Evil God is there! Aina Suzuki also gives her opinion! Commemorating the stage version of "Jyakami-chan Dropkick," a special talk between Yuzuboe Shibata, who plays the stage version of Jyakami-chan, and Aina Suzuki, who plays the anime version of Jyakami-chan.

The stage "Evil Girl Dropkick" will be performed on Saturday, March 20, 2021! Ticket sales started on January 23.

The comedy depicts the dangerous and funny cohabitation of a demon from the demon world, Evil God, and a college girl, Yurine Hanazono, who summons her.

The first TV anime season aired in 2018, and the second season will air in 2020.In October 2020, a crowdfunding campaign was launched for the third anime season, reaching its goal of 20 million yen in two days and deciding to produce the series. The final amount reached 36,181,238 yen.

In addition, "Jyakami-chan" has been actively engaged in collaborations that are not bound by the existing anime business framework, such as the Furusato tax payment, and is attracting attention as a unique IP.

The "Evil God Girl" will unexpectedly be adapted for the stage. Originally scheduled to be performed in December 2020, but postponed due to an increase in the number of people infected with the new coronavirus, it will now be performed on March 20, 2021, with full anticipation.

To commemorate this event, Yuzuha Shibata, who plays Evil God Girl in the stage version, and Aina Suzuki, who plays Evil God Girl in the anime version, had a talk with each other!

How do they play Evil God-chan in the different media of stage and anime? How do they play Evil God-chan on stage and in the anime? We asked her to tell us a lot of interesting things about her performance!

───First of all, please introduce yourself, Mr. Shibata.

Shibata My name is Yuzu Shibata and I play the role of Evil Girl in the stage play "Evil Girl Dropkick. Before "Jyoshin-chan," I saw the play "Dandelion in the Castle Town" and got to know Ms. Suzuki.

Suzuki Oh, yeah! I have seen "Love Live! Sunshine! That was before you did "Love Live!

Shibata That's right. That's right! Sunshine! Sunshine!" is the most famous one, but I got to know you through Shiori Sakurada, and then "Love Live! Sunshine! I was surprised at the gap between her performance and that of "Evil God-chan". Shiori-chan is a very cute and young character. But when I saw "Jyagami Chan", I was surprised at the gap between her gruesome and droll voice and the fact that she also sings enka (traditional Japanese ballad).

Suzuki (admiringly) uuuhhh~ .......

Shibata We also share the same motto. We made a profile sheet at school, and ever since I was in the first grade of elementary school, I have written, "I would rather regret after doing something than regret without doing it. You have been saying the same thing, haven't you, Mr. Suzuki?

Suzuki Yes, yes!

Shibata I felt it was my destiny to be in the same position as you. We are also close in height.

Suzuki Oh, I see. Then we are destined to play the same Evil Goddess. Destiny. It's noisy. This is amazing. There are no such coincidences!

Yuzuboe Shibata, who plays the role of Evil God in the stage version

─ ─ A miraculous encounter between the Evil God from Hokkaido and the Evil God from Osaka. What did you think when you saw Osaka's Evil God Girl? (*Note: Ms. Suzuki is from Hokkaido and Ms. Shibata is from Osaka.)

Suzuki: I wondered if such a petite and cute girl could play such a prickly devil. So I am really looking forward to the show.

─ ─ Mr. Shibata, how did you first encounter "Evil God Girl"?

Shibata: My father was an anime lover, and I myself was familiar with anime from an early age, and we enjoyed the first season of the anime as a family.

─ ─ That's funny (laughs).

Shibata It's true! By the way, my father's name is "Koji.

Suzuki What?

Shibata I feel like I am destined for that too. Also, in the first episode of the first season of "Evil Girl," you had sukiyaki. I had a chance to eat sukiyaki with my family, and the meat we used was A5-rank Japanese beef just like in the anime. Koji" served it to us. When we ate the sukiyaki, we played the "Evil Girl" anime. I made a plate of vegetables and had my mother eat it and asked her how she felt. I made a plate of vegetables and asked my mother how she felt.

Suzuki: Ha-ha-ha-ha! (laugh)

Shibata I had a lot of overlapping experiences, such as the fact that Yurine would get angry if she ate so much meat, so I felt like I was destined for "Evil God.

The audition judges also gave her a great review!

─ ─ You were the first one to audition for "Evil God Girl," weren't you?

Shibata Yes, I was the first.

─ ─ According to the person who was in charge of the audition, he felt that she was already good enough.

Suzuki Oh, I see!

Shibata But I was so nervous. ......

───Shibata Jyagami studied Suzuki Jyagami very hard, but Shibata Essence was also very good, I heard. So here is the script that Shibata-san actually used.

Suzuki Cute! It has Evil God-chan drawn on it. (flipping through the script) ...... That's right. It's a stage, so there are action instructions and so on. Oh, so the story begins when you are summoned.

After the interview, Mr. Shibata plans to go to Jimbocho, a sacred place, so he brought a MAP of his own pilgrimage to the sacred place in addition to the script!

Shibata: Yes. I will also sing a song from the anime.

Suzuki That's right. Jimbocho Aika" is included! Oh, Riehl will be there too.

Shibata Yes. All the characters depicted on the poster will be in the show.

Suzuki You have to memorize all these lines, don't you? ...... I would never be able to do it. Did you originally study the stage?

Shibata I did. I originally took a voice-over acting course at a vocational school. So this will be my first time on stage.

Suzuki Wow, wow! This is your first time and this amount of work? You're going to be talking as Evil God the whole time! It's a lot.

Shibata The script is a combination of the best parts.

─ ─ How long is the performance?

Shibata It's a little less than two hours. During that time, Evil God doesn't have a break. He is almost always on stage. The only scene in which he doesn't appear is in the heavenly realm.

Suzuki That's right. He is marked all the time.

Shibata──What is your favorite line from this play?

Shibata Well, ...... (making a voice) "If we don't hurry, if we don't hurry, if we don't ....... The pachinko parlor will close! Perhaps I'll get Yurine to ...... (omitted from here due to spoilers)".

Suzuki: Amazing! I really saw Evil God-chan! She's right there! You said you had seen the anime version, and I could tell that you had studied my performance of Evil God-chan a lot. I am really happy. You made the Evil God-chan your own and played the original Evil God-chan. It's not easy to do that.

Shibata I am very happy! I can't believe I'm doing it in front of you. ......

Suzuki And you have a really nice voice. I don't know, it's so clear, but it's a little husky and wonderful. Well, I was surprised. ......

Aina Suzuki's performance of "Evil Goddess" until she got it right

─ By the way, how did you create the Evil Goddess?

Suzuki: At first, I didn't know how much I could play the role of a "gay devil" and a "gyaru" (gal), but I didn't know how far I could go. At the beginning, I was unsure of how to go about it, and as I watched the on-air footage, I thought to myself, "Can I show more (gayness)? I was able to clearly see the expression of my Evil God-chan when Yukio said, "There is an Evil God-chan. Then I thought, "Well, let's give it our all," and "Since Evil God-chan's facial expression changes so often, let's make each of her expressions richer in terms of joy, anger, sorrow, and pleasure. Therefore, I think I was able to play Evil God more vividly in the second season than in the first season.

─ ─ Is there anything in particular that you keep in mind when playing Evil God-chan?

Suzuki: There are many scenes in which Evil God-chan is beaten by Yurine, but in those scenes I try to make use of my lame voice and make my performance more exaggerated, and when she is a bit nice, I try to play the gap between her appearance as a gal and the innocent girl she is inside.

─ Do you have any original training for creating the voice of Evil God-chan?

Suzuki: Training? Since "Evil God Girl" has a lot of shouting scenes, and the recording session started at 10:00 a.m., I had to warm up my throat or else my voice would tend to dry up. So before I left for the day, I did some normal vocal exercises at home and tried various nuances of "desu-no," such as "(cute) desu-no," "(evil) desu-no," and "(lame) desu-no. On the day of the postrecording of "Evil God Girl," I was making my throat like that.

Aina Suzuki, who plays the role of Evil God in the anime version

─ ─ "Desu no" training! Now, Ms. Shibata, let's practice various "desu-no"!

Suzuki Now!

Shibata Yes! "Desu no!" "Desu no! (in a ladylike manner) desu-no, (in a ghastly manner) desu-no..." "Yes, yes!

Suzuki Yes, that's right! That's what I was doing at home all the time (laughs).

How will the drop-kick be recreated on stage?

───What are the stage rehearsals like?

Shibata: We are all giving each other our opinions so that we can bring out the "Evil God-chan" style. The script is already funny, so we are all laughing and discussing how we can make it better. Before rehearsals, we do vocal exercises while moving our bodies together.

Suzuki: This reminds me of my time at the training school. When I was in the training school, I actually moved my body while speaking.

Shibata──What is the difference between voice actor postrecording and stage acting?

Shibata: In animation, you have to adapt your performance to the animation, but on stage, you act according to the facial expressions and colors of the actors and the atmosphere of the surroundings, so your own emotions are constantly changing. On stage, I act according to the other actors' expressions, facial expressions, and the atmosphere of the surroundings, so my emotions are constantly changing.

For example, I also create how the characters have walked up to this point on stage, and how they feel until they get there.

Suzuki: Oh, my God. ...... (admiringly) I don't think I can do that (laughs).

───So, what part of the stage "Jyakami-chan Dropkick" are you particularly focusing on?

Shibata: The action. Especially since Jyakami-chan is always being beaten up, the pattern of how he is beaten up is different every time. So I study various ways of getting hit, and I also study how I should look when I get hit. I also change the angle of the dropkick each time.

SUZUKI (whispering) No~...... it's hard .......

─ ─ Performing a play with just your voice is also difficult, but on stage is a different kind of difficulty. Especially, how do you perform a drop kick?

Shibata The drop kick is actually ...... Gonyo Gonyo Gonyo (I'll spare you the rest of the story for spoilers).

Suzuki: Ha-ha-ha-ha! (laughs) So that's how you do a drop kick. I like ......! Very cool!

Shibata But it doesn't hit every time, and in the end you get cut off.

Suzuki That's right. You can already see the punchline, can't you? By the way, what do you do with Evil God's upper body? Isn't he half-naked? Is her lower body a snake?

Shibata It's hard to walk, but Evil God walks around so much that my legs hurt every time. I'm not sure how she will appear in the show, but you will have to wait and see! I'm looking forward to seeing it!

Suzuki: Wow~....... I can't imagine how hard you have to work. I also cosplayed as an evil goddess once on stage 3 years ago, and I wondered how I would perform on stage this time.

─ ─ So, it is almost time to end the dialogue. After talking up to this point, are you relieved, Mr. Suzuki?

Suzuki: Yes. I feel totally at ease. I am completely at ease now.

─ ─ Mr. Shibata, you met Mr. Suzuki's Evil God when you first encountered anime, and you never thought that you would end up playing the role of Evil God .......

Shibata I had no idea. I also didn't think that we would be able to have a dialogue like this. When I told my father, he was so happy.

Suzuki Oh~! Koji~! (In Evil God-chan's voice) "Koji, thank you~!" (in Evil God's voice) "Thank you very much!

─ ─ I don't think the words will convey the message, so please remember what you just did and bring it back to me, Mr. Shibata!

Shibata: I understand! I will reproduce it when I get home (laughs).

Suzuki: I leave it to you!

─ ─ Lastly, please give us your enthusiasm for the show.

Shibata: The stage is full of Evil God-chan's world. There are plenty of action scenes and funny scenes, so I would be very happy if you could watch it with many eyes and laugh a lot.

───And Mr. Suzuki, please give us your supportive comments.

Suzuki: I think it's really tough to play the role of this devilish devil, and I know you must be very nervous since it's your first time to play the leading role on stage, but I think you will get the most out of Evil God if you enjoy playing the role, so I really hope you will do your best. I am really looking forward to it!

Outline of the stage
The stage "Jyakami-chan Dropkick
Performance schedule: March 20, 2021 (Sat.) 13:00 Concert begins at 17:00
Venue: YES THEATER (Namba Grand kagetsu Building, 11-6 Sennichimae, Namba, Chuo-ku, Osaka City, Osaka)

＜Ticket prices

General Seats (with limited goods!)　6,000 yen
　6,000 yen (with limited goods!) *Center area of the seats!

General Seats (Reserved Seats) 5,000 yen
Tickets are available at the door for 2,500 yen.
Click here to purchase tickets!