ飛ばすくらい 座長の平田広明さんが大先輩の大御所だから 逆に下っ端の新人〜若手は安心感があると思います｡ どの業界でも本当に怖いのは 親子ほど歳の離れた大先輩ではなく少し上の先輩です
Not every regular from Season 1 made it to this table, though, and fans noticed. A joke thread quickly formed about who got left off the guest list.
There's also a bit of insider knowledge baked into one of the jokes here. Hirata has spent decades as the Japanese voice of a very different swordsman-adjacent character — Sanji from One Piece, whose life's dream is a mythical sea called the All Blue — and one commenter couldn't resist the connection.
“Isn't this basically Hirata's own All Blue right here 😂”
平田さんのオールブルーここじゃん😂
The trivia kept coming from there. One commenter dug up an old story about Hirata getting called out mid-recording, years before this show even existed.
“I remember once, back during a crowd-noise recording session, Mayumi Tanaka outed Hirata for just shaking his shoulders without actually saying any lines — and everyone in the room instantly knew which show that trick was from lol”
平田さん 昔ガヤ録りする時 肩を震わせるだけで喋らないの田中真弓さんにバラされて 何の現場がすぐにわかった思い出がありますw
Others zoomed in on how Hirata actually performs, on camera and off, comparing his unscripted gestures to something out of a completely different art form.
“The way Hirata's expressions and hand gestures move naturally along with what he's saying — completely unforced — that's a real actor for you. It's almost like watching a rakugo storyteller. The person closest to that on this cast is probably Hitomi Ueda; she also talks with natural, unforced body language in most conversations. Though honestly, she never really puts on airs to begin with — she's just always exactly herself.”
平田さんの、トークと同時に動くわざとらしくない表情や手ぶりの一挙一動、マジで役者だよね まるで落語家のようだ それに一番近いのが上田瞳さんかなって思う 上田さんも大抵の会話でわざとらしくない身振り手振りで喋ってるし まぁ、この人はいつも何も着飾ってなくてまさに「いつもどおり」って感じかも
Even the small moments of confusion got warm reactions, like when one castmate wasn't totally sure what kind of event she'd walked into.
“Ueda-san's 'Wait, is this a drinking party?' got a laugh out of me. Plenty of actors are too busy to make it to every cast get-together, so getting to see this kind of warm, easygoing atmosphere was a treat — thank you! I honestly didn't expect Hirata to show up to every single one of these either.”
上田さんの「飲み会ですか？」は笑いました 仕事が多い役者さんも居るので全ての現場で飲み会や遊びに行くのは叶わないでしょうが、和気あいあいしている風景を見させて頂きありがとうございました！！ まさか平田さんも毎回付き合っているとは思いませんでした
By the time the video wound down, plenty of viewers admitted they weren't really watching from the outside anymore.
“Hirata gets to have a drinking party surrounded by such great disciples — I'm jealous. Honestly, I'm watching this with a beer of my own, pretending I've got a seat at the table too 🍺”
平田さん、素敵な弟子に囲まれての飲み会うらやましい。 私も参加してる体で飲みながら観てます🍺
That's really what the whole comment section turned into by the end: a room full of people pretending they'd been poured a seat at Hirata's table, raising a glass to a veteran who spent an entire drinking party making sure everyone else got to talk first.
FAQ
- Why did a comment about Hirata's hosting style get more likes than anything else in the video?
- The video's top comment, with 148 likes, wasn't a joke about the drinking — it was praise for veteran actor Hiroaki Hirata staying quiet and letting his younger Season 2 castmates talk before jumping in himself, a habit several other commenters described the same way.
- Is there any real disagreement in the comments?
- Not much — the comment section was overwhelmingly warm. The closest thing to friction was a light joke thread about a castmate who wasn't invited this time: Kayano-san, who commenters noted played one of Beryl's disciples back in Season 1.
- What's the One Piece joke about Hirata in the comments?
- One commenter joked that being surrounded by this cast is basically Hirata's own "All Blue" — a reference to his other long-running role as the Japanese voice of Sanji in One Piece, whose life's dream is finding a legendary sea by that name.
Old Country Bumpkin to Master Swordsman Season 2 Episode 1 — Japan on the Unicorn OP
“Raise your hand if you're watching this and you're also a middle-aged guy ✋”
Read this roundupThis is one of 4 Japanese-reaction roundups for From Old Country Bumpkin to Master Swordsman. See them all →
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