The TV anime "Vigilante - My Hero Academia ILLEGALS -", based on the official spin-off of Kohei Horikoshi's popular manga "My Hero Academia (Hiroaka)", will be broadcast on TOKYO MX, Yomiuri TV and other stations from April 7th. Set in Japan several years before the main story of "Hiroaka", the drama depicts the drama of illegal heroes, the Vigilantes, who cannot help but save people even if they are not recognized by anyone, behind the scenes of the heroes who are recognized by the people and are active. We spoke to Shuichiro Umeda, who plays the main character, Haimai Koichi, Ikumi Hasegawa, who plays Pop☆Step, and Mamiya Yasuhiro, who plays Knuckleduster, about the behind-the-scenes of the recording and the challenges of this work.
◇ Koichi, the main character unique to "Vigilante", is "excited" about the future
-- "Vigilante" is also said to be "the story of Deku who never met All Might." What is your impression of Koichi, an ordinary college student with a different protagonist image from Deku (Izuku Midoriya) in "My Hero Academia"?
Umeda: I've loved "My Hero Academia" since before I decided to become a voice actor, so I was happy to be entrusted with the role of Koichi in the spin-off "Vigilante". Koichi is an unexpected character to be the protagonist of a "My Hero Academia" series, after he's grown up once, or rather, after he's settled down once into "I'm going to be a hero!" At first, I had the impression that he was an ordinary person, close to us, and I wondered how he would play an active role? His ordinariness stood out.
--Koichi has the "unique ability" of "gliding," but he can only go as fast as a mamachari (a Japanese-style bicycle for women).
Umeda-san, I think that's a typical Koichi style direction.
Hasegawa: Deku from "My Hero Academia" didn't have any outstanding talents, but I think he's the type of protagonist that makes you think "Maybe he could be a hero" from the beginning, but Koichi is what you would call normal. He admires heroes, but he knows his place in the world. I also thought he was an unexpected protagonist who does what he wants to do within his capabilities. I was really excited to see what kind of people he would meet, what kind of incidents he would get involved in, and how he would change.
Mamiya-san is an ordinary college student, has a part-time job, and sees things from a perspective similar to that of ordinary people. I think it will be really worth watching how he progresses dramatically from there. How will he ultimately turn out, and will he become a great hero like All Might? I hope you will enjoy it for a long time to come.
-What is your impression of the self-proclaimed free idol group Pop☆Step?
Hasegawa-san Pop has a slightly unique position in this work, and it's not like he has no purpose. I think it's interesting that he doesn't have a "I want to do this" for the activities of these three people. This is a work that is based on heroes, and Pop has a "personality", but he doesn't place much importance on being a "hero". She is driven by her affection for people, so when acting, I thought I had to play the "why?" part of "Why are you angry here?" and "Why are you going to the place where the incident is happening, raising your voice, and leading people?" with care. I was conscious of the fact that if I lost sight of my purpose, I would no longer be Pop.
--This is a character that you probably wouldn't find in "My Hero Academia."
Hasegawa: That's right. Everyone in class 1-A of "My Hero Academia" wants to be a hero, but Pop isn't the kind of kid who wants to be a hero.
Umeda-san is a "Vigilante"-like character. She's one of the girls rooted in the everyday life of that world. Of course, there are girls who want to be heroes and girls who want to be idols.
Mamiya-san: It's a variation in how you use "individuality."
--What kind of character do you think Knuckleduster, the enemy (villain) "cleaner," is?
I can't say much about Mamiya Knuckle because it would include spoilers, but unlike Koichi and Pop, he is an adult and has always faced evil, so he interacts with them. He has a history of fighting evil, and unlike Koichi, he is a character who originally has a lot of negative feelings such as hatred and anger, so I think it's very important to put that into every line. His true nature seems more like an enemy (villain) than a hero. When he interacts with Koichi and Pop, he shows his true face, but when he faces the enemy (villain), he doesn't kill them, but he acts with emotions similar to those, so I hope that I can convey that.
--The original authors also described All Might as being like Superman, and Knuckleduster as being like Batman.
Mamiya-san: Yes, he does have a strong dark hero vibe.
◇Increasing the resolution of the characters A tense and highly concentrated environment
--You three seem to have a good relationship when you talk, but do you still chat together during breaks in recording?
Hasegawa-san, that's... (bitter laugh) First of all, the sound director, Mima (Masafumi), is someone who thinks very carefully about the relationships between the characters, and he told me, "Don't get too close."
Umeda-san , especially I was told not to talk to Mamiya-san.
Mamiya -san was sitting far away from me in the studio, and I was watching Umeda-san and Hasegawa-san talking from afar, and I thought, "I want to talk too..." (laughs).
It's because of Umeda-san that I can say things like, "Thank you for your hard work!" when we meet outside of the dubbing studio, like today's interview.
I can finally get close to Hasegawa-san (laughs). I don't often get told things like that during dubbing on other sets, so I thought it was interesting that he was conscious of doing things that would benefit the work.
Mamiya-san (Deku's voice actor) Yamashita Daiki-kun said that it was the same on the set of "My Hero Academia." Because All Might is someone Deku looks up to, he was told not to get too close to Kenta Miyake, who plays All Might .
--It seems like a very tense place. What challenges are unique to this production?
As Umeda-san and Mima-san have said, I try my best to do things I can't do, even if it's just to the limit. I try my best to "challenge" every time. I try and challenge, and I try to be able to do things I can't do, even if it's just a millimeter each time. It's not about whether I can do it or not, but "I'm going to do it!" I think that's the kind of person Koichi is, doing things desperately.
--Dubbing is like a battle.
It's a battle together .
During the recording, Umeda-san gave me solid direction on how Koichi should look, rather than on my own standards. For example, even if I was thinking of Pop and speaking the lines as Koichi, Mima-san would say, "I don't feel that at all." We worked together to create the show in a very strict way so that the viewers could understand Koichi's personality, feelings, and intentions.
--Are there any difficult aspects to Koichi because he's "normal"?
That's right, Umeda-san . In the end, he looks normal, but Koichi has his own "individuality" and personality. He has his own preferences, and his way of interacting with people and his manner are unique to Koichi, so instead of acting like "Koichi is a normal kid, so he's like this," I try to increase the resolution of all the "original" parts of him and act accordingly. Even though it's a professional setting, there are some things I learn every time.
-What challenges are you facing, Mr. Hasegawa?
Hasegawa: At first, Mima-san would often ask me, "Why did you say it like that?" For example, in a scene where I was worried about Koichi and was anxious, there were many times when the emotions were only for that scene, and I was asked, "Then why did that anxiety lead to that?" He pointed out that these emotions were due to my desire to make Koichi a hero and to support Koichi, and I was reminded once again that emotions that fit the scene were no good. In scenes where I'm busy with action, I tend to do things on impulse without thinking, but I try to do them while thinking that I can't lose the important part of "what is this child's origin?"
--In an official interview, Hasegawa-san talked about how he received a lot of criticism during his audition.
Mr. Hasegawa: Even at that time, it wasn't that my understanding of Pop's character was wrong, but rather that he taught me a lot about how to approach the play. I went home thinking, "It's no good if I'm being told this here."
It's rare for Mamiya-san to be criticized during an audition.
Hasegawa-san: That's right. And I was the only one who was told that (bitter laugh). But what they said there stayed with me, and when I was actually chosen to play the role of Pop, I kept that in mind while I acted. I was able to do it in the actual performance, but I still felt that there were areas where I was lacking in the 30-minute animation, so I feel like I'm learning more and more with each episode that this is very important in the making of this work. It's come in handy in other works, and it's changed the way I read the script in places, so it's been a great learning experience.
Mamiya-san: In "Vigilante," the two of you are the main characters, the heroine and the heroine, so you have a lot of lines and inevitably get the most criticism. But when I watch it, I, as well as the other actors, say, "Ahhh...!!" and it hits home as if it were my own. Lines are like a game of catch, so rather than saying the lines that you've already finished, you say the lines in an easy-to-understand approach to bring out the lines of the people you're interacting with. I try to do that, but it's still very difficult. When I can't do it, of course Mima-san points it out to me. That's how everyone competes with each other and works hard to improve the completeness of a single work. So there's a lot of tension. I think it's a high-tension, high-concentration set in a good way.
Umeda: I felt something for the first time on the set of "Vigilante". The atmosphere on set changes drastically depending on the work, but there are some sets where laughter echoes during breaks, and others where everyone spends their time at their own pace. On the set of "Vigilante", I felt for the first time that something that I struggled and struggled to produce can end up being something that people find funny, and I thought that it was that kind of set. I think there are some things that can only be done in that way.
Voice actors Umeda, Hasegawa, Mamiya and others will be fighting to portray the illegal hero Vigilante. You will surely be able to feel a different charm from the heroes in "My Hero Academia".
