From Volume 7 of the Monthly Satellite Times (Japanese video liner notes)
Translated by sumire

--TRIGUN ROUNDTABLE DISCUSSION--

--Now, getting started, could you tell us the details that led to your participation in Trigun?

Onosaka: Details... It was an audition.

--Were you a fan of the original comic?

Onosaka: No, I didn't know about it at all.

All: Huh? (laughter)

Onosaka: See, I only went to buy it after hearing the story at the audition. I had to go to three stores before I finally found it.

Nightow: At the time, Trigun was incredibly obscure. Of course, now, everyone knows it. (laughs)

Onosaka: So, I was dreaming of getting the lead role and getting all the bookstores to carry it. I was going to make it popular, no matter what. (laughs)

--I see.

Nishimura: But at the recording session, it seemed like you were the one who best understood the contents. I thought, "He's really reading into this."

Onosaka: At Nippon Cultural Broadcasting (Bunka Housou JOQR), it had become popular without my knowing about it. The AD and the director all were talking about Trigun, saying, "It's cool!"

Nightow: Really?

--I had known about it for quite a while, too, though.

Nightow: The people around you aren't the whole world.

(laughter)

--So, the three of you also auditioned?

Tsuru: I didn't audition.

Onosaka: You didn't!?

Nishimura: We decided on Ms. Tsuru.

Tsuru: What, is there something wrong with that?

(laughter)

Onosaka: There certainly is. (laughs)

Nishimura: Actually, we had a hard time casting the Milly-Meryl combo.

Hayami: Did you hold auditions for them?

Nishimura: Yes, ultimately, we asked Tsuru to do it, but before that, we had a lot of other people try out for Meryl and Milly...

--So there were quite a few twists and turns, then.

Nishimura: To tell the whole story, as long as the role of Vash remained unsettled, we couldn't cast the other roles. Until I had met Onosaka, I couldn't move any of the other characters.

Onosaka: After I got the part, I heard all kinds of talk about so-and-so and so-and-so playing the two girls, and there were all kinds of actresses I thought would have been good.

Tsuru: What, do you have a problem with us?

(explosive laughter!!)

Onosaka: You know, I was basically just setting you up for that line. (laughs)

(explosive laughter!!)

Nightow: But, you know, when you two are talking like that, I don't feel any incompatibility between you.

Tsuru: Really?

Onosaka: ...hmmmm

Tsuru: You know, that sounds really unpleasant... (laughs)

Onosaka: No, no. (laughs)

Tsuru: The day before the first recording session, Onosaka called me to wish me well. "And you're talking about...what?" I asked him... "You don't know!?" he said, and got angry at me. (laughs)

(explosive laughter!!)

Onosaka: Really, I'm no good unless I know everything about the project I'm working on, so...

Tsuru: "Okay, then, sorry, but could you bring the original comics with you tomorrow?" I said... (laughs)

Onosaka: I ended up buying three sets, you know.

Tsuru: Because I took them... (laughs)

(laughter)

Tsuru: And then, when I looked at the drawing on the cover of the script, I thought Milly was Meryl--that I was playing the big one.

Nishimura: In a certain way, you might have been right. Actually, when we chose Tsuru and Yukino, there was some difference of opinion as to who would play whom...

Tsuru: That's unimaginable now.

Nishimura: In Trigun, it's Meryl who actually takes the straight-man part, but I had wanted to rotate the career-minded one into the clown part. I felt, "The clown is the lifeblood of a comedy team," but Madhouse producer Maruyama's opinion was, "In animation, the straight man is more important..."

Nightow: It was about comedy theory? Not voice quality?

(Tsuru and Yukino laugh)

Nishimura: For voice quality, we had decided earlier that these two could play either role.

Onosaka: Oh, so that's what it was. When I heard they were cast, I wasn't told the character names.

Nishimura: More than who's the straight man and who's the clown, I think Maruyama was thinking of the bigger picture, of all the voice actors as a team. Of the positions and relationships of the actors. His opinion included human relations. From the results, I think everyone can see that he was right...

Nightow: It kind of makes you want to have heard them in the opposite roles.

Nishimura: Yukino, at your audition, you played both parts, didn't you?

Yukino: Yes, I did both.

Onosaka: What!?

Yukino: At my audition, I did a dialogue between Meryl and Milly, alternating between them...

Onosaka: Really? So that's the kind of audition you had. For mine, I was put in a really cramped little room and made to do it.

(laughter)

Onosaka: For me, it was very difficult. Actually, as I was auditioning, I started to feel like I was going to cry. (laughs) So, don't you all have some memories of your auditions?

Tsuru: Huh? (laughs)

Onosaka (laughing): Say something, why don't you.

Tsuru: Hayami, how was it for you?

--Oh, she's dodging the question. (laughs)

Onosaka: Hayami, you auditioned?

Hayami: No, I didn't. I don't know why I was chosen.

--You don't know?

Hayami: See, it's a Kansai-dialect part, you know, and although I'm originally from Kansai, I've almost never played any parts like that. But once, just before Trigun started, I was out late drinking with (sound director) Honda, and he said, "Hayami, you're from Kansai, right?" and I said, "That's right," so I wonder if that was it. I can't think of anything else that could have led to it.

Onosaka: That's it!

(laughter)

Nishimura: We did try auditioning a number of people, but...

Hayami: But not Wolfwood, right?

Nightow: Not at the first audition. And I insisted on having a native speaker--"It's the one thing I won't give in on, no matter what," I said, "Choose from actors with that qualification."

Nishimura: So with that, if you're asking why we chose Hayami... Dressed in black like that, Wolfwood's character design is cool and dark compared to the rest of the animation, isn't it. So when he comes bursting onto the screen, I actually wanted him to break up the dynamic between the Vash-Meryl-Milly trio. And as Hayami himself mentioned, it's a role that falls a bit outside his image--we tried a little adventure.

Hayami: But you didn't directly choose me yourself, did you, Director Nishimura?

Nishimura: Ultimately, I did.

Hayami: Oh, really? It wasn't Honda who first brought up my name?

Nishimura: Oh, that part was him.

Hayami: So it was from drinking in a bar in Shinjuku after all.

Nightow: Be careful in those Shinjuku bars. (laughs)

--So, Wolfwood was scouted in a bar in Shinjuku. (laughs)

Hayami: Sorry, everybody, for coming in in the middle, not being here from the beginning. (laughs)

Nightow: To me, Wolfwood makes a strong impression because he's so outspoken. Vash gets introspective all the time, doesn't he, saying, "I..."("Boku...") like he's going to curl up with his chin on his knees. (laughs) I brought Wolfwood into the story because I wanted someone to talk back to him. When I heard Onosaka's audition, I thought he'd make a good Wolfwood, but he ended up being cast as Vash, and then when I heard that Hayami had been cast as Wolfwood, I couldn't imagine it at all.

Nishimura: I think a lot of people felt that way.

Nightow: But then when I saw the acting in episode nine, he brought so much to the character that I hadn't imagined. I thought, I just can't bring out this seductive quality in my manga.

Nishimura: At the session, everyone was saying Hayami's voice was sexy. (laughs)

Nightow: "Mm, baby, you're nice and comfortable to sleep with"--what a stud! (laughs)

Hayami: Is that so. (laughs)

Nightow: With Hayami's voice, the animated Wolfwood goes beyond my handling.

Hayami: For me, when I work, I think the character's tendencies somehow work themselves out. This time, watching Onodera play Vash, I was left with a sense of wonder. But I think there must be a part of me like that, too.

--So you're trying to develop a new facet with the role of Wolfwood.

Hayami: Yes, I think that dredging your depths to create a character is the essence of animation. However, I joined the cast in episode nine, so I felt the uncertainty of entering a world that had already been developed for eight episodes, plus emoting in Kansai dialect that hadn't been usual for me before then.

Nishimura: You don't usually use it, do you.

Hayami: So here, I'm releasing the Kansai dialect I had sealed away for decades--plus, "I have to talk this much!?" (laughs)

Nishimura: That's because he's a very talkative character.

Hayami: Along the way, I managed to get a grip on the tempo and understand the true colors and feelings of the characters, and finally I reached the point where I could speak naturally. At first I had had to check every Kansai-style stress and accent in the script. (laughs)

Onodera: Because there's a way of speaking that sounds like Kansai dialect to Tokyoites.

Nishimura: There's a big framework of Kansai dialect. Correctly, it has a lot of sub-divisions.

Hayami: So it might actually sound like Yoshimoto dialect. To Kansai people. (laughs)

Onosaka (to Tsuru and Yukino): Say something! (laughs)

Tsuru: Leave us alone... (laughs)

Yukino: (laughs)

Hayami: Let's have fun winding this down.

Nishimura: Tsuru, why was it that you first thought the roles were reversed?

Tsuru: From the appearance of the characters.

Nishimura: Oh, their appearance?

Tsuru: But the description had them as senior and junior, so I thought we'd better use the disparity between Satsuki and myself, but at the first recording session, when I tried playing Meryl to fit my image of her, I was told, "Too old."

Nishimura: To be sure, I think I did say something to that effect... (laughs ruefully)

--Was that at the stage when the casting of Meryl and Milly hadn't been decided yet?

Nishimura: No, it was the recording for episode one.

Onosaka: But that time, I thought it was good. I thought it was dead-on. And then they told her to play it cuter so she was trying so hard to make it cute...

(laughter)

Onosaka: But after the first episode is over, when you come back the next week, you know, you forget all that, and even if you're making it pretty cute, it ends up being the same as usual. (laughs)

Hayami: Gradually, everyone reverts.

Tsuru: To their own impression.

Nishimura: Hearing this, too, those of us on the production side speak up for our own mental images, but little by little, that stops.

Tsuru: But when my performance based on my own image of the character is rejected, it makes me wonder if I have no talent for reading into the character.

Nishimura: In the second half of the story, we see more and more of Meryl's relationship with Vash, so if you make her too old, there might not be a balance between them. But you went right past that, so that's why I said such a thing.

Tsuru: At the first test, I tried making her quite mature... so she really might have seemed too old.

Nishimura: I think the real answer might be that she's trying to act mature.

Nightow: Meryl does have the image of someone who's trying her hardest, so I think you're right in saying that she's acting mature.

Nishimura: It hardly shows in the story, but I've thought that she's the kind of person who despite various complexes, keeps the thought, "I've got to keep it together," first and foremost.

Nightow: As I've been drawing, I've come to feel that it's Meryl who is helped by Milly, more than the reverse. Overall, she is respected by Milly, but on the other hand, from a human standpoint, she's really saved by Milly in a lot of areas.

Nishimura: Yukino, what was your impression of Milly?

Yukino: This gets back to the first audition, but... when I was doing the two roles, I'd have to say I put more effort into Meryl. But when I was told I got the part of Milly, to be honest, I had forgotten how I played her. (laughs) And so I spent the recording of episode one desperately trying to remember how I had auditioned.

Nightow: Oh, really... (laughs)

Yukino: What's more, I hadn't done very much work previously, and to be playing my first regular character alongside Mr. Onosaka and Ms. Tsuru ... I wondered how to keep pace with them. In any case, the first thought in my mind was not to trip them up...

Nishimura: You really seemed diligent--even to me.

Onosaka: You were always bustling around.

Hayami: Because this show didn't have many regulars. And you had a scary superior. (laughs)

Yukino: There weren't many regulars but lots of guest actors, so every week the atmosphere in the studio was different. So I can't really say that Trigun felt such-and-such. I don't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing, though.

Nishimura: From my side, I don't know, either.

Yukino: There were only about six people in episode two, weren't there.

Tsuru: You're right.

Nishimura: Come to think of it, you three and...

Yukino: _____ Yajima and...

Tsuru: Rei (Sakuma) and...

--Changing the subject, the style of the next-episode previews was popular with fans on the internet.

Tsuru: The previews were cool, weren"t they. Not just "In our next episode, blah blah blah. See you next time!"

(laughter)

Onosaka: That's for kiddy shows! (laughs)

Kuroda: At the time, there were a lot of shows with fluffy previews, so I wanted to do something a little cooler. But every time, it was about two lines too long.

Onosaka: That's exactly right! They were too long!

(laughter)

Onosaka: Please, let me read them more slowly!

Kuroda: I did cut them down as instructed...

Nishimura: But they were still too long.

Kuroda: But I timed them properly with a stopwatch... (laughs)

Onosaka: You were reading to fast! The music plays a little before you start, so you can’t just start reading from zero. It goes dum-de-da-dum, and then you jump in.

Kuroda: I'm sorry. (laughs)

--That's a rather unexpected jibe. (laughs)

Kuroda: No, I had been thinking about their length for quite some time, but I ended up writing them like that, so... What's done is done. (laughs)

(laughter)

Nightow: Weren't there some images not in the actual episodes inserted into the previews? "Hey, this is totally different!" or, "This picture isn't there!"

Nishimura: Actually, when we were editing the film, we had to cut some scenes that I couldn't bear to throw away, so I put them in the previews. With the previews, I could play around with making pictures. I really made quite a few total lies. (laughs)

Nightow: That's what you do for fun? (laughs)

Nishimura: Well, I wasn't just playing around. (laughs)

Nightow: But it does look like fun...

Nishimura: Basically, I took the liberty of making them look different from the actual episodes.

Kuroda: Once, on one of the preview scripts, I wrote, "I almost want it to be as if there's no music playing," and he actually did it without music. (laughs)

Nightow: "As if." (laughs)

Kuroda: I meant, don't force it...

--But the fans could watch the previews, get slightly different information, and enjoy imagining the next episode, so from that standpoint, they're of a type that's virtually never been done before.

Nishimura: I wonder... There are a lot of secrets in Trigun. From the beginning, I had been thinking of only showing the cards that directly pertain to the characters. I thought about the SF setup parts, but deciding that they weren't as interesting, I left quite a bit hidden. So, in contrast, I figured I'd give the viewers the pleasure of wondering "What does this mean?" and thinking about it themselves. It was my intention to have it become more interesting the more viewers thought about it, rather than revealing everything 100 percent.

Nightow: Changing the topic for just a little bit, (laughs) I was thinking, Milly really stands out with her phrases.

--Phrases?

Nightow: In every episode, she has one really memorable line. In episode one, the way she says "I'm Milly Thompson" ("Milly Thompson desuu"), and in episode two, the way she says "Hi!" ("Doomo!")--after you see it, you want to imitate that phrase.

Nishimura: And Onosaka's "Hey, That's a problem, you," ("Sore wa komaru yo, kimi") too. (laughs) That turned into a catchphrase over at Madhouse. Whenever you said anything critical, they'd shoot, "Hey, that's a problem, you" back at you. (laughs)

(laughter)

Nightow: Of Tsuru and Yukino's scenes, their lines in episode 12 left an impression. At the beginning, where they're sitting in the sun...

Yukino: "What a beautiful day..." ("Ii tenki desu nee...")

Nightow: Yes! That! (laughs) That was great. And Tsuru's reply, too.

Nishimura: Yukino says, "I wish things could stay this way" (Zutto kono mama de itai desu") and she replies, "That's out of the question" ("Sore wa ikenakutte yo"), narrowing her eyes. (laughs)

Tsuru: I loved the part in Episode 2 where Vash is talking to that guy, and when he leaves, he goes "Bye!" ("Hona!") (laughs)

Nishimura: It really makes you want to imitate him.

Nightow: There's that, and he goes "Ah ha ha ha ha ha--Bye!" and after that at Mr. Cliff's, he goes "Bye!" again.

Tsuru: Yes! Exactly! (laughs)

Nightow: The second "Bye!" had the speediest feel to it. (laughs)

Nishimura: What really made me feel we had made the right choice in casting Onosaka was that the words might be a little different, but he has a modern style of delivery that comes out extremely naturally. You know sometimes there's a difference between the spoken and the written word--there were times when the words in the script couldn't express what we wanted to say, and he came out and said it straight--Thank you very much.

Onosaka: Don't mention it. (laughs)

Kuroda: Is that all settled? (laughs)

Nightow: Was that "Bye!" in the script?

Nishimura: "Bye" was written in the script.

Onosaka: For the most part, I read the script as it was. When I was reading the script, if it was different from the comics, I'd pencil in the original lines at home. And so when they'd say I was wrong, I'd firmly insist--I got it from the original, and that's not how it is. (laughs)

Nightow: Honda said it was really aggravating.

Nishimura: There were cases where it simply was a mistake, though.

Onosaka: Yes, yes, when it clearly was a typo, I wouldn't go out of my way to say anything, but when it was a case of a different nuance to the lines, I'd speak up--"How about it?"

Nishimura: We had a pretty hard time of it on this end.

Onosaka: If you don't have a clear opinion, "This is what I think," you'll get steamrollered by Honda. (laughs)

Nightow: Honda attacks with his own particular vocabulary.

Nishimura: But Onosaka would create a big mess with a single word. The place would be in total confusion, and the production staff would be running around shouting, "Comics! Comics!" (laughs)

(laughter)

--Excuse me, just when things are starting to get lively, but it's time to wrap things up for today...

Onosaka: What, it's over already? We haven't said anything at all! (laughs)

(laughter)

--We're out of time, too. (laughs) Please continue this next time, in the last volume.

Onosaka: Well, it can't be helped, so I'll forgive you. (laughs)

--(laughs)For today, good work, everyone.

All: Good work.

(TO BE NEXT... VOL. 13)

Back