Kana Ichinose plays the main character Suletta Mercury in the current broadcast of THE WITCH FROM MERCURY. In recent years, she has been active as Sayu Ogihara in Higehiro:After Being Rejected, I Shaved and Took in a High School Runaway and as Shishibe Shion in AMAINWarrior at the Borderline. She is now taking on the challenge of playing Gundam in a new era. We asked her about the main character, the role she plays, and the appeal of the work.
Citation. 声優ＭＥＮ Witch Girl
I recorded my voice many times at home and practiced.
-How did you feel when you were chosen to appear in “THE WITCH FROM MERCURY,” the first new TV animation in the Gundam series in seven years and the first TV animation in the Gundam series to feature a female protagonist?
It was like I was dreaming, and I couldn’t believe it. There were first and second rounds of auditions, and during the auditions, I felt like a stranger, wondering who would play the main character in such a big production. Of course I wanted to play the role, but I was cautious about the audition. So I recorded my voice many times at home and practiced. I kept thinking, “My voice might sound a little different in this scene,” or “Oh, I think I’m getting a little closer,” and I kept trying to bring myself closer to the role of Suletta Mercury. For me, it was a miracle that I was able to find Sletta at the right time.
-Did you have an ideal image of the character of Suletta Mercury in your mind at the audition stage?
Yes, I did. When I read the script, the voice of the character plays in my head. But when I try to act out the replayed voice, there are unexpected gaps. I would practice recording and adjusting my voice to match the blurring with the image I had of the character, such as “I think my voice is less tense” or “I think I should be a little calmer” in this part.
Ms. Ichinose, you have two selves inside you, one as a voice actor and the other as a character director.
That may indeed be true. I feel that my understanding of that kind of thing has gradually deepened as I have had the opportunity to play various roles. As a voice actor, I still have a long way to go…
-What kind of acting instructions did director Hiroshi Kobayashi give you once the recording session actually started?
First of all, before the recording began, he told me, “I want you to play Sletta as a living person. And there is no need to try to act cute. Please act as if these children live a normal life, eat, sleep, and go to the bathroom. The director told me something like that, so I wanted to value acting that prioritizes reality. I felt that it was OK to rather show my pathetic side in my acting. For example, in a scene where she is surprised, I would normally play the part in a cute way, but I dared to show the pathetic part that only Sletta can do.
-I guess the director wants you to give a naturalistic performance.
I have the impression that the rest of the cast also gave natural performances. As for myself, I would like to play Sletta as a character that could exist somewhere in the real world.
The acting instruction to be more temperamental.
-What was your impression when you first read the script?
I thought that the script was written in such a way that I was really curious to see how the next story would unfold. The script was very captivating and the characters were each strong and unique and fascinating. I think the first episode, in particular, was a story that made me wonder how the characters would act in the spotlight in the future.
The prequel to the main anime, PROLOGUE, which aired before the first episode, ended with the line, “I deny Gundam. So, in the world of THE WITCH FROM MERCURY, where Gundam is denied and treated as something dangerous that must not be used, I wondered how Gundam would be portrayed. I’m really looking forward to seeing how Aerial, which Sletta treats like family, will be involved in the story.
I was instructed to “be even more nervous” when I played Sletta’s “nervousness” in the first episode, and I think you will enjoy the comical part as well, since she is even more nervous than I imagined (laugh).
-What was your first impression of Sletta? How did that impression change over the course of the recording?
When I first saw the character drawing, I thought she would be a quiet character. I thought she might not be able to express her opinions well and might be a little withdrawn. But as I received the script and started acting, my impression changed a little from my initial impression.
It is true that Sletta is not a good communicator But she is interested in people and tries to take the first step. You can see glimpses of that kind of hard-working part of her. She is also a bit of an oddball, so I thought about how I could bring out that weirdness in her performance.
When Sletta was on Mercury, she didn’t have any relationships with kids her own age, so she doesn’t know how to close the distance with others. That’s why she sometimes gets too close to them. I try to keep that kind of awkwardness in mind during the play. I think the perfect balance between the two is interesting.
-Did you feel comfortable acting such an unstable balance of her from the very beginning?
I was puzzled at first. The director told me that I could improvise a lot in my performance, but at first I didn’t understand her to the extent that I wondered how to improvise her performance (laugh). But as I received detailed direction, my image of Sletta’s character gradually expanded, and little by little I felt that I was able to find a direction for my performance.
What was the most memorable ad-lib acting?
In the beginning, my acting of Sletta was a lot of nervousness (laugh), so I pronounced sumimasen as zubibazen or something like that and said it to express my weakness in communication.
-Do you and Sletta have anything in common?
She is the kind of girl who doesn’t know how to relate to people at first. I can relate to that because I, too, have a part of me that gets impatient when communicating with others. The part where I act suspiciously may be close to that. If someone speaks to me suddenly, I get startled and bite my tongue (laugh). So, I played that part with a lot of empathy as I read the audition script.
However, what I think Sletta is the main character is that she is able to say no to things that are no good even though her legs are shaking and her back is stiff. I myself can’t say what I don’t like too clearly, so that part of me is a little different from her.
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