by The TV anime Sentai Dai Shikkaku will be broadcast every Sunday at 4:30 p.m. starting April 7th on 28 TBS networks nationwide. To commemorate this, we would like to introduce some official interviews with the cast: Daitsugu Kajita, Yumika Yano, and Yuichi Nakamura.
The hidden face of a viral hero…!? Red Keeper appears
Yano, I’m nervous, but thank you! Mr. Nakamura, what was your first impression of the character Red Keeper?
Nakamura: Red Keeper acts according to his ideas, but he’s a character I can’t say anything about. Even if we get close to his inner thoughts, we still need to figure them out because they have yet to be portrayed. The only way to get an idea is from his position and how he is presented in this work.
If you look at him that way, he’s simply the enemy. He has overwhelming strength and stands in the way of the main character, Combatant D. The members of Dragon Keeper are in the same position, but even compared to those members, I don’t know what Red Keeper is thinking. That was important when playing him. Before starting the dubbing, director Keiichi Sato did not give specific instructions, but did the two of you receive any specific instructions?
Yano: Kajita-kun, Yusuke Kobayashi-san, and I read the book together with director Sato.
Kajita: I was told, “Hisaki Sakurama is pushing for purity,” each gave me key points.
Nakamura: I heard that the main cast had read the book, so that’s what happened.
Kajita: I heard from director Sato that he told her to try saying it differently during Nakamura-san’s audition.
Nakamura: During the audition for Red Keeper, I was given directions like “What would happen if I did this?” so once I was chosen to play the role of Red Keeper, I created that as the baseline. What I adjusted was not the internal aspects but the form. We discussed how much we should cover things, like how people hear things. I don’t want to see the Red Keeper’s thoughts or principles of action, but to show his heroic front face and his cruel face behind the scenes and clearly show the difference between him and the fact that if it becomes an obstacle to his goal, he will be eliminated without any concern. Director Sato told me that it was fine.
Yano: How do you view the dual nature of the Red Keeper?
Nakamura: It isn’t easy. You can’t see the part of him that says, “Actually, this is what he’s thinking,” and that’s why the character looks like a psychopath. That’s what makes him so attractive as a character. I’m not the kind of person whose emotions are reflected clearly in the lines, so I need to figure out what he’s thinking at all times rather than being dual-minded.
However, it is clear that people have rules about how to do justice and only get angry when they don’t follow them. He casually kills his own subordinates, but he doesn’t even seem to feel any remorse. If you think about it that way, there isn’t a duality. The other Dragon Keepers have different looks regarding their media and off-duty appearances, but Red Keeper does little between on-off and on-off appearances. On the other hand, it’s scary that you don’t feel any sense of humanity.
Yano: The character I play, Yumeko Sukikiri, is like Red, and I don’t know what she’s thinking. I don’t see the backbone of the two of them, so I was interested in how Nakamura-san could play the role of the Red Keeper. I secretly watched the dubbing from behind because I wanted to use it as a reference, but the level was too high for me (lol). He flawlessly performed the part I was struggling with, but I realized I couldn’t imitate that technique, so I gave up and did what I could.
Kajita: I was also watching from the side but couldn’t understand.
Nakamura: Even if I don’t know what the character is feeling or thinking when I read the script or watch the footage, I understand that “I want it to look like this right now,” so I consider that and act accordingly. There is nothing else. As expected, Red Keeper and Yumeko are difficult.
Yano: I was relieved to hear that (lol).
Nakamura: Only the original author knows this part. Many parts have yet to be drawn.
Kajita: Red Keeper and Yumeko probably need help to grasp, even for the viewers.
Yumeko Nakamura’s eye highlights are gone, and Red Keeper’s eyes are bound to be cancerous. It might look creepy to the audience as they cannot even tell who they are looking at. Red Keeper is difficult to approach because it has no human touch. Even when I look at the interactions with the monster and other characters, I don’t understand the point of being angry here. He gets angry suddenly, and he’s the type of person who only accepts yes or no, so if you met him in real life.
Kajita: Were there any parts you were worried about while playing the role?
Nakamura: It didn’t bother me that much. So far, only the superficial aspects have been depicted. The director probably has a policy, so go with it. Surprisingly, I didn’t have to worry about it because all I had to do was ask about the production aspect.
What is the human charm of Red Keeper?
Yano: When we had a roundtable discussion with the female cast, Azumi Waki, who plays Kanon Hisui, was a massive supporter of Red Keeper.
Nakamura: You like strange men (lol).
Yano: “I’m the kind of person who easily lets go of someone if I think I no longer need them, so if I were to fall in love with someone, even if they’re cold at first, I hope they’ll gradually fall in love with me and become unable to do without me.”
Yano: From your point of view, Nakamura-san, are there any aspects of Red Keeper that appeal to you?
Nakamura: Well, not really.
Kajita: That was an immediate answer (lol).
Nakamura: His characteristic is that he goes straightforward without wavering. Judging by his words and actions, he has no intention of doing anything wrong. “This is the balance of today’s world, so there’s nothing wrong with correcting it.” This is a tremendous electorate ideology. His message is that everyone should fulfill their respective roles. Whether you can love him or not depends on tolerating that.
Kajita: Combatant D, who stands alone against the Dragon Keeper, is also very serious.
Nakamura: The idea of suddenly entering the squadron headquarters and trying to kill the Red Keeper is reckless or frightening (lol). The power of action is fantastic, though. How are fighters born in the first place?
Kajita: That area is still shrouded in mystery.
Nakamura: There are so many different types of combatants, and there are those who want to follow the rules of this world, there are those who disagree with it like D, and there are those who vacillate between them. All I know is that I’m not human. He won’t die, and even if his body is injured, he can be brought back. The point is I need help understanding all the characters in this work. Predictions such as “This person is on this side” or “This person has no ulterior motives” are unlikely to come true; most characters have two or three sides. I hope you enjoy it.
Kajita: Even though I’m acting, my character and the characters around me are mysterious.
Nakamura: While participating, I realized this is challenging work. The main character has more mysteries, so it’s more complicated. What is depicted in this anime is still in the early stages of the original work. I’m acting by featuring the range I can see, but the range of expression will change as I catch up with the original work or as the original changes significantly.
Kajita: As someone who belongs to the same squadron, I think the Red Keepers are scary, but when I see them fighting as part of a large squadron from the general public’s perspective, it’s fantastic. I can feel that from Nakamura-san’s acting. When I’m involved in this work, I often think, “What is justice? What is evil?” What do you think about it, Mr. Nakamura?
Nakamura: The story moves from the perspective of the main character, D, so the Dragon Keeper’s side can only be seen as evil. However, when seen from the perspective of ordinary citizens or the victims behind the scenes, the values of right and wrong change. In the end, it is expressed that it is only an individual’s subjective opinion, which is the case. It is said that the person who becomes the enemy of that person is evil.
Yano: Each character has a different set of values, so the work has mixed views on justice.
Nakamura: That’s what it means. No one thinks of themselves as the villain. Even monsters are just being forced to play a role. Since he was fulfilling his duties, it could be said that his actions were just. D wants to reveal that distorted relationship. They say they can’t accept this kind of treatment, even though they are forced to do it. What would happen if the world knew the truth? They don’t want to do it in a fun-filled way. Right, right, and wrong are just different points of view.
This work is based on the manga of the same name that began serialization in Weekly Shonen Magazine in February 2021, and the main character is D, a nameless combatant who fights as a lowly combatant of monsters who are repeatedly defeated and scattered in ground invasions.
The Dragon Keepers of the Ryujin Sentai were able to stop the monster invasion and earn the envy of all humanity, but this battle was actually a farce in which the monsters were bound to lose. The story is about a nameless fighter, D, who stands up to crush the super sentai, which allows the monsters to do whatever they want.
