Vatican Miracle Examiner Pre-Screening Report with Nobuhiko Okamoto and Junichi Suwabe

Just before the first episode of Summer 2017 anime Vatican Miracle Examiner, the pre-screening was held at Marunouchi Piccadilly on 27 June 2017. Participating at the talk event after the screening were Nobuhiko Okamoto (voice of Kou Joseph Hiraga) and Junichi Suwabe (voice of Robert Nicholas). With the opening theme artist Screen Mode as a secret guest, this event was loaded with surprises!

Vatican Miracle Examiner is based on a mystery novel series by Rin Fujiki that sold over 1 million copies. The story is set in the Vatican, the headquarters of Roman Catholics, where the Italian priest Roberto and half-Japanese Priest Hiraga are a genius duo who unravel the mysteries behind ‘miracle’ stories. Who makes these miracles happen? God, the devil, or humans? These cases of miracles coming up one after another in this anime seem as if they came straight from the big screen. Also, there is a lot of dialogue between the characters played by Okamoto and Suwabe. The story advances mainly because of their conversations, so one should keep an eye on their relationship.

After the screening, Okamoto and Suwabe came on stage. Both of them were dressed in clothes that fit the feeling of the anime, very formal in a suit and mostly in black. The anime uses many Gothic elements and is rather heavy and the same mood influenced the atmosphere of the talk event. Okamoto seemed a bit uncomfortable with the stiff atmosphere. Suwabe on the other hand started to talk about the ‘Stigmata’ that will play a role in the anime, and made the audience laugh, finally releasing some of the tension in the room.

They started talking about the first episode. Okamoto and Suwabe explained that it introduces the ‘miracles’ and the characters, and lays out the base for the Gothic mood of the anime. They also said that based on this episode, the world setting and the character’s charms will become clear, as well as the relationships between and personalities of the characters.

Suwabe also let the audience know that the opening and ending theme they had seen would be only used for the pre-screening. The opening was made up of pictures the director took in Rome and the Vatican when he went there for research and the ending used illustrations from original character designer Thores Shibamoto. The audience got to see something special for that day and now they can also look forward to the official opening and ending.

Okamoto is singing the ending ‘Sacrament’, which is the first tie-up of this anime. Okamoto, who became a voice actor because he liked anime, seemed very happy about this decision. Normally, he sings songs of the pop genre, but as the anime is rather dark, he will also challenge a song that fits the story better. Because there are many parts that need to be spoken rather than sung in ‘Sacrament’ and because the song sounds bad if you mess up the melody even a little bit, they said it was a ‘miracle’ that the song was finished.

They then talked about the Twitter project. Before the event, fans could send in some ‘Miracles that happened around me’, which Okamoto and Suwabe would perform as if in the recording studio. ‘I met someone at a concert and even though he was of the opposite sex, we had the exact same name.’ and ‘Even though I was about to fall down a hill on my bike, the bike turned around and I was unharmed.’ and more similar stories had been sent in by fans, which Okamoto and Suwabe read aloud with stunned faces.

There was also a part where Okamoto and Suwabe analyzed the miracles just like Hiraga and Robert do in the anime.

Then the talk segment reached the end, and the secret guest came on stage: Screen Mode, the artist of the opening theme song. The excited audience got to hear the world premiere of ‘Mysterium’, the opening theme. This song is a perfect fit for the anime with its dark and Gothic sound. It also uses the energy and power fans are used to from Screen Mode. The audience stood up and clapped along and even though it was only one song, the short live performance heated up the whole venue.

Last, the guests said their farewells and the event ended. Aside from introducing the anime, this event made sure to make everybody look forward to the broadcasting. The anime starts airing on 7 July 2017 and it will be part of MANGA .TOKYO’s episodic anime reviews for Summer 2017.