Gravure and interview with the official models of the winter 2021 anime "Mage Orphen: The Lost Journey of Kimurak", revealing the true faces of the "Three Goddesses of Destiny"!

The TV anime "Mage Orphen: The Hagureta Journey Kimurak-hen" has been airing since January 2021. As part of the promotion, official models have been selected to represent the "Three Goddesses of Destiny" in the work.

We interviewed Yuna, Minmiko, and Koyuki, who were chosen as official models for the "Three Goddesses of Destiny," about their impressions of the work and their enthusiasm for the future, and Minmiko's strong Orphen mania became apparent. We present the first interview from the perspectives of an experienced model, an enthusiastic Orphen lover, and a beginner who is in the process of getting to know Orphen.

Immediately after the official decision was made, the first photo shoot took place.

─ ─ Today we are talking with the official models of "Mage Orphen Hagurebi Kimurak Hen" and the three goddesses of destiny on the set of the photo shoot.

Yuna & Minmiko & Koyuki, thank you very much!

─ ─ The "Three Goddesses of Destiny" were first recruited in November. Wasn't it quite speedy from the audition to the decision and the filming?

Yuna: I and Yuki were officially selected at the beginning of the new year.

Minmiko: I was selected on December 31 (the date for the preliminary screening in which the three of us were scheduled to appear was January 9, 2021).

Koyuki I applied for the audition in November, and it was like the qualifying round started in December.

Yuna

Yuna.

─ ─ Your first official activity as the Three Goddesses of Destiny was a costume shoot. How was the photo shoot?

Yuna: I belong to an office, so I have experience in filming and taking lessons. This shoot was based on the motif of the three goddesses that appear in the work, so I kept in mind how I could make them look like goddesses. I usually only have experience with shoots where I express myself freely, so that was a different experience.

Minmiko: It was super fun!　I have always been a fan of "Mage Orphen" and read the original novel. So I was really looking forward to wearing the costumes of the goddesses that appear in "Orphen. Today, I was able to see the illustrations of the goddesses and take pictures of them on the set, so it was a lot of fun!

Koyuki: This was the first time for me to do everything, including the photo shoot, so I thought it would be a rare experience for me to have such a chance. It was a precious experience for me to be photographed in such a studio, wearing such beautiful clothes and having my hair and makeup done properly. It was a lot of fun.

─ So this was the first time for you, Mimmiko and Yuki, to be photographed as well. What did you think of the professional makeup and filming?

Minmiko: I was very impressed!　When the make-up artist pulled my face and made some adjustments, my eyeliner looked so shiny. It was an amazing technique, and I really felt like I was having a professional do my makeup.

Yuki: Normally, I can easily do my makeup in 5 or 10 minutes, so I was surprised to see how well she did it today.

─ ─ Yuna, you have experience shooting in a studio, so can you tell us about any unique aspects of shooting with characters?

Yuna: I have to be conscious of showing the characters and their costumes more than myself. For example, I usually put my hands on my hips to make my legs look longer, but that would hide part of the costume. On the other hand, I thought about posing with my hands raised to show the fluttering of my hands.

─ ─ What was your impression of the costumes of the three goddesses of destiny?

Yuna: I was surprised at how white they are, how pure white they are. I thought it looked like a wedding dress at a glance.

Minmiko: According to the original author, Akita-sensei, there was a white Gundam in "Mobile Suit Gundam" that was the image of justice of the Federation, and in "Mage Orphen," he used a black image to portray the main character as an anti-hero. I think that's why the goddess's costume was white, as a counterpoint to that.

Oh, wow.... (Everyone involved in the film gasps in excitement.)

Minmiko: I loved the original work, so I was very moved to be able to wear this costume!

Koyuki: I thought the costumes were very beautiful, and I thought they looked great when the three of us appeared together.

Koyuki

Yuki Koyuki

─ ─ The "Three Goddesses" do not appear in the anime very often. How did you imagine them in your mind when you shot the film?

Yuna: I was not familiar with the image of the goddesses in the original story, so I came to the shoot after researching the mythological goddesses in real life on the Internet and developing my image of them.

Minmiko: I was not familiar with the goddesses in "Orphen. I had a strong image of the goddess in "Orphen" [*Editor's note: I'll leave this out as it will be a long and gruesome spoiler for a while]. I was angry with my mother when I imitated the scene in which Auriole's head [*Editor's note: I omitted this part because it will be spoiled for a while], and I was also angry with the people involved when I did a pose inspired by that scene during this shoot.

─ ─ Even if you read the original story, only some of the goddesses appear, so if you know the original story in detail, it may be difficult to imagine your role.

Minmiko: That is why we are not playing any of the three goddesses, but rather expressing the concept of the three goddesses. Personally, I was very curious about what they looked like and what they were like because they were not described in detail in the original work. So I think it would be delicious if we could create an image of the three goddesses by appearing as them (laughs).

Koyuki: I had no idea what I was getting myself into, so I was thinking, "If I think of a goddess today, she must be noble in image, right? I was doing it while thinking about it.

Personalities of the three and their encounter with "Orphen

───Now, let's talk about the personal aspects of each of you. Could you briefly introduce yourselves?

My name is Yuna Yuna. I am 25 years old, a music college graduate, and I am usually a supermarket manager. I am looking forward to working with you!

─ ─ Well, you have given us a lot of information (laughs), so let's start with the music college. What kind of music did you play?

Yuna: I have been playing the piano since I was 5 years old, and I joined a brass band when I was 12. In the brass band, I played the marimba, which is a percussion instrument like a xylophone (......). I went on to a music high school and then to a music college to pursue my career.

───How did you become a member of an entertainment agency from there?

Yuna: When I was in my third year of college, I studied abroad in the United States. There, I met many people who were musicians but also lawyers and doctors, and I realized that it was okay for me to look at two different worlds instead of worrying about whether I should continue music or do something else. So I am officially working at the part-time job I was working at the time, while continuing to work in music and entertainment.

Minmiko My name is Minmiko, and I am usually a female college student. I have always wanted to work in a job related to animation or games in the future.

Minmiko

Minmico.

─ According to your profile, you used to do Tae Kwon Do.

Minmiko: I did taekwondo in high school. When I thought about what I should do to appeal myself at the audition, I thought that people would watch me if I did something that involved fighting or physical activity, so I chose it. Tae Kwon Do mainly consists of kicking, so your legs and feet go up and land on your head!　Do you want to try it?

─ ─ I'll leave the demonstration for another time (laughs). Koyuki, please join us.

My name is Koyuki. I was born and raised in Osaka. My hobbies are taking pictures and writing stories.

─ When you say stories, do you mean novels?

Koyuki: I also write novels, and since my university was a broadcasting school, I also studied screenwriting.

─ ─ What kind of works do you write?

Koyuki: Many of them do not have a happy ending. I wrote a radio drama in which a senior and a junior are separated in the end.

───Please tell us about your encounter with the work "Mage Orphen". Of course, it could be because of this audition.

Yuna I love anime, and before each season starts, I look at the list of new anime. My criterion for choosing one is whether I like the picture or not. Last January, when the first season of the TV anime "Mage Orphen Hagure Tabi" was scheduled to air, I thought, oh, I'm interested in this picture, and that was my first encounter with it. I like cute girls, so it is mainly drawings of Creaou and other girls (laughs).

Mimmiko: I originally had the original novel at home. My parents had it, so I read it in the closet when I was in junior high school, and I also watched the old anime.

─ ─ Is the novel the old edition with the cream-colored spine? (*The old edition of the novel "Mage Orphen" was published by Fujimi Shobo from the 90s, and TO Books has been publishing it since around 2011.)

Mimmiko: Yes, the old one!　I think it belongs to my dad, but both my parents love "Orphen". I watched the old anime on rental video. So naturally I paid attention to the first season of the anime "Mage Orphen Hagure Tabi" that aired last year, and while I was looking for information about the upcoming second season, I found this audition notice.

─ You must be a long-time fan.

Mimmiko: Yes, I read "Encyclopedia" on my way here today. (*I'm talking about "Dragon Magazine Collection SP Encyclopedia: Mage Orphen," a mook published in 1999).

─ ─ How did your family react to your involvement in Orphen as one of the Three Goddesses?

Mimmiko: They were delighted. Especially, my mother said, "You should do it! She really encouraged me to do it (laughs).

───Next, Koyuki, please tell us.

Koyuki: I was not very familiar with "Mage Orphen," but my sister loved the "Orphen" anime. That's how I heard about this audition, and that's when I decided to give the anime a try.

───What was your impression of "Mage Orphen: The Hagure Tabi" on your first viewing?

Koyuki: I am not a person who watches anime that much, but I thought the images when they used magic were very beautiful, I was surprised at how beautiful they were.

─ What was your impression of the first season of the anime "Mage Orphen Hagure Tabi" from the point of view of anime fans Yuna and Minmiko?

Yuna-san: I think that today's anime is made to be easy to understand. The story progresses in chronological order until several episodes, and then there are several episodes of reminiscences of the past in the middle of the story, and the story reaches its climax in the last few episodes and concludes. Among them, "Orphen" was particularly impressive in that the past episodes were inserted in the middle of the story, and they were very well organized and easy to understand.

─ ─ That's a series composition viewpoint, isn't it? How about you, Mimmiko?

Minmiko: The first season was a stand-alone story, but I had the impression that it was made in such a way that it would be connected to the Kimurak version (of the second season). Some of the episodes from the original story were probably included in the second season, or the order was switched, so I thought it was a structure that could only be achieved in a one-cour anime.

─ ─ Which character do you like in "Mage Orphen: The Hagure Tabi"?

Yuna: I like girl characters, so I would have to say Creaou!　She is a royal character. I like her because she is mischievous, and I feel that she is similar to me in the way that she picks up anything she wants to do.

Minmiko: In the original novel, I was a Creao fan. I like his gentleness and strength of feeling that he continues to say that he is Orphen's partner even when Orphen is suffering from various problems. But in the anime, I like Azalee because she is more alluring, or rather, she is very erotic (laughs).

Koyuki I liked Comicron.

─ ─ That's a choice that might be considered quite reluctant.

Koyuki: I liked it completely because of the way it looked, and when I saw the first episode, I thought it was going to be a good one, and I wondered if it was going to appear a lot in the future, but then it was defeated at the very beginning (laughs).

(laughs) .

Koyuki: They do appear in the past recollections, so I feel like I'm replenishing the Comicrons there.

─ ─ Is there anything you would like to do in the future as an official model of the "Three Goddesses of Destiny"?

Yuna: I don't know if I can really do it, but I am good at drawing. So I would like to do something like putting together a four-frame manga and uploading it to Twitter after the anime finishes airing.

─ So you draw manga-like pictures and illustrations?

Yuna I like to draw. My mother is an animator.

Mimmiko Wow, .......

Yuna I used to draw the girl with pink hair in the "Mobile Suit Gundam" series, so I was surrounded by such pictures from when I was little.

Minmiko It's "SEED"! Amazing ......!

─ ─ It was an unexpected episode, but I would love to see your illustrations. How about you, Minmiko?

Minmiko: As the story progresses, I think there will be many terms that are unique to "Orphen". I would like to make a video explaining them and distribute it on Twitter or something.

Koyuki: Since you have prepared such wonderful costumes for us, I would be happy to make a video of us wearing the costumes.

─ ─ Is there anything you would like to see in the second season of the anime or any stories you would like to see in the future of "Orphen"?

Yuna I would like to see a love story between Orphen and Creaou!　I personally drew illustrations of their wedding, hoping that they would get together.

Koyuki I'm with Yuna, I'm very interested in what will happen between Orphen and Creaou, so I'm really looking forward to it.

Minmiko I would be happy if the characters from (the short story collection) "Reckless" or something like that show up even a little. I would also be happy if we could see characters who are not clearly depicted in the original story, such as 00 and XX, in the anime.

─ ─ Lastly, please give us your enthusiasm.

Yuna The second season of "Mage Orphen" has started, but I think it will be fun even if you start from the first season. ......?

Minmiko I think you can start from the 2nd season!

Yuna They say you can enjoy it even if you start from the 2nd term!　This is my first time as an official model, so I will be updating my Twitter and other things as each episode airs. Thank you very much.

Minmiko: I hope you will watch the anime!　I'm sure you will be interested in the world of Orphen, so I will do my best to help you enjoy the anime more and I hope you will like the work of Orphen.

Koyuki: I think there are many people like me who got into it recently, or who learned about Orphen through last year's anime. I hope I can enjoy the anime from the same point of view as those people, and I hope we can make the work more exciting together!

The TV anime "Magician Orphen: The Lost Journey of Kimurak-hen" is currently airing on AT-X, TOKYO MX, WOWOW, BS Fuji, and others from January 20, 2012.

(Reporting and writing by Kiri Nakazato)