[Serialization] Saito Soma no Tsurezure naru mama ni #4: Pocari

Published: 2017/4/22
Original URL: https://kiki-voice.jp/journal/209

※This essay was also published in the book compilation of Saito Soma no Kenkou de Bunkateki na Saitei Gendo no Seikatsu.


#4: Pocari

At any rate, I love Pocari.

For as long as I can remember, my drink of choice has always been Pocari. On the way home from swimming class, in my water bottle at school sports events, and accompanying my meals—all Pocari.

However, when I was a child, my parents were rather strict (thinking about it now, it was only natural). They insisted that I only drink tea or milk with my meals, so the most I could do was secretly drink it at night while eating rice crackers. I wasn’t a heavy drinker at the time.

As an aside, when I was young, I thought that the alcohol my parents drank so appreciatively must have been something like Pocari. I’d even pour Pocari into a plastic bottle cap and sip from it.

Anyway, I maintained an appropriate relationship with Pocari until I turned eighteen. The change occurred the spring that I began living alone. In my own domain, with no parents to stop me, I was free to choose when I woke up and what I ate. I rapidly grew more intimate with Pocari.

Pocari first thing in the morning. Pocari at lunch. One last Pocari before going to bed. Pocari was always by my side.

When I turned twenty and began drinking alcohol, the water content in my body had already been mostly replaced with Pocari.

By the way, did you know that the word “Pocari” represents several different flavours? Even if you only look at the format, there’s canned Pocari, bottled Pocari, Pocari Sweat powder, Pocari Sweat jelly, and so on and so forth. There was also Pocari that contained a sweetener called stevia, and lately, I see a lot of the mild-flavored one called Ion Water.

My favourite and the one I’ve known the longest is canned Pocari, but regrettably, it’s inconvenient to carry around. I drink bottled Pocari when I have a hangover in the morning, but I just can’t get enough of canned Pocari’s sweetness lurking within a cold, metallic exterior.

If I were on my deathbed and I could have one last taste of something, I’m certain that I would not choose beer, fried chicken, or umeboshi—it would most definitely be Pocari.

They say that the world of voice acting extends far and wide, but I’m sure that there is no one who loves Pocari more than me.

So, I’m always open to work, Otsuka Pharmaceutical.


Miscellaneous Notes

  • This essay was originally published on Soma’s 26th birthday.
  • Soma read this essay aloud at the 3rd release event for his book. At the 1st and 2nd events he drank water, but at the 3rd event he had Pocari since he was reading the Pocari essay.
  • Readers voted for their favourite essays in the book and this one ranked #4, which surprised Soma a lot.
  • At the release event, Soma wondered if he could make his own commercial song and send it to Otsuka Pharmaceutical in hopes of it leading to something.