Disclaimer: This is a translation of Haruna Luna’s interview on Akiba Keizai Newspaper. The original interview can be found on this link. I own nothing aside from the translation. Also, I’m still learning Japanese, so my translation could be off. If you notice a mistake, please inform me.

Interview with the Next Generation Songstress, Haruna Luna. She Goes to Akihabara 5 Times A Week, For What?

Haruna Luna, who is very expressive and has a powerful singing voice despite her delicate twin-tailed style, is answering our questions about various topics. She had her major debut on May 2012, with a song that was composed and arranged by Kajiura Yuki, “Sora wa Takaku Kaze wa Utau” (“Fate/Zero” second season’s ending theme). On August 12th, her single “Startear” (ending theme of anime “Sword Art Online II”) went on sale. This time, this girl who is often called “Akihabara freak” will talk about Akihabara and her private life.

>>> “She’s an otaku, huh.” – The Isolated Junior High School Life <<<

Q: First, please tell us the story of you before your debut.
A: A got my interest in anisong because I watched “Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon” when I was still in kindergarten, and I became anime lover since I watched “Kamikaze Kaitou Jeanne” when I was in the 6th grade of elementary school. About gothic lolita, I admire Road Kamelot from “D.Gray-man” a lot, and when I looked it up I found out that her clothing style was called “gothic lolita”, I knew that they sold those at Harajuku, so I went to buy it and got really into it *laugh*.

Q: Aside from being an artist, you’re also active in modeling, right?
A: Yes, yes. When I was in second grade of high school I got scouted in Omotesandou by the fashion magazine “KERA”, and started my activities as a model. Around the same time, I participated in the anisong limited audition, “The Fourth All-Japan Anisong Grand Prix”, became a finalist, and that’s when my debut as an anisong singer in my current company was decided.

Q: You said that you became anime lover when you were at 6th grade, did you have friends around you who also loved anime?
A: Nope, I was a minority. When my anime loving side awakened at around the 6th grade ~ 1st grade of junior high school, around the time when “Densha Otoko” was broadcasted on the television, it was a time when otaku was not acknowledged in the society, and the people who accepted otaku and the people who didn’t accept otaku were clearly divided. When I was in junior high school, there were also people who would say, “She’s an otaku, huh,” and avoided me. The pressure from my male classmates was strong, and at first I thought, “Why would you say such things,” and, “Maybe I should stop loving anime,” but in the end I couldn’t stop being an anime otaku… *laugh* However, the amount of anime otaku who would recommend manga and anime among my classmates seemed to increase and they slowly became more active. Because of that, little by little I got friends that I can talk about manga with.

Q: It’s easy to get closer when you have a similar topic in interest, it seems.
A: Even if it’s a person we’ve just met, just by discussing about our favorite show we can feel like we’ve known each other for a long time. Anime is truly great. Even if we go overseas, it’s like we can communicate just by using anime character’s name.

Q: Is it possible to be an anime otaku and a model at the same time?
A: Because I have many model friends in “KERA” who are also otaku, the conversations we have between photoshoot sessions are more often about anime instead of fashion. Also, there are modeling jobs that are based on anime, for example, when a costume that looks like a character arrive in the middle of our work, we would impersonate that character, and make gestures/expressions while imagining about the anime character. So, watching anime can also be useful in a modeling job.

>>> First Time Visiting Akihabara and Comiket at 1st Grade of Junior High School – “I felt a dejavu.” <<<

Q: By the way, you visit Akihabara quite often, right? When was the first time you came to Akihabara, with whom, and for what?
A: My first visit was in order to buy “Fullmetal Alchemist” goods from Animate’s limited sale, with my friends in the first year of junior high school. I was really surprised! When I take a walk in other cities, it’s hard to find anime-related materials, but in Akihabara no matter where you go anime is everywhere. Anime just pop out in front of your eyes spontaneously, and that made me happy. By the way, that year I also attended Comiket for the first time.

Q: That’s fast! How was your first Comiket?
A: I felt a dejavu. How do I put it, it felt really nostalgic. I wonder if I was also an otaku in my previous life. Comiket nowadays and Comiket in the past, I like them all! I don’t mind about the crowd, or the heat, or the cold, at all. Because it’s fun nonetheless! Finding a circle you’re interested in, looking for informations on the internet and pixiv, making a circle list by yourself, making marker signs on the pamphlet, taking the first train, all those things.

Q: Complete preparation, huh? *laugh*
A: When I’m attending Comiket, I’m not Haruna Luna the artist, I’m just another fujoshi *laugh*.

Q: Back to the topic of Akihabara, how often do you go to Akihabara lately?
A: At most I go 5 times a week.

Q: Isn’t that almost everyday? *laugh*
A: That’s right *laugh*. If you see me in town please feel free to say hi. Sometimes I meet with people who’d say, “Wow, you really come to Akihabara,” and it makes me incredibly happy! I feel like, “Ah, I’ve made a new friend.”

Q: What do you usually do that you come to Akihabara 5 times a week?
A: Looking around, of course! *laugh* Rental Showcase! I really like it. They change their merchandises periodically, right? I’m interested in that. I usually come to like a show after the broadcast has ended, so it’s difficult for me to buy goods in realtime (tl;note: while the show is still airing). In Rental Showcase, they sometimes sell old merchandises from a finished show, so I’m checking that. After that I go look for trading cards in the “Yellow Submarine”.

Q: Do you also play trading cards?
A: No, I don’t play them. I collect them. I have a bad habit of collecting stuffs… I can’t stop collecting a card of a character I like before I have 10 – 15 pieces of the same card. I get them a lot to bring along with me, and to collect at home. I need to have them with me all the time. For me, whenever I see the picture of a character I like on a card or a poster, I feel that it’s really the character himself. That’s why, because I put posters in my room, I always feel like I’m being watched and can’t stay there for a long time. Even though it’s my own room…

Q: You just can’t feel at ease there. *laugh*
A: I can’t feel at ease at all! It’s so embarrassing I can’t even change clothes in there! It’s a severe condition, right? *laugh* I thought about only putting things like a PC in my room. I thought about that, but in the end I still end up putting posters, and change clothes in another room *laugh*. It’s completely for self-satisfaction, you know.

Q: Currently, who is the character that can make you feel embarrassed?
A: A character in a smartphone dating sim I’m currently playing! I really adore that boy. He’s a dark tsundere… a cruel tsundere. More like a tsuntsuntsuntsuntsundere, but he’s also cute… He touched my maternal instinct. I just had to befriend him.

Q: Have you been liking tsundere characters all along?
A: I like a character that looks evil, or a character that seems to lean towards darkness. If I watch an anime, the one that I like is not the main protagonist, but the enemy character. But usually the character that I like would die…

Haruna Luna

>>> If You Hadn’t Become An Artist? – “A shopkeeper at Kotobukiya!” <<<

Q: You’ve told us about your hobbies and imaginations, but do you have an imagination tied to Akihabara?
A: I do. I always walk around while wondering if I can meet an anime character somewhere. Something like, “Maybe there’s an anime character I like in that car,” walking around while thinking about that is very fun! It’s easy to fantasize in Akihabara, because anime materials can be found everywhere. Lately, we can see a lot of otome game characters filling the town, it makes me embarrassed. “Ah, he saw me…” something like that. *laugh*

Q: Now, if you’re dating in Akihabara with whom would you like to go, and where to?
A: Going to the “GUNDAM Cafe” with Eir-chan (Aoi Eir). It has a restroom decorated with Gundam and Zaku, it’s very interesting! You can feel the wonder of mecha anime world, I really recommend it. After “GUNDAM Cafe”, we’ll go to “Animate Akihabara”, look for our own CDs, and also buy anime goods. Then, we’ll go to the “Mandarake COMPLEX”. It’s a shop where people can enjoy anime goods from various era. After that we’ll go to karaoke to sing anisong, and sing each other’s songs. Then, on our way home, we’ll stop by a game center, play crane games, take some purikura (photo stickers), and then part ways.

Q: For Haruna-san, what kind of town is Akihabara?
A: A home! Maybe I even treasure it more than home. It’s a place where I wanna aaaaalways be there. I feel like I want to live there! If I live in Akihabara I will absolutely be happy.

Q: By the way Haruna-san, what do you think you’ll be if you hadn’t become an artist?
A: A shopkeeper at “Kotobukiya Akihabara-kan”!!

Q: Whoa, an immediate answer. *laugh*
A: I really like “Kotobukiya Akihabara-kan”. They sell many anime goods, of course, and their displays are very cool. I looked for an employee recruitment information at “Kotobukiya Akihabara-kan” once, but at that time, I didn’t meet the minimum age requirement, so I gave up… Maybe someday I will work at “Kotobukiya Akihabara-kan”. I will wear that green polo shirt with that logo. *laugh*

>>> Challenge of Making Anime Song Lyric for the First Time – “Staying true to the original work.” <<<

Q: Alright now, Haruna-san’s sixth single “Startear”, the ending theme of TV anime “Sword Art Online II” which began airing at August 12th, has been released. How did that song turn out?
A: This time, I felt very nervous because I was given the chance to write lyric for an anime soundtrack for the first time, and I wanted to be able to stay true to the original work, “Sword Art Online”, which I also like. The lyric of “Startear”, it’s expressing the feeling of the heroine “Sinon” which appeared in the show, and I wrote it in order to make the people who listen to it be able to relate to that feeling. I’ve been interested in making lyrics since a long time ago, when I was in junior high school I used to make lyrics and submit it to the internet, so being able to get involved in lyric making like this makes me really happy. For this occassion, I read the novel of “Sword Art Online”, tried to understand about Sinon-chan’s feelings, made notes and wrote them in a memo, then create a lyric based on those without thinking about the melody line, and when I got the melody I go over the lyric once again, throw away unnecessary words, and constructed the final lyric using the important words.

Q: “Sword Art Online”, “Fate/Zero”, and also “Monogatari Series”, it seems like Haruna-san is getting a lot of anime tie-ups.
A: Yes, I’m very grateful for that! But whenever I’m having an anime show tie-up, I always feel a pressure. The opening and ending theme of an anime show is very important, it’s something that will stay inside your heart. When you’re reminiscing about a scene in the show, the song will play inside your head. There’s a responsibily to not destroy the image of the original work, so I’m always worried whether the result will be well accepted or not.

>>> Twitter, Fan Letter, and Handshake Event – “I’m grateful for every word I accept.” <<<

Q: Lately, with tools like Twitter, it seems easy for fans to convey their voice.
A: That’s right. I feel very happy to hear their thoughts. But above all, I guess handwritten fan letter is the best. Nowadays, I don’t have many chances to write letters. Like I’ve said before, there’s this smartphone dating game that I currently like, and there was an event where we get a chance to write a love letter to a character, and I participated in that. I wrote a carefully crafted love sentences for him, stick his picture inside, I made and sent three letters that looked like real love letters! But I failed… *bitter smile* I was surprised at how well-written the contest winner’s letter was! Really, the power of a letter is wonderful.

Q: Have you ever gotten a harsh criticism among the fan letters?
A: I have. It gave me a shock when it was around my debut, but harsh critics show me things that I need to improve directly, so now I accept them all, and use them as references. I feel grateful for all the feedbacks, whether they’re positive or negative.

Q: You also held handshake events, where you get in touch with your fans.
A: Handshake is my most favorite event! Many interesting conversations can appear there, but I feel happy just getting people to know me. I also feel thankful for them making their time to attend the event. It allows me to get an idea about what kind of performance I should show the people when I’m doing a live concert. Before the show starts I always feel nervous, but when I see the audiences’ faces in the middle of the concert, I become emotionally touched and feel like I want to burst into tears.

Q: There are many anisong singers having their debut lately, do you have an anisong singer that you consider as a rival?
A: In the world of anisong there is no feeling of rivalry. Everyone are friends who are active in the same scene. At the time of my debut, I felt worried and thought, “I wonder how I should act around other anisong singers,” but now that I’ve entered the community everyone is so nice and I feel really comfortable.

Q: You also held live concerts overseas. How was the reception of the fans overseas?
A: No matter what country I came to I always feel the love for anime. “Japan’s animations have spreaded this far,” that’s what I thought and it made me happy. People also sang my song along with me in my live. Even though we don’t understand the language, we can communicate just by using music and anisong, that’s a very wonderful thing. Sometimes there are people who can speak Japanese in the handshake event, and when I asked them how they learned it, they said, “I learned it from anime.” As for me, even though I watch movies in English, I don’t think I’ll be able to remember the language. I can really feel their passion towards anime. Every country has its own concert habit. My first Asia tour was to Indonesia, and it was very similar to Japan. They brought glow sticks, and when I said, “The next song is the last song,” they replied, “Ee!!”. Even though I didn’t speak in that country’s language, but in Japanese. It was very interesting.

Q: Lastly, please tell us Haruna-san’s dream and target from now on.
A: Ever since my debut, I’ve always thought that I have to always give variations in my performance and music. There are many kinds of anime in this world, and they have their accompanying music. I think I want to be able to express those greatly diverse images to everyone.

Q: Thank you for today!
A: Thank you, you are welcome. After this, I will return to Akihabara again!

Q: Have a safe trip. *laugh*