For the 7th anniversary issue, Famitsu interviewed Takagi Miyu (Mirin), a longtime gamer and co-host of Famitsu’s weekly Granblue Fantasy stream, “Granblue with Emiri and Miyu”.
“A happy girl who cheers up everyone around her.” The emotions in Mirin’s recordings
Famitsu: What kind of character is Mirin?
Takagi Miyu: She’s a girl from a far east island, whose parents instilled her with a deep love for samurai culture. She interprets the samurai tradition a little differently than normal, but she’s a bright and open girl who takes good care of her katana and works hard toward her dream of becoming a great samurai.
Famitsu: What do you focus on when you’re playing Mirin?
Takagi: She’s such an innocent person, I try and play up every reaction she has to be a little exaggerated and cute. Those are the two things I focus on.
Famitsu: How did you feel when you were cast as Mirin in GBF?
Takagi: I was already familiar with the game thanks to “Granblue with Emiri and Miyu”, so I’d always thought “I want to be part of this”. When I got the role, and when I saw that Mirin was a cute blonde, I was so happy. As soon as she came out, her CA was super strong, and the “Mirin Cannon” started trending on social media. I was really pleased to see so many skyfarers taking good care of her.
Famitsu: She was definitely a lot stronger than your average SR. Do you have have Mirin in any of your parties?
Takagi: I do. When she was released, players said that the Mechanic class was really strong, so I equipped the companion with Energy Maneuver so that I could get Mirin up to 200 meter at the start of the fight. I took her to a lot of fights, and we went meat hunting together. Water Unite and Fight is coming up next, so I think the SSR version of Mirin will be getting a lot of work.
Famitsu: How did you feel when SSR Mirin was released?
Takagi: I was happy for her promotion to SSR, of course, and I liked the Christmas outfit they made for her. Admittedly, the outfit wasn’t very Christmasy and was a little more appropriate for New Year’s Day, but it’s very Mirin to miss the mark a little bit (LOL). And the uncap art with her chowing down on that corn is super cute!
Famitsu: Certain skyfarers say that you must have been the model for that art.
Takagi: I’m a big foodie, so we’re definitely alike in that way (LOL). A lot of Mirin’s stories are about food, aren’t they? There was one story where she just had to track down and try spaghetti for the first time (Editor’s note: this is from “First Time Abroad”, SR Wind Mirin’s introductory fate episode).
Famitsu: Do any of Mirin’s lines stick out to you in particular?
Takagi: She says “Gozaru” a lot, and I remember spending a lot of time trying to figure out how to make each “gozaru” unique. It’s not just a vocal tic that she sticks at the end of her lines, each “gozaru” has its own emotions attached to it.
Famitsu: Do you have any examples?
Takagi: Well there’s a “Gozaru!” for when she’s surprised, when she’s tired it turns into “Gozaruuu~”, and she uses it as an exclamation a lot of the time too. That’s what makes Mirin Mirin, and I want the fans to hear a lot of different gozarus.
Famitsu: Are there any stories from recording Mirin that stick out to you?
Takagi: When I started, they told me that Mirin has more heartwarming stories than the average member of the cast does, so make sure to play her upbeat and happy. Mirin was released right after a series of really serious events (editor’s note: Mirin was released in November 2017, after “Lonesome Dragoness”, “Violet Violence”, and “Forgiveness and Gratitude”), which is why they told me “Give her the kind of warmth that will make every player feel peace and happiness”. I still remember that to this day.
Famitsu: Would you enjoy taking a stab at a more dramatic Mirin story as a change of pace?
Takagi: She’s been in a lot of happier stories, but if you dig into her past, I think you could find a more serious side to Mirin. You could see why she started learning the way of the sword, or a few other things that I’m curious about.
Famitsu: Are there any characters that you would like Mirin to connect with in the future?
Takagi: I want to see Mirin talk to the great swordmasters like Eahta or Jin for sure. After that… I’m really curious how Mirin would react to the in-your-face Lowain Bros. Mirin’s so straight-laced, what would those 3 bros look like to her? Please make these stories happen.
Famitsu: We can’t help but notice that you didn’t mention one of your own favorite characters, Takagi-san…
Takagi: You’re talking about Belial, right? (LOL) I can’t even imagine what Mirin and Belial would do together. I kind of feel like I want to see it, but I also think she would pull out her sword to mete out some Mirin-flavored justice before she let him say another word. It might be too early for those two to meet (LOL).
What’s your current party? Checking in on Takagi Miyu’s grind
Famitsu: Next up, we’d like to hear about how you’re doing in Granblue Fantasy as a player, Takagi-san.
Takagi: I 40-boxed Unite and Fight for the first time in the recent Light-favored event [January 2021]. All those boxes went into uncapping Fif to 5 stars. I’ve recruited all of the Eternals, but I’ve only uncapped Tweyen, Eahta, Tien, and Fif so far. I know there are a lot of players who can 40-box like it’s nothing, but it’s pretty tough for me…
At my current pace, I think it’ll be two more years until I’m done uncapping all of them. (LOL)
Famitsu: And now you can Transcend the Edge with them…
Takagi: The road ahead is very, very long. Plus, I’m working on collecting all ten Evokers. Right now I’ve recruited Alanaan, Caim, and Nier, and I’ll be able to welcome Geisenborger home pretty soon.
Famitsu: Can you tell us what your play time is like?
Takagi: (looks it up on her phone) In January 2021, it looks like I played about 3 hours a day on average. But the average doesn’t really tell the story. Some days I don’t get to play at all, and on New Year’s Day I had the game open for 18 hours and played the whole time.
Famitsu: What element are you most confident in?
Takagi: I worked on my Fire party pretty hard before, but now I have to say that my Light party is the strongest. I use Luminiera Omega, and my grid’s filled with Lumi Swords. Five Lumi swords, Xeno weapons, and a 4 star Dark Opus. Picking up a Cosmic Sword was a huge boost for that grid.
Famitsu: The Cosmic Sword gives you more attack based on how many sabres are in your grid, and in a Light sabre grid it really packs a kick, doesn’t it?
Takagi: The rest of the grid is the Seraphic weapon and a regular weapon. It’s pretty much swords. That Cosmic Sword is easy to slot, and thanks to that, Unite and Fight got a lot easier for me.
Famitsu: In July 2021, “Granblue with Emiri and Miyu” will hit its own 5th anniversary. What do you think of that?
Takagi: Katou Emiri-san and I play GBF together, chat about the game and get hype, and it’s always fun. It’s surprising to think that we’ve been doing this for 5 years now. It’s kind of incredible – there’s always a new event or a new character to talk about, and and even though we’ve done over a hundred of these shows, we’ve never run out of topics to discuss. Our viewers are a mix too, with a mix of veterans and a lot of players who started playing GBF just recently. I love the part of the show where we can interact with them, and they can teach us new strategies too.
Famitsu: Is there anything you’d like to do on a future show?
Takagi: We’ve done a lot of GBF-specific content. The Barawa Cannon Challenge, doing raids with party and weapon restrictions, those are all fun. When Granblue Fantasy Relink comes out, I’d like to play that on the show. I’d like to do a Silhouette Challenge (editor’s note: a segment where, based on a preview shown only in silhouette, Katou and Takagi draw what they think the new class will look like) on a new class that’s about to come out, and the Predict the Next Divine General segment was fun too. The beauty of the show is that as long as it has anything to do with GBF at all, we can do whatever we want, so I’d like to try a lot of new fun segments.
What’s the Shocking Reason She Got Into the Touhou Project?
Famitsu: Are there any games other than GBF that you’re playing right now?
Takagi: Recently, I’ve been playing NieR: Automata. I bought the game right after it came out, but I died so many times in the intro… I got stuck where I couldn’t even make it to the first save point. But I went back to it recently and made it over the hump, so I’m finally able to enjoy it.
Famitsu: We know you love games, to the point where you play a lot of them on your YouTube channel. What kind of games do you like?
Takagi: I like action games and music games, so I’ve played a lot of the Crash Bandicoot and Taiko no Tatsujin series. I haven’t played as many RPGs, but I do play the Pokémon series, and I enjoyed that one Monster Tactics game that came out on the Game Boy Color. When I was in middle school I really got into the Touhou Project games, so bullet hell shooters became a favorite genre of mine too.
Famitsu: How did you get into the Touhou Project?
Takagi: I’m not exactly proud of this, but when I was in middle school, my parents took away my game console because I played too many video games and didn’t do my schoolwork. They also took my computer off the network, so I couldn’t even use the Internet, much less play any browser games. But I thought “If I buy a physical copy of a PC game, I can play that, right?” and looked up ones that didn’t need to be online. I found the Touhou Project that way, and when I saw that the price was way lower than other console games, I said “This is the one!”
Famitsu: So you didn’t think to do your schoolwork and earn your console back, you just wanted to find another kind of game you could play in your situation? That’s… very you, Takagi-san (LOL)
Takagi: But to play the Touhou Project games, I had to download DirectX first, right? So one time when I was left at home, I accessed the home router to reconnect my computer to the internet for a little bit. Then while my family wasn’t home, I downloaded DirectX as fast as I could so I could play it (pained laughter)
Famitsu: That’s such a desperate thing to do (LOL). Okay, last question: could you give a parting message to our readers and to the 7th anniversary of Granblue Fantasy?
Takagi: Congratulations on the 7th anniversary, GBF! Not many games make it to 7 years, and it’s amazing that so many players have been able to keep up this energy and passion for the game the whole time. I’m blessed to be a cast member for this franchise. I hope that we can all keep having fun together in the game and on “Granblue with Emiri and Miyu”. Have fun in Granblue, and take good care of Mirin!
Sidebar: What’s Miyu’s favorite story event?
Out of all the story events in GBF so far, Miyu likes Belial’s first appearance in “What Makes the Sky Blue II: Paradise Lost” the most! We asked her about other story events she likes, and she told us “I love Kou, so I like “Forgiveness and Gratitude” and “Kou and the Hollow Existence”. She also loves the B Movie feel of “The Maydays”. Nice taste, Miyu!