Kuguru Kasaya Spends an Evening Trading Chiikawa Film Interpretations With Viewers

RIOT MUSIC — Kuguru Kasaya, a singer with Riot Music’s aaMugensho Record label, held a zatsudan, or chat stream, on Thursday devoted entirely to Chiikawa, the popular manga and anime franchise. She said she had taken the slot less to talk herself than to hear what viewers had to say, and that she had not wanted to spoil the film for people who come to her singing streams.

She opened with three topics: favorite characters, how each person came to the series, and the Chiikawa movie. She named Momonga as her favorite, saying she is drawn to the way the character keeps acting cute while everyone around ignores it, and also spoke warmly of the Siren and Shisa. Viewers answered with their own picks, among them Sea Otter, Shisa and the Siren.

“やっと好きなだけ、語れる日が来て嬉しい” — Kuguru Kasaya, near the end of the stream (translated: “I’m glad the day has finally come when I can talk about it as much as I like”)

On how she got hooked, she said she began reading the manga because she wanted to see the film, and at first only liked it mildly. The turning point, she said, was a chapter in which Chiikawa is trapped in a time loop and, in tears, strains to put on a smile. She also said she liked a bad-ending version the creator Nagano drew.

Most of the evening went to the film. She praised the opening song, the way the Siren’s “I understand” scene hits harder than in the manga, and the heavy sound of a blow in the cave scene. She then put a question to viewers: whether the Siren’s anger came from losing a companion or from the broken balance of a set of three. Her own reading was the latter, and she said she treasured readings that differed from hers. Chat split on the point.

Toward the end she said she would probably see the film once more, and spoke of a wish to watch it alongside viewers if it reaches streaming services. She closed with a tangent about a recording engineer who likes the rabbit character for its voice, and a story about a hot pot that took two hours to simmer. The stream drew one Super Chat.