"I really love how she's honestly expressing her girlishness" – What is the "maximum cuteness" outfit that voice actress Kokona Nonaka shows in her first photobook?

Voice actress Kokona Nonaka, who is attracting attention for her role as Sayaka Murano in "Love Live! Hasu no Sora Jogakuin School Idol Club," will release her first photobook "Utakata" on January 15th. This is a book containing full-length images of her final summer as a teenager, photographed on location in Nagasaki, Nonaka's hometown.

Prior to the release of the photobook, this article features an interview with Nonaka. We delved into the true face of Nonaka and the appeal of the photobook, including the meaning behind the title, highlights of the photobook, episodes from before her debut, and stories related to food.

——First, I'd like to ask about the photobook title "Utakata." How was it decided?

Nonaka: The title itself was one of several candidates I received (from the staff). I think the word "utakata" has a very fleeting image, an impression of something about to disappear, and it was written (along with the candidates) that such aspects would be good as a word that could express my incompleteness and transparency in my final year as a teenager.

Actually, I was also thinking of "Utakata" in kanji as a title idea, so it was a really amazing coincidence.

——So the proposal you received was in hiragana, right?

Nonaka: Yes. When I looked at it again as text, the hiragana version had not just fleetingness, but also a very soft and warm impression. So I decided to go with this title.

——I heard that the photobook's location was Nagasaki, your hometown. I'm also from Kyushu, from Fukuoka, so I felt a sense of kinship on my own (lol), but did you go to Fukuoka?

Nonaka: Speaking of which, I passed the Amuse audition when I was in sixth grade of elementary school, and all the lessons after that were in Hakata (the center of Fukuoka Prefecture). So I used to commute by highway bus with my mother... Oh, this might be the first time I've talked about this (lol).

——Thank you for the precious episode! The conversation has gotten sidetracked, but please tell me about the location selection. I heard that while Nagasaki is your hometown, you deliberately chose places you had never been to before for this shoot. Specifically, which places fall into that category?

Nonaka: Almost all of them! I think it's a common thing, but precisely because I've been living in Tokyo for so long, I haven't been to Tokyo Skytree... things like that.

——I understand very well (lol).

Nonaka: For me, these tourist attractions are always there as a matter of course, and precisely because they're places that are often featured in guidebooks, I had never been to them. But such places are really very photogenic, and I also visited places I'd never been to in order to rediscover the charm of Nagasaki for myself.

——So there were no so-called "familiar places"?

Nonaka: But although I'd never used it, I often passed in front of Chiwata Station. The Nonaka family mostly traveled by car, in my father's Delica.

——Thank you for the Nonaka family's car information (lol). Looking at the photos, it certainly is a charming station.

Nonaka: Recently, photos have been posted on Instagram because it's "retro and photogenic." I'm also happy that a place I always passed by car is being known to various people like this.

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