nebulancer | Cast Interview from SQ Series QUELL on Drama CD 1: "past, present, future"

—In this drama, “certain surprising realities” came to light. Please tell us some surprising things or events that happened to you recently.

Nogami: When I looked at this script, I went (in this drama’s CDs) “It’s already the fifth one!” I thought that it’s been a while since this team got together. In both lives and drama CDs, the ones that QUELL has participated in, this time’s the fifth CD. I realized that, in such a short time, many things came out, and as QUELL we’ve come this far.

Nakamura: You start to wonder how many songs we’ve had.

Nishiyama: Probably more than 10, at least.

Nakamura: When I went to Okinawa for work a while ago, the temperature was as high as 25 degrees* in February!

Nogami: That’s hot!

Nakamura: I was surprised by the fact that…… I was born there.

Nogami: You thought, “I was born and raised here!”

Nakamura: Yeah, yeah. So I was wondering how it would be in the summer. (laughs)

Takeuchi: As in, since you’ve gotten used to Tokyo, what would happen if you spent your summer in Okinawa?

Nakamura: Yeah. I’ve been in Tokyo for 10 years. It goes over 40 degrees* in Okinawa during the summer.

Nogami: You can just wear short sleeves the whole year.

Nakamura: That’s right. Since February’s right in the middle of winter, and even then it was 25 degrees.

Takeuchi: Do people from Okinawa ever go “That’s so cold!”

Nakamura: When night comes, the temperature drops, so it gets a bit cold, but not to the point to say “That’s so cold.”

Nogami: That much of a difference? Anyway, if it’s that hot, I want to try recording a CD in Okinawa.

Everyone: (laughs)

Nishiyama: Something surprising that happened to me recently was, in the LINE group that QUELL has, Takeuchi-kun’s been making fun of me about when I messed up my lines while reading the “SQP 2017 SUMMER” script.

Takeuchi: But, that— it was honestly so funny……!

Nakamura: Takeuchi-kun’s always making QUELL’s LINE group move along.

Nogami: Like sending my past promotional pictures out of nowhere.

Nakamura: Takeuchi-kun moves it along first, and reading that, we get smiles on our faces, but all of it starts with him making fun of Nishiyama Koutarou.

Nishiyama: (laughs)

Takeuchi: Huh~? Really?

Nakamura: Really. Absolutely.

Nogami: When I think a message has come, a picture of Kou-chan from some years ago is attached to it. (laughs)

Nishiyama: The pictures that come up are ones that I don’t even remember taking. (laughs)

Nogami: He goes, “This is Nishiyama-san from two or three years ago.” (laughs)

Nishiyama: It makes me think, “What kind of information is that!”

Takeuchi: Everyone’s different from who they were before, right? So I dug them up and thought, “So this is how you were in the past.” ……

Nakamura: So we had no choice to paste our own pictures from before.

Takeuchi: When we asked Nakamura-san to send his own photos, he sent a picture of Johnny De*p.

Nishiyama: He really changed, didn’t he!

—And with that, Takeuchi-san must have met his match.

Nogami: So that it wouldn’t happen, he sent his own picture after.

Takeuchi: I took the first shot!

Nakamura: But Nishiyama Koutarou wrote a revenge note after.

Nishiyama: I didn’t write it! Don’t say weird things~. If it’s put into text, people might think it’s “real”!

Nakamura: You said that “It ended with the 37th one,” didn’t you. (laughs)

Nishiyama: You’re really holding in what’s written. (laughs) But I didn’t write it!

—Returning to the main topic, was there something surprising that happened recently to Takeuchi-san?

Takeuchi: If we’re talking about QUELL, when I suggested just to “go out to eat,” we haven’t even gone once……

Nakamura: We did go!

Nishiyama: Once.

Takeuchi: Isn’t that how it would usually go after recording?

Nakamura: That is how it usually goes after recording. We were of the same mind, weren’t we?

Nishiyama: We sure were.

Takeuchi: Being able to match up all our schedules and go out is a bit……

Nakamura: Our LINE group is moving a lot, though.

Nogami: They’re all strange topics. (laughs)

Nakamura: I don’t know how the other “TSUKIPRO” units communicate, so I don’t know if they go out to eat, but I think we’re pretty much moving around enough!

Nishiyama: Then, let’s decide a date and go.

Nakamura: We’ll decide a date and go next time. I was thinking recently that, for the “TSUKIPRO Live 2018” in June, we can make a deeper relationship as our first step. Since all of us couldn’t make it to the party for “Proani” that day, I sent: “Let’s go out to eat for the June live.” But Takeuchi-kun was the only one who returned the message. (laughs)

Everyone: (laughs)

Nakamura: You guys are so mean~.

Nogami: I was in the middle of work that time! And Kou-chan ignored it, too.

Nishiyama: No, no. Even if you’re saying that, Nogami-san, you should have responded in some way, right?

Nogami: ……This is turning into a talk of blaming each other now! (laughs)

Nakamura: I’ve gotten to like Takeuchi-kun more recently. (laughs)

—We’d like to hear your conversation about “having gone out to eat” the next time we interview you.

Nishiyama: Such as, “We went out (to eat)!”

Nakamura: That’s right~.

Nogami: I don’t know which of these members will even be able to remember this conversation, though. (laughs)

Takeuchi: As for the answer to if I’ll go…… I may or may not go.

Nogami: You’ll say, “Today, my stomach hurts, so I can’t go,” or something?

Nishiyama: That’s possible, that’s possible.

—This time, there was a scene in which Issei and Ichiru aimed for a certain goal by going, “I’ll do my best!” If you have any, please tell us the recent things you have been challenging yourself with.

Nishiyama: “Waking up early” for me.

Nakamura: Ah~ He said it……

Takeuchi: Eh? Nishiyama-san, are you bad with waking up early?

Nishiyama: I fall asleep two or three times. My goal is to be able to leave the bed after waking up once.

Nakamura: That’s surprisingly hard to do, isn’t it~.

Nogami: Once you’ve left the bed, you’re done and you go, “All right! I’m out!”

Nishiyama: That’s right. And then, it’s: “Then, time to sleep one more time!” and I fall asleep. (wry laugh)

Nakamura: Do you wake up at 5 (in the morning)?

Nishiyama: 5 would probably be impossible……

Nakamura: What time do you wake up, then?

Nishiyama: Around 7.

Takeuchi: That’s so early……

Nakamura: I can get up at 7~. I woke up at 7 today, too.

Nogami: I was awake at 6:30.

Takeuchi: I’ve never once woke up before 8.

Nakamura: Seriously?

Takeuchi: That happens when you’re young, right?

Nakamura: Of course. (laughs)

—If you didn’t wake up in time, you wouldn’t be able to make it to school after all. (laughs)

Takeuchi: I’d be usually awake between 8:30 to 9.

Nogami: You could make it in time for most classes.

Takeuchi: I’d make it, I’d make it.

Nogami: But for something in the recording studio~. What I’m working hard on is, for example, you know how the job’s script comes a lot earlier before you actually record it? Instead of going, “I still have some time before the recording~. Then I guess it’s okay to keep it sitting there for a while,” for it, you read it once and let yourself get used to it when you receive it, and that’s when you can let it sit. I’m doing my best to not procrastinate for the script and the plans. When I procrastinate too much, and I go, “I can just put the schedule book all together later,” it ends up being like— “It was tomorrow……?” Once a call comes from the agency, I do it while going, “I’ll put it together! I’ll do it right now!” so that my careless mistakes might go away.

Nakamura: Hmm~mm, that’d be a problem.

Nishiyama: That’s important, isn’t it.

Nakamura: I’m always trying my best to get the wins in the candy that have winning ones in them.

Takeuchi: You do that kind of YouTuber-ish thing?

Nakamura: It’s not as if I’m trying to hit it in one try, though? Every day or whatever day it is, when it comes along I buy one and try my best to hit it…… What I really want to get is the “Kin no A*gel,”** but I’m not getting it at all.

Nogami: I got a “silver” a while ago.

Nakamura: No way! Even though the “gold” is supposed to show up twice as often, I eat them but they just won’t come.

Takeuchi: How many of each are in them again?

Nakamura: There are 5 “silver” ones and 1 “gold” one. I think the “Om*cha no Kanzume”** is a local legend, so I want to try it out.

—How many do you think you’ve bought in this span of time?

Nakamura: It came out pretty recently, but I’ve eaten about 60 or 70 of them already.

Nogami: Seriously!? (laughs)

Takeuchi: So you eat one a day.

Nakamura: Some days, I eat three a day. By the way, the peanut flavor is the tastiest.

Nogami: Are you selling something in a commercial? (laughs)

—Takeuchi-san, is there something recently that you have been challenging yourself with working hard on?

Takeuchi: Nothing serious comes to mind. (wry laugh) Recently, I’ve been trying to eat food properly. I don’t eat that much food, so I think I might get ill. I used to eat once a day for the longest time…… Once, I didn’t eat for an entire week. As such, I’ve been eating with the idea that I should get used to eating lunch and dinner at least.

Nogami: It’s with the feeling that “I’ll eat when I’m hungry,” right?

Takeuchi: Yes, yes. I think it’s all right if I don’t eat when I’m not hungry.

Nogami: I get you, I get you.

Takeuchi: Also, I think I focus better when I’m hungry, so I put that into practice as well. However, a senpai who did the same thing as I did said, “I also ate only once during a day. I thought that it was sad that, not being able to eat in your life is such a sad thing, so I worked to be able to eat,” and hearing that, I agreed. Not eating despite being able to eat might be in reverse of a luxury, so I’ve been trying to eat more lately.

Nogami: Saying that you’re doing your best to eat food…… (wry laugh)

Nakamura: A time that I’ll definitely eat until I get completely full is before a recording.

Nogami: I guess I eat till I’m full before a recording too~.

Nakamura: Because you don’t want your stomach to growl “GRR” during it.

Nogami: Actually, any time other than that, it’s completely fine, I guess.

Takeuchi: I don’t eat at all on days off.

Nakamura: Seriously? Days off are made for going out to eat good food.

Takeuchi: As long as it’s to drink some tea.

Nogami: Are you a grandpa!

—Is that why you haven’t made many plans to go out and eat?

Nogami: We’re not really interested in that kind of stuff. (laughs)

Takeuchi: Are there any gourmet people here?

Nogami: These two (Nishiyama-san and Nakamura-san) are gourmets.

Nakamura: I’m not a gourmet, but I like eating yummy things.

Nogami: We’re good enough with gyuudon.

Nishiyama: Foods that you “like” and “are interested in” are different.

Takeuchi: Fast food and gyuudon are completely fine.

Nogami: It fills you up, doesn’t it. It’s nice to go to a café for tea with friends at least.

Nakamura: I want to eat some good food~.

Nogami: Do you have any recommendations?

Takeuchi: What foods have you been finding good lately?

Nakamura: Cambodian food.

Nogami: That sort of thing wouldn’t pop out of our mouths~. First of all, it (Cambodian food) wouldn’t come into my mind.

Takeuchi: What’s the staple of Cambodian food? Is it that wheat flour-like thing?

Nakamura: I don’t really understand, but it tastes good.

Nogami: You totally can’t do a food report. (laughs)

Everyone: (laughs)

Nishiyama: His heart can’t be moved at all.

Takeuchi: The mystery ended as a mystery as it was.

Nakamura: Foreign foods taste good! Like Thai food!

Nishiyama: That’s how you’re finishing it? (laughs)

—Please state a message for all your fans.

Nogami: I believe that we’ve become able to converse this way as proof of how long the series has continued. We only talked about more serious things during the first CD’s interview.

Nakamura: Such as, “what are you interested in?”

Takeuchi: We might have thought…… We have to make it feel fresh.

Nogami: What happened in these two years!

Takeuchi: (laughs). I even wonder to myself, “what happened?” For the most part, the degree of the closeness among our fellow voice actors also changed. Since we go, “Hey, hey~” to make fun of Nishiyama-san as well.

Nishiyama: I realized that I was being made fun of.

Everyone: (laughs)

Nakamura: I believe that it’s QUELL with Nishiyama Koutarou.

Nogami: You’re right; you do get that feeling.

Takeuchi: Because Nishiyama-san will endure all of it.

Nishiyama: ……I… feel like I was really being made fun of just now.

Nakamura: No, no, we’re serious.

Takeuchi: Everyone’s decided that, position-wise, you take the same place as Eichi.

Nogami: Then, what positions are we?

Takeuchi: I wonder?

Everyone: (laughs)

Nogami: I believe this relationship has become one that, in a good sense, you can feel how we can relax around one another, compared to how we were when we first got together. I’d be glad if you could see it reflected in the characters as well!

Takeuchi: Please take care of QUELL from now on as well.

Nakamura: It’s a happy thing that we can laugh among ourselves this way; QUELL has a family-like atmosphere to it, so I think it would be good that our relationship can show up in that too. I think that’ll allow you to enjoy the world of “TSUKIPRO” from now on as well.

Nishiyama: In the anime, you can see how QUELL is a unit with a family-ish mood to it, and you can feel the twins’ growth; for this drama CD, they have their respective worries and pasts. I think you could enjoy that kind of thing greatly, so please do take care of QUELL from now on as well.

———

* 25 degrees Celsius = 77 degrees Fahrenheit

* 40 degrees Celsius = 104 degrees Fahrenheit

** The “金のエ●ゼル” and 「お●ちゃのカンヅメ」, “Kin no Angel” and “Omocha no Kanzume” respectively are two chocolates in Japan. You can see the official site here: