MDPR.JP: GACKT questions fan who won award for watching Tonde Saitama 16 times "Is there something wrong in your head?"

On the 18th, artist GACKT, together with Masuwaka Tsubasa and director Takeuchi Hideki, attended the appreciation stage greeting for Tonde Saitama’s status as a big hit that was held in Tokyo.

GACKT lead starred with actress Nikaido Fumi. On the 4th week of its release, it has become a big hit with total box office revenue reaching 2 billion yen and 1.5million tickets sold, but when a survey went out asking audience members how many times they’ve watched the movie, there were a handful of fans who said that they watched it more than 5 times. GACKT had a wry smile on his face as he commented, “Honestly speaking, (you’re) crazy”, drawing laughter. When it was revealed that the highest number of times was 16, even Saitama native Masuwaka was speechless, uttering, “Half a month…!”.

Tying with this movie’s catchphrase, “the biggest comedy in Japanese film history”, the fan who watched the movie 16 times was given 16 portions of Sayama Tea, Saitama’s local produce. GACKT jokingly asked, “On the contrary, I’d like to ask you, watching it 16 times, is there something wrong in your head?”, and the fan answered by talking about her unique way of enjoying it, saying, “It’s nothing like that, but I find it interesting to watch it in different cinemas and observing the reactions”. When GACKT asked, “Which place gives the biggest reactions?”, she revealed that Ikebukuro was especially lively, saying, “Ikebukuro is the best! There’d always be applause”. To that, GACKT drew laughter when he said keenly, “Ikebukuro is a famous place in Saitama after all, isn’t it?”.

Also, Masuwaka shared an incident, saying, “My mother isn’t the type of person to go to the cinema, but this time, she went to watch the movie with my father, and she told me that she watched it 5 times in total. It had nothing to do with her daughter appearing in it, and she even said, ‘This time, I’ll buy the DVD!’. That’s the first time since Titanic that she said something like that. She really loves it”.

Double lead starring Nikaido Fumi & GACKT in the movie Tonde Saitama

This movie is a live-action adaptation of Maya Mineo’s original work “Kono Manga ga Sugoi! comics Tonde Saitama” (Takarajimasha), which was republished as a special book in 2015 for the first time in 30 years and garnered a lot of attention from media outlets and social media. The movie is set up in 2 parts, with the original story and setting where Momomi and Rei are involved being the ‘legend part’, while this legend is being retold through a family who lives in Saitama to reaffirm their local love for Saitama in the ‘modern part’.

Nikaido plays the role of Dannoura Momomi, the student council president (=elite) of Hakuhodo Academy living a luxurious student life and the son of the governor to Tokyo. This is her first male role. On the other hand, GACKT plays the role of a “high school student”; Asami Rei, a handsome transfer student returning from America who is actually a Saitama native for whom Momomi has a mild infatuation.