Inami Anju Interview ② Regardless of what form it takes, I want to go through with my principle of “being a performer”

In the second entry of our “Cover Girl” series, we are featuring Inami Anju-san who is known for her role as Takami Chika in “Love Live! Sunshine!!”. In our second part of this interview today, we will dig deep into her experiences as a seiyuu.

As an actress, seiyuu or singer – as a “performer” above all

While holding on to her aspiration of being a stage actress, she devoted herself to martial arts for 3 years during her middle school. She spoke to us about the new turning point that was her school days in vocational school, and what she took away from it.

How did you find it after enrolling in vocational school?

I was surprised by how our lessons were not targeted at the animation aspect of the job. Instead, the school that I went to adopted the stance that it is impossible to become a seiyuu without first feeling the emotions and experiences first-hand, and so they emphasised learning from the fundamentals. I learnt that regardless of whether one is an actress, seiyuu, or singer, we are performers above all. In addition, I also became aware of my thoughts that “this is what I wanted to do!”, and the idea of “being a performer” also became my unwavering core principle.

Following that, did you start getting involved in a variety of different projects?

My debut as “Inami Anju” was in a stage play. That was the first time that I had had the chance to put my full effort into an acting project. Afterwards, I debuted as a seiyuu in the short anime film “Sonny Boy and Dewdrop Girl”. Since I was placed in a leading role in my debut appearance, I had no idea what to expect. But because of this role, I was able to experience many things that I otherwise could not, such as the nervousness and excitement that I felt while being there in person, and as a result I started to like this job even more.

I’m glad I took the chances as they came along



After graduating from vocational school, Inami-san plunged into the real world of the acting industry. We talked about whether there were any disparities between how she imagined the job of a seiyuu would be like and what it was actually like.

Was the nervousness that you faced different from the kind that you faced while still in vocational school?

It was completely of a different kind! In a stage play, the process is such that we are able to learn and build up experience over weeks of rehearsal before the actual performance, and so we can take time to build up our roles and relationships with the other members. In contrast, as a seiyuu, we are given the script to practice on our own at home, and then it’s immediately the actual performance once we arrive at the dubbing studio on the day itself. I was really shocked by how this job is done from beginning to end by a single person working alone. It was a reality check for me, as I realised once again how difficult the seiyuu profession was. As expected, there were a lot of times when it felt really vexing for me, and there were many things that I wished that I had been able to accomplish better. Even so, being able to take on roles in these fantastic pieces of work is something that has remained as part of my experiences even until now, and this is something that I have no regrets about.

Surely, playing the lead role brought with it an unimaginable amount of pressure, right?

That’s right, I felt this nervousness constantly. I was under an immense pressure, worrying about things like “will my acting skills determine the worth of this piece of work?”. I was also only 16 years old at that time…it was really scary (laughs). Even though it was like a dream for me to receive this role as a seiyuu, there were also times when my footsteps felt heavy on my journey to the recording studio. Nevertheless, I never thought that my first experience in voice acting would actually be this rich, so I’m really glad that I grabbed this opportunity. This is my first time playing the lead role in a regular programme, and I’m sure that once again I’ll be placed under a great deal of pressure, but I’m still enjoying the fact that I’m able to be acting every single day.

Wanting to be sincere to her characters

As a seiyuu who was thrust into a leading role in her debut and re-evaluated her views on the profession as a result, what kind of targets does she have right now? We also probed deeper into how she views and faces the character that she plays.

You are also currently starring in a variety of other roles as well, isn’t it. What are the main targets that you have right now as a seiyuu?

No matter what kind of role I take up, there will always be new targets that come along with it. Even though that is true for all roles, I really like to face the character head-on, and think about the story from the within that character’s mind. I want to see the world that they are seeing, and I want to feel the same way as what they are feeling. Since I’ve become a performer, I’ve often had this feeling that I want to be sincere towards whichever character I’m playing. The seiyuu is able to decide how much happiness their characters are able to experience, and the seiyuu is the only person who is able to express in words the past experiences of their characters, and so I feel that I am carrying a heavy responsibility as a result.

Even though you’re currently voicing a very cheerful character [Takami Chika], is there a particular kind of character that you would find easier to voice?

Even though there might be people who have an impression that I have a sunny disposition, the real me is actually the complete opposite of that. Instead, I find it easier to voice characters that have a straightforward personality, since they are more similar to me. For example, when I was acting in “Animegatari”, a short animation series played during intermissions at the TOHO Cinemas, Erika-chan, the character I was playing, was really similar to myself (laughs). From her candid nature to the way she opens her heart to her companions to her slightly tsun nature, they all feel close to who I am, and so it was easy to play a character like her.

Are there any roles that you would like to challenge in the future?

I’ve been playing many characters that are of the “cool” type, so I probably give others a strong image of being a cheerful person. In the future…hmm, I want to act as the villain! The clash between the villain fighting for his ideals and the hero is certainly going to be an exciting one, isn’t it? I’ve had the chance to play the villain in my past stage plays, and those experiences turned out to be really enjoyable for me, so much so that I want to do it again in animation. I’d also want to play a soothing typing of character. I’d like to surprise people by making them exclaim something like “she even played this type of character!?” (laughs).

Seeing the way she sat up straight while talking briskly to us, as well as hearing her views on being a seiyuu, Inami-san is certainly a person who stands firm on her personal principles. From the way she spoke about her attitude towards her characters and her opinion that “the seiyuu is able to decide how much happiness their characters are able to experience”, we learnt that the job of the seiyuu to breathe life into their characters is certainly an invaluable and irreplaceable one.

In our 3rd part of the interview, we delve into Inami-san’s private life. What kind of things does she want to challenge at the moment? Also, what does she do during her off days? Please look forward to it.

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Text and interview: 佐藤響子

Photograph: 山本絢子

Hairdo: 清水有希子

Stylist: 望月めぐ