Mimorin’s Animate Interview (October 26th, 2016)

Suzuko Mimori is most famous for her Love Live! role as Umi Sonoda. Her wide range of activities has allowed her to not only become a voice actress, but an artist as well. She has even worked in musical theater. Her live tour 「Mimori Suzuko Live Tour 2016 “Grand Revue”」that began back in July will celebrate it’s final days on October 27th and 28th.

What would you say your usual job consists of?

Being a voice actress. At the moment, I’m a regular in a long running anime series. Then after that, I’m a regular radio personality on NHK. I also sing and dance in my anime unit activities as well as my artist activities. I perform in theater as well!

What do you like to do when you’re not working?

If I have the time, I like to go to theaters or watch pro wrestling. I also like listening to music, watching movies, and just using my spare time to do fun things. As a result of that, I always want to take what I learned from those things and apply them to my job as well.

It sounds like you have a wide variety of interests. Have you always wanted to be a voice actress?

I originally wanted to be in musical theater. I even learned how to dance within a short amount of time. When I was a student in high school, I went to an office that would help me become better at dancing. While I was there, they would sometimes give me the job of being someone’s backup dancer.

After graduating high school, I made my debut in musical theater. I was still in a very low position, so I didn’t get very many roles, and my auditions began to decrease.

But during my time there, I got selected to be the heroine of a play. That was when the president of Bushiroad, Kitani-San, came to watch us perform, and I received an offer to do some voice over work. That was when I was given the chance to become a voice actress.

Musicals were not the only thing I wanted to do. I had a desire to break through and try many more things, and I could still study theater if I wanted. This was a chance for me to change things up and do something different every day! I began to think.

When would you say you experienced your break-through?

Of course there were a lot of people my age getting lead roles. And looking at those people closely, I was constantly thinking, “What does that person have that I don’t have?” But since I’m naturally competitive, I have always possessed this feeling of, “I will stand up on top, too!”

Are you still competitive even now?

Even now my feelings have not changed. I think that displaying your feelings of determination is a good thing, and something that’s very important.

When others display competitive feelings towards you, how do you react?

In spite of the way they feel, I still try to see the goodness in people. I think that a good quality I have is my ability to keep my composure and observe calmly.

Try self analyzing yourself, Mimori-san, what is it that you mainly feel?

My feelings are constantly changing. But with whatever I am working on, I always try to have fun.

Sometimes it does feel like I hit a wall. “This job is difficult…” I begin to think. These feelings gradually become darker, and I’m not able to express myself well in my acting and singing.

Because of this, I make it a standard to cherish all of the fun and neutral feelings that I have. I try to maintain a balance of not being too high or not being too low. And for when the time calls for it, I swing either way.

I am really optimistic and I love to have fun. And if there is something I don’t like, I will approach it and change my way of thinking.

Like, “Ah! But after this is over maybe I can have some chocolate!” I really hated homework over summer vacation, and cram school. “But I bought ice cream during my cram school break, I wonder if I will buy it again today as well?” Because I have this train of thought, things seem to be more simple.

What has been your highest wall?

Honestly, I was not good at talking as Mimori Suzuko herself.

When I was in musicals, I was just a dancer and did not have a speaking role. So I was never asked to give an answer for anything. So when I was asked, “What do you think of yourself?” I didn’t know. I began to have feelings of, “Who am I?”

When I was asked to give an answer, I often found that I had no idea what I wanted to do.

During that time, my artist activities had just begun, and I was being asked more and more about my opinions.

It was only recently when I was able to overcome this and could speak about my own opinions as soon as I was asked, “What is it that you want to do?”

Ever since I was a child, I have been immensely concerned with how I’m seen in the eyes of adults. “I have to be a good child!” And since I’ve always been seeking direction from the eyes of adults, I think that’s why I was scared to say my true opinion.

So recently, I feel like I have to say my opinion. Otherwise, it will become wasteful or it will result in a loss.

Are there any differences between being an actress and an artist?

When playing a role, you have to become the role. I think the first thing you should think about is how to best serve that purpose.

Of course these roles are original works, so we have to protect the world’s view of it, and we also have to preserve it’s image. This is something I really have fun doing.

After all, even though I’m playing a certain role, I feel like I cannot express it properly unless I can feel it in my heart. And I think that in those moments, you are really living the life of your role.

When you stand on the stage as an artist, you can convey whatever meaning you want in your own certain way. Basically, you’re free to do what you want.

I like to give everyone a taste of how I’m freely available to the world. I don’t really have a tremendously unique personality. But I understand that people have fun seeing me being my “free” self, so I have decided that I am going to stay like this.

Lastly, is there any new challenges Mimori-San wants to try and take on?

Recently, I’ve been thinking a lot about lyrics, but it was surprisingly really interesting. The words just kept flowing out more and more, and it was very fun.

I don’t write in a diary or anything, but when I start thinking of words to say, they leave me quickly. So now from time to time I try to save them.

I thought that this might be a new step in my writing. When I was a child, it was my dream to become a picture book author. I even made picture books myself. But even without the picture books now, I noticed that they were a really good thing for me because they helped shape the way I think.

Being a writer might sound a bit ridiculous, but I would like to challenge myself to write various things.

Original interview here.

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