Interview] The hot summer anime "Kagekishoujo! A voluminous collection of music from "Kagekishoujo!　Composer Tsuneyoshi Saito tells all!

Girls study singing and acting at the Benihana Opera Music School in order to join the "Benihana Opera Troupe," which is composed entirely of women. The topic of discussion is "Kagekishoujo! a two-disc music collection containing music for the play and insert songs will be released.
The lyrics, music, and arrangements are by Tsuneyoshi Saito, a composer who has worked on "Gekijo" performed by the Takarazuka Revue's Space Group, among others. Saito is also in charge of accompaniment for many anime productions, and could not be a better choice for this project, as he is well versed in both stage and anime.
Prior to the music collection, a collection of ending themes was released on August 25, 2021. In this interview, we first talked about the ending theme collection that preceded the music collection, and then about the main topic, the music collection, in great detail!

For the ending theme, we asked the singers to sing as if they were the stars of a singing troupe!

Kagekishoujo! is a work that depicts things that are difficult to experience in a normal life, even though it is a royal coming-of-age anime.

Saito: It is true that it is a very unique worldview, but the characters feel and think like normal teenagers, so I think that viewers can relate to this work.

───Can you tell us first how you came to be in charge of the music for this work?

Saito: I have been in charge of music for several animated works by King Record, and in addition, half of my work is music for stage productions such as Takarazuka Revue. I think I was approached as a composer who knows both anime and stage music.

─ ─ As an animation writer, I knew your name from the "Soukyu no Fafner" series, but when I looked at your resume again, I realized that you had done so much work for the Takarazuka Revue Company.

Saito: Many people like my songs from Takarazuka, but they don't know about my work in animation. We didn't have that much contact in our worlds, but with "Kagekishoujo! was the first time that the two worlds were connected. When Takarazuka fans saw "Kagekishyojo! I had to find the right balance between making the music feel comfortable when Takarazuka fans see "Kagekishyojo! For example, the ending theme of each episode, represented by "Star Traveler," is not a song with Takarazuka's style in mind, but the female voice actors sing in high and low voices to convey the atmosphere of the male and female roles.


─ ─ The difference between the two voices can be clearly seen in every combination, starting with Sarasa and Ai.

Saito: The voice actor with the lower voice is not forced to have a masculine voice. When a woman tries to produce a masculine voice, she has to be conscious of opening her vocal cords, which makes it difficult to convey emotion. However, having the other sing in a higher voice creates a relative effect, so that the voice naturally sounds like a male actor's. I think the audience can use their imagination to supplement the voice.

─ ─ It is true that we, the fans, listen to the ending theme while imagining the characters as male and female actors singing a duet. Moreover, all of the voice actors are singing in their acting voices, not in their characters' normal voices. I was impressed by the vocals of the singing troupe.

Saito: Everyone is very good. The recording booth was small, but when I said to them, "You are now in the spotlight in front of an audience of 2,000 people," they really got into the role, and when I asked them to sing not into the microphone in front of them but into the invisible audience beyond it, the way their voices sounded changed. The way the voices sounded changed. On the other hand, when I said, "Shadow chorus," which is an image of you singing behind the stage and controlling the atmosphere of the stage even though you cannot be seen, the singing voice I wanted came out, and I thought, "That's a voice actor. I thought it was only possible because these people work every day to immediately respond to the demands of the sound director in the limited time available for postrecording.

There are many highlights in "Kagekishoujo! has many highlights, but I was first surprised by the voice actors' singing voice in the ending theme. I felt as if the ending theme was a step ahead of its time from the second episode, as if the results of what they had learned at the Benihana Opera Music School had been realized.

Saito: Actually, the producer Suwa (Mr. Yutaka Suwa of King Record), who is still present at the meeting, gave me the instruction at the beginning: "I wanted the ending theme to show the girls in their completed form after graduating from the school and standing on the stage of Benihana, not the Sarasa singing as they are now in the story. The image of them being in the spotlight on the stage" also came from there, and everyone in the ending theme is set to become a star.

─ That's why you have such a magnificent singing voice, isn't it? What you just said made a lot of sense to me.

Saito: "Kagekishoujo! is expressed most strongly in the ending theme rather than in the musical accompaniment. The first song "Hoshi no Tabibito" sung by Ayaka Sengi (who plays Sarasa Watanabe) and Yumiri Hanamori (who plays Ai Narada) was really good, and I thought that song alone expressed the world of "Kagekishoujyo! I thought that song alone expressed the world of "Kagekijo! I think that the ending theme, which is typical of the revue troupe, will make the audience feel that even if they are having a hard time in the main story, they can always end up on the stage in the future.


─ ─ Indeed, I felt that the ending theme gave me a sense of relief. I felt that although they are going through a lot right now, they will all make it to the big time.

Saito: Even though I make my own music, I feel relieved when the ending theme comes on the air (laughs).

Suwa: Actually, the ending theme was completed once and then Mr. Saito added the introduction.

Saito: I was told it was 1.5 seconds short of on-air (laughs). (Laughs.) So I added a rushing "durururur" sound at the beginning. I felt it made the song more dramatic.


─ ─ The ending theme consists of three songs with the same melody but different lyrics, "Hoshi no Tabibito", "Shinayakana Mirai", and "Roses and Me", right? Moreover, all of them are written by Saito-san. How did you come up with this form?

Saito: When I was composing the ending theme, I wondered who would write the lyrics, and was surprised when producer Suwa nominated me to write the lyrics (laughs). (Laughs.) He also asked me to change the lyrics to match the character singing the song. So I wrote lyrics for three different combinations, and since the worldview changes with each song, I had to change the title as well. I think it became an ending theme with an idea that had never been done before.

─ ─ "Star Traveler" by Sarasa and Ai, "Sinayakana Mirai" by Sawa Sugimoto (CV: Sumire Uesaka) and Ayako Yamada (CV: Liiko Sasaki), and "Rose and Me" by Kaoru Hoshino (CV: Daichiha), Chinatsu Sawada (CV: Risae Matsuda) and Chiaki (CV: Sousui Matsuda), the lyrics expressing their characters I thought that the lyrics expressed the character of each of them. I was amazed at how the same melody can have such different atmospheres.

Saito: Of course, the actors' vocals also played a big part. The non-sequitur endings were uploaded on YouTube, and it was interesting to see what the fans wrote about them.


─ ─ Ms. Uesaka is also an artist with King Records, but her singing style is completely different from the way she sang then, which I thought was amazing.

Saito: I had an idea of how she would sing "Shinayakana Mirai" after listening to her past recordings, but she sang it in a nice, savage voice like a male actor, and I was impressed at the recording site.

Mr. Sasaki, the duet partner of Mr. Yamada, who is one of the best singers among the pre-college students, expressed his singing voice beautifully.

Saito: Everyone's motivation was high, and the recording session was very passionate. I have done other anime songs and character songs, but I had never seen the actors singing with such a strong feeling, so I was surprised.