"If I Do It, It Will Turn Into Hikaru" — The Rakugo Challenged by Voice Actress Rie Takahashi, and the Way of Life That Is Hikaru Kōragi [An Interview on "Akane-banashi"]

——Such a Hikaru performs rakugo with an approach called theater-style rakugo. How did you yourself search for rakugo as Hikaru through training?

Takahashi：Fortunately, because my role and environment were very similar, when I was learning "Shibahama," I went to ask the master, "For Hikaru's rakugo, should I learn the acting with a heavier tone?"

The answer was, "For now, let's proceed by facing Shibahama as Ms. Takahashi, just as before." So, I first challenged the path that a rakugoka should walk as Rie Takahashi, putting my best efforts into facing rakugo.

I'm sure Hikaru is walking that kind of path too, and it's not that she is trying to do rakugo like a voice actress, but rather that what happens to spill out of her turns out to be voice-actress-like, so to speak.

I chose to trust the staff, thinking that maybe they anticipated that aspect as an addition to the work, or perhaps they passed me in the audition including my humanity. Maybe they chose me thinking that if I did rakugo, it would naturally turn into Hikaru.

——By the way, rakugo is acquired orally, but did your approach as an actor come in handy during training and practice?

Takahashi：I thought they were separate things. When I went to rakugo training, I went with the mindset of an aspiring rakugo performer, so I feel the brain and spirit I was using were different. Even in the work of a voice actress, there are various things such as anime recording, narration, events, and live streams, and it's like I newly added "studying rakugo" into that mix.

So, it feels more like one more facet of myself has increased, and whether I can make use of it or how it is being utilized is something I might notice down the road. I haven't caught that chemical reaction myself yet (lol).

How Takahashi faces the role of Hikaru and expresses acting and rakugo is a key point you should definitely pay attention to when watching "Akane-banashi."

Interview, Photography, Text / kato
(C)末永裕樹・馬上鷹将／集英社・「あかね噺」製作委員会