[Notes] ‘Ni no Kuni’ Premiere 2019.07.25

Yamazaki Kento attended the Japan Premiere of anime film ‘Ni no Kuni’ yesterday held in Tokyo. Also present on stage were fellow cast Arata Mackenyu, Nagano Mei, Miyano Mamoru, Kaji Yuki, Tsuda Kenjiro, Producer Hino and Director Momose.

This is only the second time Nagano Mei has met Kento. The first time was probably the day they did interviews with the media, like this interview that I translated earlier. Seems like it’s Macken’s third time acting with both Kento and Mei.
Kaji Yuki made it to the event at the last minute and entered the stage from the side instead. He gave Kento and Macken high fives as he walked past them.
Before Kento did the recording for the movie, he approached Kaji for advice as it was his first time doing voice acting. Kento wanted to do his best after reading the script, so Kaji gave him as much advice as he could.
Kento also revealed that there was once he did a recording on the same day as Kaji, and when they met at the studio they were exchanging ‘good morning’ greetings normally, but Kaji’s sudden switch to Danpa moved Kento. [T/N: Kaji voices for Danpa who is a little creature/fairy who takes care of Princess Asha in the story]
Macken said when he was doing the recording beside Kento, he found it cute that Kento’s hand kept “appearing and disappearing” by the side. Apparently Kento was, unknowingly, doing the finger pointing action for almost every sentence he said LOL. Macken on the other hand hardly moved at all while saying his lines.
When Kento watched the completed movie “and heard my own voice in the drawings that Momose-san created, together with the beautiful music, I felt genuinely moved that I existed in that world.”
One of the questions asked was, “If another of you can appear in a second world (ni no kuni), what would you like to be?” Kento said he wants to fly in the sky, so he wants to be “a bird-man” LOL. Kaji Yuki said that he wants to be “Yamazaki Kento who can fly.”

Then they played an Ultimate Choice game and were asked to choose between A and B.

A: I want to meet my past self
B: I want to know my future self

At first it was Kaji, Macken, Mei & Tsuda at A, and Kento & Miyano at B.

Kaji was like, “Kento are you just being nice (and going with Miyano cos nobody else was with him)?” Kento denied lol. Miyano explained that it’s just that he wants to know about his future self, and Kento added “yes, so that you can make changes to your present self, right?”

Then, Tsuda was like “Eh? It’s ‘to know’? not ‘to meet’?”…and he went over to B lol. After realizing it’s not to meet but only to ‘know’ about their future selves, Mei and Macken also went over to B. And Kaji was left alone in A haha~

Kaji said he thought about this many times in his life, and he feels that it’s not a good thing to know about the future, like if you know it’s good then won’t you lose the excitement now? or if you know it’s bad then won’t you get demoralised and give up now? etc etc. After hearing his “passionate speech”, Macken was swayed and went back to A! Kento was also wavering, “I see. Should I go over as well?”, and with Macken encouraging him “Kento, come over!”, Kento slowly walked over to A haha.

Well, those who chose B went with the assumption that the future can be changed even after knowing your future self… and those who went with A are assuming that the future can’t be changed no matter what you do… so… I can go either way and it’s indeed a tough choice ne XD

Here are selected photos from the event from various online media.