I posted a summary of the talk contents some time back, and you can read it here. :)

The cast! I like the place they filmed the cast talk at – it has the old building kind of feel, which I think fits the VK theme. :) Hino-sensei was at there during the filming as well.

The cast talk came in the form of a quiz – “Who is the best vampire!?” with Hocchan (Horie Yui) as the MC. As mentioned earlier, you can read about the quiz here. The cast were split into 2 teams:

Love <3 Susumu Team

The team comprised of (left to right) Chiba Susumu, Fukuyama Jun and Miyano Mamoru. The “Love” part refers to FukuJun and Mamo, and the Susumu part naturally refers to Chiba-san. :)

Tooth . Weird . Beautiful Team

The team comprised of (left to right) Kishio Daisuke, Suwabe Junichi and Hoshi Souichirou. If you read the team name in Japanese, it sounds high Hi-vision. Their team name came about because both Kishio-san and Suwabe-san belong to Tokyo Actor’s Consumer’s Cooperative Society/東京俳優生活協同組合 （abbreviated as Haikyou/俳協）, while Hoshi-san belongs to Arts Vision.

Since there’s nothing really interesting to screencap, let’s just look at close-ups of the seiyuus instead. XD I’ve also added a short introduction for each of them.

Horie Yui (voice of Cross Yuuki)

Horie-san, also affectionately known as Hocchan (ほっちゃん),was the first seiyuu whose name I knew. She’s been cast in many of the anime that I’ve watched, and her memorable roles include: Honda Tohru (Fruits Basket), Tsukimiya Ayu (Kanon), Sawachika Eri (School Rumble) and Kusieda Minori (Toradora!). Hocchan is also a singer, and in addition to her own songs, has done quite a number of anime OPs and EDs. These include Scramble (School Rumble OP), Love Destiny (Sister Princess OP) and Vanilla Salt (Toradora! ED). She also covered For Fruits Basket, which was the OP for the Fruits Basket anime.

Miyano Mamoru (voice of Kiryuu Zero)

Miyano-san is also known as Mamo to his fans, and I’ve heard other seiyuus call him Mamo-chan as well. He is one of the top young seiyuus. He’s probably best known for his roles as Yagami Light (Death Note), Suoh Tamaki (Ouran High School Host Club), Rikuson Hakugen (Koutetsu Sangokushi) and Setsuna F Seiei (Mobile Suit Gundam 00). He won the best lead actor award in the 2nd Annual Seiyuu Awards in 2008 for the role of Setsuna F Seiei.

Mamo is also a singer, and some of the anime-related songs he has done include Kanau Nara (Suoh Tamaki character song , Ouran High School Host Club), Kuon (Koutetsu Sangokushi ED) and Tip-top shape (Kaji Aoi character song, La Corda D’Oro). He has also released his own album. Mamo sounds really nice when he sings slower songs, and Kanau Nara is my favourite song of his.

Kishio Daisuke (voice of Kuran Kaname)

Kishio-san is popular amongst females, and you’ve might have also heard him as Van Flyheight (ZOIDS), Yunoki Azuma (La Corda d’Oro) or Aono Tsukune (Rosario + Vampire). He was nominated for the award of “Best Actor in a Leading role” for his portrayal of Kuran Kaname in the 2nd Annual Seiyuu Awards in 2008 (the award eventually went to Mamo). Kishio-san is also a member of several seiyuu units, and you can hear him singing in Sweet Secret (Yunoki Azuma character song, La Corda D’Oro).

Chiba Susumu (voice of Ichijou Takuma)

Chiba-san is a graduate of the Economics department of Nihon University. His notable roles include Fujiwara-no-Sai (Hikaru no Go), Isao Kondou (Gin Tama) and Manager Muranishi (Kirarin Revolution). His roles tend to be that of handsome men or bishounen. Hear him singing in Kou no Tsuki (Fujiwara-no-Sai character song, Hikaru no Go).

Fukuyama Jun (voice of Aidou Hanabusa)

Also known as FukuJun or JunJun, he has taken on lead roles such as Lelouch Lamperouge (Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion), Shimizu Keiichi (Kin’iro no Corda) and Takishima Kei (Special A). He won the best lead actor award for playing Lelouch Lamperouge in the 1st Annual Seiyuu Awards in 2007, and the overseas fan award in the 3rd Annual Seiyuu Awards this year. You can watch him voice some characters in this clip.

FukuJun is not known for his singing, but you can hear him in Gorgeous 4U (Kei version, Special A OP).

Suwabe Junichi (voice of Kain Akatsuki)

Wikipedia doesn’t have much information about him, but his breakthrough arguably came from his role as Atobe Keigo from The Prince of Tennis. Suwabe-san has also voiced the leading roles such as Greed (Fullmetal Alchemist), Bonten (Amatsuki), and Maitake Kuniumi (Lovely Complex). He is also a member of various seiyuu groups. Listen to his singing in Moment (Suteki Tantei Labyrinth character song) and Crystallize (Monochrome Factor character song).

Hoshi Souichirou (voice of Shiki Senri)

Hoshi-san is definitely one of the popular male seiyuus out there, having been ranked highly in a number of seiyuu popularity polls. I’m not too familiar with Hoshi-san and his roles, but some of the lead roles he’s been cast in include Kira Yamato (Gundam Seed), Hanabishi Kaoru (Ai Yori Aoshi) and Oogami Makoto (Ghost Hound). He likes to greet people with “Pappi!” (he does it in the video and in track 2 of the Double Premia CD), and is thus sometimes referred to as Pappi-san to his fans. He’s sometimes represented by the star symbol [☆] when referred to on message boards, since hoshi means star in Japanese. You can hear him singing in Shining Tears (Shining Tears X Wind OP).

Enough of the seiyuus for now; To end off, here’s a cap of what I thought was the best answer for the quiz:

Q: The flawless Kaname-sama… if he had a weakness, what would it be?
A: A decayed tooth. (from Chiba-san)
I wonder what Hino-sensei thought of that. XD

You can download the special here. Screencaps continue below the cut (click to enlarge).

• 『ヴァンパイア騎士』TAFイベント (30 March 08)
• ヴァンパイア騎士×夏目友人帳スペシャルイベント (6 July 08)
• 『ヴァンパイア騎士 Guilty』秘密の前夜祭 (30 Sep 08)
• 『ヴァンパイア騎士 DS』イベント (Oct 08)
• 聖ショコラトル・ナイト～女子の部～イベント (15 Feb 09)
• 聖ショコラトル・ナイト～男子の部～イベント (15 Feb 09)

Seiyuu interviews

• Season 1
• Season 2

The contents include (1) character introduction clips, (2) DS game promo clips, (3) anime promo clips, and (4) a cast talk. Of all these, the cast talk seems like the most interesting part. Hopefully someone will post this part online?

From the Japanese blogs I’ve read, the talk section involves Horie Yui (Yuuki), Miyano Mamoru (Zero), Kishio Daisuke (Kaname), Fukuyama Jun (Aidou), Suwabe Junichi (Kain), Chiba Susumu (Takuma), and Hoshi Souichiro (Shiki). Horie-san was dressed in the Day Class uniform (I want to see the guys dressed up too, but apparently they weren’t. :( ), and was the MC of that section. The remaining 6 guys were split into 2 groups. They had to answer the questions read out by Horie-san, and she would decide who gave the best answer. The team with the most “best answers” would win.

“Love<3Progress” Team: Miyano Mamoru, Fukuyama Jun, Chiba Susumu
*Their full team name was “Love.Psychedelic.Fantasy.Online WITH Progress!” (I wonder how they came up with such a name…)

“Tooth.Strange.Beautiful Woman” Team: Kishio Daisuke, Suwabe Junichi, Hoshi Souichiro
*The pronunciation in Japanese sounds like “Hi-Vision”.

[Questions]

1. If you became a vampire, what would you want to do?

Mamo: Catfight
FukuJun: Donate blood
Chiba-san: To fly
Kishio: (At the point of becoming a vampire) Saying “I’ve decided not to be human anymore.”
Suwabe-san: Dress up
Hoshi-san: To be the umpire of the Saitama Seibu Lions vs Tokyo Giants match in the Japan series (Both are baseball teams, and his answer was a play on the word “Vampire”.)

The winner was Suwabe-san.

2. While vampires suck the vitality from roses, if it were you, what would you suck to get your vitality?

Mamo: Elbow
FukuJun: Vacuum cleaner (To see who would lose.)
Chiba-san: Foreigners (Suck up genes from various people so that he can take the best ones and combine them.)
Kishio: Milk
Suwabe-san: Office ladies
Hoshi-san: 田原元騎手 (Not too familiar with this, sorry.)

FukuJun won this round.

3. The flawless Kaname-sama… if he had a weakness, what would it be?

Mamo: Blond-haired pig rascal (It was written as 金髪ブタ野郎… what imaginary thing is that?!)
FukuJun: Vertigo (The onomatopoeia used for dizzyness, クランクラン, is read as Kuran, same as Kaname’s family name.)
Chiba-san: A decayed tooth
Kishio: Coffin (When asked by others to write his name, Kaname 枢, he would accidentally write ‘coffin 棺’ instead.)
Suwabe-san: Rock and roll
Hoshi-san: Chicken skin

As expected, Chiba-san won this with the decayed tooth. XD

4. What new abilities did vampire Yuuki gain?

(Anyone who raised their hand could answer the question.)

Suwabe-san: American joke
FukuJun: Become sensitive to the stock market
Chiba-san: Become a magical girl
Hoshi-san: To be able to choose between good and bad balls (in baseball)
Chiba-san: To remember the rules in baseball
Kishio: To be able to write the kanji for rose
Mamo: Elbow
Suwabe-san: Stand on tiptoe
Hoshi-san: Grow taller
Chiba-san: Grow longer eyelashes
FukuJun: Stay 17 forever (Kind of referring to Horie Yui, who always says that her age is 17.)
Kishio: Grew taller (He said it slightly differently from Hoshi-san.)
Suwabe-san: Stretchable jeans
Mamo: Tight jeans
FukuJun: Sega and Nobita
Suwabe-san: Courage (Pronounced the same as Yuuki.)
Kishio: To be able to express her opinions on different issues
Suwabe-san: Become serious
Hoshi-san: Black vinegar (Sounds smiliar to Cross.)
FukuJun: To be called “You Key” (Sounds like Yuuki.)
Chiba-san: Become good at relationships (As in BGR.)
Suwabe-san: Become good at kissing
FukuJun: Become blood type B
Mamo: To see the auras of others

Mamo won with his last answer.

Overall, the Love<3Progess team won, and the prize was premium blood orange juice.

To end off, all the participants also gave a message.

If you have a niconico account, you can watch it here. (The site is in Japanese.) The video is flooded with comments. While there are some cruel comments, most of them are positive, with the commenters extending their congratulations to Mamo. There were also comments that asked about who his wife is, with some comments saying that it should be another seiyuu (Hirano Aya was mentioned in a couple of comments), and others saying that it should be someone that’s not within the industry.

The fans from the English-speaking communities have been nothing but supportive, and this is generally the case for Chinese fans as well. In the Chinese forums that I’ve seen, while many people expressed their shock with the sudden announcement, they also showed support for Mamo and wished him happiness. Even though Mamo won’t be seeing these comments, I hope that he knows that there are a lot of people out there who are supporting him.

I’m sure that it was difficult for him to make this sort of announcement, knowing that there might be backlash from the fans, which would affect his popularity. It’s sad that some people don’t respect the fact that he has his own private life, even though he’s a public figure.

I enjoy Mamo’s work and will continue to support him. I wish him all the best with his new family. 宮野さん、おめでとう！

For those of you who can understand Chinese, there’s a translation of the interview here. They were asked about the story, their characters, and recording-related stuff. The scans below are low quality. (Click to enlarge.)

Pick-up Voice Volume 7
Featuring Horie Yui, Miyano Mamoru and Kishio Daisuke

There’s a 22-page special on Vampire Knight, but the scans I found are incomplete. You can download the scans here (high quality). The file is password protected, and the password is given by the site owner in the comments section (comment 9).

The special features photoshoots and interviews of the seiyuus.