The TV anime "Night of the Living Cat", based on the cat manga by Hawkman and Mekaroots, currently being serialized in "Monthly Comic Garden" and the manga site "MagComi" (both Mag Garden), will be broadcast on TV Tokyo, BS TV Tokyo, Animax and others from July 7th, and will be pre-released on ABEMA Premium from July 6th. The story is set in the year 20XX, when a virus that turns humans who touch cats into cats suddenly appears, causing a "Nyandemic", and the human race resists the temptation to touch cats and tries to survive in a world full of cats. Mizunaka Masaaki plays Kunagi, a cat cafe employee who has lost his memory and whose identity is shrouded in mystery due to his memory loss, and Reiji Kawashima plays Arata, a former track and field club member and ninja-obsessed university student who is saved by Kunagi just before he turns into a cat. We asked him about the recording of the show, which is said to have been made up of cat lovers among both staff and cast, and his thoughts on cats.
◇The recording site was filled with cats, but what about Mizunaka Masaaki, who is actually a dog lover?
-What is your impression of the work?
My first impression of Mizunaka-san was that the drawings were too bold (laughs).
It's definitely Kawashima-san .
Since she is Mizunaka-san , I thought that maybe a strong performance would suit her. I thought that Kunagi in particular had a strong feel to him. Her reactions were big, so I tried to keep that in mind during the audition.
Kawashima: I myself love cats and have a cat, so I thought, "It's definitely about cats" because the title is "Night~" and I was really looking forward to it. There are many cat-related works, but this was a type I'd never seen before. The creators are movie lovers, so there are many homage scenes, and it's really interesting! The setting is amazing! I thought.
--I heard that the staff and cast are all cat lovers.
Mizunaka-san was the only cat lover. Even the guests wore shirts with cat patterns to the recording (laughs). I love cats, of course, but I have a dog. I didn't have a cat shirt, so I felt sorry. Reiji-kun gave out cat T-shirts that he made himself to everyone, right?
I made a T-shirt with a picture of Kawashima's beloved cat. I hope she'll wear it (laughs).
--Is there a lot of cat talk on set?
Kawashima: At first, we didn't know each other's cats, so it was like, "Show me a picture of your beloved cat this week."
Not to be outdone, I showed Mizunaka- san a photo of my dog. And I asked him about his cat insurance.
Kawashima-san, insurance is important.
◇Serious recording: Guest voice actor says, "I'm here to become a cat"
-What did you keep in mind when acting?
My first impression of Mizunaka- san was that Kunagi was too straightforward. I also thought, "Everything is big." Combined with the drawing style, his reactions were big, his voice was loud, and his acting looked intense. That's where the difference with the other characters was, so I wanted to bring out that difference without wavering. Not in a technical sense, but really like, "Let's have a big voice!" (laughs). I brought that out without hesitation, hoping that it would fit into the anime.
Kawashima-san Arata, I also had a strong impression when I read the manga, so at first I made him low-toned and with a strong personality, but I thought he had a college junior feel. On set, I tried to make him seem like a junior who would say "Hi!" or "Yosh!" to be liked by his seniors and everyone. Always seeming like he's having fun. As a work, there is a serious element of him turning into a cat if he touches a cat, but I was like, "I wonder if this guy even cares about that?" The character setting also said, "A fighting style where you always have fun playing with cats?" So I focused on making him seem like he doesn't seem to be in a crisis situation even though he is in a crisis situation.
Mizunaka-san: When I first saw Arata in the manga, I thought, "Oh, he's like a cat," and that matches Reiji-kun's free-spiritedness. When I first met Reiji-kun, I had the impression that he was "a guy who doesn't hesitate to go all out," but this time, that really matched the role, and it felt like he was bouncing around. I was listening to him and thinking that he was very charming.
From Kawashima Arata's point of view, Kunagi helped him when he thought, "I can't do this, I'll turn into a cat," so when he calls him "Big Brother!" it comes across more like he's an admired, brotherly figure than a senior.
--There are lots of cute cats, but when you touch them, you turn into a cat... It's a unique world view, but what do you find difficult or interesting about recording?
Mizunaka-san always makes you laugh, doesn't he? Even if what you're doing is serious, it looks like a joke. So it's important not to aim for laughs. Even on set, everyone understood that "this is funny because we're doing it seriously," and it was interesting that everyone was aiming in the same direction. No one was trying to get laughs.
Kawashima: That's right. Everyone shout out loud.
Mizunaka-san, everyone was doing their best, and I was like, what is this scream? (laughs). Everyone was laughing inside, but they were doing it with their backs straight. The guest voice actors were saying things like, "You're coming to die," and "You're coming to become a cat." They were recording in a charging posture. We were the ones trying to survive, but the guests were...
Kawashima-san usually turns into a cat (laughs).
Mizunaka-san's excitement is unique to that day, so the difference in excitement between each person was interesting.
To be continued in interview (2).
