KitaQMan Interview (Page 1)

[toriwrites]

This is a [Text Only] English translation of the KitaQman interview from Animage, first page only.. Want the pictures/original interview? Buy it yourself.

Dogengers Season 1 is finally over. Why don't you tell us your thoughts.
While many of us have been "real life heroes" for a long time, this was our first filmed production, so to be honest I was pretty worried about this going in. I honestly didn't think it would gain this much popularity. Beyond our wildest imagination...

How do you feel about all the comments put on twitter and NicoNico?
It seemed that this weird movement started that, whenever someone (especially KitaQman) appeared on screen, the commenters would post in unison showing their appreciation in red text (laughs). I've always loved the internet myself, and I've watched videos on Nico for a long time. And so to be sucked into a running jokes through the NicoNico comments, it something I'm really proud of.

So, you said you were worried about Dogengers going into it. What did you think about  it when you were first told about it?
I thought that there was no way it was getting off the ground.

That's pretty blunt! What made you think that?
Well, Shabberyman, who works at the the Secret Society of Darkness as producer and script writer, told me about the production late last year. He told me "You're gonna star in it, of course!"... But, honestly I'm more of a realist so I just told him "I think you're dreaming a bit too big".

Well at least you were being honest.
As he talked about how suit actor Yoshifumi Oshikawa and director Fumie Arakawa were brought on board, and as he raised the money for special effects and explosions... I started to think it wasn't such a pipe dream after all.

From what I know about tokusatsu production, it feels reasonable once you explain all that.
Even so, Shaberryman was so fired up when he talked about all this that I really didn't want to rain on his parade and speak my mind. It wasn't until after it was set to air that I told him that I never believed it was going to happen. Kind of felt like Shaberryman won.

While Dogengers is set in Fukuoka, you (as KitaQman) are are representative of Kitakyushu. Did this cause any dilemma? 
Well, originally with a KitaQman vs Yabai Kamen story we were thinking "we've got to show off Kitakyushu more!"... But instead, we went with that I move to Fukuoka with the heroes and become friends, without being sucked into becoming a part of Fukuoka. So it feels like I'm a representative of Kitakyushu in Fukuoka.

I see.
You may not have noticed, but we did have many filming locations in Kitakyushu. And a few companies based out of Kitakyushu are represented, like Onimaru Homes (which provided Tanaka's house) and Nejichoco.

Nejichoco came up a few times, didn't it.
Well, part of being KitaQman is getting my sponsors exposure, so I don't see a problem with it.

What was your impression when you first read Shaberryman's script?
I didn't get it honestly, which got Director Arakawa and some others mad at me (laughs). Shaberryman's script was basically a hero stageshow script. There wasn't any descriptions or anything beyond what the characters were saying, so when I read it I just couldn't imagine what it was supposed to be. So I kind of stopped reading halfway through (laughs).

Since you didn't finish reading it, you didn't know what the story was, right?
Well I did skip to the end and read it! But I had no clue what was going on (laughs).

(Interviewer Laughs)
Once we started filming, I did think the story was interesting, but at the script reading stage I admit all I could think about were complains (laughs). It really did read like a stageshow script, so I was just confused.

Did you feel anything was off about your character?
Yeah. I can't say it was completely different, but as this read like a normal stageshow, the things that KitaQman were saying were things that I would have never put in stageshow. But Shaberryman just steamrolle me and said "well, this is Dogengers' KitaQman, so we're going to just think of him as a separate thing and keep the lines".

Oh, so Dogengers' KitaQman is a different KitaQman character?
First off, the suit actor hired for KitaQman breathed a new life to the character with his very cool and stylish suit acting. So to bring the character back to how he usually is, I came up with some things in the recording booth.

Came up with things?
I adlibbed a significant portion of the show. KitaQman stands out for the rest of the cast as being a "flippant hero", and to make sure that I gave that impression to the audience, I decided to adlib with my tone of voice and quips and such. 

So the voice overs were done in scene/episode order?
As a local hero, I have a decent amount of voice over experience and I'm decently confident in my work, but... there were quite a few times where I went "why don't I try this" and nothing good came out, so we did have to do a decent amount of retakes.

I see.
I talked about this on twitter, but my voice tends to crack pretty fast, so I kept drinking sesame oil in the recording studio. So the studio ended up smelling like a Chinese restaurant (nervous laugh).

Shaberryman said that, during the heat of the drama at the end of the show, you half-jokingly told him "don't turn me into a good guy at the end!"
I said that, I totally said that during the 11th episode!! (laughs) When I was giving that passionate speech to a unconscious Tanaka, I knew that this scene was different than the rest. KitaQman isn't the type to show his emotions, so I did try to change his words a bit to reflect that, and you see what came of that in the final product. Though my adlibbed "Hey, what the hell are you doing, wake up!" was cut (laughs). Though this is one of the most important scenes in the whole series, so I really did give it my all in that scene. Instead of my usual acting, I challenged myself with the passionate cries you see in that scene.