Digimon Adventure LAST EVOLUTION Kizuna‘s theatrical screening had a corresponding informational pamphlet sold on-site, which contained informational and art assets and a large number of cast and staff interviews.
(Mayu Matsuoka | Natsuki Hanae and Chika Sakamoto | Other voice actor messages | Creator group talk | Scriptwriter Akatsuki Yamatoya | BGM composer Harumi Fuuki | Music artists Ayumi Miyazaki and AiM | Producer Yousuke Kinoshita)
This post is a translation of the included interviews with the movie’s music vocalists, Ayumi Miyazaki and AiM.
Ayumi Miyazaki
From Tokyo. Singer-songwriter. Has been responsible for a great number of Digimon insert songs, including “brave heart” and “Beat Hit!”. Has also composed music for a great number of singers, and has held live performances all over the world.
–Please tell us how you felt when you first saw the lyrics for “Beyond There”.
Miyazaki: It made use of words that expressed things like “friends” and “being by each other’s side” and the bonds between the children and their partners, and, as something following in the long tradition of “Digimon music”, emotionally moved me. It felt like taking the insert songs’ best hits and putting all of their good points together.
–Please tell us how you felt when recording finished.
Miyazaki: It’s been seventeen years since I last did a completely new solo insert song for Digimon, and so I was tense and nervous, but also had fun with it, and all sorts of feelings were tangled up in it. Also, I was full of gratitude for being able to sing a completely new insert song.
When I was singing for songs in the past, I tried to express “passion” and “bonds between friends” and “power”. But for this song, “Beyond There”, I took a different approach compared to the more high-intensity songs I’d sung before, and tried to express the feeling of “quiet passion”.
–What was it like getting to be near the fans during events like DigiFes?
Miyazaki: There was a lot of passion, but I could really feel the pressure (laughs). Whenever I sang things like medleys, it would be like a moment in time with the heat getting hotter and hotter and striking your heart. You could directly feel the fans’ adrenaline drifting around in the air, so I always have fun with it, every time.
–Please tell us what you’d like people to look out for in this movie.
Miyazaki: You can feel the 20-year-old story of Digimon Adventure evolves and changes with the times. I would like my song playing during the climax of the movie will submerge you completely in the Digital World. There are newer aspects to the footage and the story, so I hope it’ll bring back the feelings you had back then.
AiM
From Hyogo Prefecture. Voice actress and singer, from Aoni Production. Goes by the name “Ai Maeda” when voice acting. Has been involved in a large number of Digimon ending songs, such as “I wish” and “Tomorrow My Wind Will Blow”.
–Please tell us how you felt when you first saw the lyrics for “Even When We Are Apart”.
AiM: The lyrics are full of things you can empathize with, and make you think “have you been watching over me up until now?” Prior to the recording, Mayo Okamoto-san came to the studio and talked with me, and at the time she told me, “the melody for the chorus just floated into my head during the staff meeting, and as soon as the meeting ended, I threw it in there.” The lyrics and the song flow along with the story’s atmosphere, among other things, and I was touched, and thought, “ah, that’s incredible.”
After hearing about how Kouji Wada-san was fond of Okamoto-san, we had Okamoto-san compose and write the lyrics for this song, but that relationship brought back memories of Wada-san, and I wondered, “will I be able to sing this without crying…” Also, this is a song that is meant to be relaxing to the listener, so I was nervous about whether I would be able to do a proper job singing it, but also had a feeling of anticipation that the audience would hear it playing over the ending credits and be touched by it.
–Please tell us how you felt when recording finished.
AiM: I thought I should try to sing it without crying, but at the very end of the end, I ended up crying…I remembered things like the scene Mimi parted with Palmon, and all other sorts of things from the last twenty years. I wanted to put in all of the feelings I’d gathered for singing all this time, and my feelings of gratitude, and I treasured each and every word as I sang.
–Please tell us about your feelings in regards to this movie’s story.
AiM: Partings really are painful. Being alive means experiencing separation at some point, but I felt the importance of always preserving your own feelings within yourself. Preserving those feelings means they’ll continue to live on in your heart, and you’ll become stronger precisely because you’ve experienced that parting, even though you have no idea what’ll happen in the future (laughs). I hope everyone will come together and imagine what happens next to the children, for whom this isn’t an ending, but a new beginning that starts from here.