The third season of the TV anime "Oshi no Ko," based on the popular manga serialized in "Weekly Young Jump" (Shueisha), is currently airing on TOKYO MX and 36 other stations nationwide. In this turbulent third season, which features Ruby's rise in the entertainment industry, Kana Arima's scandal, Aqua's exposure of Ai's "lies," and the production of the movie "15 Years of Lies," we mustn't forget the presence of Saito Miyako, the president of Ichigo Productions and the guardian of Aqua and Ruby. Popular voice actress Lynn plays Miyako, who watches over and supports Aqua and the others while struggling with her own problems. We spoke to Lynn, who describes Miyako as a "wonderful woman," about the behind-the-scenes of the recording and her thoughts on the work.
◇Can she make the play convincing? Concerns about playing Miyako
"Oshi no Ko " is a popular manga series created by Aka Akasaka , author of " Kaguya-sama: Love Is War, " and Mengo Yokoyari, author of " Scum's Wish ," and was serialized in "Weekly Young Jump" from April 2020 to November 2024. It tells the story of twin siblings left behind by Ai, a genius idol who suddenly dies.
Miyako Saito is the wife of Ichigo Saito, the former president of Ichigo Production. After Ai's death and Ichigo's disappearance, she took over as president of Ichigo Production and has watched over Aqua and Ruby's growth as a mother figure. Lynn said that in the first season, she felt anxious about playing Miyako, wondering, "Am I good enough?"
"Miyako is in her twenties at the start of the first episode of the first season, but as the story progresses, she becomes around forty. I was chosen through an audition, and I had several people in mind who I imagined would play such a wonderful woman as Miyako, so I was very surprised that it was me. I had never played a character older than my actual age in an anime before, so I was very worried about whether I could make my performance believable."
Lynn said that the keywords she focused on while playing Miyako were nurturing and maternal. "I was conscious of those things, but I didn't try too hard. I thought she was a person with a relaxed, easygoing nature in a good way, so I hoped to bring out that aspect of her," she recalls.
Lynn's portrayal of Miyako stands out among the many mature children like Aqua and Kana Arima, as a guardian figure and president of Ichigo Pro, possessing a nurturing, reliable, and appealing presence. However, Lynn herself surprisingly says, "Even now, I'm not sure if I've truly captured the essence of Miyako, and I don't feel like I've fully mastered the role."
"However, some of my co-stars have complimented me, saying, 'How do you manage to project such a motherly aura, as if you actually have children?' I don't really feel like I do it myself, but I guess I've managed to pull it off somehow. I don't think Miyako is inherently a strong-willed person, but she has no choice but to act that way given the circumstances. I think she's someone who has persevered and worked incredibly hard. She must have truly cherished and raised Aqua and Ruby as if they were her own children, and I acted while imagining that the accumulation of those years must have been a part of this family. Miyako is a person placed in a very unusual situation, but I feel that the story truly conveys her conscience."
She said that the presence of Yurie Igoma, who played Ruby, was also very important to her while playing Miyako.
"I didn't do anything specifically to express motherhood, but as I've gotten older and gained more experience, seeing Ikoma-san's demeanor on set and how hard she works, I find her adorable. That feeling might have been part of why I played Miyako. Ikoma-san really embodies Ruby, and I don't think there's anyone else who could have been such a perfect fit for the role. On set, we interacted with each other with the feeling that 'Ikoma-san is going to spread her wings and soar even higher in the future,' so perhaps that's connected to the feelings a parent has for their child."
◇ "It's tough" Season 3: Trial and error during recording
The third season is full of dramatic developments, and Lynn, who plays Miyako, reveals her feelings, saying, "Overall, it was tough."
"Up until a certain point, it was Aqua's revenge story, but in the third season, it changed into Ruby's revenge story. When I read the original manga, it really hit me hard to see how the energetic, cheerful, and cute Ruby could end up like that. I think Ikoma-san also tried various things in her acting, but it was painful to watch those negative emotions. From Miyako's perspective, because it's a small agency, she felt she had to do something within her own scope, but there were really one problem after another that she had to deal with. In the scandal arc, there were so many scenes where Kana-chan was crying, and it was tough."
Amidst all of that, the scene in episode 28 where Miyako and Aqua have a conversation left a lasting impression on her.
"This is a scene where Miyako is talking to Aqua when she's overwhelmed with work. She quietly expresses her worries that she's not doing a good job, that she's not giving everyone good work, and Aqua, though not a word, encourages her. I've felt since the first season that the dynamic between these two is truly unique. Although he's a child, I get the feeling that Miyako relies on the more mature side of Aqua in some way."
It was a scene where I "struggled quite a bit."
"Miyako doesn't often show any weakness, but there were some scenes where it was clear she was really struggling. It was difficult to get the right tone and the right amount of tension. I was given directions like, 'Make it sound more like you're mumbling. It sounds like you're talking to someone, but also like you're talking to yourself,' and I remember trying to hold it down so much that I wondered if it would even come across at that volume."
As Lynn explains, recording for "Oshi no Ko" requires incredibly delicate acting, like threading a needle.
"Not just in casual scenes, but especially in key scenes, we often recorded many different versions. We'd say things like, 'That version we just did was good, but could you do another version like this?' I think the director probably didn't have a single answer as to which was the best. So, it felt like we were all creating it together."
The third season marks a major turning point in the story. The climax, crafted through the trial and error of the staff and cast, is definitely worth paying attention to. (Shiroinu/MANTANWEB)
