The TV anime "Thunder 3," based on the manga by Yuki Ikeda serialized in "Monthly Shonen Magazine" (Kodansha), began airing on July 8th on Fuji TV's late-night anime block "+Ultra" and other channels. The original manga, which began serialization in 2022, became a "shocking work" that generated buzz on social media for its story development and artwork. While it initially appears to depict the heartwarming daily lives of a close-knit trio of middle school students known as the "Small 3," who are unremarkable in terms of looks, academics, and sports, the world of the anime takes a dramatic turn midway through the first episode. The cute, manga-like characters are thrust into a world of realistic depictions, a shocking development that awaits viewers. We asked Sayumi Suzushiro, who plays Tezuka Pyontaro, Natsumi Kawaida, who plays Azuma Tsubame, and Eri Akiyama, who plays Ochanomizu Hiroshi, about their thoughts on this "shocking work."
◇An extraordinary work has begun!
--The shocking plot twists have also been a hot topic. What are your impressions of the original work?
At first, when I saw the manga -like illustrations, I thought it would be a heartwarming slice-of-life story, but as I continued reading, it turned out to be something completely unexpected (laughs). I was pleasantly surprised, and I was truly astonished. I was excited, feeling that an extraordinary work had begun. At the beginning, Pyontaro treated his younger sister Futaba in a way typical of adolescence, like "What's wrong with you now?", but the developments after Futaba was kidnapped gave me the feeling that the atmosphere had changed all at once, which was exciting, and Ikeda-sensei's drawing skills are also wonderful, so I felt that it was a work with an unknown kind of fun.
When Kawaiida-san's dragonfly came out of the TV and he went to the other world, I was surprised and thought, "So that's what it's about!?" (laughs). I wondered what would happen when he went to the other world, and then he unexpectedly became like a person with superpowers, which shocked me. He was sad that his sister was gone, but the two of them weren't tense at all and were having fun, which made me think they were just like middle school boys. I also tend to think about a lot of things lightly, so I thought I would probably do the same thing (laughs). I felt like I was in that world as I was reading it.
I share some similarities with the two Akiyamas , but after reading the original work, I was amazed by how detailed the world depicted was, despite the lack of manga-like detail, when it came to the real world! I was shocked by the level of detail in the mechs like the spaceship, and I was excited, thinking, "Does a work like this even exist?" While there were expressions that only a middle schooler could make, I also felt a contrast with the seriousness of the scene where he goes to save his sister.
◇Love and respect for the original work
--It seems the recording process involved pre-scoring, where the voices were recorded first.
Ms. Suzushiro, this was my first time doing a complete pre-recording. There are different types of pre-recording; sometimes there are only drawings and no video, and the length is left up to the actors, but this time there were no drawings at all. There was only the script. The script itself was the original work used as text, and I was told, "You can do whatever you want, and if it's good, we might even increase the scenes where the characters appear," so I thought, "Okay, let's do it!" (laughs). I acted while imagining how the characters would move once they entered the real world. The manga drawings have expressions that make you wonder, "What are they thinking at that moment?" and it was difficult at first to figure out how to express that in animation.
Kawaiida-san, that's right. It's stylized, after all.
We all consulted with each other and worked out the details together, but at first there were some parts where we were feeling our way around.
Director Kawaiida also said that he was "creating the animation to match the pre-recorded performances."
When I read Suzushiro-san's original work, I thought it would be difficult to adapt it into an anime, considering the way the manga world and the real world are depicted, but it turned out to be a wonderful animation that shows love and respect for the original work...!
When Akiyama-san's manga-like characters went into the real world, they had shadows like screen tones, and I was shocked to see how they turned out! The sound and sound effects in the real world were also grand, which was another shock.
It's amazing how Ms. Suzushiro's work manages to stand as a cohesive piece without any inconsistencies.
--In the real world, "real" Pyontaro characters also appear, but were they played by Ms. Suzushiro and others?
Ms. Suzushiro, that's right. So it was a dialogue between myself. It wasn't recorded separately, but recorded in one take. For the manga world, I thought it might be better to exaggerate the acting a bit, but on set, they said, "You don't need to be that conscious of it." However, the body proportions are different, so for the realistic character, I tried to act as realistically as possible without exaggerating the way he spoke.
Kawaiida-san, yes, that's right. I think I might have been conscious of the tone.
Akiyama's proportions are different, and I tried to project an image of him being grounded and realistic when I spoke to him.
"Thunder 3" has had a shocking start, but it seems there are still more surprising developments to come. What kind of exploits will Small 3 have in the real world? We'll be keeping a close eye on future developments. (Manami Anima/MANTANWEB)
