#cast comment

What are your thoughts after recording? As expected after reading the script, this was a painful recording because the bad ends are sort of the highlight of this game. Also, Lucas is very straight-laced person and his formal speech that's filled with honorifics gave me a lot of problems (lol)!

What was first impression of Lucas? Did anything change after your initial recording? When I first saw the art for Lucas, I thought he's very pretty and his voice might be a bit more feminine. That's why I originally used a higher tone during the first recording. It was after the director asked me to use a slightly lower tone that I realized he’s actually a very masculine character, in contrast to his visuals.

While acting, were there any parts of Lucas you payed special attention to or any points we should look for? As a character, Lucas appears androgynous, but he's actually a man who's strong both mentally and physically. When I began forming his character in my mind, I wanted to pay extra attention to that balance between his looks and his masculine nature. I was conscious of his personality throughout the recording, asking how Lucas would react or what he’d say in these situations.

Can you tell us about any special situations or scenes that left a deep impression on you? I can't say too much because I don't want to spoil anything but, the more I read the script, I thought.... this is amazing! As far as his relationship with the main character, they were once teacher and student so I hope everyone is anticipating how it develops from there. I was impressed by the tragic love between them and the bad ending.... sorry but, I can't say anything else (lol)!

Have you ever been in a desperate situation? How did you relieve it? When I was in college, I was worried about a very important exam. I stayed up all night studying with a friend but I ended up oversleeping the next day. I ran to the class with just 5 minutes before the exam ended. In the end, I got the score I needed to get credit (lol).

◇ It is a vivid drama, as if the characters really exist.

——Do you have experience with tennis?

Hanae-san: I have experience both in the hard and soft styles. I learned the hard one in elementary school, and did the soft one in club activities during middle school.

Hatanaka-san: I did get to do it in class, but it was the hard style. Never the soft one… I was in the basket club in middle school.

——Please tell us your frank impressions when the roles were decided.

Hatanaka-san: I was thrilled from the moment I read the audition materials. Like, “This series is interesting!”. I was happy. It was probably going to be a serious story… I felt joy and nervousness at that.

Hanae-san: Since I had done tennis before, I had a strong feeling that “I wanna pass!”. I recorded tapes for the audition over and over.

——And your impressions about your characters?

Hanae-san: At first, I thought, “Maybe he’s cool and doesn’t let his emotions show on his face?”, but he also has a part of him that is just like a normal middle schooler. There are also the matters with his home environment, so he is indeed mature, but he has a childish side too. That was unexpected. Interesting, right?

Hatanaka-san: As for me, I had the impression that Touma was a step behind at first, but there is also a part of him that vents his feelings in a pure-hearted way. Maki and Touma’s conversations are very honest. They are realistic.

Hanae-san: Touma looks cool at a glance, but he is hot-headed. The feelings he puts into club activities are strong.

——I sensed realism in your acting.

Hanae-san: That’s right. Sense of mood is regarded as important when acting. We do the recording as if Maki and the others exist in real life. We connect our feelings with everyone in the spot. It is fun. I also have lots of dialogues with Tasuku-kun, and Tasuku-kun speaks while looking at me. It makes things easy for me.

Hatanaka-san: I want to feel their sense of closeness and mood. It’s really fun.

◇ A chance of co-acting with Hanae Natsuki has “finally come!”

——Is it the first time that you two outright co-act with each other in an anime?

Hanae-san: That’s right. We have done it in games, but it is a first in an anime.

Hatanaka-san: When the cast was announced, it felt like I had been waiting for this forever, so I was like, “We did it! It’s finally come!”. I had this image that Hanae-san throws several balls and gets them straight into the strike zone. He is capable of ever changing and also sensible. He is a type completely different from myself. “That’s exactly why I want to try this!” is the feeling I had.

Hanae-san: Tasuku-kun is younger than me, but the truth is that he is my Senpai. He had his voice actor debut first.

Hatanaka-san: Please give me a break! Hanae-san, I don’t want you telling me that!!

——How are the recordings going? It seems the number of male cast members is big.

Hanae-san: It is mostly men. There is a feeling of club activities to it. If I had to say it, our Senpai, Toyonaga (Toshiyuki)-san goes around giving retorts. He chats a lot.

◇ Doing basket out of wanting to be popular.

——Please tell us about memories of your middle school days.

Hanae-san: I was energetic in my middle school years, so while I was in club activities, I would also play with friends. When I became vice-president, I put all my effort into club activities, like, “I’ll do even better!”.

Hatanaka-san: I wanted to be popular. That’s why I was in the basket club. But, I didn’t become popular… I was always on the bench, but I spent fun three years there. At first, I started out club activities with lighthearted feelings, but it was strict and the seniors were scary, so it turned into a valuable experience.

——Are your club activity experiences still alive?

Hanae-san: They are. I also know the happiness of winning and the hardships of club practice. It makes me feel how precious those three years were in my student days all over again.

Hatanaka-san: There are scenes in “Hoshiai no Sora” where the club mates run around the court and clash, but since I used to take part in club activities, I really understand those feelings of theirs.

——Lastly, please tell us what to pay attention to in the series.

Hanae-san: It portrays how the club members live according to their home environments in a sensible way.

Hatanaka-san: Each of the other club members is also burdened with something. Lots of things happen as they gather up and become one. The moments when the pieces are lined together are depicted very dramatically. There are also scenes that make people reflect upon when they watch them. And many scenes were the characters are helped out. Anyhow, we want everyone to watch it.

◇ It was his first job as a voice actor, and he was so nervous that he stood upright like a stick?!

——Please tell us your impression of the series. Wasn’t there a part of it that would betray people in a good way if they thought it was going to be a refreshing sports anime?

Toyonaga-san: When I first saw the visual image, I thought on my own accord that it was probably a refreshing sports one. This might apply to everybody. To us, who take part in the recording, he impact was huge, because we were dealt this betrayal at once. I was also nervous, like, “Huh?” but at the same time, it shifted to thinking, “How should I play this character?”. I was also thinking that it would also be necessary other than an approach fitting of soft tennis.

Satou-san: When I actually tried performing, the contents surpassed my imagination by far. I also felt that “This is fun!”. It felt enjoyable to play the many sides of Shingo.

——Satou-san, this is your first challenge as a voice actor.

Satou-san: I am happy to be able to participate in such a wonderful series. The scene is fun and my motivation was always rising as I watched the seniors’ acting. It is all a lesson, so I was about to burst. I end up thinking about a lot of things the more you read he script, but Shingo is not the type to think too deep, so I hoped to display his straightforward side and was conscious of playing him the way I thought it out.

——Were you not nervous on your first recording?

Satou-san: I became stiff from nervousness, was upright like a stick and could not perform at all. Hanae Natsuki-san (voice of Katsuragi Maki) told me to “ease up”. The people around me gave me support, so I was able to relax and do what was requested.

Toyonaga-san: You were all rigid. He is my junior in our agency, but I personally think… that it is wrong for a senior from the same agency to say something, and for the first episode, I had also wanted him to take advice from seniors he got to meet on that occasion and earn experience developing from it, so I made all the more sure not to say anything. If I had spoken, he definitely would have been even more nervous. From the second episode onward, I gave him a bit of advice whenever you were stuck. I did not talk about the complicated parts of acting, but instead told him that “when you don’t understand something, it’s okay to say so” and “to have confidence and do it means you’re secure”. But Keisuke-kun was still nervous, like, “Okay! I understand!” (laughs).

Satou-san: I wrote down on my phone the things everyone told me and made it into the wallpaper of my lock screen. I make sure to cherish these words and read them thoroughly.

——While interviewing the other voice actors, they said that Toyonaga-san is a mood maker.

Toyonaga-san: Eh!? Is that true?! What an honor. I am the oldest one in the main cast. That being said, I was not so conscious of this… The one I play, Tsubasa, is in a position where I can perform energetically amongst the club members. It is also a position where it is easy to make meandering in the flow of our acting, so I was conscious of taking this into consideration and doing an approach where I perform a slightly sharp act, making people smile. As a result, everyone on the spot would laugh, so I might have become a mood-maker. Without any self-awareness.

◇ He was in the basket club during his middle school years, however…

——What club were you in during your middle school days?

Toyonaga-san: Basket club. I was a ghost member. The girl I liked was in the basket club, so it was an impure motive to join. I had heard a rumor that the male members could practice together with the female ones because there were too few boys, but once I joined, I was too embarrassed and became unable to go… I did not attend club activities, but I made games with a friend using a software for creating RPGs on PC. I was in charge of the music and scenario while my friend did the graphics.

Satou-san: I was also in the basket club. We had no seniors, it was just five of us and all were beginners. During games, we would lose by 200 to 2 or 300 to 2. We only did it seriously when juniors entered during our last year. There were three or so juniors who could play basketball, so we were able to lose by 180 to 16!

——Lastly, please tell us future highlights of the anime.

Satou-san: There are many scenes and each of them are connected. I want people to pay attention to this too.

◇ Matsuoka Yoshitsugu went from being his admiration to his goal.

——What is your impression of the series?

Satou-san: Very sensible. I think people have many opinions about it, but I am convinced that it is a work necessary for our current society. That is why I believe we have to tackle it with responsibility.

Matsuoka-san: In the audition, I thought it was going to be a sports thing, but turns out it is a series that could be even used in morality classes. I was surprised. Back when I read the lines from the audition excerpts, I had no idea about the circumstances of the characters’ home environments. The art style is this soft one, after all. When I learned that the series would delve into human relations, I felt that it would turn into something fun!

——Please tell us about landing the roles.

Satou-san: It felt extremely rewarding. I worried about how to approach and pursue my character, because they are realistic. I used to study social services, so they reminded me of the places and children I had seen until now. Such a strange coincidence. There was a side of them that would grow naïve exactly because they knew what was going on.

Matsuoka-san: It is an original anime, hence we had no idea what would happen next, so the recording would progress like, “What’s gonna go down next week?”. As the story advances, the discrepancy regarding episode 1 appears more clearly. You can see the characters’ surfaces on episode one, but the story delves into them as it goes on. You can see it like, “So this kid was thinking about things like that…”. Children hide their true essence from their parents nowadays. What they think inside is different from what lies on the surface.

Satou-san: The script is fresh every time. It was thrilling, like, “What’s gonna happen next?” and also fun.

——Satou-san, Matsuoka-san is your senior. What impression did you have of him when co-acting?

Satou-san: Matsuoka-san was a person I admired since before I became a voice actor. After getting to perform with him, he became my goal. He lets me analyze him, like, “So Matsuoka-san performs like this…”. Matsuoka-san accepts everything I do. I have nothing but gratitude for being together with him.

Matsuoka-san: I have also been acting by observing my seniors. Having earned experience from many situations, did you manage a way to give responses without killing the flow, no matter how it comes at you?

Satou-san: I am truly grateful to you.

◇ Memories of their middle school days.

——The cast has many men, so did the scene resemble club activities?

Satou-san: The scenes where we shout together are club-like.

Matsuoka-san: When I was in middle school, I was in the wind instruments club and it was all girls. In my third year, I was the only boy there. I wanted to quit (laughs). I was like, “So this is what happens when men gather up…” during the after-recording. Toyonaga (Toshiyuki)-san (who plays Soga Tsubasa) says funny things every time.

——Satou-san, how were your club activities in middle school?

Satou-san: I was in the kendo club. We were a powerhouse that would go as far as participating in the nationals, so practice was severe. Most horrible of all was that we were often told, “Eat!”. They would give us a mountain of curry, three hot dogs, first-sized minced meat fried cakes and oranges and go, “Now, eat up!”. In my second year, I fractured my left elbow, stopped with the club activities and joined the kendo club once again in high school, but on the topic of middle school days, the mountain of curry comes back to me.

——Complex human relations are also depicted in the series. Please tell us what to pay attention to.

Satou-san: They really are complex. Other than the athletes, I also want people to observe the manager, Asuka Yuuta-kun, and pay attention to all of the characters. You should also be able to see something completely different when you look at the characters from their families’ point of view. I believe that has to do with the depth of this series.

Matsuoka-san: They have amazing club activities. People bearing all sorts of pasts gather up and do soft tennis together. In soft tennis, the ball is smooth, but also hard.

——Matsuoka-san, you have made a good conclusion. Were you thinking all this time about that “smooth but hard” part?

Mastuoka-san: No (laughs). Those were words that came out now while I was speaking.

Satou-san: This will serve as a lesson on how “it’s good to conclude it like this!”. I am always looking at your back.

The dish one of them made recently was fried egg!?

——There are scenes where Maki prepares dishes, but do the two of you cook?

Hatanaka-san (henceforth, “Hatanaka”): I do! I make stuff referencing everyone’s recipes posted here on Cookpad.

Hanae-san (henceforth, “Hanae”): I rarely do. In the past, there was a time I was into smoking, so I studied how to make bacon and attempted it myself.

Hatanaka: Eh!? Is that true?

Hanae: I liked the smoked chicken from the convenience store and wanted to eat a lot of it. But aren’t the prices too high? So I tried making smoked food at home.

Hatanaka: But aren’t smoking grills even more expensive? (laughs)

Hanae: They cost about 3,000¥. Also, the block meat of a butcher shop close to the place I used to live before was just 500¥, which is really cheap, so I chose to make it myself.

Hatanaka: You were saving up, huh?

Hanae: Yep, yep. Back when I had no money, I also used to make “no-ingredient chao fan”.

Hatanaka: I can make chao fan too! You can cook it with the stuff you have in the fridge and season it with just salt and pepper, so it is very simple. Come to think of it, the things I make are mostly stir-fried. Nothing is boiled or deep-fried at all…

Hanae: Boiling is indeed hard. There was a scene where the character I play, Maki, made spring rolls, but Chinese cuisine is also quite a high hurdle, isn’t it?

Hatanaka: Right. Also, last time, I saw a recipe on Cookpad and made fried eggs. I found a really simple recipe! You just put water and the egg on the fry pan and close the lid.

Hanae: Isn’t that how it’s normally done?

Hatanaka: You put the water at the beginning, not in the middle of it! I managed to cook without burning it and it was delicious.

——One of the main components of this work is friendship being nurtured by “club activities”, and amongst that, there is a scene where “food” becomes one of the key items, so did the two of you happen to have any memorable meals during your own club activities?

Hatanaka: I was in the basket club, so the amount of exercise was incredible. We would be really hungry by the end of club activities, so we would go out to eat Hiroshima-yaki. In that restaurant, no matter how much yakisoba you ate, it was just 600¥ from a 1,5 noodle package onward. So I was always eating 4 and 5 ones. But we had to wash the dishes as punishment if we had any leftovers, so I recall everyone eating desperately in order not to leave anything behind no matter what (laughs).

Hanae: I was in the soft tennis club…

Hatanaka: Isn’t that the same as Maki!?

Hanae: …but I was not all that strong (laughs). I also never did things like eating out with everyone by the end of club activities. I would eat from the lunchbox I brought along during noon break, and during club time, I would eat the rice balls I had prepared for club activities. That was how it was.

They want you to feel the stirring of those boys’ hearts.

——Lastly, please leave a message for people looking forward to watching “Hoshiai no Sora”.

Hanae: You think will be an uplifting series with soft tennis as its theme, but it is an anime packed with various elements, which richly depicts the worries typical of middle schoolers and the issues that each of their families bear, so I hope people will be able to relate to their emotions while searching for their own points in common with them. Earlier, we talked about a scene where Maki cooks, and there are also instances where problems are solved with food, so please try to pay attention to that too.