We Love DiGiMONMUSiC Memorial Booklet comments (T-W)

A translation of the “100 Comments” left by voice actors and staff members for animation and music production from Digimon Adventure, Adventure 02, Tamers, and Frontier, which were included in a booklet from the DiGiMONMUSiC 100 Title Commemoration Release: We Love DiGiMONMUSiC (デジモンミュージック100タイトル記念作品 We Love DiGiMONMUSIC) album collection, originally released December 25, 2002. This also includes both versions of the addendum comment left by music producer Shintarou Matsui in both the original version and the December 25, 2013 rerelease.

With the exception of Producer Matsui’s comments, the original booklets organized all of the commenters by name in gojuuon order. For the sake of easier reading for English speakers, I’ve reorganized the comments in English alphabetical order by surname (or, in the case of pseudonyms without surnames, by pseudonym), and have split the list into portions.

Note that some names have never had official readings provided, so in such cases I made my best guess at how their names are read.

(A-I | K-M | N-S | T-W | Shintarou Matsui’s comments)

Table of Contents

Aoi Tada (voice of Terriermon, Lopmon; Himawari Theatre Group)

Yaaaaaaaay!
Congrats!
Moumantai.
I love singing, so I had a ton of fun doing all the recordings…
I’m real proud of “My Friend”, don’t you think Jian and I harmonize real well?
Also, I sang with Shaochung, but…
That was pretty tough.
Mmmmm, whatever, they were all fun!!
So we’ll keep on singing more and more songs, yeah…
–Terriermon

In truth…I do indeed enjoy singing, but during the time period of our recording, I was under the thrall of a cold and my voice would not come forth.
I could not evoke the true beauty of my own voice, and it truly was indeed a shame. However, I invoked all of my heart in singing alongside Shaochung, and I do believe that my feelings shall come across to every listener.
If another chance my come forth, I would hope to make another attempt in more renewed condition.
–Lopmon

I’d thought that saying different lines for two different roles was hard enough, but it turned out that singing for two different roles was even harder…But it was a lot of fun, so I feel very lucky to have had the chance to sing for both of them!
–Aoi

Hiroki Takahashi (voice of Impmon; Toritori Office)

Congratulations on 100 DiGiMONMUSiC releases!
Thinking back on it, the first time I, Takahashi, had to take on the challenge of a Digimon song, I’m pretty sure I hadn’t even gotten to play “him” during any actual post-recording sessions yet.
Whom do I mean by “him”, you ask?
…That’s right, I’m talking about none other than my dearly beloved Impmon…after his evolution to Beelzebumon.
No, really, at the time I’d only ever done video game recordings for him.
Naturally, I was still a beginner, I hadn’t even gotten a proper grasp of his character yet, and I had way too much to worry about.
ANd on top of that, Beel-chan’s theme “Black intruder” was written in a really, really high key (no, it wasn’t, actually…but compaerd to what I was able to pull off…)
I was trying to push through the recording while full of doubts, like “Huh? I thought I’d used more of a lower voice for this line?”, but the director said “It’s fine! It’s very cool ♪” and thanks to his kind words, I was able to put aside those doubts and finish the recording in a good mood.
It was a good learning experience.
“See, speaking and singing are totally different things, right?” (said the director)…Hm, yeah, you’re right.
Thanks to that experience, once I started recording for my second song, “Christmas Alone”, things went really well, and Takahashi here was in such a good mood that he started throwing ad-libs and stuff in there.
Yeah, it was a lot of fun! I’d like to do it again…
Digimon really is an amazing series!

Naozumi Takahashi (voice of Wormmon; Towers)

I love Digimon so much (laughs) that I wanted to participate in showing off my character’s feelings, so I was allowed to write his lyrics.
I wanted to make it a song that reflected his feelings at the time and his hopes towards the future, as well as inspire courage from within everyone who was watching.
Wormmon was still so, so weak back then, and Ken-chan refused to acknowledge him as his patner.
And yet, and still yet, and still yet, he continued devoting himself to Ken-chan with everything he had.
That’s why I loved Wormmon so much.
I kept those feelings firmly and tightly in my heart as I sang.
And when they put the vocals in, I was so full of emotions and felt like I was about to cry.
Even now, it’s a very important song for me.
I wanted to sing for his other evolved forms…
Like, for instance, imagine if he evolved in the middle of the song!

Junko Takeuchi (voice of Gomamon, Takuya Kanbara; Love Live)

I remember having a really, really hard time with the first song I sang for Digimon Adventure, Jou and Gomamon’s song “Crawling Across the SKy”.
Jou’s actor, Kikuchi-san, was the one who sang first, and he had no problem with it at all, but then when it was my turn, nothing came out! It was too high for me! Even though I’m a woman! I can’t harmonize with a man’s voice like this! Gaaaaaaah, I’m mad!
And then there was Digimon Frontier.
I was singing with everyone else, and since I was playing Takuya, I had to do a boy’s part.
And when it was my turn, nothing came out! It was too low for me! Even though I’m doing a boy’s role this time! Gaaaaah!
I’m really sorry.
I’ll try much harder.
All right! Next goal is 110 releases!

Makoto Takou (The PERMANENTS)

First of all, congratulations on 100 releases!!
I arranged, composed, and played guitar for quite a few songs that ended up on Digimon CDs.
I always thought this during all of our recordings, but it really was on a different level from other anime music CDs (Well, it’s not like it’s exactly normal for something to put out a whole 100 releases (laughs).).
Digimon has a ton of songs that are like gold for music freaks like us.
There’s enka¹, heavy metal, all with as many pop elements we could cram in there.
There’s everything you can imagine, to the point listening to it feels like going through the whole hit charts.
So when you listen to one of these CDs, if you end up taking an interest in rock and start really getting into music to the point you even pick up an instrument, I think that’d be the best thing ever~
Music can sometimes have enough power to have a huge impact on people’s lives.
I’ve still got a long way to go myself, but I hope I can keep making music that has that kind of power.
And whether or not you get into music in particular, I hope all of you out there can grow up into adults who can give that kind of power to others!

Yukiko Tamaki (voice of Hirokazu Shioda; Toritori Office)

“Manly Flying Spit” was my first time ever recording a song in the studio in my entire life, and it was a duet with Kenta’s voice actress Aoyama-san, so I remember we were planning to sing it together actually clutching each other’s shoulders and having the time of our lives, so we were really disappointed to hear we’d be recording our lines separately.
My second time recording was another duet, “Guys’ Team”, was with Yanada-san.
Our conversation in the interlude was all improvisational lines that Director Chiba-san came up with.
After the interlude, Guardromon goes completely nuts, and that’s also something we did because we thought it’d be really funny.
And then everything after that was more Hirokazu improv coming right off the heels of that.
So we were super hyped up during the recording, and Yanada-san was really going ham, and it’s really all thanks to Chiba-san and all of the assistants on staff for working so hard to give us advice.
It was a really precious and valuable experience for me.
Thank you very much!

Takayoshi Tanimoto (music artist; M Method)

Everyone has a point where they lose their ability to have faith in others, bearing some kind of uncertainty somewhere, and taking every day for granted.
“One Vision” isn’t just a song that plays as a Digimon insert song, but a song that appeals to us within our daily lives.
I was entrusted with this song, and the moment after I heard it, I felt a huge shockwave coming from it.
The power that comes from two working together in synergy…
The utterly irreplaceable sense of friendship…
All of the things we have to do right now, the choices we have to make…
Not just the children, but us too, as we are right now.
The rock band Queen, a legendary band that I respect very deeply, also has a song by the name of “One Vision”.
Its lyrics depict a world where everyone has come together, and where there’s no more pain or conflict.
Perhaps I’m dreaming too much, but I want to continue that thread, because we have so many things we need to do and things we need to entrust the kids with.
I think there are a lot of people who look down on old Japanese music or anime songs, but I was very serious about making sure this song carried that kind of meaning.
Also, “One Vision” was my debut song.
So because of that, I’m truly grateful to the Digimon anime for giving me the opportunity to have this song “One Vision”.
And, truly, thank you to all of the fans and staff who have guided me to this point.
I, Takayoshi Tanimoto, have only just barely gotten myself across the starting line.
The only way is forward!
So, please and thank you, look forward to the rest!
Ah, one last thing before I go, but Digimon songs are really, really cool!
Maybe I’m biased because I’ve always been a rock person since I was little, but I have no doubt of it!
It’s the most enticing thing ever for kids who want to be rockers!
Anyway, let’s celebrate DiGiMONMUSiC reaching 100 releases!!!

Umi Tenjin (voice of Koushirou Izumi; Aksent)

Congratulations on reaching the 100th release.
Since it was my first time doing anything like singing in the studio, I was getting really nervous about even the little things.
Thinking back on it, in particular, I had an incredibly stupid reaction to the placeholder songs.
“VERSION UP” was sung by a young lady, so I thought “can Koushirou even sing this at this key!?”, and “OPEN MIND” was sung by a young man, so I thought “this is too cool-sounding for someone like Koushirou (even though that also meant me) to be singing, he’ll ruin it!!”…
As for the recording session I remember the best, it’s “Our Digital World”.
It really was a recording session with all of us singing together.
It was so overwhelmingly amazing, I couldn’t even hear my own voice.
I didn’t realize this was the reward given to people who collected all of the Best Partner singles, so I collected all of them (I learned what it was midway into it, but by that point I was too stubborn), so now I have two copies of this.
I love this song because there’s no better way to express how we truly were on an adventure, but if you had to ask me what my most favorite song of all is, it’s “Seven”.

Haruhi Terada (voice of Ai, Ranamon; 81 Produce)

100 releases!
Congratulations!!
I played Pumpmon in Digimon Adventure and only got to play him for one episode, but quite a while after that, they asked me to join in on the production of the CD Digimon Adventure Enemy Character Song File.
I was so surprised, I asked “are you sure it’s okay when I was only in one episode!?”
It was my first time doing recording with rapping, or a duet, or doing ad-libs, and all in one shot (!?), so it was a ton of new experiences for me, one after another!
It was a ton of fun ♡
And, after getting to play Pumpmon, they got me on to play Ai in Digimon Tamers and Ranamon in the currently-airing Digimon Frontier, and now I’m just tied at the hip with this series!!
Thank you so much ♡♡

Kouichi Tohchika (voice of Hawkmon; Actor’s Cooperative)

Congratulations on 100 releases.
I’ve gotten to sing on quite a few songs, but I was quite surprised at how closely the singer for the demo tracks was able to perfectly emulate Hawkmon’s speaking style.
It was a lot of fun.
Thank you very much.

Yuka Tokumitsu (voice of Tailmon; Aksent)

100 releases~ That’s so so cool ♡
Congratulations.
Hmmm~, come to think of it, the recordings were pretty hard~.
Having to sing while playing a Digimon, y’know, that’s really hard!!
Tailmon’s a pretty “cool-headed” kind of character, and she doesn’t really smile much…
When they gave me the song “Getting up”, to be honest, I thought “it’s kinda dark…” (very sorry)
But that’s the kind of character Tailmon is, so right now it makes me real excited!!
I really love “Our Digital World”.
At the recording session, we all took a picture together, and I still treasure it even now!
And my song with Hikari (Araki-san), “Shining Star”, is the best!
I really wanna sing with everyone right now.
Thank you for all the lovely songs.

Sukehiro Tomita (lead writer; Toei Animation)

Even earlier today, I was working on writing the storyline for Digimon Frontier while listening to its opening song.
It scans my lazy heart and makes me ready to go!!

Kyousei Tsukui (voice of Shiisamon; 81 Produce)

I have quite an emotional attachment to Digimon.
Back when it first came out, I always had five or six of them on me, and I was struggling to raise them all (laughs).
I was really happy when I won a small tournament with Monzaemon (laughs).
So when I got the offer to play Shiisamon in a Digimon movie, I’d already wanted to play a Digimon role anyway, so I was super happy!!
It was also a lot of fun playing the three different stages of “puppy”, “Mei”, and “Shiisamon”.
And thanks to everyone showering it with so much love, Digimon’s reached the amazing accomplishment of 100 releases!
Please have me play another role again (laughs)!

Makoto Tsumura (voice of Takato Matsuda; Mausu Promotion)

The first song they had me sing for Tamers was “3 Primary Colors”.
It’s such a lovely song, and I immediately fell in love as soon as I Heard it.
But when “3 Primary Colors” played during a certain scene, I started feeling really embarrassed…
So that’s how it became a song I remember very deeply.

Tohru Usugi (producer; Yomiko Advertising)

The other day, I went to go see a children’s athletic meet.
I wasn’t very enthusiastic…
But then, there at the venue, of all things! they were playing our Digimon Frontier opening song, “FIRE!!”, as their BGM!
My body slowly started feeling hotter and hotter, and at the moment of “Get a fire power!!”, I suddenly had a burst of energy, even during my most hated sport, the bread race².
And just when I was really about to hit my stride with “Burn up’n Go!!”, I hurt my meniscus…
So I was sobbing…(it’s a true story).
Watch out.
DiGiMONMUSiC really gets your body going.
Please be sure not to listen to it too much.

Megumi Urawa (voice of Iori Hida, Armadimon; Aoni Production)

When we were trying to distinguish Armadimon’s and Iori’s voices, Director C. said “they kind of sound about the same…”
“Oh huh! Do they?” I said, agreeing and going along with it, but now that I think about it, well, of course they would…so yeah, something was wrong with me.
The other cast members got to do their recording sessions together, and I imagine they were probably able to give each other encouragement and have a lot of fun with it, but there was something lonely about me having to do it by myself. But recording with all of the other Digimon (as the Armor Evolvers) had us all messing around as a crowd, and it was a lot of fun!!

Kouji Wada (music artist)

Wow! Congratulations on reaching 100 releases!
Over these past four years these 100 release have spanned, it feels like it’s been a long time, and yet it feels like the blink of an eye…
Among the many, many songs within these 100 releases, when I think about how many of these I’ve been involved with, I can only feel nothing but gratitude towards everyone.
Truly, thank you very much.
I achieved my long-awaited desire of making my debut with my first Digimon song, “Butter-Fly”.
When I first heard I was going to be singing for an anime, my personal image of an anime song singer clashed too much with my own voice, so I started really worrying, but when I saw how encouraging and uplifting of a song I’d be singing, I remember being full of excitement and happiness and so many other feelings at once.
When I first heard the music composition for “Butter-Fly”, since I’d only been singing ballads up until that point, my first impression was “this song is really fast!”
They wanted me to sing such a fast song?
I started off excited and happy, but also a little nervous.
My first recording session was full of a storm of emotions from beginning to end!
Everything was so new to me, from the studio equipment to the vocal booths, and it was like everything from my dreams was there.
That was where we did my recording session for “Butter-Fly”, and I didn’t even have time to consciously think about how I was going to sing this, and I was completely absorbed in it all the way to the end.
The line “Even with these unreliable wings, I’m sure we can fly” had projected itself onto me as well, and it’d encouraged me so much that I was able to sing it with my pure feelings and nothing else added.
Actually, this is a bit of a secret, but just before we did the recording for the B-side, “Seven”, I heard there was a possibility for it to be the opening song.
So when we reached the broadcast for the first episode of Digimon Adventure, I remember I prepared by taking a bath at home, putting on my clothes, and sitting neatly on my heels as I watched (laughs).
I was so happy I couldn’t even hear my voice coming from the TV anymore, and it was a very strange feeling.
As the animation went by frame by frame, my voice was singing line by line, and it was such a new and fresh feeling seeing this song with all of my feelings becoming a part of its world.
I still remember all of the theme songs from the anime I watched when I was young.
When I started thinking about why, I realized the weight of what it meant for me to have sung a theme song for an anime, or rather, I realized what my own goal had been within myself.
When I was 18, I bought myself a cheap guitar as a New Year’s present for myself, and I started making music by copying a certain artist.
I didn’t like putting myself out in front of people, and a friend who knew that would often ask me “why do you want to do this as a job, then?” But at my core, I just really liked singing…I think that’s really all it was.
At my very first Digimon event, I was so nervous it felt like my heart had stopped, but as I started going to more events I started opening up to them more, so while my nervousness was initially so bad that I couldn’t even see the facial expressions of everyone who’d come to see me or get to sing along with them, nowadays I’ve started to be able to see everyone’s faces a little better.
Next time there’s an event or something, please do come by.
Oh, right, speaking of events, let’s talk about Pile Volcano Ota-san!!
When I first met him, I thought, “he’s such a big guy…” and was super scared of him (laughs).
But he was actually a really nice guy (laughs).
I was really bad at doing talk sessions, so he really bailed me out so many times at events…
Thank you so much.
So now we really understand each other well, or I would say we’re comfortable around each other, or maybe it’s just me who thinks this way?…No, no way!…Probably not (laughs awkwardly).
Also, when we were all in the event waiting room, we played cards together.
But…I’m actually really bad at playing cards.
I get upset when I lose too many times in a row, so I hate playing cards, and I wanted to leave, but I couldn’t.
Just once, I’d like to go see a Digimon event on stage as another member of the crowd.
If there were two of me, I wonder if I’d go to see myself on stage?
It’s a lot to think about…
The Digimon keep evolving, and the events have also kept evolving.
I even got to go outside the Kanto area and around the rest of the country, and I was thrilled.
Sapporo, Sendai, Utsunomiya, Tokyo, Chiba, Nagoya, Osaka, Matsuyama, Hiroshima, Fukukoka…thank you to everyone who came to see us at every event in every location!
I had a lot of fun at the events myself, so I hope all of you can also remember it in your hearts as something that was “fun”.
And I’m grateful from the bottom of my heart to everyone who’s shown up at all of the events we’ve had up until now.
I apologize for borrowing this space to say one more thing.
A lot of things have happened in this last four years of 100 releases.
Like when I watched the final episode of Digimon Adventure and “Butter-Fly” played at the end, and I started crying by myself.
Or when we got to the second series, and we started having talks about the theme song, but my own composition was rejected (laughs awkwardly).
Or when we were doing a talk show on stage and we didn’t have a lot of people there, and yet I was utterly nervous…
These last four years, all of which started with “Butter-Fly”, has involved parts of myself evolving in many ways, and I’ve grown so much that it’s hard to even compare myself now to myself back when I was making my debut.
Back when I was still aspiring to becomie a singer, what was I thinking when it came to singing, or to music, or to other people…?
Looking back on it now, when I try to remember what I was thinking, I feel like I was only just caught up in dreamy things like “I want to sing” or “I want to put out CDs” or “I bet it’d be cool to sing on TV”.
But I can’t quite remember what it exactly was that I was trying to do in the first place.
Instead, what I’ve gotten out of it are all the people I’ve met, all the things I’ve experienced, all of it giving me strength and having me be reborin into a new self…and I think Digimon is the most important core at the center of all of this.
I’m here as Kouji Wada, and it’s all thanks to everyone who watched Digimon’s TV shows and movies, as well as the many members of staff who helped me.
So while you’re making your way across the Digimon series, if it gets you to look back on all of your memories up until now…then I think that would be the best kind of happiness for me.

Cher Watanabe (arranger)

On New Year’s Day, 1999, I was immersed in deep thoughts of “the world’s going to end this year, right? Feels so long and yet so short…”
We weren’t even a week into the year, and they’d suddenly popped something new on me.
“We’re having him sing the theme song for this anime that’s starting in April, so I want you to sell it,” said good old Mr. C, bringing along none other than Kouji Wada.
So I quickly went ahead and listened to his demo tape (I later heard that it’d been thrown in the trash can at one point and that Mr. C had happened to catch sight of it, which was a surprise).
It was full of ballads that sounded kind of like something from ****aki Tokunaga³.
“Oh, come on, what kind of theme song are you expecting him to sing?” I thought as I started listening to Chiwata-san’s demo song, and found it was hard American-style rock.
“…The heck do you want me to do with this…” I can only say this now, but at the time my head was pretty much in panic.
For the time being, I had to put aside the issue of the vocals and make an arrangement that fit this song in terms of sound, so without any hesitatio, I went ahead and started working on the arrangement.
I wasn’t there for the vocal recording, so I only got to hear the vocals when I started the mixing process.
“…You’re kidding…” Had there ever been an anime that had this kind of pure American-style rock for a theme song before?
I’d been working mostly on gag comedy anime for a while at that point, so I was pretty shocked.
And that was how this historically notable anime theme song (am I tooting my own horn too much?) called “Butter-Fly” was created.
…Seriously, in that winter of 1999, I wouldn’t have even possibly imagined that I’d end up scrambling and running around to make more songs for Digimon after this…
And now it’s been four years since then.
I’ve been making anime songs for around six years now, but around 2/3 of them have been for Digimon.
When I was making character songs for Digimon Adventure 02, I was doing arrangements ranging from playfully blatant parody-style songs, and we were playing daihinmin (depending on where you live, it might be called “daifugou” instead)⁴ all the way up until the morning, and we had so many of our assistants in the studio giving up and ditching us (laughs awkwardly), and there were really a lot of things going on.
I got to meet a lot of rather strange people, and I feel like I’ve gotten to spread the range of my life out a little more (?).
I personally prefer to live a modest life without standing out too much, and I still plan to do so, but now that I think about it, I was pretty much the key behind us reaching our 100th release.
(There’s already accusations of me being a pervert on a certain online bulletin board…definitely not true at all!)

Kumiko Watanabe (voice of Tomoki Himi; Arts Vision)

Digimon really portrays its children with a lot of realism, and they’re full of life.
As far as DiGiMONMUSiC goes, “With The Will” is super cool, and I love it.
Since I needed it for recording, I listened to it over and over, but the intro just makes me want to yell “Spirit Evolution!”
I had to do recording for Tomoki’s solo song “Say, yes! ~Tomoki’s Theme~” at a very early stage, so I wasn’t sure if I’d really gotten a grasp on Tomoki, but it turned out to be very much like him and very cute.
I’m very glad I got to be involved with Digimon through Frontier ♡

Hiroshi Yamada (lyricist; Fuji Pacific Music Publishing)

Congratulations on 100 Digimon releases.
The first song I wrote for was “Turn Our Courage Into Wings ~Taichi Yagami’s Theme~” or “There’s Another Me ~Jou Kido’s Theme~”, I think?
We truly have come a long way, now that I think about it.
How many songs have I written since then?
You know, it’s really tough putting together even one song.
It has to be composed, then arranged, then the instrumental needs to be recorded and put together, then you have to add lyrics, then you record the vocals and do the mixdown and have it mastered, and during all this time you have to put the jacket together, and a lot of people end up working very hard to put it all together.
Repeat that 100 times over three and a half years.
Thinking back on it, you’d never hear of any artist putting out a whole ten albums in only three and a half years.
It was at the point where almost all of the requests made of me would be like “sorry, the deadline’s tomorrow (laughs).”
I’d be looking over humongous story documents and writing over a span of two weeks.
But humans have a strange ability to adapt to things, and now I’m completely used to it.
Nowadays, when I get a deadline of a whole week, I actually end up getting nervous.
It really has been a lot to deal with.
It’s been a great honor to get to write for these 100 releases.
And through these four series, if there’s one thing I was consistent about when it came to my approach, it was that I put my feelings into it in my own way.
I didn’t put in any particularly new or original themes into it.
If you really had to ask me for one, I’d say it might even have a part of it that’s more like “us making excuses for ourselves”.
That being said, I truly believe I’ve been able to pack in and present all of the important messages that I truly, seriously wanted to convey to the children in my own way.
Someday, if the children listen to the songs, grow up to become adults, and find that a certain line brings back some memories for them, then that’s all that matters.
Because maybe they’ll be able to become messengers themselves by then.
All of the songs are these kinds of messages.
In fact, DiGiMONMUSiC might even have too many messages (laughs).
I’m sure the butterfly carrying those messages can fly to all sorts of places now.
Thank you very much for allowing me to do such good work.
I have nothing but gratitude for all of the staff.

Mayumi Yamaguchi (voice of Gabumon, Jianliang Lee; Aksent)

Hooray!! 100 releases!!
It’s something to celebrate about, so much that I’m going to spill a bit regarding the songs I sang for Digimon.
After doing the duet with Yamato, I sang Gabumon’s solo song “You’ll Be Fine” right after having eaten everything out of my lunchbox because of how hungry I was.
Also, for those of you who have the Best Tamers album, try listening to it veeeeery closely.
I’m singing a little nasally.
Sorry about that.
I had a cold, so I was still shaky.
The lines from “Search for Santamon!!” were our own ad-libs.
I’m the one who ruined Jian’s character like I’m trying to hide something.
Ah~ it was fun ♡

Taisuke Yamamoto (voice of Takeru Takaishi; 81 Produce)

Congratulations on reaching 100 releases!
How have you all been doing?
I’m Taisuke Yamamoto, who played Takeru Takaishi in Digimon Adventure 02.
100 releases!? That’s really amazing!
Personally, I have the strongest memory of 02‘s opening song “Target ~Red Shock~”.
Even now, whenever I think “I’m not gonna lose!! I’m gonna do my best!!”, that song suddenly starts playing in my head.
Besides that, there’s so many songs I have deep memories of, including Takeru’s song “Focus”.
So many songs have been created for these 100 releases, and that just goes to show you how much everyone loves Digimon.
Please keep giving Digimon your support so that its adventure with you can keep going on forever.

Shigeyasu Yamauchi (theatrical movie director; Toei Animation)

I associate Digimon with the drama CD “The Door into Summer”!
Since I remember having so many struggles with the theatrical movie…(laughs).
I also really wanted to have this kind of story as a theatrical movie.
I still listen to the songs every so often, but they’re really all made so well, and it feels like I’m listening to the movie itself.
That alone makes me feel like Digimon’s world is capable of expanding into completely new places.
It was only a short time, but I had a lot of fun making it, and it was truly a very happy time.

Kiyoyuki Yanada (voice of Guardromon; 81 Produce)

Whaaat~?! 100 releases!! That’s amazing~!!!
And I got to sing for two of those songs, y’know!”
And somehow I’ve started off this comment section the way Guardromon would.
But wow, a whole 100 of them~
That really is too amazing!
Well, I feel like the songs I sang were more me acting out lines than anything else, but…
Let me say one last thing…I wanted to try evolving to Ultimate, too~.

Jouji Yanami (voice of old Gennai; Aoni Production)

Congratulations on 100 DiGiMONMUSiC releases.
Digimon’s given everyone feelings of courage in exchange for all of their support.
Digimon has the kind of production where the visuals, sound effects, our voices, and, not to be forgotten, the countless number of wonderful songs.
Please continue to treasure these songs and the animation together.

Konami Yoshida (voice of Michael; Ange d’Or)

Whenever we do work, and this goes for both animation and other things, music has a huge amount of influence on us.
In particular, a series like Digimon has a lot of music for the fight scenes, and that’s probably a huge thing for us…
I’ve always been the kind of person who likes anime songs, so I’m particularly fond of Digimon Adventure 02‘s energetic songs like “Target ~Red Shock~” and “Break up!” and how they integrate together with the animation. But, well, I’m not quite sure how to put this, but within all of these energetic songs, there’s a bit of tender pain in it…or at least I can sense that…and I think that’s linked to how the kids in the Digital World have to become stronger through their worries and the trials in their adventure, but I also think you can enjoy it even just as music by itself. Within all of these releases that make up a whole 100…it might be fun to try and figure out which is your favorite.

Reiko Yoshida (screenwriter)

Congratulations on reaching 100 releases.
Personally, I have the strongest impression of the jazz-y sort of music from the 2000 summer theatrical movie.
It had a really cool feeling, like something out of Paris, Texas…
Just like how Digimon have a whole bunch of evolution lines, I think music has a wide range of styles.
And I think that music has been helping to support the TV show.
So I hope it’ll keep on evolving further.

WILD CHILD BOUND (vocalist)

Congratulations on 100 Digimon releases!
…and here I am saying that like it’s nothing, but it’s not like I’ve even been able to reach anything that merits the entirety of that number “100”.
This is the embodiment of all of the power from the staff and the artists, and, most importantly, the power coming from everyone’s support.
Regardless of what era it’s from, you can’t separate music from footage.
It’s a wonderful relationship that’ll never waver no matter how much time passes.
I’m happy to continue living in this kind of world.
But you know, recent anime has gotten super intricate, hasn’t it?

Translator's notes

Enka = A style of Japanese music that was particularly popular in the 1950s-70s. [↩]
“The bread race” = “Pan kui kyousou” (パン食い競争), a common sport in children’s athletic meets that involves having racers hold bagged pieces of bread in their mouths as they run. [↩]
Watanabe most likely refers to Hideaki Tokunaga, a singer who made his breakthrough in the mid-80s. [↩]
Daihinmin/Daifugou — A card game involving trying to get rid of one’s hand as quickly as possible, similar to President. As Watanabe says, the name varies depending on region. [↩]