"I was doing it with a face I couldn't show to anyone (lol)" Takeo Ōtsuka and Shion Wakayama look back on the behind-the-scenes recording stories of "The Exiled Heavy Knight Knows How to Game the System"

The TV anime "The Exiled Heavy Knight Knows How to Game the System" has been airing since July 2nd. The story begins when the protagonist, Elma, is reincarnated into the world of "Magic World," a game he used to play in his previous life. Although he becomes a Heavy Knight—a class he believed to be among the strongest—he is exiled from his count's estate on the grounds that it is a defective class.

Taking his first steps as an adventurer based on the knowledge of the game from his past life, Elma wins through hard-fought battles and gradually levels up. After meeting Luce Rubis, a Clown-class character, they form a party and struggle together to make the Heavy Knight class the strongest in both name and reality.

This article introduces episodes from the voice recording session, taken from an interview conducted with Takeo Ōtsuka, who plays Elma Edvan, and Shion Wakayama, who plays Luce Rubis.

——Regarding the recording session for this work, we heard that the footage was already almost completely finished in full color, wasn't it?

Ōtsuka: Yes, even at the recording stage, it was fully colored and completed.

Wakayama: That's right.

Ōtsuka: It was my first time participating in a work by GoHands (the animation production studio), so there was a sense of surprise like, "Oh, this is how they do recordings here." However, since the visual acting was already completed, I felt like I was just getting on board and matching my performance to it.

How the story would unfold and how the characters' expressions would change were all completely done. In that sense, there were parts that made it easier to act, but we also had to match the lip-sync perfectly, which made it quite challenging (lol).

Wakayama: Yes, it really was (lol). I have worked with GoHands before on "Momentary Lily" and "The Girl I Like Forgot Her Glasses." Still, they provide us with the rehearsal video for recording in a state where the artwork is already stunningly beautiful, so I always prepare desperately, thinking, "I absolutely have to match this lip-sync!"

Of course, there was the hardship of having to set aside enough time for preparation, but when I see the finished footage, I think to myself that I'm glad I worked so hard at that time.