“I was basically scammed. I didn't know anything. I didn't even know how recording worked.”
On the day of the Snatcher (1992) recording, Kojima made his absolute debut as a voice director. He arrived at the studio, saw what he later called a glorious cast of voice actors and was presented as the director, which surprised him because he had assumed someone else would do it and no one had told him he would be directing. They sat him down, showed him the cue button to press to speak, and the sound engineer was beside him, but they did not run any rehearsals; Kojima later said he had been basically scammed and did not know how recording worked. They also had no visuals, so he worked from the script and asked each actor to imagine the scenes in their heads. They had only one day to record and he had to catch the last train back to Kobe that night. In his opening remarks he introduced himself and said it was his first audio recording, a comment he immediately thought he should not have made—though Shiozawa was unfazed, giving his best performance and leaving. Thirty years later Kojima said he wished he could go back to that Snatcher recording day and tell himself he would be okay; he regards that day as his starting point.
“Once I got there, the agency person goes like, here's the director, everyone. And I was like, I'm the director? Really? I thought someone was going to do it for me. […] Plus, we only had a day to record. […] And I had to get on the last train back to Kobe that day. […] And then I said, this is actually my first time doing audio recording. And I was like, I shouldn't have said that. […] I wish I could go back in time to that day of recording for Snatcher and tell myself, you're going to be okay. […] That's my starting point in how I got here today.”