NATALIE.MU: Tonde Saitama releases! GACKT "wanted to kiss" Iseya Yusuke "no matter what"

The opening day stage greeting of live-action film adaptation of Maya Mineo’s original story Tonde Saitama was held today, 22 February at Marunouchi TOEI in Tokyo.

Tonde Saitama is a gag movie that depicts a world where Saitama is being persecuted by Tokyo. Nikaido Fumi who plays Dannoura Momomi, GACKT who plays Asami Rei, Iseya Yusuke who plays Akutsu Sho, Kyomoto Masaki who plays Saitama Duke, and director Takeuchi Hideki all appeared for the stage greeting dressed in Montsuki Hakama. The emcee was Miyazawa Tomo, a Fuji TV announcer who is a Saitama native.

Director Takeuchi received a loud round of applause when he said to the audience who have just watched the movie, “I made it with love and with the hope that Saitama prefecture will be ranked among the top 20 in the (prefectures) annual popularity survey. What do you think?”. Nikaido spoke of pointers that she kept in mind while playing the role of Momomi, saying, ““The original story’s world view something that is very strong, so we didn’t want to lose that strength. Also, the story itself is a work that goes beyond anything like gender or age, so we weren’t too particular about those areas, but I did my best to try and have my character be seen as a boy”.

Iseya Yusuke, who plays the leader of Chiba Liberation Front, Akutsu Sho, said that as filming progressed, a kiss scene with GACKT which was not there initially was suddenly added. Director Takeuchi revealed, ““It wasn’t there originally, but since GACKT-san proposed it”, and even though GACKT said, “You promised you wouldn’t say it”, he admitted that “I wanted to kiss Iseya-kun no matter what”. Furthermore Director Takeuchi revealed that after the kiss scene Iseya muttered “Surprisingly no different from a woman”, and Nikaido too was impressed, saying, “I didn’t expect it to be something so realistically executed, I thought that (they had) amazing showmanship”.

Kyomoto, who plays the legendary Saitama citizen Saitama Duke, said that when he came into contact with setting that is revealed in the movie, “The only thing about it that appears in the original is its name, so when I heard about it, I was like ‘Eh!?’”. The director also went on to talk about the behind-the-scenes of the battle scene. When he revealed that when it came to certain line, “Iseya-san is a serious person, so he said that ‘I can’t say such a line, I can’t get into it”, Iseya made the audience laugh when he denied, “I’m not that kind of actor! I’m a yes man!”.

Lastly, as a message to Saitama natives, Nikaido said, “I think it was really big-hearted of (Saitama) to accept such a movie, and I’ve come to like (Saitama) even more” while GACKT said, “I think that being picked on is a wonderful thing, so going forward, do continue to pick on people from Saitama, I think that Saitama natives want to be people who are worth being picked on. I do hope that this movie will contribute to Saitama’s development, even if just a little”.