Kaito Aiko no Mado café

Broadcast: 2020/12/20 on TOKYO FM
Original Name: YKK AP presents 皆藤愛子の窓café ～窓辺でcafé time～

Part 2 of 2.

Highlights:

Voice actors tend to be busy right up to and right after New Year’s, but Soma feels grateful for it because it means there’s that much demand for them, and he wants to do as much voice acting as he can.

Soma’s favourite movie is Stand By Me. He still rewatches it from time to time.
The protagonist of the movie dreams of becoming an author, but his father doesn’t support him. It’s a story of a group of boys spending a summer together, and a character named Chris tells the protagonist, “You have talent at writing, but if no one nurtures that talent, it’ll disappear. And if your parents won’t do it, then I will.”
Soma always cries at that part, no matter how many times he watches it. When he first watched the movie in his early teens, he wished he had a friend like that.
He does have a lot of close friends, but recently when he rewatched it again, he thought about how he’s turning 30 next year, and it made him want to become a person who can say that kind of line to someone.
Now that he’s been a voice actor for ten years and has juniors, he wants to pass on to them what he’s received from others.

The heart-throbbing song that Soma requested was “Snow Smile” by BUMP OF CHICKEN.
He struggled with the decision since he didn’t think he’d heard one before, but went with a song that made him feel that way in middle school.
The part of the lyrics that he likes is: “Etching parallel lines into a spotless blanket of snow with our footprints / A smile escapes from my lips, knowing that that dream will never come true / On this snowless road”
Soma likes BUMP OF CHICKEN a lot and thinks that this song has deep, heartrending lyrics. He praises Fujiwara-san’s singing voice and calls it an instrument in itself.

in bloom has an omnibus-like format, depicting various different stories taking place after the end of the world.
Since he’s a voice actor, he doesn’t have to restrict the songs’ atmosphere, arrangement, singing style, or lyrics. He can approach them as an actor. Instead of singing the songs as “Saito Soma,” he sings them as each song’s protagonist.

Since Soma is turning 30 in 2021, his goal for the year is “to become an adult.” Instead of solely receiving from the people around him, he wants to pass things on himself, recognizing his place in the grand flow of things.
He also wants to retain his sense of childish wonder at mysterious things that catch his attention. He wants to be “an adult with the heart of a child.”

As the lead track of in bloom, “carpool” is supposed to give the sense of a new story/journey beginning.

Broadcast: 2020/12/13 on TOKYO FM
Original Name: YKK AP presents 皆藤愛子の窓café ～窓辺でcafé time～

Part 1 of 2.

Highlights:

Soma likes to make snacks to go along with drinks, like deep-fried eggplant in broth.
On Sundays when he has the day off, he’ll simmer things for 2 hours instead of using the pressure cooker. He feels oddly at ease when he’s absorbed in chopping ingredients and simmering them.
Simmering takes time, but in this busy society, he thinks it’s a luxury to be able to relax like that on his days off.

Soma likes learning new things, so he’s always curious about a lot of things.
Since “in bloom” was being released in winter, he wanted to write wintery lyrics. While he was thinking, he realized he hadn’t seen any fireworks that year at all. He likes seasonal things and wondered if there was such a thing as fireworks in winter, and found out that there was a company that makes fireworks designed for the winter air, with a very Japanese-style aesthetic.
He actually bought the fireworks, and he hasn’t used them yet, but he thought the idea of winter fireworks was very emotional, so he wrote the song “Saigo no Hanabi” (Last Fireworks) for his album.
He wonders if there are a lot of other things that can be nice in seasons other than what you associate them with.

The brunchtime song that Soma requested was “Scarlet” by Spitz.
When he writes lyrics, he’s inspired by Spitz’s Kusano Masamune’s respectful, cherishing use of the Japanese language.

A lot of Soma’s songs have a decadent or “end of the world” motif, and after 2 years of that, he thought he might’ve overdone it.
He happened to be reading Dazai Osamu’s story Roman Dourou which is about a group of siblings writing a relay story, and one of them says, “Stories always end with the prince and princess getting together and living happily ever after, but what I really want to know is what happens after that.”
Soma completely agreed, and started imagining what kind of life would come after the end of the world.
The “in bloom” title evokes the imagery of plants sprouting after the end of the world.

People are divided on “Petrichor”—some think it’s upbeat and cute, while others think it’s really scary, which is exactly what Soma hoped for.
(He talks some more about it but it’s all stuff he’s said in interviews)

Tag: Kaito Aiko no Mado café