What Do the Mongol and Islamic Cultures of the TV Anime Jaadugar: A Witch in Mongolia Reveal? A Roundtable With the Voice Cast

— Food may be the most accessible way to encounter a different culture. Finally, could you give the readers of this article a message about what makes the TV anime Jaadugar: A Witch in Mongolia appealing?

Shimono: This work is a human drama in which the characters each hold different ways of thinking and live while trying to find what is right within themselves.

Beyond what is expressed in the lines and monologues, you may also notice from other depictions that a character might in fact have felt a certain way. Even those fine details are drawn in the animation, so I would be glad if all kinds of people watched it alongside the original manga.

Suzuki: I felt that the cultures depicted in this work have aspects that, in a changed form, still carry through to the present day. If you approach the work by mapping ourselves today onto the people of that time, I think both the depth of the work and your interest in your own life will grow. I would be glad if you took in the finer cultural details as well.

Saito: Listening to everyone's stories and ways of thinking during this time, I felt that my own thinking is still weak and that there are many parts of this work I have not managed to see.

But when it comes to the why that arises inside you, even though there is so much you do not know, I think each single act of trying to understand leads to a life with the depth that everyone here has. So I still have a great deal to study, and I want to keep hold of that wish to keep learning.

Koshimizu: Through Jaadugar: A Witch in Mongolia, people will encounter cultures different from Japan's, and I imagine all sorts of opinions will fly back and forth. What I want you to hold on to at that time is your own thoughts.

Once you have gained a lot of knowledge and are asked "What do you think?" "What do you like?" "What do you want to do?" I would like you to value your own honest impressions of what you purely thought and how you felt, rather than reading someone else's expression or falling into step with other people.

That is, of course, on top of the fact that having your own thinking broadened by other people's opinions is a wonderful thing too. Thinking and holding opinions as you feel them is one of the freedoms we have today. So I want you to watch it freely and enjoy it!

Sekine: At first I felt that Sitara was a strong girl, but as I read the original manga and recorded episode after episode, I came to feel that perhaps she is not such a strong girl.

The flame of revenge inside her weakens at various points in the story, and yet each time, more wood is added to the fire and it burns fiercely again. I wonder whether this is her fate, and above all I felt her determination that she would never forget.

Sitara is one example, but this work is full of characters who firmly hold their own will and purpose, for their country, for their family, for their convictions. Within that, Sitara goes through many experiences and is tossed about by rough seas as they push their own senses of justice against one another, so I truly hope you will watch over how she stands up to it all and where she ends up.

— Thank you very much!

Through a different historical setting and the stories of its characters, there should be things that resonate even in modern Japan, as well as new discoveries. Enjoy it as a work in its own right, and if there is an element that draws your interest, take a step forward and engage with it, so that it becomes new learning and nourishment for your life.

Interview and text / kato
(C)Tomato Soup(AKITASHOTEN)/Jaadugar Committee

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