The girls of Lycoris Recoil improvised several of their lines

Undoubtedly, Lycoris Recoil It was one of the most successful anime of the year 2022, standing out not only on streaming services but dominating physical package sales with each of its releases. For this reason, the staff of the media Bunshun Online met with the voice actresses Chika Anzai and Shion Wakayamawho played the two leading girls, Chisato Nishikigi and Takina Inoue.

• Could you tell us about your audition for the roles in “Lycoris Recoil”?
• Anzay: That’s how it is. I auditioned for the roles of Chisato and Takina, and was very impressed by the worldview written in the material I received. So I thought, “I don’t care if I don’t play these two, I want to be in this project!”
• Wakayama: I only participated in the audition directly to play Takina…
• Anzay: Then we had a second audition, because the dialogues were a super important part of the project.
• Wakayama: Yeah, that audition was more about improvising with the answers.

• So they were accepted, did they talk about it?
• Anzay: There was the COVID-19 pandemic, and there weren’t many other details about the play. When the roles were decided, I was already with Shion-chan recording in another project, and I remember that they told me that she had been accepted for the role in “Lycoris Recoil”.
• Wakayama: They told me the same thing too. But I’ve always been very shy and Chika-san is a veteran of the industry, so she didn’t even know how to talk to him at first.
• Anzay: I think by not talking about the play, but matching what each one was bringing to rehearsals for the first time, it created fresh reactions and a sense of natural conversation.

• Director Shingo Adachi had already mentioned that there was a lot of emphasis on being original.
• Anzay: Yes that’s how it is. Director Adachi and sound director Kohei Yoshida told me that they wanted the bright and strong Chisato-chan to speak freely, as if she was enjoying a conversation. She said she didn’t care if she changed any lines that didn’t seem right to me.
• Wakayama: In Takina’s case, I thought there was a part of her strong character that was expressed in her words, so instead of changing her lines and so on, I tried to play her in a way that would suddenly show her true character. I hoped that this would bring out the essence of the character.

• Are there any scenes where you remember changing lines?
• Anzay: In the first episode, the part where Chisato says, “Welcome to the LycoReco! Hihihi”, it wasn’t written for her to laugh, but I felt so happy with Takina’s arrival
• Wakayama: Yeah, when I watched the anime afterwards, Chisato was now laughing.
• Anzay: That’s how it is! They cheered her up by adapting to the performance! The script was written in not too clean language, like normal conversation, so it became a natural conversation, and it gave it a live air that made people think it was improvised, even though it wasn’t! !
• Wakayama: What is also unique about “Lycoris Recoil” is that the script had a writing that made it possible to understand the emotional changes of each of the characters. For example, in episode 7, “Bar Forbidden”, when Takina is on her way home from following Yoshi and Mika’s secret meeting, Yoshi says something unpleasant to her in a roundabout way.
• Anzay: “I expect a lot from you, Takina-chan”, (laughs).
• Wakayama: That’s how it is! (laughs) So what kind of expression would Takina have when he looks at Yoshi-san? From the wording, I could tell that Takina’s expression had to be like “this guy is evil”. In my experience, it’s pretty rare to have this kind of clarity in scripts.
• Anzay: The story was unpredictable, even for us, so the script somewhat saved us trying to understand the emotional flow of the story.
• Wakayama: It helped me a lot too!
• Anzay: When I asked director Adachi later, he told me that the scripts were originally intended to convey facial expressions to the animation team. He said that he was surprised that it was also reflected in the scripts given to the voice actors (laughs).

• The show “LycoReco Radio” continues to be broadcast on YouTube, and the response from fans has been fantastic.
• Wakayama: It used to be recorded every week (now it’s every two weeks), so we were able to receive everyone’s feedback as if it were in real time and enjoy it together. The desk was full of questions from the listeners, the mailbox was getting more and more full, and it must be a hard job for the writer (laughs).
• Anzay: Ever since the first episode of the anime aired, there were a lot of good reactions from all sides. Wasn’t the series supposed to start attracting attention with the third episode? I always thought it was like that.
• Wakayama: Even on the radio show, I kept reading comments like, “I hope the next episode is just as good!”

• With this great success, many people want to see more of “Lycoris Recoil”.
• Anzay: I would like to see what happens with these girls in the future. As a voice actress, I’ve been given a lot of freedom to act. I had a chance to talk to the production team about the additional contents of the physical packs, and I heard that director Shingo Adachi told everyone, “Do it freely.” I believe that this great work is the result of each person having freedom in their work positions, giving a part of themselves in each of its parts.
• Wakayama: We were more convinced that it was going to be a great work when we were working on it, so we are glad that it reached so many people.
• Anzay: That’s right, I look forward to the day when we can all meet again.
• Wakayama: I am one of those people who would like to participate a little more in the world of “Lycoris Recoil”. I would be very happy if all of you would contribute to make the work more exciting.

Fountain: Bunshun Online

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The entry Lycoris Recoil girls improvised several of their lines was first published on Kudasai.