SPECIAL INTERVIEW! with Megumi Urawa
A special interview that came with the “Digimon Adventure 02” DVD Box released on December 22, 2006.

Purchase of the DVD Box (Region 2 only) available at: Amazon.JP, CDJapan

[ Megumi Urawa-san, who acted both Iori and Armadimon at the same time, spoke of how she loved the two as if they were her own children. ]

How were your two roles^[1] as Iori and Armadimon decided?

I auditioned for Iori at the time, but after I saw the character profiles, I saw that Armadimon spoke Nagoya dialect^[2] and asked that I audition for him as well, because it seemed interesting. On the next day, I was told that I had gotten both parts… I never expected the two of them to end up as partners, so I was surprised when I first opened the script. (laughs)

How was it recorded when the two had to speak to each other?

When their voices didn’t overlap one another, I’d continue to speak their lines as is.^[3] Unless they had to speak at the same time^[4], almost all of it was recorded in real-time. It was rather confusing at first, but once I got an understanding of my characters, it became easier.

What was your impression of both Iori and Armadimon?

▲ Urawa-san told us of a play she performed in before, where she spoke completely in Nagoya dialect. That experience was put to good use through Armadimon.

I associated the words “straight as an arrow” with Iori. He’s a very serious boy who hates what is wrong^[5], almost to the point of idiocy. There are times when he must do the wrong thing himself and lie when he doesn’t want to, but since he is a child [seeing everything in black and white], he refuses point-blank to forgive those actions. Therefore, I think of him as an exceedingly clean child. Armadimon is also an idiot in the opposite sense of Iori. (laughs) He’s cheerful, and simple-minded, and very pure. He completely adores Iori.

What kind of feelings do you think Iori had for Armadimon?

I personally thought Iori saw something of his late father^[6] in Armadimon. A parent’s existence is to give unconditional love to their children and to always forgive them for whatever they’ve done in the end, no matter what happens.

Is there anything you, Urawa-san, have in common with these two?

We’re quite similar in that we don’t change our decision once we’ve made up our mind. Once we say “I’m like this!”, even when we realize halfway that we’re wrong, we’re unable to bend our opinions easily so we stick with it to the very end. (laughs) I watched over the two of them like a mother watches over her children. I might have felt a bit like Iori’s mother^[7], who didn’t make that many frequent appearances.

What are Iori and Armadimon to you now, after six years have passed?

This show is really like a treasure to me. I’ve never loved another character like Iori and Armadimon, and I’d worried about whether or not I’d ever see them again. The inside of my head was white a long while after the show ended. Iori and Armadimon are always in the center of my being, and I would think that I couldn’t allow the embarrassing parts of myself to show in front of these children.

In closing, please give a message to all fans of the show.

With this boxset, you can open the Digital Gate at any time. And you can find Iori, Armadimon, and the others waiting there. I’m sure that every one of us^[8] has something similar to a Digimon partner, so I hope that all of you find your own partners one day.

FOOTNOTES
N1) Two roles — In the “Digimon” series, voice actors combine minor roles with their own, often as the children’s family members. However, there is no other actor who has performed as both a main character and his Digimon partner. One of Urawa-san’s additional roles included Daisuke’s mother.
N2) Nagoya dialect — Urawa-san tells us that she has properly studied the Nagoya dialect, but felt a bit sad as Armadimon is characterized to speak in a “fake” Nagoya dialect [on television, accents are often bungled so that they can still be easy to understand].
N3) Continue to speak their lines as is — Meaning that she spoke each line by switching between the appropriate voice. For Iori and Armadimon’s case, Urawa-san had to change instantly between the clear, stiff voice of Iori and the guttural Nagoya of Armadimon.
N4) Speak at the same time — During times when an enemy appears in front of them and both Iori and Armadimon raise shouts of surprise, their voices cannot be said at the same time, so they were each recorded separately. After each recording is timed to the video, they are overlapped into the final recording later on.
N5) Hates what is wrong — Even knowing that Ken despised of the things he’d done as the Digimon Kaiser, Iori could not compromise with his feelings. This side of his personality appeared in episode 26 (“Jogress Evolution! Now, Two Hearts Become One”), when he could not agree with Daisuke’s suggestion of calling Ken for help.
N6) His late father — Hiroki Hida. He was a police officer who died in the line of duty a few years before. During his childhood, he believed in the existence of the Digital World and wanted to go there with Oikawa.
N7) Iori’s mother — Tomiko Hida. A normal housewife, she is rarely seen on screen, but in episode 47 (“BlackWarGreymon’s Seal”), we see her trying to keep Iori from leaving the apartment.
N8) I’m sure that every one of us — This is the most important theme of “Digimon Adventure 02,” spoken in its last episode. Urawa-san said she cried very hard when Oikawa’s Digimon partner said to him, “Are you leaving already? But we’ve finally met.”

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