Recently, in order to commemorate the release of the Blu-ray box of "Gundam W", Japanese media interviewed popular voice actors Hikaru Midorikawa and Toshihiko Seki, who voiced Hiro Wei and Dio Maxwell. In front of reporters, they shared their memories of the work and introduced the characters they voiced. And if you want to know what the appeal of "New Mobile Suit Gundam W" is, please read this interview with Hikaru Midorikawa and Toshihiko Seki!

■ The unfading popularity of "Mobile Suit Gundam W" and the secret behind it

Q: On April 25th, the "Mobile Suit Gundam WEndlessWaltz" Blu-ray box was officially released. Mobile Suit Gundam W has been around for 19 years, but we have found that the popularity of this series shows no signs of waning. So what is the reason for this? I've invited you two today, and I hope to share your thoughts.

Hikaru Midorikawa: I think the popularity of the Gundam series is a matter of course. "Mobile Suit Gundam W" is the first work to make female audiences think that "Gundam may be fun", so it has attracted much attention. To this day, the Gundam series is also very popular among female audiences. Then I'm afraid it was because of the impact that "New Mobile Suit Gundam W" had on them at the time.

Kwan Junhiko: Actually, I think the Gundam series has had female fans from the very beginning. It's just that the female audience is the work "New Mobile Suit Gundam W" that has begun to enter our sight. In addition, the five main characters in the work form a squad-like group, and this setting also started with "New Mobile Suit Gundam W".

Midorikawa: G Gundam also has this Platoon concept, but it's the Mobile Suit Gundam W that comes to mind at once.

Kwan: So, that's the key to the popularity of this work. If there are a lot of handsome boys in a work, then it will naturally attract attention. In addition, these young teenagers actually have the status of "mercenaries with great power", and such a contrast is also the charm of the work.

Q: The five main characters of Mobile Suit Gundam W -- Hiro Wei, Dio Maxwell, and Dolova. Barton, Katorou. Rabeba. Wenner and Zhang Wufei were originally competitors and even enemies, but in the end they became a team.

Kwan: After all, they are not mature adults, but "teenagers". When a teenager appears on the battlefield, he will have a purity that cannot be matched by adults, and the five teenagers have always maintained this purity. In this way, it seems that they are full of "cuteness", and their behavior is still childish, so it makes the work full of charm, right? In addition, each of the five characters has a somewhat different personality, which is also the charm. The audience can support one or more of the characters according to their preferences, which may make watching the anime a pleasure.

■What is the charm of Hiro!? There are many types of aircraft that can be boarded!

Q: What do you think about the characters you voice? Do you think your character shines better than the other four protagonists?

Kwan: Dio is a very talkative guy. Therefore, among these Gundam manipulation experts, they are atmosphere-makers. I think it's a very interesting character.

Q: At that time, there was a fan poll, and I think that from the results, Dior and Hiro are competing with each other and are equally popular.

Kwan: Dior will make the atmosphere soothe and give people a sense of relief. So it's a bit like a comedy artist, if there is such a guy around, I believe it will make people feel happy. And this kind of work of adjusting the atmosphere is handled by Dior, isn't it a very good setting?

Q: In addition, Hiro, as the protagonist, is also very prominent among the five characters, do you have any recommendations for this role?

Midorikawa: What's the point, that is, he is very much in line with the characteristics of the protagonist of the "machine qì human theme work". And he's been on a variety of planes!

Kwan: Yes, it's a Mobile Suit (laughs)!

Midorikawa: But he didn't just ride the MobileSuit...... I checked it just now, and Hiro has piloted a total of 10~11 kinds of mechs.

Kwan: You've driven so much!?

Midorikawa: Wing Gundam, Heavy Gundam, Leo, Machurius, Next, Wing Zero, and Wing Zero from EndlessWaltz. He also piloted Leo's cosmic mech. There are also Kansha, Snow White and so on. If you add the Wing Gundam EARLYTYPE before the Endless Waltz version of Wing Zero, there are 11 types.

Kwan: Speaking of which, didn't he even let him ride the Death Gundam (Dior's love plane) (laughs)?

Q: I have the impression that the protagonist has only piloted his own mech. However, in "Mobile Suit Gundam W", this is not only the case, but the characters fly many different types of mechs.

Midorikawa: It's a very happy thing. Even if the character is not as popular as Dior, as long as he has piloted a lot of mechs, then he should be satisfied (laughs).

Q: The so-called protagonist is often set up to be able to do a lot of things. Then maybe being able to drive a variety of airframes is also one of the links.

Midorikawa: There are also factors in this regard. Hiro can help people deal with fractures and injuries, and can also modify the number of schools jù, relatively speaking, he is a versatile character. When we dubbed, he also became a topic of discussion. We once said, "If this continues, everything is too perfect to end the work in a normal way, right?" But in fact, Hiro also suffered a setback in the later plot, which allowed the story to unfold.

■Characters who look professional from the beginning

Q: We've seen a lot of animations where immature characters grow up. However, in this respect, "Mobile Suit Gundam W" is so different from the first episode.

Kwan: Originally, the character appeared in a perfect form. They're not immature.

Q: Did you feel the difficulty of voicing this kind of character?

Midorikawa: Although the characters seem to be in an incredible position, they are not. It did take some time for us to get fully familiar with the characters, but there weren't too many lines, so it didn't feel difficult in the first half of the work.

Q: We've interviewed a lot of people before, and they think that the fewer lines there are, the more difficult it is to show a good dubbing effect.

Midorikawa: Of course, this is also a problem. But as long as Mr. Yasuo Urakami, who was the sound director at the time, didn't say "NG", then we felt that "I was pretty good." After all, Mr. Urakami is the type of person who immediately shouts "NG" when he feels that there is a problem with the performance (laughs).

■The voices of Mr. Midorikawa and Mr. Seki are very similar!?

Q: There are a lot of plots in "Mobile Suit Gundam W" that use retrospectives to let the audience understand the past of the characters, so were the two of them told about the backstories of their characters during the dubbing?

Kwan: I didn't tell us anything in particular.

Midorikawa: Perhaps at that time, there was still a lot of undecided content in terms of script writing.

Q: It was originally a TV anime series, so did the two of you collaborate with each other when dubbing this anime with a lot of episodes?

Kwan: There's something that impresses me a lot. When dubbing the first episode, someone said that my voice was similar to Mitsu-kun's, which surprised me very much. I was thinking, "Dubbing two characters with so many differences, how can people say that they sound similar!" Therefore, he also began to adjust his dubbing tone later.

Midorikawa: Well, that's the first time I've been said that.

Kwan: We weren't aware of it at all.

Midorikawa: We've worked together in the past when we were dubbing for "Formula Intelligence", but no one has ever said anything like "your voice is very similar to Mr. Kwan."

Kwan: Maybe it's because of the acting skills we both have, and there are similarities in some of the clips.

■ Silent characters and talkative characters

Q: We just mentioned the topic of popularity voting. Do the two think that among the five characters, there is a sense of competition and comparison with each other? For example, Hiro and Dior give people the impression that one is taciturn and the other is talkative.

Guan: But when it comes to this, the person who can actually talk the most is Zhang Wufei. It seems to be very mouthless, but it is very eloquent. Basically, he was talking to the Dragon Gundam by himself (laughs). If you compare it like this, Hiro and Dolova should be regarded as silent characters.

Midorikawa: Katoru is also the type of person who doesn't talk about anything.

Kwan: When the series is halfway through, there are often cases where four people except Hiro don't appear. And since many episodes don't require dubbing, by the time the voice actors return again, it's already several episodes later. In this way, everyone can't figure out where the current plot is developing. For example, if I only focus on the plot of Dior, I will not be able to understand the current development of the story. It wasn't until I watched the broadcast anime that I finally figured out where the plot was going.

Q: At such times, did you get any help from Mr. Midorikawa at the recording site? For example, explain "Actually, this is the story now."

Midorikawa: No, after all, this is not a work that can be understood by my personal explanation. And I'm going to get confused when I'm commenting (laughs).

Kwan: Everyone has worked hard for their roles. After that, I read the animation magazine and did my own research. (laughs)

■Hiro's view of women, Dior's view of women

Q: Both of the characters you voice have their own heroines. Next to Hiro must be Lilina standing, and Dio has Hilde beside him. In addition, I feel that other characters tend to be accompanied by their own specific women. Do you think that in "Mobile Suit Gundam W", there are a lot of women who accompany the male characters like this? Kwan: For the maker, the love element in a work is indispensable. As for the reason, I think it is due to the fact that the makers care a lot about the feelings of female audiences. If you want to hold the girl's heart tightly, then the love plot is the absolute condition.

Q: From Dior's point of view, how do you feel about Hilde?

Kwan: It gives the impression that the two of them are very similar. Will lend a helping hand when others are in danger, and both are very straightforward types, as long as they are firm in their beliefs, they will not hesitate to go on. And once you realize that you have made a mistake, you will not hesitate to choose other ways to do it. I think this kind of forward-looking trait is what the two of them have in common.

Q: What do you think of Lilina?

Midorikawa: Hiro sometimes behaves very strangely. But it wasn't until recently that I had a deeper understanding of what he was thinking. In the first episode, the omnipotent Hiro wants to blow himself up and die just because Lilina sees him. Logically speaking, this is incredible, right? But in fact, this is because when Hiro first met Lilina, he realized that the other party was the one in his destiny, so he did this. Obviously, Hiro came to Earth to carry out a complicated mission, and after being seen by Lilina, it is said that it would be good to kill the other party (laughs). But although he was an object that had to be killed, there was a kind of resistance in Hiro's instinct, and he had to turn the object of "killing" from Lilina to himself.

Q: You didn't have that idea at the time?

Midorikawa: I didn't think about it that much at the time. Later, I rewatched the anime repeatedly, thought about it carefully, and realized that Hiro would be able to kill Lilina if he used his mobility and knowledge.

Q: That means he doesn't have to blow himself up at all.

Midorikawa: So he instinctively sensed some kind of emotion, so he didn't hurt the killer. And his behavior of wanting to blow himself up is also based on this kind of emotion.

Q: Does this mean that Hiro has developed a love for Lilina?

Midorikawa: At the time, I didn't know this, but I just felt something instinctively.

Q: Hiro didn't propose to Lilina until the end.

Midorikawa: Not really. The clearest action he made should be in the sixth episode of the TV animation "Pai Duì Night". Although he said to Lilina, "I must kill you", he couldn't help but protect the other party.

Q: Hiro didn't say "I like you" to Lilina or take her as his girlfriend.

Midorikawa: If you haven't experienced Hiro's youth, you can't understand his behavior, right?

Kwan: For the audience, they don't understand what Hiro is thinking. But after all, Lilina is also a bit of a strange person, so she is also subconsciously convinced that "Hiro must like me, absolutely".

Q: Can a love plot like this also make female audiences enjoy it?

Kwan: I think that's a very big attraction. Many viewers who love Mobile Suit Gundam W are trying to project themselves onto one of the characters in the work.

Q: It's true that there are various types of characters in Mobile Suit Gundam W. So do the two of them have any favorite female characters?

Kwan: I haven't thought about any other characters other than Heard...... Ah, I've always said I like Lydy. Quiet. Lydi, of course, in a sober state. Ah. The way she took off her glasses in "EndlessWaltz" was amazing.

Q: What about Mr. Midorikawa?

Midorikawa: I've always said that I like Rucrechia Noin a lot.

Q: Both of you used the word "all the time" just now. So that means that when you watched the anime at that time, there was no change in your views on the characters at this time, right?

Midorikawa: I just mentioned that my opinion on Hiro's behavior has only recently changed.

■During the recording of the CD bonus of the new radio drama, he performed Hiro Dior again

Q: This time, the bonus of Blu-ray is the new radio drama CD "Preventer5". The plot has a certain connection with the novel "New Mobile Suit Gundam WFrozenTeardrop". It's been a while since they've voiced the characters in this work, so do you have different feelings when you record a radio drama?

Midorikawa: Every year, I dub the characters of my works on games and other mediums, but I guess I've never been out of the identity of Hiro. And Hiro has not changed in age.

Q: Mr. Kwan has quite a lot of lines in this radio drama CD.

Kwan: Because I have a very heavy commentary task. But I got the job done with relative ease.

Q: Mr. Kwan dubbed Dior for the first time in a long time. How do you feel about recording again?

Kwan: I became a father in the work, so there was a situation in the plot where I had to dub Dior and his son at the same time. It's still nerve-wracking (laughs). Because there is a scene of a conversation between father and son in the play. Of course, it was recorded separately, but I don't think I really like this type of dialogue (laughs).

Q: How do you grasp this contrast between father and son?

Kwan: If I care so much about this relationship that I think, "Dior is old now," then there's no way to deduce Dior. Therefore, I deliberately do not care about such contrasts. This way, I was able to perform energetically when I was dubbing for my son.

Q: At the end of the interview, could you tell us about your characters that memorably memorably you have a line or plot? This includes the TV anime version of Mobile Suit Gundam W, the OVA series, and radio dramas.

Midorikawa: I didn't expect Hiro to be able to drive Kansha. Really, I never dreamed that there would be a plot of Hiro driving Kansha, so I was very shocked. At the same time, I'm happy that Hiro has another "collectible" for the pilot's body. There were some lines in "FrozenTeardrop" that were hard to pinpoint, but the thought that it was said by Hiro made me feel like I was having fun and having a lot of fun performing it.

Q: What about Mr. Kwan?

Kwan: Dior has a line that says to himself that impresses me the most. That's "It's okay, it won't be so light." And I have said many times before that this sentence carries the heaviest weight in my heart. This is what he said when he was lurking in the colony of the universe and found that the Death Gundam he was piloting was being destroyed as a target. In addition, when he was desperately piloting the Reaper Gundam into battle, the Cosmic Colony announced that "for those of us who have reconciled with the OrganizationofZodiac, the Gundam hostile to the OrganizationofZodiac is the enemy of the Cosmic Colony." In this case, Dior pretended to exaggerate and said: "The five of us are really in a dilemma of fighting alone." This sentence is also quite impressive. I don't know why, Dior always encounters a plot of suffering...... He was even taught a hard lesson by Hiro. Sure enough, he couldn't defeat the hero (laughs).