Anime "Honō no Tōkyūjo: Dodge Danko" Teaser Visual Unveiled! Starring Manaka Nakayama, Noriko Hidaka Reprises Role as Danpei

■Noriko Hidaka (Danpei Ichigeki) & Manaka Nakayama (Danko Ichigeki) "Strike" Dialogue

――Today, we'll be speaking with Manaka Nakayama, who was selected for the protagonist role of Danko Ichigeki in "Honō no Tōkyūjo: Dodge Danko," and Noriko Hidaka, who played Danpei in the previous work "Honō no Tōkyūji: Dodge Danpei" and serves as the past Danpei and narrator in this work. First, could you share your impressions after reading the original "Dodge Danko"?

Nakayama: When I received the audition invitation, I read the "Danpei" anime and the "Danko" manga, and I was thrilled by how cool they were. While "Danpei" and "Danko" have slightly different vectors of their outrageous nature, they share the burning passion of "absolutely standing up even when battered and broken!" I enjoyed it with sparkling feelings while thinking I wanted to become like that.

Both "Danpei" and "Danko" are straightforward, classic works, but I think "Danko" stands out with more Reiwa-era humor. This is also reflected in how the characters active in "Danko" are centered around cute women. Each one's individuality is even more outlandish than "Danpei," and each one's special moves are quirky things that symbolize that (lol), but the match developments include homages to "Danpei," so I think "Danpei's" DNA is properly inherited.

――"Danpei" was a work that began serialization in the first year of Heisei. So you're saying that things that change with the times and things that remain unchanged coexist within "Danko."

Hidaka: I never dreamed that a story about Danpei's daughter would start in this Reiwa era, so I was truly surprised. I was happy to feel that "Danpei" is still a very important work for the original author, Tetsuhiro Koshita-sensei. At the same time, after reading the manga, I thought, "Sensei, you've really gone all out in a wild direction" (lol).

Come to think of it, it's been 35 years since "Danpei." Sensei was young at the time, so I think there were times when he had no choice but to put on the brakes, considering various constraints such as the publication being aimed at elementary school students. Through accumulating his career over a long time, with the improvement of Sensei's skills as a manga artist and his growth as a human being combined, I got the impression that a playful spirit was born. I feel like Sensei himself is enjoying drawing it. The mature humor of "Nothing binds me! I'll do what I want to do!!" and the "hot-bloodedness" that flowed at the root of "Danpei." I felt "Danko" has the charm of those two layers.

――Nakayama-san, I imagine there was significant pressure performing alongside Hidaka-san, who played the previous generation's Danpei role...

Nakayama: At first, I was thinking, "Should I really be here?" But Hidaka-san was truly so kind... She would call out to me on set, asking things like "You're screaming a lot, but is your throat okay?" Thanks to that, I'm not nervous anymore.

Hidaka: For Manaka-chan, this is her first regular role and first starring role, so the pressure of being at the center of people who are each successful in their own right must have been immeasurable.

Nakayama: It was truly incredible. During the recording of episode 1, before entering the studio, my manager told me, "Don't sit in the corner," and I was like, "Eh, I can't even open and close the door!?" (wry smile). But once recording started, it was a really high-energy environment. Everyone was enjoying themselves so much and facing the performance cheerfully, so before I knew it, I was getting excited along with them.

Hidaka: Manaka-chan is extremely confident in the strength of her throat, and apparently, she's never damaged her throat no matter how much she screams. I used to end up with a raspy throat after every "Danpei" recording, so I watch her thinking she's so reliable. "Danko" also has so many screaming scenes, doesn't it?

Nakayama: Especially episodes 1 and 2 were like, scream, scream, scream, and special move! Special move! (lol). It was a recording where we rushed up to the peak of tension all at once.

Hidaka: But your throat doesn't get hoarse?

Nakayama: Nope! It's so much fun!!

Hidaka: In "Danko," we ask the girls for the burning soul's cry of the "CoroCoro Comic" classic, the shōnen manga. You could even say it's "unnecessarily hot" (lol). Everyone is tackling it with full voice from the start, but the staff asks for acting that goes beyond limits, saying "More heat!" "Put more soul into it!"... But that's exactly why it's a hot-blooded anime. The characters and settings are more outlandish than "Danpei," and the playful mode is fun, but once the hot-blooded mode switch is flipped, you can really feel that it's a legitimate successor work that inherited "Danpei's" soul.

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