On May 20th, a preview screening and talk show for the anime "Takopi's Original Sin," based on the manga by Taizan5 serialized in Shueisha's manga app "Shonen Jump +," was held at Grand Cinema Sunshine Ikebukuro (Toshima-ku, Tokyo), with Reina Ueda, who plays Shizuka, Konomi Kohara, who plays Marina, and Anna Nagase, who plays Azuma, in attendance. Ueda, who took on the "difficult role," said, "Shizuka is an elementary school girl with a lot of lines. I wondered how to act as an elementary school girl. She told me, 'I want to express a strong sense of resignation,' and I thought, 'I see!' So I started thinking about how to act based on 'resignation.'"
The role of Shizuka "is surprisingly expressive. I played the role in a way that aimed for the line between being emotionless and selfless. I was feeling my way through how much joy, anger, sadness and happiness to show, but I was conscious of 'not listening to what other people say'," he said, revealing that the delicate performance required.
He also said, "People also ask me, 'Were you able to get carried away by the role?' but that's not the case...I think it was because I was able to approach it with enthusiasm and passion, with the thought of conveying how great the work is, and it was fun."
"Takopi's Original Sin" is Taizan5's debut serialization work, serialized in "Shonen Jump +" from December 2021 to March 2022. Despite being a short serialization, it gained popularity, recording the highest number of views among works serialized at the same time. The story is about Tacopi, a Happy Alien who comes to Earth and meets Shizuka, a girl who never smiles, and uses his Happy Gadgets, which have mysterious powers, to bring back Shizuka's smile. The story also became a hot topic for depicting the cruel reality of elementary school students, such as bullying and problems with parents, and was ranked third in the "This Kono Manga ga Sugoi! 2023" Men's Edition. Although the comic is only two volumes in total, the total number of copies published has exceeded 1.45 million.
The anime will be directed by Shinya Iino and produced by ENISHIYA. It will be streamed simultaneously on Netflix, Prime Video, ABEMA, U-NEXT and other platforms every Saturday from June 28th. There will be a total of 6 episodes.
