“KIZUMONOGATARI PART 3: REIKETSU” is releasing from January 6, 2017 in Japan. With this movie, the episode 0 of <MONOGATARI> series will conclude. To commemorate this, we offered an interview to Hiroshi Kamiya, who is a voice actor for Koyomi Araragi and Maaya Sakamoto, who is a voice actor for the vampire Kiss-shot. They talked about their feelings towards this movie and the anime series!

‘I’m looking forward that “REIKETSU” will be a more “abnormal” movie than past 2 movies (laugh)’ (Maaya Sakamoto)

–With releasing of the 3rd movie, the series of “KIZUMONOGATARI” will conclude. First of all, tell us the highlight of the movie.

Maaya Sakamoto: The graphics were incomplete while we were recording, so we have not seen the completed version yet. However, the qualities of past 2 movies were beyond our expectation while we were recording. I think the director Oishi (Tatsuya) was a kind of person who could done such a thing, and I was feeling some kind of madness towards him of pursuing the movie’s quality (laugh). His appearance is really smart and fresh, but the impression I got from the movie he made was ‘Oh, he must be an abnormal person’ (laugh). Of course I am taking this as a good thing. He has strong preferences towards the product, and I can feel that he was making past 2 movies with desperate efforts. From that, I believe that the 3rd movie “REIKETSU” will not be worse than previous movies. It must be more “abnormal” movie than past 2 movies (laugh).

Furthermore, some expressions were different from TV series and especially made for movies, so that can be one of the highlights. There are many previous series made to be on TV, but “KIZUMONOGATARI” is going one step further to be on screen. It’s not just “funny”, “cool” or “cute”, but a very serious theme was set, ‘can you accept true nature of a person? ’



–What do you think, Mr. Kamiya?

Hiroshi Kamiya: I think every single part in the movie is highlight. At first, you might not notice them, but there are a lot of lines and scenes which you will understand after watching whole movie. Searching everywhere to find those lines and scenes might be one of the approaches of enjoying the movie.

Moreover, all the characters appearing in the movie is one of the highlights. No one in this movie is telling a lie. I think this is one of the reasons of feeling attractiveness towards every character. For example, Kiss-shot will not speak out the core of the subject, but that does not mean that she is telling a lie. She tells Koyomi ‘I can bring back you to a normal human’, but she does not tell him how she will do it. She speaks with thinking how Koyomi would feel when he notices the truth. Oshino (Meme/ CV: Takahiro Sakurai) is also that kind of a person, and he does not tell a lie. But the story will proceed without knowing the vital part, and everything continues without anyone getting satisfied. This makes the story of Koyomi and Kiss-shot miserable, but even that is the highlight through all 3 movies.

Adding to those, I am personally looking forward to watch the completed scenes of battles. Especially, I am paying attention to the sound effects. In the past series, there were some weird sound effects added to battle scenes. For example, some funny sounds were used in a scene when arm was getting blew up, which made the scene to look comical. But this movie contains really serious and shocking battle scenes, so I am interested in what kind of sound effects and background music are applied to those scenes.

Mr. Kosaki (Satoru), who is in charge of music, has made a lot of new music which goes well with the scene. And many genre of music are mixed in the movie, which is one of the enjoyments of the movie.



–Were there any difficult jobs while emphasizing the character’s expression?



Hiroshi Kamiya: In this movie, Koyomi finds out the real presence of Kiss-shot, and there was a difficult job after that scene.

The next scene was about Koyomi regrets of easily helping an apparition, but could not control himself with his immature mental and goes mad. However, on the script, there were lines only written ‘aaaaaahhhhhh!’ for more than 100 shots (laugh). I tried my best at the recording, and it was relieving that I did not have to take a second try. Doing this twice could kill me (laugh).

— (laugh), how about you, Ms. Sakamoto?

Maaya Sakamoto: There was nothing special to talk about, since all 3 movies were about how Kiss-shot was expressing her feelings.

It’s not something that my comprehension is equal to NISHIOISHIN’s comprehension, but I understand her as a ‘feminine’ character. Even though she lives for more than hundreds of years, she is still a woman. I started to understand this feeling by getting older. Of course Kiss-shot has lived 100 times longer than me, but I could understand this feeling of sins and natures of women, so I tried to show them with my act.

–Mr. Kamiya and Ms. Sakamoto have played together in some other animations, but was there something both of you noticed about each other in this movie?

Maaya Sakamoto: Mr. Kamiya appears as ‘Mr. Kamiya’ every time, but while he acts as Koyomi, I felt that Koyomi was speaking but not the voice actor Hiroshi Kamiya. He was fully unified with Koyomi.

May be it is because he had acted as Koyomi for so many years, but I think Mr. Kamiya understands about Koyomi more than anybody else in the world. To be like that, he had to read the original novel again and again, and came to recording with holding a novel in his hand, so that he can check anything he noticed. I think this is why I felt unify of Mr. Kamiya and a character, in more than any other animations.

Hiroshi Kamiya: I think Ms. Maaya has no such difference than any other recordings.

However, recording of <MONOGATARI> series requires very few actors, since the story goes on with a conversation of “Koyomi & someone”. So the situation of ‘me and Ms. Maaya were only actors in the booth’ happened a lot. We had to make the atmosphere of the movie by only two of us, but being just a two of us with Ms. Maaya was wonderful time. That was really thankful thing and I was appreciating her for all the time.

Maaya Sakamoto: You have a felicitous choice of words (laugh).

Hiroshi Kamiya: No, I mean it. It’s just I don’t say it out loud. Ms. Maaya has this unique tensed atmosphere and elegance. How she stands and acts towards the microphone, the sound coming out from her mouth, and anything she does will not lose her atmosphere of elegance. This is something gifted, so such a noble character like Kiss-shot cannot be acted other than her. I was feeling this for all the time while we were recording.



“This anime series are the best animated products which matches with NISHIOISHIN’s wordplay” (Hiroshi Kamiya)

–Which series will you recommend to people who have not seen any <MONOGATARI> series?

Maaya Sakamoto: The story of “KIZUMONOGATARI” is the really first episode considering on time base, so I think now is the chance to start watching. If there are some people thinking ‘which <MONOGATARI>series should I start with?’ , I think this will be a great opportunity.

My character is featured a lot in this movie, so I personally want many fans to watch “KIZUMONOGATARI”, but even without thinking about it, knowing the story of “KIZUMONOGATARI” will help people to understand other series.

–Ms. Sakamoto, what is the attractiveness of <MONOGATARI> series?

Maaya Sakamoto: Let me think… I think I even don’t fully understand the attractiveness of this series. This is because there should be as many opinions as there are people.

When the first series has started, I was anxious that Shinobu was too young and too sexy character. I was worried that ‘I couldn’t be responsible for some adults who get excited with watching children like Shinobu’ (laugh).

But as soon as it started airing, I didn’t have to be worried about it. There were some friends who don’t often watch anime, but they liked <MONOGATARI> series. At that time, I noticed the popularity of <MONOGATARI>series and it was covering wide range of people. They first started watching it vaguely, and bit by bit, they get in to the world of <MONOGATARI>.

I personally felt uncertain about the story when I was first recording (laugh). But watching the completed version of anime, it was fancy, experimentally and it was really fun to watch. To conclude, I think many people have watched this anime in different situations and backgrounds, but that makes their attractiveness different. So I want those people who are watching this series for the first time, to find their own attractiveness of the anime.

–What do you think, Mr. Kamiya?

Hiroshi Kamiya: I’m not fully certain too, but it is fact that the original stories are supported by many people. And I am feeling that this was the best way to be animated. I felt this because <MONOGATARI> series are done by chief director Akiyuki Shimbou and director Tatsuya Oishi. Their policy was to only use quotes from original novels. Of course some words had to be changed to fit on TV but in general, we had to follow every single words and phrases from the novel. I think they chose to do this because the writing of NISHIOISHIN is in full of attractiveness. People gathered with this resolution to make an anime, and the fact of it getting popular has proved that they were doing the right thing.

This movie “KIZUMONOGATARI” is an episode 0 of the series, and all the stories started from here. After enjoying the movie, I recommend to watch “NEKOMONOGATARI (KURO)”, “BAKEMONOGATARI”, “NISEMONOGATARI”…as it goes in chronological order. What I can say is that if you liked the movie, more than 80 series are waiting you to be watched and you will be enjoying all of them.

–To conclude, please give a message to readers of PASH! PLUS!

Maaya Sakamoto: This product was born to be watched in theaters, so please go to movie theaters. Thank you.

Hiroshi Kamiya: I’m feeling the same thing. Movie theaters are made to enjoy the movie fully, and this product worth watching at theaters. I felt great joy of being a voice actor while joining this movie, so I will absolutely going to theater to watch this. Please enjoy this at movie theaters.





Details:

“KIZUMONOGATARI PART 3: REIKETSU”





ROAD SHOW: at theaters in Japan

HP：http://www.kizumonogatari-movie.com/

Twitter：@nisioisin_anime

Staff:

Original Works = NISIOISIN “KIZUMONOGATARI” (Kodansha BOX)

Chief Director = Akiyuki Shimbou

Director = Tatsuya Oishi

Character Design = Akio Watanabe, Hideyuki Morioka

Sound Director = Yota Tsuruoka

Music = Satoru Kosaki

Animation Production = SHAFT

Produced By = Aniplex, KODANSHA, SHAFT

Film distribution = Toho Co.,Ltd.

Cast:

Koyomi Araragi = Hiroshi Kamiya

Kiss-shot Acerola-orion Heart-under-blade = Maaya Sakamoto

Tsubasa Hanekawa = Yui Horie

Meme Oshino = Takahiro Sakurai