The second interview of "Kimi no Koe wo Todokeitai" is with Suzuko Mimori! The second interview with Suzuko Mimori of "Kimi no Koe wo Todotai" is with Suzuko Mimori! I love them so much!

In the anime film "Kimi no Koe wo Todokeitai," released on Saturday, August 25, 2017, voice actress Suzuko Mimori plays the mature and mysterious girl, Shion Yazawa.

Ms. Mimori was also a witness to the first "Kimikoe Audition," which selected the members of the voice actress unit "NOW ON AIR" to appear in "Kimi no Koe wo Todokeitai. As a senior member of the audition team and as a witness, she talked about what she saw at the recording studio and what she saw as an actor in the film "Kimi no Koe wo Todokeitai," including her own episodes.
⇒ This is the first part of the "Kimi no Koe wo Todokeitai" interview feature! We interviewed NOW ON AIR, who is finally making her full-fledged voice acting debut!

I have a lot of respect for her, even though we are very far apart in age.

───What did you think when you were chosen to appear in "Kimi no Koe wo Todokeitai"?

Suzuko Mimori (Suzuko Mimori): First of all, I got to know the girls when I participated as a witness in the "Kimikoe Audition" to select the members of NOW ON AIR. So when I was informed that I would be appearing in "Kimi no Koe wo Todokeitai," I was very happy to be able to appear in the same production with the members of NOW ON AIR and create a work together. But before I heard the details, I thought I would be playing the role of a senior in the eyes of the main characters (laughs). (Laughs) But when I found out that I was actually playing the role of a classmate, I thought I would do my best to live up to the purity of the characters.

───What did you think of the script?

Mimori: I thought the message was very simple. That is why I felt that it was a heart-warming work, filled with the pure feelings of the heroines.

───Please tell us about your impression of Shion Yazawa, the character you play.

Mimori: When Shion was 4 years old, her mother had an accident and she was unconscious for a long time. So I think she has given up on reality, or rather, she is staring at reality with a somber eye. I was forced to become an adult earlier than everyone else around me, so I am not very lively, don't have any friends, and am very blunt. I think the word "somber" best describes him.

You said earlier that you need to be pure in order to perform as a member of the same generation as NOW ON AIR, but there seems to be a gap between you and Shion's mature and quiet personality.

Mimori: With the purity of everyone's performance as the standard, it took a lot of trial and error to make Shion look mature. Nagisa, who often talks with Shion alone, is a real life-size play since Mina (Katahira), who plays her, is a high school student. So I thought I needed something that would not lose out to Nagisa's realistic high-schooler feel, so I thought I had to give Shion a mature and sober look, but with some childishness in there.

───Mr. Mimori, who has been watching over NOW ON AIR through the auditions, what did you think of the girls' performances?

Mimori: During the auditions, I sent them one-way video messages, but actually, the recording session was the first time I actually met all six of them in person. I met them in person, and I thought they were very elegant and nice girls.

─ I see, until then, you had a lot of one-way communication with them, didn't you?

Mimori: That's right. When we first met, everyone was nervous because I was their senior. But they were very polite and ......, I don't know how to say it, they all seemed to have a somewhat old-fashioned way about them.

And since they were chosen out of so many people, their acting was wonderful, and they sang very well. I have to admit that I was a bit nervous when I saw the song they were going to sing together at the end on the recording VTR (laugh). I thought, "They are all too good, this is the next generation.

When I think back to when I was a newcomer, I couldn't do anything like this. I was not good at acting, and I was never good at singing, so I had a lot of respect for these girls even though they were far apart in age. They worked very hard during the postrecording sessions, taking many takes, and they listened to the director's words very sincerely. Watching them like that, I thought how cute they were. They are the six people I love most in the world right now.

Communicating while eating "hoshi-imo!

─ Did you feel any tension among the members during the postrecording?

Mimori: We are the senior members and even Masako Nozawa was in the studio, so I think it was a tense day for us. But we had snacks together in between recording sessions, so I heard a lot about how everyone was doing in their daily lives.

─ A member told me that Mr. Mimori gave him a "hoshi-imo" (a sweet potato).

Mimori: That's right, I happened to have some "hoshi-imo" for my own snack. I should have made it a more fashionable snack. ...... Wouldn't it be better if I said something like, "Mimori-san gave me madeleines."　Why did I choose "hoshi-imo" (laughs)?

─ ─ From the members' point of view, you are their senior whom they admire, but did you feel their eyes on you?

Mimori: They were staring at me. On the contrary, I was nervous!　I thought that I was still just a newcomer, but I felt that I had to be more solid if such young people were looking up to me. I wondered how I could act like a senior. So I decided to be a familiar big sister, not to teach them anything. From my point of view, the six of them are like my grandchildren. They are just so cute.

─ Conversely, is there a senior colleague that you looked up to when you were a rookie?

Mimori: When I first started out, there were Yui Horie, Yukari Tamura, and Mamiko Noto at the site where I was allowed to join the mob. There were also many seniors such as Tamura Yukari and Sawashiro Miyuki at the "Milky Holmes" site, and I was shown the work of these wonderful seniors at the start of the project. I would like to have various senpai tell me what they have learned, and I would like to pass on what I have learned to my juniors.

─ The members said that Mr. Mimori helped them relax.

Mimori: That would have been great. Of course, I think scary senpai are necessary, but I am not suited to be a scary senpai (laughs).