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norowareshimono · 7 years

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Gray Log: Black-Gray-White Crosstalk (Part 3)

Other translations / Part 1 / Part 2

An incredible three-man talk between the author, Hoshino, the voice of the Millennium Earl, Yutaka Aoyama, and the voice of Allen Walker, Ayumu Murase! Secret stories regarding D.Gray-Man’s birth and other details are coming!

Everything in the recording process is new and interesting!

Hoshino: Lately, there have been times I’ve found myself amazed by the work you voice actors do.

Aoyama: What do you mean?

Hoshino: Mic work, is that what you call it? The thing Japanese voice actors do when they are using a mic and move away once they are done to lend the mic to another person. I got the chance to see it this time around (laugh).

Murase: It was difficult to do at scenes like the ones at the Order, where there are lots of people speaking.

Aoyama: It isn’t as simple as just moving to an available mic. Before doing it, you must also think about “letting the leading actor use this mic whenever possible” and things like that.

Murase: And at times you also get asked to “share a mic for a bit.”

Hoshino: How you act changes depending of your coactors, doesn’t it? And, on top of that, you do it without talking and without really looking at each other that much. All with a natural rhythm, moving in perfect synch with the others. That’s what impressed me.

Aoyama: For us, it’s important. When others are taking a long time, I worry about which mic should I go to next and sometimes that’s a bigger problem than the performance itself (laugh). I can’t believe you got to watch even that.

Hoshino: The recording location is full of new things for me so it’s fun to watch (laugh). Where do you learn that sort of skill?

Murase: I learnt it from others when I was starting out. My seniors told me to “watch and remember what we do.”

Hoshino: To perform as you think about the mic availability for those who go next… it’s incredible. If anything, It’s incredible because I lose sight of my surroundings once I focus in something.

Aoyama: We also forget about it sometimes at the recordings, right?

Murase: We do. And then someone pulls our sleeve and we are back to reality (laugh).

Aoyama: How about going inside the recording room the next time you come over to watch? Voices sound completely different depending on if you listen at them directly or through a speaker.

Hoshino: Eh!? Even through the speakers, the impression is already too much to handle. Listening directly would be just…

Murase: Then, perhaps your presence there would make us all think “Hoshino is watching today!” and fire us up more than ever before (laugh).

Aoyama: Or the tension could make us freeze up (laugh).

Murase: Certainly (laugh). But we really notice that you’re supporting us, like with the illustrations and sweets you bring every time you come to watch.

Aoyama: We hang up the illustrations before starting to record. For us they are your avatars, so to speak. Just looking at them is enough to fire us up.

Hoshino: I’m glad to hear that. This time around, the anime is starting from the middle and the cast has also changed, so I felt that the burden you all had to bear was too big, that it would be nice if even one illustration could become a point of reference for your performances… Those illustrations, the one with the Noah Family hugging Allen and the others too, were made with that intention.

Murase: You were concerned for us, right? It’s as you thought, the cast change… Yes, there were a lot of expectations and pressure.

Aoyama: Murase is right. I felt the same way.

Murase: On the other hand, we were motivated to collaborate and work hard together precisely because we all felt the same way. I think it built team spirit.

Aoyama: Also, it’s truly reassuring to know that Hoshino is supporting us like this. I feel nothing but gratitude.

If the Millenium Earl is her number one, Allen is her only one!!

Murase: The next topic is the characters we like, it seems.

Aoyama: Murase, you are with Hoshino on this, no?

Murase: Yes. I love Lvellie and Sammo Han Won. The old men in DGM are really charming, aren’t they? My impression of Lvellie in particular changed for the better. At first, he was your average despicable guy, but at Volume 22 didn’t he prostrate himself for the sake of his objectives? At that point, I realized the passion with which he fights for his beliefs and for the justice he is so devoted to. that gap between the two sides of his personality took my heart. But initially I liked Lenalee (laugh).

Troubled by the possibility of losing Link, he prostates himself to Zu.

Hoshino: And Sammo Han Won? Why do you like him?

Murase: I simply like him as a character. He is a nice old man; I love him. I find the part of him that worries about Bak and is always fretting to be pretty cute, don’t you? Personally, I’m drawn to characters with warm personalities. And you, Hoshino, what character do you like?

Hoshino: My number one is the Millennium Earl. It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say I’m drawing DGM for his sake… (laugh) However, Allen is just as important to me – my comrade in arms. We fought a lot before building a nice relationship, so it isn’t “liking” or anything like that. He is like a part of myself.

Aoyama: If Allen is your comrade in arms, then the Earl is the person you admire?

Hoshino: It’s more than looking up to him, he’s someone I love greatly. My love is so intense I can’t help it. The Earl in his old man form is the one character that makes me go “Aaaah, I can’t anymore! My heart flutters…!” when I draw him (laugh) When he is in his suit too, I’m always thinking about how lovely the lines of his hips and belly are.

The shape, stuffed with Hoshino’s love, of the Millennium Earl. It has a healing effect in her…!?

Murase: And Allen? How do you feel when you are drawing him?

Hoshino: I feel like I’m having a heated duel every time I draw him. His expressions are really difficult to get right. He is “someone who hides his real feelings under a smiling mask, yet keeps behaving as a gentleman.” Because of that, the issue when drawing him is determining how much of his real feelings, the ones hidden behind his smiles, should be mixed into his expression. Even Allen himself doesn’t realize it, but he smiles when what he wants to do is cry and things like that. Despite being my own character, he has such a complex heart that at the start of the serialization I was unable to draw his expressions in a way I found satisfactory. But these days I’ve been gradually getting it.

Murase: Is there any expression that you found hard to draw in the recent chapters?

Hoshino: I had a lot of trouble with Volume 25, Chapter 222 “In Search of A.W.: Hypokrisis.” There, Cross tells Allen to abandon his body to Nea and let himself disappear, but the really difficult part comes when Allen refuses. At that moment, what he truly wanted was to take Cross’ hand and be free of all the pain. However, he decided to stick to his beliefs and keep going anyway, even as he trembled. That’s why his smile wasn’t a simple one. He is smiling but crying at the same time, with despair also mixed in somewhere in his expression. It’s just one panel, but it took quite a while. I feel like the readers also want to know about Allen’s true feelings, the one he hides behind his mask, so I take my time drawing him as an answer to those feelings.

At first it may look like a positive smile, but you can see the complexity of his emotions, the pain he feels, between the gaps.

Murase: So, Allen has a lying habit…. And, wow, to think your emotional attachment to him would be that strong. It isn’t at a “like” level at all…

Hoshino: Exactly. It’s too much of a special case.

Murase: I’m happy I got to hear this. I was sad at first because Allen wasn’t one of the characters you liked, but now I’m moved because your feelings are something much deeper than that. Even if the Millennium Earl gets the grand prize, Allen gets the judges’ special prize! (laugh)

Aoyama: Absolutely. Listening to the discussion so far, I’m getting a bit jealous here (laugh). Do you like the Earl?

Hoshino: Yes, as I said before I love the Earl the most! And I also love Aoyama, who plays my perfect Millennium Earl!!

Murase: Aoyama, she is confessing her love to you (laugh).

Aoyama: I can’t reciprocate, but thanks (laugh).

Hoshino: Ah, the conversation went in a weird direction…! Leaving my thoughts aside: who do you like, Aoyama?

Aoyama: I like the secondary and the guest characters. Lala and Guzol from the early Martel Arc, Anita’s subordinates, Suman…

Hoshino: So, characters that have clear goals, right? The main characters also have them, of course, but we are in the middle of the drama, so they are still full of mystery.

Part 4

#dgm #d.gray-man #d.gray man #d gray man #dgnetwork #dgm translations #gray log

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