THETV.JP: The talk of the town! Nikaido Fumi & GACKT embody their intense characters in Tonde Saitama

Tonde Saitama, Maya Mineo’s popular comic that sold over 620,000 physical copies. This work that is jam-packed with terrible disses towards Saitama has been adapted into a live-action movie. With Nikaido Fumi and GACKT as the two lead starring actors, they have brought to like the impactful characters.

The role of Momomi is Nikaido’s first male part while GACKT took on the challenge of playing a high school student with his character Rei. But how did they feel when they received the offer?

Nikaido: I believe that the only thing we wanted to avoid when we were turning this into a live-action movie was losing the believability of the astounding visuals and characters that Master Maya birthed. My role was that of a male, but we wondered if his appearance should be made somewhat slimmer. But more than anything, when GACKT-san enters the site and I’m with him, there’s a lot to be aware of. Like what kind of atmosphere it should be, or whether the scene is convincing or not. I learned a lot from this.

GACKT: When I heard that I’d be playing a “high school student”, I immediately declined at the beginning (smiles). Like, don’t you think that’s impossible? On the first day of filming, when I entered the site and saw Fumi-chan fully dressed in her outfit and acted with her, I recognised that “This can be adapted into a live-action work, it’ll be alright”. Because it’s strongly impressive. Like Fumi-chan will notice if there’s even the smallest crease in her sharply fitted pants and will definitely get it fixed before filming. She’s someone who’s meticulous and attentive and puts her mind on acting.

No matter how you look at it, it was an unusual work and an unusual pair of lead stars come true, but this time, GACKT felt certain commonalities between author Maya and Nikaido.

GACKT: I love Master Maya’s Patalliro!. I got to meet him for the first time because of this and I thought that he’s someone who possesses a tremendous aesthetic. On the other hand, his work is outstanding too with awesome gags put together with aesthetic. That sense of balance is marvellous. I believe that if a strong core doesn’t exist inside of him, he wouldn’t be able to draw such a work. Actually, I had the same feeling about Fumi-chan. Although she looks like this, she’s a woman with an intense core. At the filming sites, we spoke about all kinds of things and no matter what I asked, Fumi-chan will answer me but for some reason, in the end, she’d disappear without giving me an answer (smiles). A very enigmatic person. The image that I have of Fumi-chan is “gone with the wind”.

Nikaido: I’m also happy that we could talk about all sorts of things, and for me, there were a lot of things that I could apply to myself. Maybe I was satisfied with that and then ended up disappearing (smiles). GACKT-san possessed the perfect appearance, and I’ve seen it since young. To the extent that I wonder, “Does he really exist” (smiles). When I actually got to speak to him, he’s kind and smart, and furthermore, he’s someone who works hard. He’s someone who can seem both quixotic yet decent at the same time, and I think that that’s really wonderful.

Both of them also said that the key to the success of the live-action adaptation was “acting seriously”.

Nikaido: If we made it look funny, if it could be seen that the motive of it was to make people laugh, all of it would become distasteful. It was a site where it was important to do things without an ulterior motive.

GACKT: Director Takeuchi (Hideki) always said that “you can’t aim for it”. And that’s why we were able to act seriously and with passion. We don’t want to get a laugh out of people, instead, we want this movie to be one where the audience laughs at us. So please do watch it and laugh out loud.