Interview with Yoshiki Nakajima, who plays Jin in the animated film "Even if the world ends tomorrow," about Kaji's vivid acting!

An original work from animation studio Crafter Studio, "Even If the World Ends Tomorrow" will be released on Friday, January 25, 2019. The film is directed and written by Yuhei Sakuragi, who directed his first TV series "INGRESS THE ANIMATION" ("Ingress"), the first anime in Fuji Television's new TV animation slot for the world, "+Ultra".

The story is about the main character, a boy named Shin and his childhood friend Kotori, who are suddenly confronted by "another me" from "another Japan.
The main character, Shin, is played by Yuki Kaji, the high school student; Marei Uchida plays Kotori Izumi, the heroine and childhood friend; Yoshiki Nakajima plays Jin, the "me" from the "other Japan"; and Ayaka Senbongi plays Kotoko, a young lady who is the spitting image of Kotori.

Akiba Research Institute interviewed Yoshiki Nakajima, who plays Jin. Mr. Nakajima plays the main character Makoto Midorikawa in the anime "Ingress," which aired in October 2018, and he also appeared in the smart CG animation "Soutai Sekai," directed by Yuhei Sakuraki, a Hulu x Crafter production that led to the creation of this work. We asked him about this film, his third collaboration with director Sakuraki.

Pleasure to be involved again in a film directed by Yuhei Sakuraki.

─ First of all, please tell us how you felt when you were chosen to appear in this film.

Yoshiki Nakajima (Yoshiki Nakajima) as Jin: In terms of director Yuhei Sakuragi's works, I was involved in the "Ingress" anime that is currently airing, so I was very happy when I heard that I had passed the audition and would be involved in this work. I was happy when I heard that I had passed the audition and would be involved in the film. I was happy not only because I passed the audition, but also because I would be able to work with that team again, which has not changed much from the "Ingres" anime.

■Jin (CV: Yoshiki Nakajima)

─ Did you hear about the setting of this work from the beginning when you decided to get involved?

Nakajima：I think it was a couple of years ago that I was involved in director Sakuragi's smart CG animation work "Soutai Sekai," which is the basis for this work, as a high school student, so I had some idea of the details of the story.

─ How did you feel about both "Soutai Sekai" and this work?

Nakajima：They are completely different and on a larger scale. The characters were added and the story became more detailed, and in the end it became a completely different work, which was a surprise to me.

──Did the director give you any detailed directions during the recording?

Nakajima: There were very few details, but I was told that I was the main character opposite Makoto, who is played by Hiroki Kaji, and that when he was not present (during the recording), I was told to act as the chairman.

What were you conscious of in Kaji's portrayal of his counterpart, Makoto?

─ Since you are playing the role of the djinn opposite Makoto, were you conscious of Kaji's performance as Makoto?

Nakajima：Mr. Kaji continued his performance from "Soutai Sekai," so even during the audition, I thought that he would be playing the role of Makoto. However, I am not capable of performing like Mr. Kaji, so I was not conscious that I was playing "the opposite of Mr. Kaji". I was conscious of the fact that I am the same person, or rather, I am from a different world, so not everything is necessarily the same, but not everything is different either, and I hoped that there would be a hint of a link between us. Basically, I focused on the dialogue between Mr. Kaji and myself.

Makoto Naruma (CV: Yuki Kaji)

Nakajima：Did you feel a link with Mr. Kaji when you were playing the role?

Nakajima: I think our voices and performances are completely different, but I think we have the same face, which makes the images more convincing, and the way we breathe, which somehow fits together. I can't give you a concrete definition, but I think that when you see and listen to the performance, you will be able to easily accept it.

Nakajima：What do you find attractive about Kaji-san, who plays the role of Jin, as well as his counterpart Makoto?

Nakajima: This was the first time I had the chance to work closely with Kaji-san, but when we actually interacted, his acting was very raw. It's not overly decorated. ...... When you express yourself, you don't put all your techniques and complex emotions on top of your performance, but rather, you leave it all behind. Makoto is not the type of person who explodes with emotion, so I really felt the emotional turmoil in his performance.

Nakajima: What do you think is unique about your portrayal of Jin in contrast to Kaji's "raw" performance?

Nakajima: I think Jin has the most mature sensibilities of the main characters. Makoto and Jin, Kotori and Kotoko are supposed to be characters with the same face, but Makoto and Kotori live in a peaceful world, so I play them so that I feel it is Jin who takes the lead. Makoto is a bit brooding, a bit dark, and unable to make decisions on his own, but Jin has a strong will and is able to make his own decisions quickly and easily. I think this contrasts with Makoto. I may be acting more mature than my age, but I am not conscious of that.

─ So you mean that you naturally became that way when you played Jin. Then, were there any points that were difficult for you in playing Jin, or points that you had to pay attention to?

Nakajima：Jin is an 18-year-old boy who should still have some innocent parts, but the stage of "The Principality Republic of Japan," which is his world, is very hard, so there are parts of him that are a little too optimistic. It was difficult to imagine his feelings, but I tried not to be too mature and not to show too much of the "adult sensibility" that I mentioned earlier, so that he still looked his age.

─ Were there any parts of Jin that you could sympathize with?

Nakajima: I myself am from the world that Makoto and Kotori live in, so to be honest, I could not say that I sympathized with Jin, because he is the kind of character who tries to kill people as soon as he meets them.

Nakajima：What do you think of the relationship between Makoto and Jin?

Nakajima: I think it is difficult to replace it with something else, but I would venture to say that they are "strangers. They think differently and have lived in different worlds, so I think they are like "strangers on the other side, with identical faces. The true Japanese of today, who have forgotten the war, and the djinn who fought in a world where there are battles, can't really be compared. However, I think that from the moment they met each other, they had a certain feeling for each other.

Nakajima：Do you think there was some kind of chemical reaction when you met?

Nakajima: For Makoto, I think it was a chance to get inspired and a symbol of getting caught up in the extraordinary. For Jin, I think he went from being "the object of protection that I would be worried about dying" to gradually becoming "a friend.

Kotori Izumi (CV: Marei Uchida)

What is the charm of the CG animation depicted by director Sakuragi?

Nakajima：There are many highlights in this work, such as battles with remote humanoid weapons equipped with "android" intelligence and cute childhood friends.

Nakajima: The first few minutes of the film is a romantic comedy, so I had high expectations for what the story would be like. At this stage, all that has been announced is this key visual and Aimyon-san's music video, so viewers still don't have a clear idea of what the story will be about, and I don't think they can imagine it from this picture. I think the appeal of this work is that it is unpredictable, as people die in a flash, putting the world at stake.

─ What do you think is the appeal of director Sakuraki's works from the perspective of Mr. Nakajima, who has appeared in "Soutai Sekai" and the "Ingress" anime?

Nakajima：We have been going out to eat together since the "Ingress" anime, and what I feel from the works, conversations, and direction of the recording sessions is that the director is an incredibly smart person. I also feel that he is always pursuing new ideas and new challenges in CG, and he is very hungry.
For the "Ingress" animation, the sound director was Tomohiko Ishii, a producer at Crafter Studio, and Director Sakuragi, but for this work, the director directed alone, and there were characters that he directed in great detail. He is a young director in his 30s, but I think he is a representative of Japanese creators.

─ Since Crafter Studio uses smart CG animation, are there any difficulties in recording that are unique to 3DCG animation?

Nakajima: Actually, I don't think there is much difference between hand-drawn and CG voice acting. Rather, I think it depends on the quality of the pictures, such as the distance between the characters and their facial expressions, so I don't think it is because they are CG.

──Can you tell us about the atmosphere at the recording studio?

Nakajima: In the beginning, there is a scene at the high school that Makoto and his friends go to, and the cast who played the high school students there were very realistic. The cast members who played those high school students were very realistic.

─ ─ ...... without any high spirits (laughs).

Nakajima：The voice actors are not like the cheerful "Ohayo! Nakajima: It was interesting to see how the voice actor's "Hey, ......" was played out in such a raw manner that matched the overly realistic images, rather than the cheerful "Good morning! It is not easy to find someone who can greet people so cheerfully in the morning. In that sense, I was impressed by the fact that they were not deformed. They are living their lives in their own way, but they probably don't like to study that much. I think the realism of the first half of the film conveys that much.

──Do you see any overlap between the two yourself?

Nakajima: Yes. I was not good at school, I hated studying and didn't want to go to school at all, so there were some overlapping parts. I don't want to go to a theater training school ever again. ......(laughs).

─ Is that so?

Nakajima: I hate it. It's too hard (laughs).

Nakajima：No, I really don't want to go to a training school again.

Nakajima: No, I really hated it all. I don't know how I managed to do it for two or three years without giving up.

───What made you decide to attend a training school that you felt so bad about?

Nakajima: Because I didn't want to study (laughs).

Nakajima：You went to a training school because you didn't want to study, but you ended up studying?

Nakajima：When I went to the training school, it was so hard that I thought it would have been easier to just sit and take classes. ...... I was chastised for reasons I didn't really understand, and if I didn't do well, they were merciless and would skip me and move on to the next person. It was tough on both my mind and my strength. ......

Kotoko (CV: Ayaka Sengoku)

If the world were to end tomorrow,......?

───In this work, the story is set in the present Japan and the "other Japan" in a parallel world. There are three types of stories in which the "other me" appears: one in which the "future me" appears, one in which the "past me" appears, and one in which the "other me" appears from a parallel world, as in this work. If you could encounter your "other self," which pattern would you like to encounter?

Nakajima：I would like to encounter a completely different self. For example, I would like to encounter myself not aiming to be a voice actor, or if I were a girl. In the past, it is the path I have taken, and if someone from the future said something to me, I wouldn't believe it or listen to it (laughs). (Laughs) If that were the case, I think it would be more dramatic if a girl who is a mirror image of myself came.

───The title of this work is "If the world were to end tomorrow," but if the world were to end tomorrow, what would be the last thing you would like to do?

Nakashima: On the contrary, I think I would go about my daily life as before. It is too late to do anything special just because the world is going to end tomorrow (laughs). Even if I buy a car, it will probably not be delivered for two months or so, and since I won't be able to drive it, it would be a waste (laughs). (Laughs) So, I thought it would be best to just live a normal life with friends and family and think that it was a good life. When the world is going to end tomorrow, it's hard to think of what I would like to do.

─ Then, what is the last thing you want to eat?

Nakajima：I like to eat, but I am currently on a diet. If the world were to end tomorrow, I would stop dieting and eat what I like! (laughter)

───Now, lastly, could you tell us again about the highlights of this work?

Nakajima: Ever since I played the main character in the animated film "Ingress," I have always said that the visuals created by Crafter Studio are overwhelmingly beautiful, and I think that the visual beauty of this film cannot be separated from that. I feel that this film is more like a live-action film than an animation. When I listen to the dialogue, it does not sound like animation, or deformed or exaggerated, but rather like a real dialogue, which is very realistic. It is a fantasy film, so of course it is not "realistic," but there are parts that seem to be real, such as the background that recreates the streets of Shinjuku, and I think you can feel this in the play as well.

Instant photo present with Yoshiki Nakajima!

To celebrate the release of this interview, we are giving away an instant photo autographed by Yoshiki Nakajima to one lucky winner. Please check the details of the application and apply for the prize.

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Instant photo autographed by Yoshiki Nakajima

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Information on the work
If the world were to end tomorrow...
Release date: January 25, 2019 (Friday)

<Synopsis>
Shin (Shin) has been closed-minded since his mother died when he was a child.
His childhood friend Ri Koto has been watching over him all his life.
Now in their third year of high school, they are about to take their first step forward, when suddenly the "other me" from the "other Japan" appears in front of them...

<Staff> Original story by Crafter
Original Story : Crafter
Director/Screenplay : Yuhei Sakuragi
Production : Crafter Studio
Production: "As the World Ends Tomorrow" Production Committee
Distributor : Shochiku Media Division

＜Cast
Kaji Yuki as Makoto Sama
Yoshiki Nakajima as Jin
played by Marei Uchida as Kotori Izumi
Played by Ayaka Sengi
Yuuki Aoi as Miko
Played by Inori Minase

(C) Even if the world ends tomorrow