I have to give major props to Bam’s VA, Ichikawa Taichi, in today’s episode (9).
When Endorsi yells “That’s not what Rachel wants! Why can’t you realize that?”, and Bam replies with a simple “I already know that”, his voice is a mix of mellow, sadness, and hurt which was beautifully done to add contrast to the scene.
It really captured my attention because when you stop to think about it, it would be natural for anyone to get somewhat aggressive and snapback. (Like, how would you normally react if someone was yelling at you, telling you something you already knew?) And since Endorsi was adding more tension to the scene, you would’ve expected a somewhat harsher tone coming from Bam.
But it never came.
The delivery of his lines in my book was perfect. If Bam did respond back with a frustrated tone, one of annoyance, it doesn’t capture who Bam is. He’s upset and the delivery of the next line “But, I can’t help how I feel” was just great. In Japanese, the literal translation is “my heart moves on its own / it’s how my heart moves” [so I can’t help myself]. I think it just goes to show Bam is a good-hearted person through and through. It makes the audience want to care for him more because he simply wants to protect someone who means a lot to him. It’s wanting to protect someone who’s the only family to you.