- Interview Date:8/24/2024
- Location:Anime NYC 2024
Anime Herald: One of Kanon Shibuya’s specialties is latte art. What latte art design do you think she would be the best at?
Sayuri Date: Kanon’s family owns a cafe. They own an owl named Manmaru. I believe that she probably does various expressions of Manmaru in the latte art. She probably takes pictures of Manmaru and even has an album of it. One of Kanon’s best friends from childhood, Chisato Arashi, I believe that she sneaks pictures of her face into the latte art and then sips it herself. But of course, this is all in my imagination.
Anime Herald: Sumire Heanna seems as though she is fairly good at everything, but are there any skills that Sumire possesses that you would like to have?
Naomi Payton: Sumire indeed can do anything. She can sing and dance. She has everything she needs to be a school idol. She’s also very good at cooking. In the anime you get to see her cook. She makes it look very simple. She’s very good at making good, complicated dishes. This is something I am very jealous of, because I am not very good at cooking. The other members also tease me about this. One day I would like to show them that I can actually cook. (Laughs)
Anime Herald: Your member, Mei Yoneme, is close with Shiki Wakana. If you were to invent a strange gadget like Shiki does, what would you want to create?
Akane Yabushima: Mei absolutely adores school idols. Literally, she adores them from afar in the shadows with binoculars. She’s been embarrassed to have them know she loves them so much. She’d want to make glasses that act as binoculars so she could zoom in and watch them without being noticed. (Laughs).
Anime Corner: Before becoming a part of the Love Live! series, did you know of or were you a fan of the Love Live! series?
Sayuri Date: I loved the Love Live! ever since I was in elementary school. I actually made a lot of friends because of Love Live!, because I loved it so much. Before that, I wasn’t into anime that much. After a friend recommended it to me, I got very into the Love Live! series. It’s a very big part of my youth. I am very grateful to all of my senpai in the franchise.
Naomi Payton: I know Love Live! very well. When I was in sixth grade, I watched the end of the year concert. It’s a very big concert that everyone watches. I happened to see μ’s–san perform, and after that I fell into the Love Live! series. This was right before I entered middle school. When I was in middle school, I dreamed of entering the School Idol Club in high school. All of my senpai are a very big part of my youth and I appreciate all that they have done.
Akane Yabushima: I first encountered a video of μ’s-san on YouTube. That’s how I fell into Love Live! I was watching the school idols, and the voice actresses perform. I was shocked at how much they were in sync. That’s how I got into it at first, and then I got more and more curious. I started watching the anime, and then I started the game. Then, I fell more and more in love with the Love Live! series. My daily recreational time was devoted to playing the game. The anime, the movie, Love Live! itself became a very big part of my life. It is right now obviously, and it will continue to be a very big part of my life.
Michael Tom: How have you enjoyed New York and Anime NYC?
Sayuri Date: This is not my first time in the US. I attended Anime Expo last year. This is my first time in New York, though. Last year I got to be at AX with Aika Kobayashi (voice of Yoshiko Tsushima in Love Live! Sunshine!! and Yohane from Yohane the Parhelion -SUNSHINE in the MIRROR-) and Mayu Sagara (voice of Kasumi Nakasu in Love Live! Nijigasaki High School Idol Club). They are my senpai and I learned a lot from them. This year, I got to come to New York with two Liella! members. We found out exactly how far away New York is from Los Angeles on the flight.
The cities seem very different. It’s hard to put into words exactly, but I’m definitely feeling the difference between them. Also, Anime NYC has been very nice. Everyone waves and says “hello.” In Japan, that’s not as common. If you don’t know someone, you don’t randomly say “hi.” It’s been a very nice experience from start to finish.
Naomi Payton: My dad is from the States. He’s from Oklahoma. I have relatives in Texas, as well. I’ve visited both places a lot since childhood. Unlike New York, both places have a lot of nature and greenery. There are cows just walking around. It’s very different from New York City. The last time I came back was eight years ago.
I’ve been to New York, as well. That was ten years ago. When I visited last time, there was a big Toys “R” Us, and it had a Ferris Wheel. I felt like I walked into the world of anime. I was so surprised. I was very much looking forward to this trip. And again, everyone in New York has been super friendly. I hope to make friends in the future.
Akane Yabushima: This is my first time in New York. As the other two said, everyone is so friendly. I can’t help but smile when they all say “hello” and wave to me. It is so nice to be able to communicate with everyone. It really warmed my heart. Talking with the fans made me realize that there are so many people that come from all over the States to see our concerts. We would like to work even harder, so we can go to various places around the world and perform there for the fans.
Anime Herald: Love Live! series and IDOLM@STER did a big collaboration concert. Can you tell us your thoughts and feelings when you first heard about this collaboration? How does it feel to perform alongside not just with your fellow Love Live! cast, but also with the cast of IDOLM@STER?
Sayuri Date: When I first heard that we were going to do this very big collaboration with IDOLM@STER, I had a hard time believing it was going to happen. Liella! was pretty new, so I wasn’t sure if we were qualified to be on that stage with everyone. At first, we were all very nervous. Then, we found out we were doing collaboration songs too. As Liella!, we worked really hard, no matter how nervous we were. It was a song called “Watashi no Symphony”.
That song is very important to the group. It’s about dreams and making dreams come true. Liella! has a lot of songs with the theme of teamwork, of everyone working together. This was a song more about the individual aspect of working hard, as opposed to the teamwork aspect. We got to sing that, as Liella!, at the Tokyo Dome, with some IM@S members. Also, the choreography itself made it feel like we were grasping for our dreams.
I was very happy to be there with all the members of my group. I’m sure that some people were seeing us live for the first time. It made me happy to see them. Even if they were seeing us live for the first time, they were trying to sing along and dance along with us. It was very much a “once in a lifetime” chance. I hope we get to do something that amazing again.
Naomi Payton: This was a huge collaboration between the Love Live! series and IDOLM@STER. I knew it would feel like a dream. One thing I remember very clearly, school idols and idols obviously are alike. IDOLM@STER has a song called “M@STERPIECE.” Some of the Love Live! series members got to sing it at the concert. A lot of the lyrics reflect how idols feel, but also reflect how school idols feel as well.
It was very memorable for me to be able to sing that song. Just as the title of the concert suggests, it felt surreal to be able to do that concert.
Akane Yabushima: I’ve loved IDOLM@STER for a long time. I was extremely happy about the collaboration. Both Love Live! series and IDOLM@STER have so many fans. Both have a very long history. It was too epic of a collaboration to even imagine how it was going to happen. I was able to sing some IDOLM@STER songs I had admired for so long. And not only that, we got to sing the songs with them, so that was very special. It felt like a dream. They also sang some Liella! songs with us. I still can’t believe it was real. It really did feel like it was on another dimension. It was real, but it still feels like it was a dream.
Michael Tom: How did you feel when you found out that you were going to be a part of the Love Live! series? Did you face any challenges taking on your respective roles?
Sayuri Date: It was a dream to become a part of the cast of Love Live! series, I was extremely happy when it was first announced I would be joining the cast. As time passed, reality set in. I was wondering if I would be okay as Kanon. I don’t know if I would call it “troubled,” but I didn’t know how to approach her at first. As Kanon, I would have to do live performances and have to be active like her. I would have to be her. She wouldn’t have life without me.
After thinking about all of that, I started not having as much fun with it. It was consuming my mind, “how I could be Kanon perfectly?” I realized that this was something only I could solve, myself. I was quietly fighting with myself for a while. Once I hit that wall, I realized I had never worked that hard to attain something.
As a person, Kanon showed me some life lessons. Since then, I’ve been able to perform and see everyone smile. Even though something felt incomplete within me, I’ve started gradually becoming more complete. Right now, I am having a lot of fun, so I hope to keep doing my best as Kanon.
Naomi Payton: I encountered the role of Sumire Heanna in the audition. I wondered if I could actually be her. I was very happy I got the role. I wanted to do my absolute best as Sumire. Personally, I am very earnest, very serious, and very hard working. Probably a little bit too much at times.
I am a little bit too hard on myself, at first at least. At rehearsal, I saw everyone else having fun, singing and dancing while they were rehearsing. Personally, I felt a little envious because I didn’t think I could be like that. I had a tendency to compare myself to everyone else that was there. That was probably the longest complex I had to deal with for myself.
Recently, the three of us formed a sub-unit called CatChu! I think that’s when I realized I was being too hard on myself. I was able to let go of that a little bit. I was finally able to be a little bit more free.
Akane Yabushima: When I first got the role, I was purely just extremely happy. But also, I was super nervous at the same time. The Love Live! series franchise has been going on for so long. It is an extremely loved series, so it felt like I had a lot of responsibility now that I was a part of it. Playing Mei Yoneme, I wanted to make sure everyone could see just how wonderful she is. Something that made me nervous is that Mei Yoneme is a slightly newer type of school idol for the series.
Her type isn’t in the past series. She tends to speak very harshly, is a little bit mean, and is hard to approach. When people first meet her, they get the wrong idea that she might not be the nicest person. But she’s actually extremely nice and super caring and loves cute things and school idols. I didn’t know how I was going to relay all that to everyone.
I had a very hard time finding the answer. But as time went on, and as I spent more time with Mei, everyone started to tell me how much they loved Mei, and how cute she was, and how much they liked her. I was so happy to hear these words. All this positivity made me realize I was on the right track. I also got to see that there are so many people who love Mei here. I’ll keep doing my best to make more people love Mei.
Anime Corner: The third series of Love Live! Superstar!! will begin airing in October with two new members. How does it feel to have a third season of the series with new members joining the group?
Sayuri Date: I was so happy that I was coming back, but also so many people mentioned they had been waiting so long for the third season. The two new members joined the group a while back. They joined after the second season of the anime. The eleven of us have been performing together, even though one of them hasn’t appeared in the anime yet.
When the rest of us are performing onstage, we know how our members are going to act, because we have the anime as a reference. The two third-gen students had no examples to work off when they were performing. They often discussed what they were going to do during the performance. They probably had a lot more to think about than us.
Now that the anime is coming back, there are eleven of us, and we have a very deep bond. I think the anime will be even more fun to watch, because we’re so close now. We’ll be able to watch the story and reflect back on the memories of the episode. For Love Live! Superstar!!, the students go up a year every season. The first-gen students will be in their third year.
Because it’s high school, there will be a lot of youth involved. Because they are school idols, they are obviously sparkly and happy, but of course they will have some conflict. There will be some struggles for each school year class. Please look forward to see how they overcome those obstacles.
Naomi Payton: This is the first Love Live! series to have a third season. There’s going to be eleven of us now, so we’re super excited about that. Everyone is excited to see what happens with the two new members. Margarete (Wien) was actually in season two as a rival to Liella!
There was a fierce rivalry, from Margarete at least. It will be interesting to see what happens to her now. And then Tomari (Onitsuka), who is the younger sister of Natsumi (Onitsuka), who was in season 2, will be appearing for season 3. I hope people will watch in real time as the episodes go.
Akane Yabushima: Mei and Liella! will be moving once again in the anime, so I am very excited about that.
In the earlier season, she got to chase and look up to her senpai. Now, she’s going to have people under her doing the same thing to her. It will be interesting to see how they all grow from that. As she becomes a senpai herself, it will be interesting to see what kind of conflicts she faces and how she overcomes them. It will be interesting to see what kind of story the eleven members of Liella! will have in the third season, so please look forward to the new story and songs.
Michael Tom: What inspired you to pursue voice acting? Did you imagine this is where voice acting would lead you when you were a child?
Sayuri Date: I wouldn’t say I wanted to be a voice actress. It’s more that I wanted to be a member of the Love Live! series cast. When I was younger,I watched famous anime, but not idol anime until a friend recommended it to me. When there was an audition, I thankfully got in.
Now, I’m playing Kanon. It still feels like a dream. I was able to make my childhood dream come true. Now that I’m Kanon, I am super thankful. Every day, I try to find a way to express my thanks in different ways. I try to think about what the fans would like to see me do. I think about something I can do every day. I’m still trying to figure that out.
Naomi Payton: Ever since I was little, I loved anime. Not just Japanese anime, but American cartoons, as well. I basically only watched anime and cartoons as a child. I was very familiar with voice actors. They were a part of my life.
I wanted to become part of the anime world. I wanted to live in that world. I really loved daydreaming and just imagining that I was someone else all the time, like a superhero saving the world. You could say I had a very strong imagination. I loved entering that fantasy world and becoming someone else other than me.
I figured that a realistic career path might actually be voice acting, so I pursued that. Anime is made all over the world, but Japanese anime is very special, traditional, and lovely. I feel like I am part of that culture now. I will continue to try and do my best to represent anime.
Akane Yabushima: I wouldn’t say it was a childhood dream. One day, I decided to try and pursue voice acting. I have loved anime since I was little. But becoming a voice actress at the time? I didn’t really see a connection between the two.
But then, I started acting. I realized how much fun that was. I could laugh, cry, be mad to the fullest. But that was only when I was acting. Also, when I was acting, I could forget about everything else and just concentrate on that. I could encounter different versions of me that I didn’t know could be. And also, I’m acting as someone else, so I thought that was amazing as well. Voice actors have to express all that, but just with their voice. Eventually, I found out how appealing that part of the job could be as well. Being able to evoke emotions from other people was very meaningful to me so I hope to be able to continue to do that.
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