NDRV3: Kodaka Kazutaka and Kanda Sayaka Hold Nothing Back!

The Dangan Inside Story

So this is an interview with Kodaka and Kanda Sayaka about V3 that was offered as a bonus for finishing the V3 character poll. Thanks to @bamboo-woods for the heads up about the poll and the interview tokuten! Enjoy!



New Dangan Ronpa V3, released on January 12th for the PS Vita and PS4, is the newest installment in the Dangan Ronpa series, known and loved for its high speed reasoning action to expose inconsistencies in your opponents’ arguments and find the murder culprit. This time Dangan Ronpa and My Navi News team up to bring you a special interview with Kanda Sayaka, the voice of V3’s protagonist Akamatsu Kaede, and Kodaka Kazutaka, the series creator and scenario writer.

This is the first time the two have chatted! On top of that, the interview took place the day before the game went on sale, January 11th. Kanda-san had only played Chapter 1 by that point, and therefore did not know any of the later developments, but she talks about the newest installment at length! Also, pay attention to how she interacts with the deceptive Kodaka-san.

This interview discusses major spoilers from the first chapter of the game, so we recommend completing at least the first chapter before reading.

Kodaka Kazutaka Profile:

Born July 8th, 1978 in Tokyo. Game developer. Creator and scenario writer of the Dangan Ronpa series. Works for Spike Chunsoft.

Kanda Sayaka Profile:

Born October 1, 1986 in Tokyo. Made her debut in 2001 as part of a show biz commercial. Released her first single as a singer, “ever since”, in 2002. In 2003, after appearing in “Into the Woods”, she focused on playing various characters on stage. She was widely praised for her job in the role of Enoshima Junko in 2014’s Dangan Ronpa the Stage. She was also awarded the 9th Voice Actor award for Best Actress in 2014 for playing Anna in the Japanese dub of Frozen.

Next page: You didn’t know you were playing the protagonist?!

You didn’t know you were the protagonist at first?!

This is a talk about New Dangan Ronpa V3, but we have already warned reader that there will be spoilers, so please feel free to discuss things that would have been difficult to talk about in other interviews!

Kanda: All right! Giving comments at the commemorative release date event the day before the game came out was really tough.

So, first off, the it’s a very sudden, shocking development that the protagonist you play, Akamatsu Kaede, turns out to be the culprit of the first chapter.

Kanda: Wow, this sure is fresh.

Kodaka: But it’s probably a good thing to touch on it, otherwise we’ll spend the entire time playing dumb and there won’t be much to get out of the interview.

Kanda-san, when you read this scenario, how did you feel?

Kanda: We had talked about me voicing a new character, but I knew from the start that she was going to die in Chapter 1, haha. Since I heard that, I was wondering what kind of position she’d play in the game, and I earnestly asked them to let me take the role. And it turned out she was a protagonist of all things. I found that out much later. My manager might have known about it, but I was unaware that I was the protagonist…

When the main visual was unveiled during the announcement back in December of 2015, Akamatsu Kaede was not featured. At that point in time was the story already decided?

Kodaka: We had a prototype. As a result, at that stage I had already thought of having the protagonist Akamatsu Kaede die. It’s easy to have the protagonist become a victim, but instead I had the idea to try and employ a trick to make the protagonist the culprit instead. I thought it would be difficult, but if I could pull it off, I definitely wanted to.

Kanda-san, you had a tough role to play, so was there anything in particular you had to be careful of while acting?

Kanda: It was less that I was doing my best not to be excited, but more that I took care to act as if my character wasn’t going to die. I tried to not raise death flags, to seem inexperienced with everything. I played the part trying to keep in mind the tone of protagonists past.

Kodaka: We actually just redid Chapter 1 yesterday, but that inexperienced feeling was great. I thought to myself “You know what? We could just keep it like this.” Even in the days of the first Dangan Ronpa game, despite that Maizono Sayaka dies right away in the actual story, she acts as a Watson to Naegi in the demo. At that time too, I felt that we could have just kept things that way, and I had a similar thought to just do our best with Akamatsu this time too.

((Jess: I will have words to say about this later, don’t you worry.))

What was wanted was a self-assertive voice

Once again, why was Kanda Sayaka-san appointed to the role of Akamatsu Kaede?

Kodaka: That’s a long story.

Kanda: It’s basically just because I wanted to play the role, haha.

Kodaka: There are countless reasons, but one is because we couldn’t just use a normal voice actor to follow up Ogata Megumi in 1 and Takayama Minami in 2. No matter who played the role, those two are just so influential and legendary that if we didn’t change things up a bit, it wouldn’t have gone well.

On top of that, Kanda-san would have to be my accomplice, pretending to have been playing Akamtasu Kaede as the protagonist all this time. Someone to help me fool the players. If it were someone new to the Dangan Ronpa franchise, it would have been hard to collaborate and work together like this. Because Kanda-san had played Enoshima Junko perfectly in the stage adaptation, and because I wanted to try working with her, I couldn’t think of anyone else to ask.

Meanwhile, on the acting side of things, Kanda-san was praised widely for her expressions and gestures while playing Enoshima, but I was intrigued by her voice, and I wondered if she could play the Akamatsu role. Kanda-san’s voice is self-assertive in a good way, so I wanted her to act using her own voice. It was less a matter of who could play the role most skillfully, and more that I wanted someone who could really put herself into the role of the protagonist.

Kanda-san, did you get this impression when they approached you for the role?

Kanda: Yes. I thought I should play the part cutely when I saw the visual so I used a voice that was a bit higher pitched than normal, but I was asked to speak “a bit more normally” and I realized they were looking for something closer to my natural speaking voice.

Kodaka: It’s because I wanted to bring out the charmingness of “Kanda Sayaka-san’s voice”. Looking back at the finished product, I’d say we hit the mark.

So there wasn’t much of a difference between the Akamatsu you initially conceived and the one Kanda-san played.

Kodaka: When it came to Akamtasu, I wasn’t a stickler about how I wanted everything done, I thought that a mix between what I thought and Kanda-san would be good. Because Akamtasu was the protagonist, I wanted a character who couldn’t exist unless Kanda-san was involved, and so because of that I couldn’t say too much or it would interfere with how the character coalesced.

Kanda: Yeah, you didn’t say anything to me, did you.

Kodaka: The hard part was recording starting with the trial, wasn’t it?

Kanda: I did a little bit of the pre-trial part before. Then after all the emotions came out during the trial section, we went back to the beginning.

Kodaka: Because the trials are serious, a lot of voice actors complain that it’s difficult to come in and do them first.

Kanda: Really?! It was so amazing that I enjoyed it!

Kodaka: Kanda-san, to sum up what you’re especially good at in a few words: your voice. When you first start the trial, your voice is still really cute.

Then as the trial goes on, it gets steadily heavier. I’m really happy with the result. It isn’t just adding weight—it’s different than just throwing in a scream. You were Akamatsu Kaede until the very end.

Kanda: Well, surprisingly, I might have been more matter-of-fact about it than philosophical.

Kodaka: The seriousness of murder and the culprits coming to terms with being murderers is a motif in Dangan Ronpa. But in Akamatsu’s case, it’s a bit different, since she did it in order to protect everyone, so she didn’t have the usual desperate panicking a culprit does. I left it up to you to tackle this never-before-seen pattern.

Next page: The one who is sick is Akamatsu? The environment? Kodaka?!

The one who’s sick is Akamatsu? The environment? Kodaka?!

Of course one of the special features this time is that the protagonist is a character with a strong sense of justice. Kanda-san, what about Akamatasu did you sympathize with, and was there anything about her you couldn’t sympathize with?

Kanda: Up until now in interviews I’ve said Akamatsu has a strong sense of justice and is very straightforward as The Protagonist, and while she does certainly have those sides, I don’t know that I’d call her a good person, haha. Though since she doesn’t think she’s wrong, there’s no ulterior meaning behind her words.

Because she believes what she thinks is right and just, she goes a bit crazy when her belief that “there’s no way this is wrong” turns out to be mistaken. I think that’s great. It’s not that she’s psychotic, but more that she never doubts that what she thinks is just. Did I get it right?

Kodaka: That’s true. But I’d say that the madness is less Akamatsu’s fault and more that of the environment. I can’t even imagine being put in a situation like that. If I were ever forced into a mutual killing game, I wonder what I’d do… So I thought that Akamatsu’s actions would be unexpected. Since she’s so proactive, I figured she’d go for it.

Kanda: No, no. I say that’s sick.

Kodaka: Then I wonder if I’m sick, haha.

Kanda: Just a bit, haha. Akamatsu really does just accept them blindly, justice and unity.

Kodaka: Naturally, in Dangan Ronpa so far there haven’t been many characters who truly wanted everyone to get out to this extent. There’s been a lot of cases of murders happening because of people reaching their breaking points. ((Jess’s Note: I THINK.)) Akamatsu this time is someone aiming to get everyone out, and there’s that escape game where you can try to get out with everyone in Chapter 1 (Note: a mini game where you control the characters and try to reach the goal while avoiding traps. It’s extremely difficult.)

Kanda: How far can you get in that?

Kodaka: If you try really hard, you can clear it. Maybe 1 person in 50 can. When the QA people play-tested it, only one of them was able to beat it. Ha, it’s probably impossible at the start.

Their relationship as accomplices began before the game

Kodaka-san, when you were creating the character of Akamatsu, did you have any motifs or things you were referencing?

Kodaka: Not character-wise; rather, the trick came before everything else. Since I was using a description trick (a method of leading the reader to believe one thing by using their preconceived notions in order to elicit a shock after the mystery is solved) to allow the protagonist to become the culprit, I knew they were going to kill someone. In mysteries, the character who uses the description trick is often reviled because they trick the reader and the characters alike. In order to avoid that, I think it was necessary to have a character like Akamatsu who was acting for “the sake of everyone”.

Kanda: But until today I’ve been a huge liar…seriously.

Kodaka: What I thought was really horrible was how when you were speaking at events, it was difficult for you to answer questions.

Kanda: When I would tell people I was the protagonist, despite that it wasn’t exactly untrue, it became harder for me to say it since it’s so short-lived and I started to not want to say it at all…

I suppose seeing the results of the V3 Survival Prediction Poll from the Namjatown Event (the results were announced the day before release day, January 11th, with Harukawa Maki in first place, Saihara Shuuichi in second, and Akamatsu Kaede in third) must have really made you feel that all the more, Kanda-san.

Kanda: The worst for that has been the event today.

Kodaka: You had a look like “You’re going to ask about that, huh” haha.

Kanda: At the start, when I was first chosen to play the character, because I had played Enoshima Junko-chan in the stage play, there were a lot of people who thought there was something fishy going on. But then in the demo Akamatsu was shown to be earnestly participating in the trial, and it seemed like everyone changed their minds to “oh, I guess this is how we’re going to do it.” Seeing that, I was relieved that they’d been successfully deceived.

Kodaka: That’s true. In the beginning it was not going well, huh. It was a hard game there for awhile, but the demo and the cut-in illustrations probably made a lot of people think it would go that way. In addition, Kanda-san doing so many interviews might have made people think that there was no way she’d die.

Kanda: It’s because I kept saying “I’m the protagonist!” with a huge smile on my face…

Kodaka: That’s one reason why you were cast for the role.

So you really were accomplices, huh.

Kodaka: I couldn’t have done this with someone I’d just met. I thought this would be an interesting way to start a game. Kanda-san, who do you think will survive the game?

Kanda: The characters I chose at Namjatown were Saihara-kun, Maki-chan, Amami-kun, and Tenko-chan.

Kodaka: But…you knew about Amami.

Kanda: Yeah…

((I fucking love Kanda Sayaka.))

Kodaka: You just really wanted to put him in?

Kanda: No, it was a tough choice, the girls included.

Kodaka: But it really is a waste that we didn’t get to use Midorikawa-san in the trial.

Kanda: It’s true. It’s really true!

Kodaka: So, there might be a chance he could show up…

Aside from inflating her hopes like that, I heard that the demo was a last minute decision.

Kodaka: That’s right. It was in the latter half of development, right down to the wire. But since before then we had been acting as if we’d do one, I’m glad we did.

Was there ever a time during recording where you [Kanda-san] asked Kodaka-san “What is this?”

Kanda: I got explanations of the situations and the layout and so on. But since I understood from the beginning that vocal tone was supposed to be close to my natural way of speaking, and since I had played all the games up until this point, I mostly understood where the lines were heading. Thanks to that, I didn’t have a lot I worried about or struggled with. It was nice to go from being a player who was lied to and deceived to being an accomplice, haha.

Kodaka: Dangan Ronpa mixes gags and serious moments and therefore is a difficult script. Because Kanda-san is well-acquainted with the series, she understood what was comic relief and what was serious, so she didn’t need anything explained and it was quite easy.

Next page: “Soreha chigauyo” or “Soreha chigauwa”?

“Soreha chigauyo” or “Soreha chigauwa”?



Kanda-san, were there any lines Akamatsu said that left an impression on you while you were playing her?

Kanda: Definitely “That’s wrong.” I found out I was playing the protagonist much later on. When I looked at the script and saw that line there, I said “I get to say ‘soreha chigauyo!’ I sound like a protag!” and they told me, “No, you are the protag.” That’s how I found out. “Soreha chigauyo!” is just so perfectly Dangan Ronpa… That was the line I asked to be allowed to say more than once; it was the first time a girl had gotten to say it.

((Actually, Komaru does say it once to Fukawa in DR:AE, but it’s under different circumstances so…))

Kodaka: Indeed. Having a woman say those words was one of the things we thought of.

Kanda: But you went ahead and kept it “soreha chigauyo” after all, huh. It would have left a strange impression if you’d changed it to “soreha chigauwa” because she’s a girl. When I recorded that line, that was when I truly felt like I was participating. Also, I personally remember everyone speaking together for the line “This is our answer.” Since Hayashibara-san had recorded the line just before, she was able to act as a guide for us to match up with. Timing the recording along with Hayashibara-san’s “3, 2, 1: This is our answer” made me so happy that I wished I could record it with my ears.

Kodaka: For me it’s the hotel. There are some risque scenarios, but the truth is I didn’t write them—a substitute did and I just edited them afterward.

Kanda: I figured it was your hobby, Kodaka-san, haha.

Kodaka: No way. Out of all of the voice actors, Kanda-san and Ishida Haruka-san, who played Iruma Miu, were the only ones I knew. Iruma had plenty of raunchy lines from the beginning so I wasn’t worried about her, but for Akamatsu I drug my feet a little because it felt kind of gross making someone I knew say things like that. It really was extreme.

Kanda: Even though I was fine saying it! Haha

Kodaka: I still got embarrassed. I mean I was the one in the booth doing the direction. I was thinking that because of Akamatsu’s personality, she shouldn’t be inviting anything erotic. But in general, I think the part where she hands the baton off to Saihara at the end of Chapter 1 was extremely good.

Their impressions of one another…



I would like to ask about the first time you spoke to one another.

Kodaka: What impressed me about Kanda-san was that I presented myself as someone who likes to mess with people and get messed with, and she picked up on that extremely fast.

Kanda: Yeah, probably, haha.

Kodaka: I thought to myself that she’s got a good eye for people, and it was like she could see right through me—it was scary!

Kanda: No no no no, haha.

When did you first meet?

Kodaka: At the announcement for the stage adaptation.

Kanda: Because to fans Kodaka-san is the creator of Dangan Ronpa and therefore a godlike figure, the first time I met him I was extremely reverent. My feelings were like “Ah, it’s Kodaka-san!” and I even got his autograph, haha. It was a little frightening to have the creator see my acting on the first night and I wondered if it would be okay, but him coming on subsequent performances became comforting, to the point where I wanted him to come to every show. Of course this is the case for the games and the anime, but for the stage show too, he’s really like the characters’ papa.

During the run of the play, did you seek advice on how to play a character or anything?

Kanda: I did. It was mostly “How was that just now?”

Kodaka: But there was nothing I could say. I wracked my brain, but there wasn’t anything. It was a big deal to the staff that way before Kanda-san wrote about Dangan Ronpa on her blog. Because the series wasn’t well-known back then because it had just started, it left a deep impression on me. That was why I had asked her to be part of the stage play, but the moment I saw Kanda-san’s Enoshima Junko, that was that. From the very start, I was surprised: “She’s amazing!”

Kanda-san, you don’t give off the impression of someone who works hard, but do you hide that side of yourself?

Kanda: Um, I think it’d probably be cool to answer with “Nah, that isn’t true,” but when it came to Enoshima, I worked myself within an inch of my life. I’d never practiced that much in my entire career as an entertainer.

Kodaka: The first thing I saw was the dress rehearsal, or maybe the rehearsals before that, but I was surprised at how perfect it was from that moment on. Whether it was genius or hard work…heh, it’s probably a bit of both.

Kanda: Knock it off. I used to wonder a lot if you weren’t asking or saying anything to me because I was beyond help.

Kodaka: It’s because especially the first showing of the stage play, Enoshima was the highlight, and everyone was already thinking “Enoshima! Enoshima!”

Kanda-san, was it difficult separating how you played Akamatsu, a new character, vs. when you played Enoshima?

Kanda: It was. I was already a big fan of Enoshima Junko-chan from the start. On top of that, since the Toyoguchi Megumi, the character’s original voice, was also there, I thought a lot about how to make it seem like she just stepped out of the game. This time it was like doing that in reverse, finding a way to get a real person into a game.

Kodaka: This time I wanted to bring Kanda-san’s voice to life. It was easy to make a character completely different from Enoshima, but even as I was thinking that I didn’t want her to concentrate on it too much, I worried that she’d bring along a little bit of Enoshima to the role. However, when we tried it out, there wasn’t a trace of that at all.

Kanda: You were working on the anime at the same time. Since Toyoguchi-san was playing Junko-chan in real time for the first time in a long time, you could use that as a reference to set her and Akamatsu apart.

Kodaka: Ah, but it was been a very long time since Toyoguchi-san had played Enoshima. Because of that, everyone was more used to Kanda-san’s version, so during recording I got a little confused sometimes, thinking “Is this okay for Enoshima?” It’s pretty rare that both of your performances are considered to be the real thing.

((I want to defend Toyoguchi-san’s honor here, but Kanda Sayaka does play a mean Enoshima, I have to admit.))

Next page: The reaction to Akamatsu Kaede’s execution scene?!

Reaction to Akamatsu Kaede’s execution scene?!



Kodaka-san, what elements were you worried about or were not decided up until the very end?

Kodaka: The gameplay. I could write the scenario with no problem, but I couldn’t decide about gameplay so it took a lot of work. It was a tough battle, trying to put in difficult tricks that had meaning and didn’t bring down the story. This far and away took the most time. The anime was also happening simultaneously, but even taking that out it still took a long time. The first game probably took me about half a year to write, while the second took about eight months. This time it took a year and a half. Based on my experience with the first game, I figured it would take about six months, but then it just never ended… It was tough.

Kanda-san, looking back over this game having recorded for it and played it, what do you think is the most amazing thing about Kodaka-san?

Kanda: I always feel like I want to open up Kodaka-san’s head and see what’s inside. Normally he’s like a low-key middle-aged man, haha, but then he comes up with the executions and I think, “So he can think of things this cruel, huh.” Honestly he’s kind of scary, seeming like he has multiple faces like that.

Kodaka: Don’t I actually have multiple faces though? Haha. But that’s just my front. Because I have a front like that, I’m able do those things.

Kanda: You’re surprisingly naïve. It’s like you have a glass heart.

Kodaka: I do have a glass heart, haha. So, how was Akamatsu’s execution?

Kanda: I liked it. Loved it.

((That’s my girl.))

Kodaka: In an interview, someone asked Kanda-san “If Akamtasu were to be executed, what kind of execution would you want her to have?” and she answered: “One that was over in a second.” When I saw that, all I could think was “What a liar…” haha. The article said that she didn’t want a lingering death, but in the end that’s what she got.

Kanda: It was like that because I knew. I think it was the best execution. I wouldn’t want it to happen to me. Out of all the ones I’ve seen up until now, it’s the one that I’d want the least.

Kodaka: There were a lot of people on our staff who didn’t like it either. They’d only seen the execution for Chapter 1 and they asked me if the entire game was going to be this heavy.

Kanda: Despite how many executions have come before, this one is the nastiest. She’s clearly suffering!

Kodaka: I’m glad we didn’t record any lines for that scene. There weren’t any lines in the execution scene to begin with, since if we recorded any, it probably would have ruined your throat, haha.

Kanda: Because of that, I didn’t know about it when we were recording. The first time I saw the death was when I played the game for the first time. When I saw it, I couldn’t help but think “Kodaka-san, you’re so scary!”

How about future developments…



Kanda-san, you’ve acted in the stage play, done themes for the anime, and played a character in a game. Is there anything else you’d like to try?

Kanda: I actually never thought I’d continue to be this involved. More than anyone realizes, I started out as just a fan. Because of that, it feels a little bit like “how long will this Cinderella Story go?”

Being allowed to act in the stage show, sing themes for the anime, then play a character in the new game has let me meet Kodaka-san and the other creators multiple times, and I can feel their deep love for the Dangan Ronpa franchise. They speak about the characters as if they’re living people.

This time I was able to be an accomplice to those people, and they showed me how interesting it is to be on the side setting up the tricks. My introduction to the series was through the games, and it’s all come back around to a game. Though my involvement now is very different than how I started. Because of that, I’m happy to do anything at all for this series in the future. Somehow or other, I’d like to think that I’ve created a part of Dangan Ronpa within myself…is that okay?

Kodaka: Yes, of course!

This is a bit premature, but Kodaka-san, have you given any thought to what you’d like to do next?

Kodaka: Having the previous characters from 1 and 2 appear in anime form felt like reuniting with them, and for that I’m glad. The games are to a certain extent the true content of the series, and though there would be times when we’d fumble, making an anime of it means that more people will play the game, and so the actors had a strong desire to make something entertaining.

Kanda: An anime… I wonder how many episodes I’ll get to be in, haha.

Kodaka: Ah, but there’s an issue with making an anime adaptation. If people play the game to the end, I get the feeling that from now on even if I say “This is what I want to do,” they’ll think it’s a lie… There are people reading who are still playing the game and some who have finished, probably thinking “Huh, what are you talking about in that ending?” So it’s really difficult.

The game doesn’t have anything like a “This is how things end” part, right?!

Kodaka: Well, I’d like you to see that as included.

Kanda: Whaaaat?! What does that mean? Now I want to know.

Kodaka: But Hayashibara-san praised the ending. “Does Dangan Ronpa always end like this?” she asked. When I told her “Not always. This time I intentionally wanted to end it this way,” she applauded and praised me, haha.

Kanda: And when you thought of it, you did a triumphant pose?

Kodaka: No, my heart was pounding. It’s still pounding. You’ll love it or hate it. There are likely going to be some people who don’t like it. Ah, but there were some people who didn’t like the game world from 2 either, so…

Kanda: So it leaves a bad taste in your mouth, most likely.

Kodaka: You’ll enjoy the aftertaste, probably. Well, actually I have no idea. I really want to hear your thoughts after you beat the game, Kanda-san.

Well. Color me intrigued…



So there you have it! Sorry this took so long to finish–my life is a never-ending series of obligations, haha. That said, it was fun to do a big translation again. If you spot any typos/errors, please give me a heads up, as always. See you guys soon with some FTE updates and a few other goodies.

よろしくな！

