Anime Monologues for Auditions Vol. 5
The best audition monologues are arguments. Not with the room, with yourself. The character wants something, something gets in the way, and we watch them fight through it in real time. Anime gives you permission to go big, but big without specificity is just noise. Find the small, secret want underneath the volume. Then let it rip.
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The Knife in the Drawer - Detective Hideo Murasaki - jaded cynical investigator
"You know what I found in her apartment? (tosses photo on table) Tea cups. Two of them. Still warm when uniforms broke down the door. (lights cigarette) So either she made tea for her killer, or she made tea for someone she trusted who LET the killer in. (leans back) Twenty-three years on this job, kid. Twenty-three years of looking at tea cups. Wedding photos. Half-eaten sandwiches. (exhales smoke) You want to know the worst part? It's never the monsters. Monsters I can handle. Monsters I can shoot. (quiet) It's the husbands. The brothers. The best friends. The ones who poured the second cup. (taps photo) HE did this. The man in this picture. The one with his arm around her. (stands, grabs coat) I've known it since I walked in. I just needed the tea cups to prove I'm not crazy yet. (beat) Let's go ruin his evening."
A Body Borrowed - Aya Mizushima - body-swapped confused student
"Okay. OKAY. Stay calm. (stares at hands) These are not my hands. These are some boy's hands. There is hair on these hands. (looks down) And THAT is definitely not... no. Nope. Looking up. Looking up forever. (paces) Yesterday I was Aya Mizushima. Sixteen. Captain of the volleyball team. Allergic to shellfish. Today I woke up in a dorm I've never seen, with a face I've never seen, and a roommate who keeps calling me 'Daichi' and asking if I finished the math homework. (spots mirror, screams) HE'S CUTE! Wait, am I allowed to think that? Is that weird now? Is THIS weird now?! (grabs head) And somewhere out there, some POOR BOY is waking up in MY body, and my mom is going to make him eat shrimp tempura, and HE'S GOING TO DIE! (grabs jacket) I have to find him. Me. Whatever. (door slams) THIS IS THE WORST TUESDAY!"
The Throne Was Empty First - Princess Kaede Tokugawa - exiled vengeful royal
"They burned my mother in front of me. (stands at edge of cliff, wind in hair) Did you know that? Of course you didn't. The history books say she died of fever. (small bitter smile) They burned her on the palace steps, and the courtiers I'd grown up with watched. Some applauded. (turns slowly) I was eleven. They didn't think I'd survive the mountains. They didn't think a child could remember faces through that much smoke. (quiet) I remember every face. (walks toward him) General. Loyal General. You stood beside my uncle that day. Third row. You wore the silver helmet. You didn't applaud. (stops close) That's the only reason you're still breathing. (holds up scroll) I have an army now. I have a name again. I have ten years of perfect, patient, sharpening rage. (eyes burning) You will help me take the capital. Or you will join the others on the steps. (soft, terrible smile) Choose, General. Quickly."
Loud Boy - Goro Inazuma - hot-blooded boisterous shounen hero
"WHO SAID I COULDN'T DO IT?! (slams fist on table, food flies) HUH?! WHO?! I'll fight 'em! Right now! (jumps up on chair) THAT'S RIGHT! YOU HEARD ME! I, GORO INAZUMA, WILL ENTER THE GRAND TOURNAMENT! AND I WILL WIN! (points at random patron) AND YOU! YOU LAUGHED! I HEARD YOU LAUGH! Step OUTSIDE, sir! (jumps down, grabs friend's shoulders) Listen, listen, LISTEN! Everyone says I'm too dumb. Too loud. Too short. Too BROKE. (grins enormous) You know what I say to that? I SAY GOOD! Means nobody's expecting me! (eats whole bowl of rice in one motion) I've been training in the mountains for THREE WEEKS! I punched a BEAR! The bear and I are FRIENDS NOW! (stands on chair again) WHEN I WIN THAT TOURNAMENT, I'M BUYING THIS WHOLE RESTAURANT! AND EVERYONE GETS FREE NOODLES FOREVER! (beat) ALSO I LOST MY WALLET! WHO'S BUYING MY DINNER?!"
The Last One Out - Father Kenshin Arakawa - haunted defrocked priest
"You shouldn't have come looking for me. (pours whiskey at empty bar) The man you knew burned out a long time ago. (slides glass to her) Drink. You'll need it. (takes own glass) Twelve children, sister. Twelve. I baptized eight of them. I named two of them. I held their grandmother's hand when she went. (stares into whiskey) And when the thing came out of the well, I stood in the chapel doorway with a cross and a prayer and exactly NOTHING ELSE. (quiet) God didn't answer that night. Maybe He was busy. Maybe He was never listening. (drinks) I survived. The only one. They gave me commendations. Articles. A bishop's letter. I burned all of it. (looks up, hollow eyes) You want me to come back. Fight whatever's risen this time. Pray over the wounds. (stands, voice rising) I HAVE NO PRAYERS LEFT! I have whiskey and a shotgun and a bad knee. (grabs coat) Fine. (beat) But this time, I'm not standing in any doorway."
Notes the Wind Forgot - Hibiki Aozora - shy sensitive musician
"I... I wrote a song. (holds violin tight) For you. I know that's, um. That's a lot. To say. Out loud. (stares at floor) I started it the day you helped me carry my case up the stairs. You probably don't remember. It was raining and I had bronchitis and you didn't even know my name. (small laugh) I've been working on it for two years. (looks up briefly, then down) Two years of trying to put a feeling into notes. Trying to make the violin say what my mouth can't. (beat) I added a part last month. After your father passed. A low part. Slow. I wanted it to sound like... like someone holding your hand without saying anything. Because that's what I wanted to do but I was too scared. (takes deep breath, raises bow) I'm still scared. (soft) But I think... if I play it now... maybe the violin can be brave for both of us. (closes eyes) Please listen."
The Crown Won't Wear Itself - Empress Reika Tokiwa - imperious impatient ruler
"WRONG. (slams scroll on throne arm) All of it. Wrong. (stands) Minister, you stood before me yesterday and assured me the eastern provinces were stable. Today I find out they've been in open revolt for THREE MONTHS. (descends stairs slowly) Do you know what I was doing three months ago, minister? I was choosing PORCELAIN. Because YOU told me there was nothing more pressing. (stops in front of him) My grandmother executed advisors for less. (circles) I'm not my grandmother. I'm worse. Because I REMEMBER. I remember every promise. Every reassurance. Every smiling lie. (stops behind him, voice in his ear) You have one chance, minister. ONE. You will leave this hall. You will personally ride to the eastern provinces. You will return with a peace treaty, a hostage of nobility, or your replacement's name. (steps away, returns to throne) And if you fail... (sits) ...don't bother coming back. The crows are hungry. (waves dismissively) GO."
The Bell at Midnight - Junpei Akagi - flirtatious chaotic delinquent
"Hey. HEY. Don't run. (grins, blood on lip) Beautiful, you don't run from me. We've talked about this. (spits, wipes mouth) That's, what, three guys? (counts) Yeah, three. They jumped me by the vending machines. They thought numbers would matter. (shrugs) They were wrong. (walks toward her) What? Why're you crying? Don't cry. C'mere. (softens) Hey. Hey, I'm fine. Look at me. (tilts her chin up) See? Smiling. Pretty face still pretty. (small laugh) Okay, slightly less pretty. (serious) Listen. I know you hate this. I know you keep asking me to stop. And I keep promising. (steps back) But every time I see those guys hassling kids in our school, I just... my hands move before my brain. (grins again, wild) It's not a hero thing. I'm not a hero. I'm just a guy who really, REALLY hates bullies. And really LIKES hitting things. (takes her hand) So. Movie still on for Saturday? I'll bring ice for my face."
The Kitchen Was Her Country - Grandma Sumire - tender wise grandmother
"Sit down, child. (stirs pot slowly) No, no, on the floor. By the fire. The way you used to. (small smile) You don't fit the same anymore. You're too tall. When did that happen? (shakes head) Yesterday I was teaching you how to fold dumplings. You made them all wrong. Like little stars. (laughs softly) I told everyone they were a new style. (adds salt) I heard about the divorce. Don't make that face. Of course I heard. I am old, not deaf. (sits across from her) You think I'll be disappointed. You think I'll quote your grandfather and tell you marriages are for keeping. (takes her hands) Marriages are for LIVING. And if you weren't living, you were right to leave. (squeezes hands) I left a man once. Long before your grandfather. Nobody knows. (winks) Now they do. (stands, returns to pot) Eat. Then we plan the rest of your life. (over shoulder) Slowly. With dumplings."
The Numbers Don't Cry - Lieutenant Setsuna Kobayashi - cold ruthless assassin
"Subject is forty-two. Married. Two children. Daughter, eight. Son, eleven. (checks scope) Wife works at the hospital. Returns at six-fifteen. (adjusts rifle) You're asking me how I do this. (pauses) I don't. (beat) The woman who pulls this trigger is not me. She is a tool the government built and named Setsuna. She has my face. My fingerprints. My voice. (eye on scope) But she is not me. (target appears in window) I am the woman who reads books at night. Who feeds the cat in the alley behind my apartment. Who once cried at a violin recital. (finger steady on trigger) Setsuna does not cry. Setsuna does not hesitate. Setsuna closes the file and goes home. (beat) And then I... return. (quiet) Most days. (slow exhale) Some nights I wonder if Setsuna is winning. If one day I will close the file and never come back to myself. (fires) ...Subject down. Confirmed. (stands, voice flat) Going home."
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