[CAST INTERVIEW] Dance With Devils ~PSVita~

Dance with Devils is a new collaboration project between game developer Rejet, music production Studio Elements Garden, and music production company AVEX. This projects including anime, game, and musical stage. For anime television series, Dance With Devils began airing on Tokyo MX, Sun TV, and BS Fuji starting on 7 October 2015. The opening theme song for anime is “Kakusei no Air” sung by Wataru Hatano, and the closing theme song is “Mademo★iselle” by Pentacle★, a group composed of five main characters on Dance with Devils.  Previously, manga titled Dance with Devils -Blight-  began serialization in Square Enix’s G Fantasy magazine on 18 September 2015, it tells an original story different from that of the anime.

The story revolves around Ritsuka Tachibana, a female second-year high school student who attends Shiko Academy in Shiko Town.  She becomes entangled in a conflict between devils and vampires at her school, with both sides believing she is the last remaining key to discovering the location of the forbidden grimoire, a powerful item that will give mastery over the world to whichever side obtains it first.

Let’s get closer to the devils first before we continue to the interview!

Lind Tachibana (Seiyuu: Wataru Hatano)
Third year in high school and also elder brother of  the heroine, Ritsuka. He is an exorcist who hunts devils and has a stoic-cool personality. Actually he is Ritsuka’s cousin who born a year before. Lind’s real mother, Marta Tachibana died when he was young, and Maria Tachibana raised him and her daughter, Ritsuka as siblings since then. He is very protective of Ritsuka, due to his feelings for her that go beyond family affection. When he is enraged, especially regarding someone threatening Ritsuka, his eyes will turn red and his fingernails transform into claws.

Rem Kaginuki (Seiyuu: Souma Saitou)
President of Shikou Academy’s Student Council. He has a hard-working personality, but in fact he is a devil. He is the heir of the Arlond family. At first, he only sees Ritsuka as a ‘pawn’ in order to find out the location of the grimoire, but over time, he starts to care for her.

Urie Sogami (Seiyuu: Takashi Kondou)
Vice president of Shikou Academy’s Student Council. He is an elite dream devil who is known by people throughout the devil world, and also very popular among the ladies at school. While he is not equal to Rem in status, they are closely matched in power.

Mage Nanashiro (Seiyuu: Subaru Kimura)
Secretary of Shikou Academy’s Student Council. An athletic and self-confident devil, he also very confident and self-centered as a devil who lives impulsively.

Shiki Natsumezaka (Seiyuu: Daisuke Hirakawa)
Treasurer of Shikou Academy’s Student Council. Aloof – strange – masochist fallen angel, very strange person even within the academy.

Loewen (Seiyuu: Tatsuhisa Suzuki)
Rem’s pet Pomeranian. He is terrified of Shiki due to the latter’s tendency to torment him. It is revealed in episode seven that he is in fact Cerberus, the same as the mysterious person who can pass in and out of the third library freely, and is the servant of Lord Maksis; he wishes to procure the grimoire to help his master’s fading strength.

Game developer Rejet announced in a Niconico Live stream on Wednesday that it is developing a Dance with Devils game for PlayStation Vita. The game is slated for March 24, 2016. The romance adventure game follows the same story as the Dance with Devils anime. Players play as Ritsuka Tachibana, a female second-year high school student who attends Shiko Academy in Shiko Town. She enjoyed her school life while living with her mother Maria, but one day, that balance fell into ruin. The game is a story of Ritsuka being loved and being attracted to demons.

Players can choose to start a relationship with Rem, Lind, Urie, Mage, Shiki, and an as-yet unnamed character (the same character that Tatsuhisa Suzuki voices in the anime). The game will contain over 100 event illustrations. Wataru Hatano (who voices Lind Tachibana) will perform an exclusive theme song for the game, while Elements Garden will compose the song.

Regarding the game first released last March, Dengeki Online made an exclusive interview with the devils. Just check their comments about related Dance With Devils Game and Anime!

(+) Hi Devils! Please tell us your impressions after recording for the game version!
Lind: I feel relieved after accomplished this task but at the same time I had been tormented in pain at my neck and shoulder for some unknown reason LOL. Yeah, that kind of recording also happened, but honestly I kinda afraid whether I already become a good exorcist or not yet. In addition, this recording is still related to the anime and music/song. We went to recording session for the song one week after we finished recording for anime. Sometimes the schedule was weird and sometimes the schedule was very hectic, but I’m glad since I could face the character deeper (thanks for the novel) then before. I think it was the happiest year ever.

Rem: Very tired with the recording since there are two routes in this game “Akuma Route” and “Hito Route”. It took a very long time but after all I’m happy my task could be well done. I didn’t realize that I spent 2015 together with Dance With Devils anime and it’s already one year passed! So I think the game appearance (include all its content) should be like a break time for all. The complete recording actually took a long time but feels like just a second for me. I could say that 2015 is a year for Dance With Devils! yeah! Lastly I wanna say we aim for the turning point of Dance With Devils, and finally reached a major milestone safely because of the recording completion LOL

Urie: I feel like the recording was a long distance marathon, but important thing is I’m very glad that we could finished it on time. I think this kind of story tale, in present point could give us a little break.

Mage: What a long recording! LOL This is my first time took this long of time for recording. Not only for me or for Mage, but after all this long recording is also felt by the other casting for this game. That was a lot of words in our script, for myself I feel like I’ve been a “NANAJOU MAGE” for a while, hahaha.. Anyway I’m so happy to cast various Mage for this game! Dance With Devils is Otome Game indeed, but I think it should be has another genre on it, I mean not only Otome Game. Maybe it looks like just a game recording with dummy head mic, but it must be difficult or irritating for those who doesn’t used to use that kind of mic for recording. I even want to go out and drink with that dummy head and become close friend so its level will raise up and I can call it “MY MIC” in the future LOL What next? In my opinion, it’s a good experience for me, for seiyuu who casts on Dance With Devils. In the first time I didn’t know anything but learn from others and we help each other until the end of recording session, what a relieve! I’m so happy! In anime recording, we often done the recording together, but in game recording, sometimes we have to record separately between each characters and it took a very very long time until I wanted to cry and scream “I wanna meet the others!!” like that, haha..

Shiki: Recording as Shiki Natsumezaka in anime for me, just as simple as cameo character. Neither I feel he gets any close relationship with shujinkou nor he has a lot of words to say. Shiki in anime or in game is kind of unknown personality, he is so nothing. I even discussed about this matter with my staff and it was really helpful because they’re help me step by step. It was very challenging for me since Shiki is weird, we don’t understand the way he thinks, he always talk with complicated words, so I should struggling with his spirit and nuances. His understanding is beyond people’s imagination, he moves and goes as he like. Sometimes after moving forward, he turn around, distress, and then repeat the steps. So frustrating but somehow it’s over, and I’m really glad LOL Moving to the story, Shiki and Shujinkou friendship is more unpredictable, I also a bit surprised about that. So this is how Shiki becoming now. In addition, because of his bloody story, I was so tired recording in state of using all my power physically and mentally. LOL

Loewen: The recording was very fun! I asked some question out from the script and all staff were happy to help me, thank you very much. It must be a good experience for me.

(+) Is there any highlight, or recommendation for each route between “Hito Route” and “Akuma Route”? Please explain shortly!
Lind: As long as you can see, Lind is not a devil. If you already watched the anime, maybe you know about what situation is Lind faced, even though his birth is still hidden as well. Maybe the story prepare the secret unique part of him. By the way, the director ever said to me like this “Hatano-san, you’re really good at “akuma route” part as Lind!”. So I think, I’ll answer “akuma route” for this question LOL. Anyway actually Lind’s passion in his love route is kind of extraordinary so deep yet so complex. In the anime, which is very short, we only could see the surface of each characters. Meanwhile in the game version, we can dig more deeper about characteristic of the devils itself . Sometimes you must be questioning yourself with “what kind of personality that he has?” which cannot be guessed from the anime version. So I’m pretty sure you will love all 6 characters more after you finished your game. In the public place, you can see Lind as a bit of sister complex or just a freak exorcist complex, but when I was at recording for game version I realized that “Lind in the anime is still shallow” and the previous comment was so naive. You all should know that Lind is actually really “HOT” in the game version LOL

Rem: What to say, actually “Hito Route” for Rem in this game is not so much different with the anime version. I even could say that this route is based on anime story, but of course in the game version you can dig deeper about Rem personality and characteristic. In anime, we know that beside singing, Rem rarely talked by himself or has monologue scene. Actually, we could find it’s kinda difficult to understand what he’s thinking, right? But in game version,  Rem’s route is drawn well for players to learn more about him, that’s what I like, and I supposed you must be like it too. In addition, for myself, I really really love Rem’s battle scene, not only using magic (like in anime version), he also uses sword to do some exorcist activity, and even fling himself to the enemy sometimes! I’m looking forward to see it! For love corner, let’s see, as the successor from Arlond family, his move consistently between becoming Rem  Arlond and Rem Kaginuki. So in my opinion, even though Rem is finally could put his true feelings, he still often to burden someone’s talk by saying “but I….” a bit too much LOL. As the strong confusing character here, I hope you all can see by yourselves how Rem is suffering between interval of his mind and his position to clear the route. Please enjoy!

Urie: For Urie, “Hito Route” and “Akuma Route” got a big different story development. Of course I will not tell you here about the story, just play and choose by yourselves, okay! LOL So which route is your favorite?

Mage: Each route has a different development and of course deep feeling from the story, but anyway I should recommend you the swimsuit scene! In “Akuma Route” there’s a scene when all of us go to the beach, wearing swimsuit and take a banana boat ride (I can say it’s a very cute scene) LOL You will not find this scene on anime, you must look forward to play with us on swimsuit in this game! Please be satisfied with muscles! One more thing, in anime eps 5 we could see Mage sometimes doing something forcefully and continuously like pulling hard or something like that, which often makes heroine mad then he just said “I’m sorry” and suddenly turned the behavior 180 degrees. Blushing Mage is really cute, if I were shujinkou I definitely choose Mage to date, I’m 100% sure about it (LOL) So I recommend you all to play Mage’s route first, then after you all died from happiness, you can move forward to… maybe… Urie’s route?? hahaha..

Shiki: Basically, any route for Shiki is gore & bloody route LOL Even if he is a fallen angel, actually he is not an angel, not a devil, but also not human. So what is he? Shiki’s “Hito Route” talks about his trouble and complication within the storyline. What to say? Shiki is not the one who has close relationship with shujinkou instead, I hope you could pay attention about those two feelings. Oh yeah, I want to remind you, since Shiki often scream alone or sometimes seducing you by his whisper, please be aware of your headset volume LOL Highlight from me is you can find another side of Shiki which is not appear on the anime, like having deeper relation with Shiki could make your feeling turned down or Shiki could be change to hungry-of-love-creature! For “Akuma Route” itself, our director said this is the most bloody route on this game. Shiki appear to be a person who likes to destroy everything, but you can see his mental and spirit more subjective in this route. What is the real Shiki? Why he lives alone? Is there no important people for him? Is he a real angel? Or the same devil? Various question will be answered if you play! Please enjoy both route!

Loewen: Both route has strong personality from Loewen. You may find each story with different emotion, feelings, and expression. But for myself, I like “Akuma Route”.

(+)  We heard that this game has different development from the anime, what do you think about the role itself?

Lind: I think there’s no different between anime and game for me, but I’m very happy to voice Lind in game because he unleashed some of his personal part which not drawn in the anime. I also allowed to feel “I’m the No.1 brother in the world for shujinkou” atmosphere! LOL

Rem: Basically, as the character is still the same Rem Kaginuki, I don’t feel so much different casting for anime and for game version. But anyway in this game, Rem has more words to say and the scenario  got multiple divergence so we could see Rem with various facial expressions. Oh yeah, last thing! In special Drama CD bonus, which a lot of comedy in it, you should hear how Rem could be burst up! LOL

Urie: For me, I don’t feel so many differences while recording the anime version and the game version. I still the same Urie and the same feeling. But from my experience in anime, I received some feedback for game recording and that’s really good.

Mage: In anime, there are several part, which I think has deep meaning, not shown to us. It’s just pointed out how annoying is Mage, right? In game, Mage is quite different with Mage in anime, his feeling to shujinkou is much more deeper. Not only with shujinkou, but also his relationship to another characters. In addition, there’s a nice battle scene where the devils have to battle in order to blow up shujinkou relatives from darkness which come over and over again. Even if Mage’s word for that battle is as simple as “Wait! Don’t move now!” or “Shut up! I’ll go first!!” LOL and for Mage’s tsundere side, that’s my fave! Just look at his speech “I don’t really care about each of you, but, are you all okay now?” From one side of my feelings, that kind of Mage is so cute.

Shiki: In anime version, Shiki often come along together with Urie and Mage, but in game version there no scene for Shiki to be together with them. Since Shiki in anime has a distinctive characteristic, but this time I should adjust the balance of his expression and it makes me have a full throttle recording session for game version of Shiki. Obviously, I feel more enjoy after second stage of recording, maybe you can see the change of Shiki at the second half of story. Another thing I love from this game version is battle scene! We can fight with our weapon, yeay! Shiki usually use wings attack but here’s also bow and arrow, which is so cool! In anime, Shiki is not caught too much, here’s actually only approached slightly different. That means, everyone who already watched Dance With Devils will absolutely feels the really different Shiki on the game, but I hope this will be more enjoyable to you all since we’ve passed several trial error many times and all staff were really work hard to make new “Shiki Natsumezaka”.

Loewen: Nearly same, recording for anime and for game game was really fun.

(+) If there’s one wish could be granted by the real devil, what would you ask?

Lind: I’m serious, I wanna be healthy! LOL I mean, lately in recording session my shoulder is so painful, I hope that devil could cure it. Anyway, if anyone who read this interview feels not good, please go to hospital soon! I want to pay all the cost even if the amount is so unreasonable, haha.. To be honest, I was chatting with another cast at Dandebi event backstage previously about this problem. Everyone is not in the good condition except Kimura-kun. He was the only one who saying “i just need popularity!” because he already healty LOL

Rem: I don’t really have devilish wish but if you force me to answer, I will ask for “proper sleep” since I’m facing difficulty for enough sleeping and quite envy to everyone who could sleep just 3 seconds after he/she lay in futon, while I’m here still awake, haha.. People says about 1/3 of human life is sleeping! But I cannot sleep well and that makes me angry! I want to have my proper sleep! So please, if any devil put there can hear my wish here, please please grant my wish by sending your reply to my agency LOL Since you will get contract with my soul also, please to bring me that “quite sleep” to real life. This is my consideration.

Urie: I wanna ask the power of devil itself! After I got devilish power, what next?

Mage: A lot of things I wanna ask to the devils! But maybe I will choose to ask “unlimited money” instead. Because I can buy anything and happily ever after with lot of money haha.. Or should I ask for my popularity? I want to be more popular! LOL But I think, rather than ask for small scope of popularity or even the unknown scale of popularity, I prefer ask everyone on this town to look at me, I’ll become more popular, right? But I’m pretty sure about the high price the devils ask us to pay for our wish. Maybe like this “You may be the most popular people in the world until you die but I’ll make your nose bend and your foot stinky!” It’s okay if only that price anyway!!

Shiki: I think any wish is okay, but if I should choose.. humm.. I’ll ask to erase bad side of people, I hope all people in the world could live happily ever after. Since I’m not too good with horror things, I don’t want that kind of stuff is exist in this world. I’m praying for all annoying devil to get out from world and when you do devilish things, please avoid me!

Loewen: I hope my wish will not be written here.

(+) Thank you for your time, Devils! Have a great day and for the last, please send a message for the readers out there!

Lind: I hope everyone who already watch the anime will also enjoy the game version. You will  love the characters more than you love them from anime after you play this game. For everyone who just catch up with “Dance With Devils”, I hope you understand better by playing the game and feel to the outline story of each character. In addition, the announcement about Blu-ray & DVD is coming out! I’m also very happy to sing the opening theme for both anime and game. So please enjoy the world of “Dance with Devils” together from the music, anime, game, and all related works!

Rem: I’m so happy I could join this project from 2015 until now, 2016. For everyone who already watched the anime, you must be used to know the only one ending. But please also play this game version because we prepared different ending for six characters (which is very different from ending of the anime)  and each character has two routes to choose and play. Anyway, this is kinda offensive, but you all should see the development to bring out Rejet’s characteristic which heard as “THIS IS SO REJET” by playing Dance With Devils. Kindly enjoy your fate with these six people LOL I also very glad to know you all emerged with this Dandebi world, please continue dancing with the devils and enjoy this year!

Urie: I’m very happy if everyone will play Dance With Devils. Either for anyone who already watched the anime or anyone who doesn’t know Dance with Devils yet, please enjoy! Urie as we know is always attract us by love spreads around butterflies, please wait a while until you meet him!

Mage: This game is very interesting from the very beginning, you cannot come out from the absolutely dark room, hahaha.. Kindly enjoy this game until the end! I even want to play it later, I really recommend Dance With Devils to you all. Mage’s route might captivate you all because of the story is so sweet and full of happy atmosphere, you must be like it! Beware of Devilish tempation!!

Shiki: There’s a lot of comical scene for Shiki in anime, but in game version we develop harder and deeper story instead. Hope everyone could enjoy this game. For everyone who already watched the anime, hope you will like Dance With Devils more and more. For everyone who just begin to know Dance With Devils and try to play, I hope you will be love it! One advise to all of you, you better play Shiki’s route on bright area or in the afternoon, don’t try to play at night or even in the midnight, but anyway just play it okay! LOL

Loewen: In the game version, Loewen has broaden the image and upbringing, also you can look at his various personality. By all means, I hope you all could enjoy the world with Loewen. Thank you!

Interview translated from Dengeki Girls’ Style Online
Image Source: Dance With Devils Official Website