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At the AnimeJapan2023 held in Tokyo Big Sight on March 23, a special stage was held for the television anime The Ancient Magus’ Bride Season 2 to celebrate its recent premiere in March. The special talk show starred the anime’s main cast including Atsumi Tanezaki, Ryōta Takeuchi, Minami Tsuda, Maki Kawase, Seiichiro Yamashita, Daiki Kobayashi, Reina Ueda, and Kōtarō Nishiyama, who shared their behind-the-scene stories on stage.
In this stage report, we’ll be going over the talk show’s proceedings, alongside photos of the voice casts in action.
▍The Ancient Magus’ Bride Season 2 Special Stage at AnimeJapan2023
The stage event kicked things off with a short introductory speech by Atsumi Tanezaki, who lends her talent in the anime voicing Chise Hatori. “It has been a long time, but after five long years… Welcome back!” exclaimed Tanezaki in greeting the fans who have awaited the return of The Ancient Magus’ Bride anime since it concluded its first season, back in 2017.
Minami Tsuda, who voices Lucy in the anime followed afterward, putting on her character’s voice. The other voice casts after Tsuda also followed suit in introducing themselves with their voices as well, not before being called out by the other casts to not go off the script right away. Tsuda then exclaimed she thought she had to pull something out as well after Tanezaki started off with the “Welcome back!” quote.
The first season of The Ancient Magus’ Bride dealt with the introduction of the characters Chise Hatori (CV: Atsumi Tanezaki) and the titular magus Elias Ainsworth (CV: Ryōta Takeuchi) as they make a fateful encounter and begin a rather peculiar relationship. The upcoming second season, on the other hand, starts things off on an exciting note with the story bringing Chise and Elias to the College, an institute where Sorcerer (instead of Mage like Elias) gather. The plot unfolds with Chise plunging herself into a society built on sorcery and not magic, something she has been completely alien to.
Takeuchi commented on the second season’s premise, saying: “This new season has a distinct shift in tone and atmosphere”, also noting how he enjoyed voicing moments where Elias interacted with the other students of the sorcery college. Tanezaki added that the recording ambiance being louder and filled with distant commotions, was a completely different experience compared to the recording sessions in Season 1, where scenes took place in quieter environments for the most part.
Tsuda Minami, who voices Lucy Webster in The Ancient Magus’ Bride anime, gave some insights on her recording sessions. Tsuda noted how she made sure to capture Lucy’s unapproachable atmosphere while also keeping in mind how she’s still meant to be the same age as Chise.
The voice actress for Philomela Sergeant, Maki Kawase explained that Philomela is a “conflicted girl that’s weighed down by her burdens. She can’t seem to accept herself for who she is”. Kawase further mentioned how she has high self-esteem but at home tends to get depressed easily. She would go on to say that her performance hoped to pull from those personal feelings.
Seiichirō Yamashita, who voices Rian Scrimgeour, commented that his recording experience noting how the process felt like “threading a needle through a hole” with how Rian seems to change his tone drastically depending on who he’s in the scene with.
Zoe Ivy’s voice actor Daiki Kobayashi mentioned in his segment that he made sure to bring enthusiasm to his line reads, but also keeping in mind his character’s more subtle nuances that revolve around the headphones Zoe is never seen without.
Reina Ueda expressed excitement about her role as Veronica Rickenbacker as she can’t wait to see what will happen next to her character. Though Veronica presents herself as a carefree and cheerful girl, she has layers she hasn’t quite shown off in the show just yet.
Isaac Farrer’s voice Kōtarō Nishiyama pointed out the character design of Isaac in his segment, noting how his typical method of ascertaining the character’s personality through how their eyes were drawn, failed him this time due to how Isaac’s eyes are never drawn in the show. Nishiyama, however, also noted a specific scene in the anime of him clinking tongs, jokingly mentioning that he, too clanked his fair share of tongs when picking food up.
Ryōta Takeuchi, who takes the role of The Ancient Magus’ Bride anime’s titular magus Elias Ainsworth, noted in his part that in reading his lines, even something as minute as how he breathes between each line was important.
In comparison to The Ancient Magus’ Bride season 1, Takeuchi pointed out how much more expressive Elias is in the 2nd season. Tanezaki would also interject during the segment humorously commenting that “Even though Elias is just bones, you can practically see expressions on him when he talks!” praising Takeuchi’s performance.
The event also announced that The Ancient Magus’ Bride anime will be getting a physical release in the form of a Blu-ray box, with the WEB radio show continuing with a new title: “The Ancient Magus’ Bride Season 2 Mahoyome Radio”, now being also available to tune-in via Spotify.
The Ancient Magus’ Bride Season 2 Special Stage at AnimeJapan2023 ended with a sharing by the leading cast Tanezaki. She explained that compared to the first season, the second season of The Ancient Magus’ Bride plays out more like an ensemble drama with a larger scope of characters getting equal attention throughout the story.
Tanezaki added that the anime is filled with characters with many layers, which all have their moments throughout its run-time. She closed out the talk event by plugging the web radio series, mentioning how everything that wasn’t covered today would be on the radio.
▍The Ancient Magus’ Bride Season 2 Staff & Production
Original Story: Mahoutsukai no Yome by Kore Yamazaki (Published by MAG Garden)
Director: Kazuaki Terasawa
Screenplay: Aya Takahane, Yoko Yonaiyama, Chiaki Nishinaka
Character Design: Hirotaka Kato
Chief Animation Directors: Kohei Tokuoka
Color Design: Yuko Kobari
Art Director: Seiki Tamura
Director of Photography: Asayo Suzuki
CGI Director: Katsuaki Miyaji
Special effects: Chiptune
Editor: Daisuke Imai
Scored by: Junichi Matsumoto
Music Production: FlyingDog
Sound Director: Shoji Hata
Sound Effects: Noriko Izumo
Sound Production: Sound team・Don Juan
Animation Production: Studio Kafka
▍The Ancient Magus’ Bride Season 2 Cast
■ Chise Hatori – CV: Atsumi Tanezaki
■ Elias Ainsworth – CV: Ryōta Takeuchi
■ Ruth – CV: Koki Uchiyama
■ Silky – CV: Aya Endo
■ Lucy Webster – CV: Minami Tsuda
■ Philomela Sergeant – CV: Maki Kawase
■ Rian Scrimgeour – CV: Seiichirō Yamashita
■ Zoe lvy – CV: Daiki Kobayashi
■ Veronica Rickenbacker – CV: Reina Ueda
■ Isaac Farrar – CV: Kōtarō Nishiyama
■ Mikhail Renfred – CV: Satoshi Hino
■ Alice – CV: Mutsumi Tamura
■ Violet St. George – CV: Daiki Yamashita
■ Jasmine St. George – CV: Minami Tanaka
■ May Atwood – CV: Mari Uchiyama
■ April Atwood – CV: Miki Natsutani
■ Narcisse Maugham – CV: Kousuke Toriumi
■ Liza Quillyn – CV: Mami Koyama
■ Lizbeth Sergeant – CV: Sayuri Sadaoka
The original article was written by the editors of SPICE.
Find the original article here: https://spice.eplus.jp/articles/316458
