Tokyo: Who would still fall in love after being spoiled?

Chapter 104 After Takeda became a voice actor, the Wild Cat Cattery welcomed a new owner

All the new voice actors who came to the interview received croissants distributed by Takeda and him before the interview began.

Most of them were confused and accepted it with great trepidation, thanked him politely, and did not ask too many questions. They could not guess his identity, but this also made them more friendly towards him and Takeda.

He didn't know what the interview process was like at a voice actor agency, but based on other interviews he knew, this wasn't a place suitable for sharing desserts with colleagues to build relationships.

First, after the interview, it's likely that about half of the newcomers won't be able to stay. Second, they are considered competitors. Plus, giving desserts to the interviewers seems to be a bit out of place...

After distributing the food, there were still two almond-glazed croissants and Basque bread bought specifically for Takeda left.

He looked around, moved his Adam's apple, but in the end he was unable to say what Takeda had taught him in the morning.

Takeda had already unpacked the Basque and needed to finish it before the class officially started at 8 o'clock, so he didn't care much about this matter.

"Who was that guy who gave us the croissants... He's so handsome, he'll definitely be on the show, right? Have you seen him?"

"No...but he must be a senior anyway."

"But he doesn't look very old, and he brought someone with him... he must be a newcomer."

"He's so successful at such a young age... The new girl next to him might be his girlfriend... What's wrong... Hey, does he have some ideas?"

"No way! Don't talk nonsense, Jinzi..."

"His girlfriend is pretty good looking too... I feel like your chances are slim..."

"Who said I had ideas... Well, everyone knows how to put on makeup and dress up..."

There was a whisper of discussion nearby, and the content was roughly the same as what Takeda wanted to achieve.

There is just an additional setting that he is a senior in the voice actor agency.

He didn't think about clarifying, but just stood in the corridor with Takeda.

On the way to the interview, Takeda taught him a lot about the operation of the voice actor agency.

Most of the members of well-known voice actor agencies in the industry come from voice actor training schools run by their own companies, and they are assessed once a year or every six months.

Even if other non-staff voice actors receive interview invitations, they are almost always met individually, and there are no group opportunities like this.

But firstly, the tuition fees of most voice actor training schools are high, and secondly, the students are trained as people who regard voice acting as their main career in the future, which basically has nothing to do with Takeda.

Only small and medium-sized voice actor agencies that have limited resources in the industry but are somewhat competitive will inquire about information in the industry and widely invite potential newcomers to join.

The agency she is currently interviewing belongs to this category. The abbreviation of the agency's name is "SS". It is not large in scale, with only eighty to ninety members. Not only is the original boss a voice actor himself, but even the agents are almost all hired by several voice actors who originally co-founded the agency.

The agency has no projects of its own and no long-term stable cooperation companies. The only resources it can provide are the connections established by the voice actors in the industry.

Sometimes, if there are multiple suitable candidates for a job within the firm, an internal selection may even be conducted within the firm first.

It has continued to operate in a similar way until now.

Takeda said that the boss of SS came from the Haiku Association, and was able to use this to obtain some resources that other agencies of the same size could not get.

But he just felt that this kind of rhetoric was like trying to catch the moon in the water and was not very credible.

It wasn't until Takeda said that it was a resource in special effects that he believed it a little more.

The interview was conducted by two agents and two senior voice actors, one female and one male.

When walking out of the elevator, all the newcomers who came for the interview bowed.

He was two seconds late, but he also lowered his head to avoid causing trouble. If the firm's management was stricter, he wouldn't be here.

Then, one by one, they entered the dubbing studio for the interview, introduced themselves, answered questions, performed scenes... and finally received scores from their agents and voice actor seniors based on their overall performance.

1~10 points, ranked according to the total scores given by the four judges, and seven out of the seventeen voice actors who came for the interview were selected to sign the contract.

It was less than half the acceptance rate he had expected.

As an outsider, he just stood in the corridor waiting, occasionally listening to the sounds leaking from the dubbing studio, and most of the time staring out the window in a daze.

This is a relatively prosperous area in Shinjuku. Outside the window, there are only various buildings of different heights and the glass mirrors on their facades sparkling in the sun.

Almost every voice actor who went in for an interview would bow to him when they came out.

Occasionally he would talk to them and ask them how many points they got in the interview.

There was a woman with long curly hair who scored 29 points, a man with glasses who scored 32 points, a woman with short princess-cut hair who scored 34 points, and a girl with a ponytail who didn't tell him that she wanted to add him on Line and said so on Line.

He wanted to agree, but he heard some discussions next to him, such as "What a good idea..." and "Why don't you try it too...", so he put the phone he had taken out halfway back into his pocket.

The interview time for a new employee is about twenty minutes. Some are interviewed after fifteen minutes, and some even stay for twenty-five minutes.

Near noon, it was finally Takeda's turn. Before entering the door, he bumped fists with him.

He started counting the time on his phone when Takeda entered the room, and just after twelve minutes he saw Takeda walk out.

It took the least time of the whole game.

He forgot to ask Takeda how many points she had scored, and suspected that she had performed poorly, which led to her being kicked out before she could even make it to the next round.

He looked at Takeda, and Takeda looked at him.

He just watched in silence, and Takeda looked at him as if she was competing with her to see who could last longer without blinking, staring at him, as if waiting for him to speak first.

The last girl invited for the interview was called into the dubbing room.

"..."

Takeda blinked first. He didn't want to continue this meaningless stalemate. He rolled his Adam's apple and made a sound.

"What would you like to eat for lunch today?"

"Hmm..." Takeda hummed softly, thinking seriously, not looking like he had just suffered a setback. "I've never been to Shinjuku, so I'll leave it to you to decide."

After saying that, she put her hands behind her back and winked at him.

Surrounding him were newcomers who were also here for the interview, and she listened to all their gossip, fearing that they were using this to help him maintain his image as a "handsome male voice actor senior whose name is unknown."

Faced with Takeda's performance, he thought for a moment and took out his cell phone.

[Inoue: How many points?]
She felt the vibration of her phone receiving a message, was stunned for a moment, took out her phone, opened Line, and checked the message.

After a few seconds of silence, she raised her foot and stepped on his foot with her round-toed platform leather shoes.

[Inoue: It hurts. ]
So he really didn't make the cut? He didn't pull his left foot out of the shoe, but looked at Takeda, who was typing away on his phone with his head down.

[Takeda: I thought you were going to recommend a hidden gem on Line that you couldn’t tell anyone about.]
She said this on Line.

[Inoue: This is my first time in Shinjuku, too.]
[Takeda: You're lying again! I checked the publisher of "The Wasteful Hero," and their headquarters is in Shinjuku.]
[Inoue: Now with digital tablets and notebooks, we can submit our work directly online.]
He decided not to mention the interview from now on, at least for today.

[Takeda: Really?]
This person is still as gullible as ever.

[Inoue: I'm kidding. I know a delicious yakiniku restaurant. I went there with Kuroki and two other authors.]
[Takeda: Treat me?]
[Inoue: Today only.]
Even though they were very close to each other, they naturally started chatting on Line after he took out his phone.

Takeda took his foot off his canvas shoes.

Talking about the voice actor training class in the afternoon, she said that she could be considered a graduate, but she had a good relationship with her teacher and could continue to attend the class and ask questions privately after class.

He asked the teacher whether she was a man or a woman and how old she was.

Takeda said she was a beautiful woman who, although in her thirties, looked as young as if she had just graduated from voice actor university.

But I couldn't convince her that she already had a boyfriend, so I told her not to have any ideas about it.

I also asked her if she still wanted to go to the training class this afternoon.

[Takeda: I'm not going. I'm taking the day off today. The hospital has also discussed with my mother about having a nurse help her take care of things.]
[Takeda: You don’t have anything else to do today, do you?]
[Inoue: I took a leave of absence to accompany you.]
"That's good." Takeda put away his phone and said softly.

"We're having barbecue for lunch. What are we doing in the afternoon? Shopping?"

"I don't want to go anywhere. I'll just go home and kill time."

"As you say..." He thought of the grocery store, but had already switched from online chatting to offline chatting, so he didn't ask.

"I've also taken leave from my part-time job." Takeda added, as if he could hear what he was thinking.

"How do you want to pass the time?"

"I haven't thought about it yet. Anyway, I'll take a nap first... and think about it when I wake up." Takeda didn't have the habit of planning his time before taking any action.

The two of them tried to lower their voices when chatting, but someone could still hear them.

He glanced at the two girls standing next to him who had wanted to ask him to be their Line friends. Their faces were now red, as if they were thinking of some unhealthy images.

"Okay." He didn't care much and even thought it would be better if one of them could pass the interview smoothly.

He almost never comes here more than once, and there are limits to what he can interfere with.

The more people who help spread the rumors, the more it fits with Takeda's vision of not wanting to be an idol and not wanting his private life to be restricted by his voice actor identity.

After a few minutes, the last voice actor for the interview finally walked out of the dubbing room.

Everyone stood in the corridor as they had when they first arrived in the morning, no one left, waiting for the final announcement of the interview results.

"Alright..." The voice actress came out to announce the results. Her voice sounded much younger than her appearance and appearance. If you closed your eyes and listened, you could tell she was just a high school student. "Newcomers who scored 32 points or above in the interview, remember to report to the agency in time~!"

"Thirty-two..."

"Reina, you scored exactly 32, right? Ugh—I'm so envious."

"Well...but don't you still have an AV club interview? There's still a chance..."

"No! That sounds embarrassing... Reina-chan's treating today!"

"Ah good……"

After the admission score was announced, the result of advancement or not was immediately reflected on everyone's face, and everyone had their own joys and sorrows.

He looked at Takeda who was standing next to him, but he could not see any emotion on her face, which was already pretty but had been deliberately covered with thick foundation makeup.

"Then..." While he was still thinking about how to comfort her, the female voice actor who announced the result walked over to them and greeted Takeda affectionately, "Qi-chan, from today on, you will be my junior~"

"Please take good care of me, Senior Xia..."

"You don't have to be so polite..." The old woman named Natsume took Takeda's little hand, moved closer, and turned to look at him.

"Is he Qi-chan's boyfriend?"

"Yeah." Takeda avoided Natsume a little uncomfortably and nodded in response.

"You look pretty good... Are you interested in becoming a voice actor at SS? I can teach you. The tuition will be 80% of what they charge at Seijijuku..."

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Attached 2 character data cards (2)

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【Character Information Card 3】

[Name: Inoue Hatsu]

[Age: sixteen]

Specialty: Painting

Hobbies: Sleeping in a kotatsu in the winter, and going to the mountains to see the snow in the winter.

Favorite animal: I once caught a rabbit while looking at the snow in the mountains. It was so cute and cuddly.

The city I hope to live in in the future: Go with the flow

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【Character Information Card 4】