Interview with Mamiko Noto (Moriko Morioka), the main character of "Neto Matsumotsu no Susume" Vol. 5: "I think I was able to pursue the role of Moriko Morioka in a very straightforward manner.

Moriko Morioka, who is tired of her life as a company employee, finds solace in online games and aims to return to "Neto-Matsu to Ria-Matsu" through her online relationships in the live-action drama-like story "Neto-Matsu no Susume". In this final installment, we present an interview with Mamiko Noto, who plays the role of the main character, Moriko Morioka. She talks about how she approached the production, her acting style, and feedback from the production site in a gentle and detailed manner.

Moriko's naturalness is the reason why she went into the play with a state of "nothingness".

─ When did you first come into contact with "Netojin no Susume"?

Noto: I read the book during my audition. Actually, I had no experience with online games, so I wanted to understand the worldview, the content, and the relationship before and after the audition lines, so I was exposed to the original work at an early stage.

─ What was your first impression of the work?

Noto: I was very impressed by the interesting character Moriko. There are many elements to her, such as her backbone and human relationships, but when I was auditioning, I was looking at it from the perspective of "playing Moriko," and I found the contrast between her very seriousness, her careful and sincere nature, and her comical monologue-like movements to be very interesting. I felt that Moriko's past is filled with "what it is like to be a member of society" and her present is filled with "what it is like to be an Internet gamer," making her a character that many people can relate to. I remember that I was conscious of "how I can play this person in a funny way" as I got into the role.

─ Speaking of comical movements, the bed writhing and the hugging pillow were discussed in the scriptwriters' roundtable <#> in this special issue.

Noto: Oh, yes, and the part where you put a korokoro on him (laughs). (Laughs.) There were many realistic descriptions like that, so I felt very close to the game. Even though I don't play Internet games myself, I have always had a longing for them. It was very refreshing to see that people are connected to each other rather than to machines, and that there are real people living beyond these characters. For myself, there were a lot of things I didn't know, so in that sense, it was interesting to learn about them as I read on.


─ How did you come up with the setting of Moriko as a "desalaried NEET"?

Noto: I thought it was a very important part of Moriko's backbone, and I thought it was just as important as the "comical acting" in the "realistic portrayal" I mentioned earlier. If she is just funny, she will be a person without roots. I was conscious of seasoning my performance based on the backbone of the character.

─ I understand that playing Moriko was a new challenge for you this time.

Noto: First of all, an animated film with a single, NEET woman in her 30s as the main character is a new thing for me (laughs). (Laughs.) In the past, I have often played roles of introverted or refined girls, and in recent years I have played roles with a strong punch, but I had never played a role with this kind of setting, so I thought it would be a fun role to play. I thought it was fun to play this role because I had never played a role with this kind of setting before. But that was based on the premise of the play with the other actor.


How was your communication with Suzuki (Yoda) as Hayashi, with whom you created Moriko's character?

Noto: We felt each other out in the play, rather than specifically. I know it was difficult and challenging for Suzuki to play a major role in his first regular role in this production, but I could clearly see that "now you get my Moriko thoughts and lines" or "now you connect them to the world of the net", even without consulting him, and I felt that there was a good underlying connection between the two. I felt that the two of us were connected in some fundamental way as we worked together on the play. Although we did not talk to each other in the film, I think we were able to create the character of Moriko = Hayashi with the character of Moriko as the core.


─ How was the play with the other actors?

Noto: With Mr. Sakurai (Takahiro), as we exchanged words, I felt a sense of security that he was picking up my lines very well. I felt the same from Maeno (Tomoaki), who played Koiwai, and I was able to portray Moriko with ease. Even when Moriko suddenly became flustered, he would respond to her in a casual manner. The later the story progresses, the more it focuses on Sakurai (Yuta) and Moriko, and it becomes more and more like a live-action film. In such a situation, a certain vividness is important, but I always felt that we could return each other in a natural way in such a situation.

─ ─ Generally speaking, anime performances require a certain amount of excessiveness when it comes to the pictures, so how did you go about expressing naturalness and vividness in your performances?

Noto: I think the fact that the recording of this work was done by prescreening was a big factor. Although it was not a complete prescreening, we were able to change the pacing of the recording to accommodate our performance. Mr. Gouda, the sound director, often advised us to try it without worrying about the scale. In general, during postrecording, the slow and fast scenes are created according to the length of the scene, but in the case of Moriko in this piece, her character is very naive, so I thought it was important to express her reactions as they really are, so it was important to make myself fit in with her. Therefore, I tried my best not to be too contrived in my acting. The story has a flow, so it cannot be completely free of artifice, but I did my best to keep it on the other side of the story, and I wanted to pick up on that neutral aspect of Moriko's character.

─ ─ It is interesting to hear about the pacing. I have heard that newcomers have a hard time putting in lines in "pauses" that are not their own "pauses" but rather "pauses" in the cut.

Noto: It is difficult even if you are not a newcomer (laughs). (Laughs.) But in this work, I felt that the director gave priority to the "pauses" in our performances in many parts. It is no exaggeration to say that animation works are based on the division of labor, with many people, including the director and animators, working together to create a single character. That is why I think this is an interesting part of the work, and that is why it is difficult to maintain consistency. However, this time, I felt that the director took into account our performance as a core element.


───There were many scenes in which you used "pauses" in the production.

Noto: In the real world, the facial parts were intentionally not shown, and the amount of water drops expressed the sense of time and temperature. In this sense, I think that only "Netojin no Susume" could have created such a game.