Voice Actors of the TV Anime Jaadugar: A Witch in Mongolia Discuss the Importance of Thinking for Yourself in Modern Society

— That really hits home. But I understand it completely.

Koshimizu: When you have been round it twice and can only come up with the same thoughts without resolving anything, time spent simply continuing to think means you have come to a stop, and for the moment no growth can be expected. So it is what you might call the strength to set something down. Putting the problem you are wrestling with down for a while, not throwing it away but keeping it somewhere while still being able to move forward, is a state I find really strong (laughs).

Everyone: (laughs)

Koshimizu: When you do that, surprisingly soon there is an event or a conversation with someone that leads to the answer. It is precisely because you have set it down that you can move forward and properly enjoy other, more enjoyable things. I live my life valuing that kind of rhythm very highly.

Shimono: Also, sleeping is quite important. It is when no answer comes that the act of sleeping lets your brain sort things out on its own, and quite often you had been worrying about it, but when you wake up in the morning you think, why not do it this way?

Koshimizu: Yes, yes. If no answer is going to come from thinking any more, I wrap it up with, that is it for today, I cannot do any more. It may simply be that I do not have enough experience. Even if you try and fail, it is a plus to gain data on how much damage the failure does and what it affects, so from then on you can factor that experience into your calculations. When you have no experience you do not know, so you are afraid, and feeling that you cannot get away is what keeps you from moving forward.

Suzuki: That connects to Muhammad dropping the bucket.

Shimono: In that sense, being clean about it matters. Thinking things through when it is time to think, and then having the resolve to stop once you judge that it is impossible, really is necessary, I think. Because it is impossible, no matter how much more you think about it!

Suzuki: It is also fine to decide based on whether you like something. When there are plenty of options, you choose the one you like best.

Shimono: That matters too. It is easier to stay interested that way.

— This is true for me as well: by making what you love or what interests you your work, there is a happiness in being able to build up the knowledge and experience of your life out of things you love. Although you could also say that you are pursuing something you may never fully understand even if you spend your whole life on it.

Sekine: As an actor, you often hear that the day when you are satisfied with your own performance never comes. I am the type who goes home after a recording session thinking that I could have done better. But if the day of satisfaction is never going to come, there is no point in fretting over every little thing, so I came to feel that I have to develop the spirit to just throw myself into it.

Knowledge matters, but so does what you gain when you go through an experience, so you learn while also properly building up experience. In that sense, Sitara of course gains experience, but there are parts where I think she leans toward clinging to knowledge.

Ögedei strikes me as someone who does not cling to custom or knowledge and who thinks flexibly, and when I think that she is going up against him, I think, Sitara, this is going to be rough for you. In the same way, I felt that I have to stay flexible myself so that I do not become set in my ways.

Koshimizu: That is another kind of experience. (to Saito) What about you, young one?

Saito: Well, rather than my own experience, I am in a position where I can ask my senior colleagues questions and hear plenty of views drawn from their lives. But even though all sorts of paths ought to be open to me, by becoming passive there are things I cannot come to know unless I take a step forward, and I realized with regret that it had not been properly connected to me myself.

So I felt that I should try things for now, and that while I keep thinking about the worries I have, at important moments I have to shake them off once, and that when I stand as a performer I have to see that responsibility through.

Shimono: Just as Muhammad acted on what he himself wanted to do rather than on what his teacher was saying, once you have received a great deal of knowledge and accounts of experience from all kinds of people, you have to choose within yourself between what you think is right and what you do not think is right.

Even with what all of us are freely saying right now, there may be moments when it does not fit you, but in the end it is you who does the choosing.

Saito: Does that mean you put that way of thinking into practice and then give top priority to the sensation left within your own body?

Shimono: Exactly. So it is the idea of feeling out for yourself what you like and what you are not comfortable with, what you are good at and what you are not. And sometimes it is fine to run away.

Koshimizu: Right, right. Even when you think it differs from your own opinion, being able to go along with it and say, oh, I see, lets you gather plenty of information that is not skewed by your own yardstick, so it pays off.

Shimono: That is a sudden bit of life strategy! If you were saying oh, I see while talking to me, then once I got home I would start wondering whether you really thought so!

Koshimizu: You do not have to think about it that deeply!

Everyone: (laughs)

It was surely a topic that offered a glimpse of ways of thinking suited to each of their careers, and of how important it is to learn through experience. What will you feel when you watch the TV anime Jaadugar: A Witch in Mongolia, on air since July 2026? We hope you will treasure the emotions and thoughts that well up within you and enjoy the series.

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

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