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- Pero Ponto -
My favorite song is one sung by the character Perona in One Piece called “Kawaii Tokoro.” I grew up watching One Piece through the influence of my family, and before I knew it I was in love with the show myself. My favorite character in the series is the pink pigtailed, goth-loli-wearing, Perona. I love how her cute looks contrast with her unique personality and the way she’s always pulling faces. She’s not a main character, though, so she doesn’t appear in the story very often and her character goods in stores are always quite limited.

Then one day, it was revealed that 47 songs sung by various characters in the One Piece series would be released. I wonder if Perona will be one of the characters? I thought to myself, and as I anxiously checked the list, she was on it! I was so happy, I bought all the CDs online that I could. “Kawaii Tokoro” was one of the songs released. The cheekiness of Perona comes through in the lyrics and in her voice, but it’s also really cute and the song is very Perona-esque. No matter how many times I hear it though, it always excites me that, Perona is singing!


I could listen to it when I’m in a good mood or a sad mood, it’s because it’s a song by my favorite character that I can feel close to Perona whenever I listen to it, and that makes me happy.
The voice of the actress behind Perona is super cute, so even for someone who hasn’t seen or heard of Perona or One Piece, you only need to listen to the song to tell just how cute she is! The lyrics contain these really catchy phrases that are repeated throughout the song, so it really sticks in your head. It’s my favorite song of all time and the one I recommend more than any other!

- Kaduki Ujou -
My name is Kaduki Ujou. I’ve been an idol now for 10 years.


My favorite song is a character song from The Prince of Tennis, called “Hitomi wo tojite kokoro no mama boku wa kimi wo omou” (I close my eyes and from my heart I think of you). I love manga and games, and when I was going through my hikikomori phase this was the first anime character song that I listened to. It shocked me. Manga characters usually only appear in black and white, but when they’re made into anime they take on color and they start talking and moving. It seems so insignificant, but when the character I liked started singing, it was revolutionary for me. The emotions I felt at that time is the source of what drives me today. I want to know more about the world and I want to see what’s out there with my own eyes!

I also listen to J-Pop and Western music and I really love music in general, but character songs are based on entire worlds that the characters in a series work to create from the first installment, so these songs also tell a story and to me they’re invaluable.

I moved to Tokyo because I wanted to sing theme songs for anime and sing character songs as a voice actress. But now we sing our own original songs every day. Ichiho Shirahata, Kaduki Ujou, Hibiki Kunogi and Pero Ponto – together we make up the four-member unit, Gekijoban Gokigen Teikoku. We also have our own rather deep story. We’ve all walked our own paths but our final destination is the same.
Fighting against life’s absurdities as a self-managed production we might not always show things that are only beautiful. But we have a story that we all want to make together.

We only formed our unit in September this year. Just like the pages in a manga, I want us to etch out our story one page at a time. And I don’t only want to show the happy and fun times, but the sad times and the tough times as well.