How to Make A Minor, Expository Supporting Role Kick Ass – Tomatsu Haruka in Sora no Woto Episode 4

Note 1: Never appears on screen alone.

It’s pretty common in movies and shows to have characters that exist solely to expose the plot. They can play major supporting roles (usually a mechanic or scientist) and even have some personality and character, but often they’ll just be random, nameless classmates commenting on something like how one student hasn’t shown up in three days, so that the main character finds a reason to be curious about them. In a plot-driven anime that features a classroom in its opening episode, you’re definitely going to have one of these. I find it funny when these characters show up because they’re such a blatant “writer’s convenience” (as called in an episode of Billy & Mandy).

In Sora no Woto episode 4, a classic example shows up in the form of Maria, one of the assistants to professional glass-blower Carl. Maria has less than 10 lines in the episode—a few explaining to Kanata that Carl is one of only five “meisters” of glass-blowing in the country and how serious he is about his craft, then a few teasing him about his implied relationship with the glass shop owner in town, and finally a couple to facilitate the conversation between Kanata and Carl about talent (which is great). So why does Maria come off as so much more interesting than some nameless exposition machine?

Part of it is her design. One aspect of a writer’s convenience is that they should be easy for the viewer to instantly recognize as someone with a certain kind of knowledge. Scientists will wear labcoats, a computer wiz will look nerdy and wear glasses, and classmates will obviously wear a school uniform. All of them usually look as plain as imaginable so as not to be confused with the main characters.

Note 2: All of her dialog revolves around the boss.

Maria is easily identifiable as a worker in the glass shop thanks to her sensible clothes and the towel around her neck. Her short hair and loose shirt with its sleeves rolled up give her a tomboyish appearance, which is instantly sold by her voice. For a random character, she’s pretty attractive—this is the effect of existing in a high-quality production such as Sora no Woto where anyone with a line of dialog is going to look damn good.

But more importantly, Maria has star power behind her voice. Tomatsu Haruka (Nagi in Kannagi, Yunyun in Canaan, Mileina Vashti in Gundam 00) is a well-recognized seiyuu and a good one at that, and turns in her performance of Maria just as well as she would a major role. There’s a level of playfulness and fun to her performance that has a big part in keeping the lengthy glass-shop scene alive and interesting, which wouldn’t be true for the same scene in any lesser show. It’s precisely because Sora no Woto meticulously brings its A-game to every scene that such a great voice was attached to so few lines, which is part of what makes it such an impressive anime.

Bonus: You may know her for singing MONOCHROME.