Takuya Sato, Seena Hoshiki, and Shinya Takahashi Appear! Anime "Smoking Behind the Supermarket with You" Cast Talks Character Building and Behind-the-Scenes Recording Stories in Special Program

ABEMA exclusively streamed the special program "Smoking Behind the Supermarket with You Special Program: Three Cast Members Talk on ABEMA's Special Feature" for free starting at 8:30 p.m. on July 4, ahead of the new summer anime Smoking Behind the Supermarket with You.

The series follows Sasaki, a middle-aged office worker exhausted by his job, and Tayama, a woman who works at the supermarket he frequents, as they exchange words in the smoking area in their everyday lives. The program featured Takuya Sato (playing Sasaki), Seena Hoshiki (playing Yamada/Tayama), and Shinya Takahashi (playing Suzuki), who talked about the appeal of the work and its characters, looked back on their favorite scenes, and took part in segments using the script.

Cast Members Look Back on Building Their Characters

Talking about their impressions after reading the original work, Sato said, "I found myself drawn in more and more by the time I finished reading episode 1." Hoshiki also spoke about the work's characteristics, saying, "The way adults close and keep their distance from each other is depicted in fine detail."

Sato revealed that he played Sasaki as a role close to his own age, and looked back on how he worked to make casual, offhand lines land naturally with the other person. Hoshiki, who plays the two-sided character Yamada/Tayama, explained that she made a point of building the feeling first before changing her tone or way of speaking. Takahashi, who plays Suzuki, at times said of his ad-libs, "It was as written in the script."

Introducing Favorite Scenes and Notes Written in the Script

In the program, the cast introduced their favorite scenes from the ABEMA-exclusive early streaming version. All three chose the same scene in episode 2, in which Sasaki comforts Tayama. Sato looked back, saying, "This scene was difficult," explaining that he worked out his approach to the performance while consulting with the director, the sound director, and the original creator.

In the latter half of the program, the cast also took part in a segment in which they held their actual scripts and talked about the notes they had written in them and their ad-libs. Each cast member's way of using their script, along with scenes from behind the scenes of the recording, was introduced.

The program is available to stream for free through August 31. The terrestrial broadcast version of Smoking Behind the Supermarket with You will have its fastest web streaming starting at 26:30 (2:30 a.m.) on the night of July 9, followed by weekly streaming every Thursday. The ABEMA-exclusive early streaming version is available in full.

(C)地主／SQUARE ENIX・「ヤニすう」製作委員会