AMEBLO.JP: Tonde Saitama Movie Release Celebration Nikaido Fumi×GACKT Nagoya Talk Event REPORT

　The shocking “Saitama dissing” comic, Kono Manga ga Sugoi! Comics Tonde Saitama, from Maya Mineo has been adapted into a live-action movie! It will finally be released nationwide on Friday, 22 February.

　The original, which was announced in 1982, was a talked-about work that involved Saitama citizens needing waybills to travel to Tokyo and shocking disses like “Saitama citizens, eat
the grass over there” “Da-Saitama* ” “Saitama-laria** ” and more. Over 30 years passed since then before it was revived as “Kono Manga ga Sugoi! comics Tonde Saitama” and got picked up by numerous news outlets, selling over 690,000 copies! The movie version is an unexpected live-action adaptation with Nikaido Fumi and GACKT as the lead stars, and Takeuchi Hideki, known for his work with the Nodame Cantabile series and Thermae Romae series, as the director.

　Before the release, Nikaido Fumi and GACKT are coming out of the Kanto region to promote “Saitama’s charms” around Japan. For Nagoya, the talk event was held on Wednesday, 13 February at Nagoya’s symbol, Sakae Oasis 21! In addition, Saitama’s local product, soka senbei, which appears as an important item in the movie, was given to the 150 members of the audience. They aim to Saitama citizen-ise people from Nagoya, Aichi!

REPORT

Nikaido: Thank you for gathering here today despite the chilly weather! I love Mie. I do love Nagoya too, but Nagoya already does come to people’s minds even without anyone pushing for it, so I would definitely like Mie to be the next theme. Nagoya is our last stop in our campaign but I’m glad to have come to Nagoya. Thank you for your support for Tonde Saitama!

GACKT: There are a lot of beautiful people in Nagoya… That’s the impression that I have. I’m not just talking about the people gathered here today, but I’m referring to everyone as a whole. Because of that I often get out of the car half way. Something like an elegance, I do often come. Nikaido-san is an adorable person, but she’s funnier than she appears. If we were to have a movie in Nagoya… it’d probably be “Tonde Matsusaka”. Everyone often says that they don’t know where MAtsusaka is, right? Probably something to do with accessibility. Because I like Mie’s beef, I do go to Matsusaka to eat but the accessibility is quite… (an issues). Though I do think that perhaps the inaccessibility is a charm of its own. If I ask the people who have come here ‘where did you come from?’, I get the feeling that they’d say ‘Nagoya’ but… (smiles) This movie talks about such things, but it’s an extremely magnificent farce. We’re adults who are desperately doing stupid things extremely seriously. We hope that it’ll be a funny movie for everyone. Please do, by all means, enjoy it in theatres!