●The Dark Signer story cannot be told without tears!
Interviewer: Along with the epic battle of Signers vs. Dark Signers, the Dark Signer arc also portrayed the past of your four characters. Looking back on it, what are your impressions? Hoshino: I was surprised he had more comrades than I expected. They were worse troublemakers than I thought.
Miyashita: They all dueled wearing capes and matching sleeveless outfits. :-)
Asanuma: Those clothes had to be Kiryuu’s fashion sense. :-)
Interviewer: Actually, Kiryuu was the only one wearing short sleeves. :-)
Hoshino: Traitor~ :-)
Asanuma: It suddenly occurred to me that my character is the only one without a family name. I wonder if he lost his parents before he knew his own name, and took a name from the first card he picked up, “D.D. Crow”.
Miyashita: That’s touching. And yet Crow is the mood-maker of the Team.
Asanuma: At first, I thought Crow was there just to liven up the story. But since I noticed that he’s the glue holding all their relationships together, I’ve come to feel closer to him.
Hoshino: Without Crow there wouldn’t be a Team.
Asanuma: That’s why things turned out that way. Because Crow was the first to leave.
Hoshino: Then Jack, saying, If Crow’s gone, I’m leaving too.
Miyashita: So only Yuusei stayed… And that backfired.
Interviewer: Yuusei and Kiryuu’s showdown was poignant.
Ono: It’s sad and painful that it came from a mere misunderstanding. But the battle scene was tough. The very core of this character is that he enjoys dueling, but he also has a terrible grudge against Yuusei. It was hard to show that he’s enjoying the duel even while he’s taking out a grudge.
In the end, Kiryuu dies saying he can’t be satisfied with this, and that’s also poignant. Somewhere he must be satisfied that he was able to duel with his comrade in the end. I really identified with him at that point, and I hope I was able to convey even a fraction of Kiryuu’s character.
Interviewer: In his next duel with Rudger, Yuusei also has to face his “darkness of the heart”.
Miyashita: Yuusei has been harboring the thought that his father was responsible for the runaway Moment accident that created Satellite and caused Jack and Crow to suffer, so why do they call me a comrade? But when Rudger confronts him with it, Crow comes to his defense… I nearly cried when we were recording that scene.
Yuusei’s changed a lot from the first episode. He’s met all sorts of comrades, he went astray at one point but then Jack slugged him and made him realize he wasn’t in this alone, and then Crow’s helped him… I feel that by reaffirming his bonds with his comrades, he’s gradually grown up. The Dark Signer arc had these sorts of touching stories for each of the characters.
Interviewer: Jack has to fight Carly, the woman who won his heart, when she becomes a Dark Signer.
Hoshino: When he fights Carly, Jack chooses to bring the duel to a draw. I think that, in addition to wanting to know the truth about why she left him and wanting to save her if he’s able to, he wanted to spend as much time together with her as he possibly could.
It seems inconsistent with Jack’s character as it’s been built up so far, but that’s because Jack’s changed since coming to know Carly. In my mind, I came to a definite conclusion: Carly’s influence was big enough to change his character. But declaring his love during a duel was a bit embarrassing… I blushed to the ears while I was speaking. :-)
Asanuma: The names of the monsters that come out at the end of the Dark Signer arc start with “Savior”, and I think that rescue really is the key. Even the duels aren’t just about beating down the opponent, but about coming to a decision while feeling for the opponent and trying to save the opponent. I think that’s amazing.
Interviewer: The mood in the recording studio must have been intense.
Miyashita: Because a duel against a Dark Signer is a real life-or-death fight where we feel the impact physically.
Hoshino: It was hard voicing the parts where we took damage.
Miyashita: I thought I would go hoarse in one take. If you don’t do the test run properly, you’ll never be able to do it. And we all wanted to make this a really good production.
Asanuma: This is the first time I was told, Do the test run at half strength. :-)
Ono: I couldn’t even pronounce “Jibakushin Ccapac Apu” at first, and had to train myself until I could say it five times in a row.