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Ohara Sayaka, the voice behind popular characters such as Beatrice in Umineko-When They Cry, Erza Scarlet in Fairy Tail, and Sailor Neptune/Michiru Kaioh in Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon, sent fans into a frenzy as she elegantly took the stage as Beatrice. She gracefully bowed, befitting a lady like Beatrice, before cheerfully greeting the crowd gathered to meet her at Ohara Sayaka's official Q&A, presented by Manga-Gamer. Joining her on stage was Ryukishi07, the writer, artist, and creator behind Umineko-When They Cry and Higurashi: When They Cry, who also had a panel of judges the day before.
The pair chatted about how Ohara was cast as Beatrice, saying that she was directly chosen by Ryukishi and his staff. “I was lucky to be cast directly without an audition!” Ohara said. She joked about joining the project without any context, “I thought, oh, it could be a supporting role like a mother or an older sister, but I was surprised when I opened Pandora's Box that it was a huge lead role.” She continued talking about the shocking plot of the visual novel, “I thought, oh, what a beautiful and elegant female character… I went in without knowing much about what the plot was, but I was honored to work with so many of my friends.” voice actor senpai. “But then I looked at the role of Beatrice and thought, ‘Hey… wait a minute…. Why wasn't I more involved in this from the beginning? Hey, wait… why… why are so many of these characters dying?'Meanwhile, all the senpais are like,'Wait, wait, why am I suddenly dying? Why are we dying?'”
Ryukishi interjected to say that it was his staff who had initially insisted on finding Ohara for the role of Beatrice. He had visited her website to listen to her voice samples and thought, “Most of her roles before Beatrice were very motherly, very cool. I thought she was perfect for the elegant role, but would it really be okay to play a more evil and vulgar role?” But his staff assured him that she was up for the task and he was now grateful for their recommendation. “As you can see, her role was perfect and I am very proud that she hit the mark for Beatrice.”
When talking about playing the dual character of Beatrice, Ohara said that usually her previous roles revolved around one personality. She joked that in a previous interview, she had told a journalist that she hoped to play a character with multiple personalities one day. “When I took on this role, I was happy and surprised because Beatrice not only has two personalities but also many personalities inside her! I have played so many personalities in Beatrice that I can't count them all.”
Ryukishi added that typically, most of his characters have 20 emotional illustrations as reference. “When I look at Beatrice, I think I created close to 100 emotional illustrations. So I think there are probably four or five different types of personalities in Beatrice.”
Ohara credits her ten years of voice acting experience to her ability to play Beatrice, saying that the role came to her at the right time in her life. “Being able to portray Beatrice in this role, it was really a learning and educational experience for me, knowing how many different personalities a person can have… I was able to play Beatrice because I was at that level of experience at that time.. I can say from the bottom of my heart that I am truly glad that I was cast as Beatrice at that particular time in my life and I am grateful to Ryukishi for giving me the opportunity.”
Ryukishi added that Ohara's acting experience may have also influenced other actors, especially Daisuke Ono, who voices Battler. “Her acting may have also evoked his experiences.” Later, when Ohara answered a fan's question about some of her most memorable moments in the recording studio, she said there were two emotional moments—one was during the emotional recording of the Valentine's Day episode that left her crying and snot running out of her nose. And the other was the scene near the end when she had to act with Daisuke. “That scene was very memorable for me and Daisuke Ono. It also brought tears to his eyes. Even after so many years, he can still remember that moment. He still remembers the date, the weather, and all the details of the scene when he recorded that role.”
She also said that Beatrice was very challenging on her vocal cords because the character has such a wide range of characteristics. “She goes from being cute and sweet, to being very loud and rude, to being very aggressive! It was very challenging, but I will probably never get another role that pushes me to my limits vocally!”
One of her biggest challenges? Keeping spoilers from her fellow actors. “I had to dodge questions from all the other voice actors! Even though I knew the ending, I couldn’t just skip it. They’re always looking for spoilers! I had to really control it.”