How much emotional range can one voice actor squeeze out of a single word? For Miyu Tomita, the answer is: a lot more than you’d think. Tomita opened up about voicing PAGTARO, the round yellow pug mascot at the center of the fall anime “Uncle’s Obsession with Cute Things,” in an interview with Anime News Network.
PAGTARO isn’t your typical anime character. As the in-universe mascot that protagonist Mitsutaka Oji becomes obsessed with, the pug’s entire vocabulary boils down to one catchphrase: “Paguuu!” That’s it. No monologues, no witty comebacks, just one exclamation carrying the weight of every scene.
How Miyu Tomita finds feeling in a one-word script
So how does an actor build a performance around a single sound? Tomita said the script gives her nothing but “Paguuu!” on the page, so she maps out the emotion behind each line herself.
“I always write a note saying, ‘Oh, I’m hungry!’ and, ‘Oh, I love this guy!’ and all the little tips related to emotions, and using all of my imagination for the character,” Tomita said.
She also leans on ad-libbing. Whenever she spots PAGTARO in a corner of the shot, she slips in extra “Paguuu!” lines, and sometimes the director keeps the take. It turns a limited script into something closer to a puzzle: How many ways can you say the same word and make each one land differently?
A voice actor who’s done it all
Tomita isn’t a newcomer figuring this out on the fly. Her resume spans some seriously varied territory, including Riko in “Made in Abyss,” Yume Nijino in “Aikatsu Stars!,” Ebisu in “Dorohedoro” and Chuchu in “Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch From Mercury.” That range, from adventurous kid characters to darker, edgier roles, seems to inform how she approaches even the smallest parts.
Miyu Tomita also voices Shui in “Reborn as a Vending Machine, I Now Wander the Dungeon” and Kimaki in “The Warrior Princess and the Barbaric King.”
She also mentioned recently taking on a taller, older-sister-type character, though she said she can’t share details on that role yet. Outside the booth, Tomita said she keeps a pile of stuffed animals on her sofa at home, a hobby that tracks nicely with spending her workday voicing a mascot pug.
Singing solo vs. singing in character
The conversation also touched on Miyu Tomita’s music career, where she draws a clear line between performing as herself and singing in character. As a solo artist, she said, she focuses on self-producing. As a character, she first decides whether that character would even sing well, down to technical choices such as skipping vibrato. Whether that distinction will come into play for PAGTARO specifically wasn’t addressed, though a pug with one catchphrase seems like an unlikely candidate for a solo ballad.
Meeting the mascot in person
Anime News Network met Miyu Tomita and the PAGTARO mascot while covering conventions this summer, including Anime Expo 2026 in Los Angeles, where the pug greeted fans to promote the show. Anyone expecting a small, squat pug in real life might be surprised: PAGTARO’s costume version is notably tall, a fun mismatch with the character’s pudgy on-screen design.
“Uncle’s Obsession with Cute Things” (“Ojisan wa Kawaii Mono ga Osuki”) premieres in Japan Oct. 4, Anime News Network reported, with Liden Films animating the series. Crunchyroll will stream it, according to a press release from YTE Ltd. Tomoe Makino directs the adaptation of Tsutomu’s manga, with Kazuyuki Okitsu voicing the pug-obsessed protagonist and Takuya Eguchi, Yuki Kaji and Ayumu Murase also in the cast. Expect more mascot sightings and cast interviews as the premiere gets closer.
Source: Anime News Network
Featured image: Photo: Abuk SABUK / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0)
