I'm baaack!

I'm gonna do my absolute best during today's practice too by giving it one million percent!

Wait, huh...?

Where is everyone...?

Does this mean I'm the first one-derhoy...?!

Oh, I know...!

I should practice my lines for Ushiwakamaru while I wait for the others to arrive!

Notebook? Check! Phone? Check!

Alright, just gotta set it to video mode and...

(Recording myself practicing makes it so easy to see how I'm doing!)

Alright, everything's set!

Let's start!!!

“Oh, have you no manners?

Put away that dreadful thing and look up to the sky.”

“See how beautiful the moon is tonight?”

(Next, he takes a big swing at me with his naginata. But...)

(Ushiwakamaru isn't supposed to feel scared.)

(Because that super strong tengu taught him how to fight. Not only that...)

(On this night, he's happy about how pretty the reflection of the moon looks on the river.)

(So, he wouldn't be feeling anxious.

Relax yourself by taking a deep breath...)

(You need to jump around like you're on cloud nine. You move in a way that shows his excitement...)

(My hands and feet are where they need to be. My fingers are moving the way I want. And my head's tilted just right. Everything's the way I imagined...!)

Alright, what does the video have to say?!

Let's take a look...

Yeah! I'm moving a lot better now compared to before!

(Oh, but my fingers don't seem fully relaxed. That means I gotta try to get them even looser...!)

(And my eyes are fully open here...

But I still might flinch when Tsukasa swings his naginata at me. I'll need to practice that part more with him.)

(What else...?)

(What is this feeling...?

I'm definitely doing a much better job now.)

(But the way Mr. Kijima played Ushiwakamaru made it so easy to understand what he was feeling.)

(So, what's different between me and him...?

Am I just not moving the way I think Ushiwakamaru would?)

(Unless it's something deeper...)

Hah hah hah! You look like you have a lot on your mind!

Eep!

Mr. Kijima! When did you get here?

Ah, about fifteen minutes ago!

And I took the liberty of watching you play Ushiwakamaru just now!

I thought you were good!

You've improved so much since you first joined us!

I'm very impressed!

Really...?!

Hehe. Thank you very much!

Oh, but...

Hm?

Is something wrong?

Oh, it's just...

I still feel like I can do a lot better.

Oh...?

It feels like there's something different between your Ushiwakamaru and my portrayal of him...

Your Ushiwakamaru made it much more obvious just how much fun he was having.

So, um! Do you have any advice on how I can make my portrayal of him better?

Hmm... Well...

You might want to think a little more about perspectives.

Perspectives...?

Yeah. Like I told you before, Otori, I don't see anything wrong with your understanding of him.

I can tell that you have a talent for instinctually grasping a character and playing them the way you imagine. Put another way, you have a way of seeing the little things that make them who they are.

However, you also have a blind spot...

A blind spot...?

You're good at sensing what characters and other people are feeling. But am I right in saying that you're not as great at expressing your own?

Huh?

For example...

Have you ever encountered situations where you had trouble conveying what you were thinking or feeling to someone else?

Oh...

I apologize if I'm mistaken.

But that's what I felt based on your acting style.

Again, I don't see anything wrong with the way you've envisioned your character. That being said, as an actor, your job is to convey to the audience what he's thinking and feeling.

To convey what he's thinking and feeling...

How you envision Ushiwakamaru...

Just portraying him perfectly as you've imagined won't be enough.

You need to be able to reach every member of the audience as him.

Which means you need to take a look at things from their perspective.

...

(Conveying what I'm thinking and feeling...)

(Oh...)

(It was so easy to tell what Ushiwakamaru was feeling when Mr. Kijima played him that time...)

(Which probably means he was doing his best to communicate to the rest of us what his character was thinking and feeling...)

Then, um...!

How do I learn to do that?!

There are many ways. Not just one.

However, in my case...

I just want as many people to see me perform as possible.

And I performed in all sorts of different places a while back in order to accomplish that.

All sorts of different places...?

All forty-seven prefectures across Japan...!

What?! All of them...?!

That's right. When I was still a university student, my friends and I traveled all over the country to put on performances.

Naturally, we couldn't perform anywhere that involved selling tickets. So, we went around to children's clubs, elderly care facilities, local festivals...

We performed anywhere we could get an audience to watch us. We did the same play all over Japan.

I also recorded each performance in order to see my own acting and how each audience responded to it.

I'd use that information to prepare for my next opportunity by checking to see what I did wrong and making the necessary changes.

I kept repeating that until I was able to see things through the eyes of many different people.

I had no idea...

(That's amazing...!

He went that far just to become better...!)

(But that explains why he's such a great actor...!)

(Which means I also have to do what I can...!)

Thank you for telling me that story!

I think I know what I have to do now.

I promise to learn how to better see things from other people's perspectives!

I can't really do what you did to achieve that, but I'll think of something. And my portrayal of Ushiwakamaru is gonna be absolutely amazing...!

Ah, I'll be looking forward to seeing that...