The January Sunday Theatre drama " Mikami Sensei " (TBS, Sunday 9pm) starring actor Tori Matsuzaka will begin on January 19th. This completely original school drama will see Shimori Roba, who will be teaming up with Matsuzaka for the first time since the movie "The Journalist" (2019), write the script for a prime-time drama series. Kazutaka Iida, who has been in charge of popular Sunday Theatre dramas such as "Anti-Hero" (2024) and "VIVANT" (2023), will serve as producer. In an interview, Iida talked about how he came up with the idea for this work, the lead actor Matsuzaka, and the highlights of the first episode.
◇ Admiring "Kinpachi Sensei" What new idea did you think you would never be able to surpass if you continued on like this?
" Mikami Sensei" is about a Ministry of Education bureaucrat, Takashi Mikami (Matsuzaka), who wants to change the Japanese education system, being ordered to transfer to a private high school, Rintoku Gakuin. In reality, it was a demotion, but Mikami himself takes to the podium and leads 18-year-old high school students living in the Reiwa era while standing up to authority... This is a "great reversal education revival story."
The idea for this work came from Iida watching a video of a certain artist. The young people in the video were expressing themselves to the fullest and looked radiant. Iida said, "I started thinking about the project with Shimori in 2020, in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. I really wanted to create a drama in which these young people could shine."
Iida revealed, "I wanted to become a school teacher after watching the episode in the fifth series of Kinpachi Sensei, in which Kazama Shunsuke plays Kanesue Kenjiro. I studied for the entrance exams, but failed miserably, so I took a year off and entered the Faculty of Education, where I took a teacher training course. Because of this, I had always wanted to do a school drama someday. In 2020, when I was working from home, I watched a video of an artist and the high school students in it looked so radiant and had so much passion. I was driven to want to create a drama in which these people could shine, and that was the initial trigger."
At the same time he came up with the idea, he asked Shimori, "Let's do it together." From there, the idea for an unprecedented socially conscious school drama began to take shape.
"I saw Shimori's name in 'The Journalist' and went to see her play because an actress I had worked with around the same time was appearing in hers. After that, I went to see her play several times and had a chance to talk to her. If Shimori was going to do it, I really wanted to include a socially conscious element. Also, I really admired 'Kinpachi'. However, I felt that if I made a school drama with a modern theme, I wouldn't be able to surpass my 'admiration'. It sounds a bit arrogant to say that I had no chance of success, but I didn't have the confidence to create something new... That's when I thought of Shimori as a new angle, and made her a teacher who is a 'bureaucrat'."
He explains that he decided to focus on bureaucrats because "at the time, people were saying that the format of university entrance exams would change, but in the end, not much changed. The reason for this was that the voices of those on the front lines weren't being fully heard, and it seemed like they wouldn't be able to decide (how to make changes), so there was a situation where no progress was being made. Combined with these factors, we decided to incorporate socially conscious elements and create a story with Shimori."
◇ The lead role was selected from 29 students through auditions. "We carefully considered the role"
Iida-san states, "This is a school drama. And the main characters are the students. That is an indisputable fact." The 29 students were selected through auditions.
"We gave it a lot of thought. The audition script included scenes with Mikami (Matsuzaka) and Kanzaki (Daiken Okudaira), and scenes with Kanzaki and Jigen (Airu Kubozuka). For the female cast, there were scenes with Tominaga (Aju Makita) and Shinonome (Juri Kosaka). We also had everyone act out scenes with Kanzaki, Tominaga and Jigen, with around four different scenarios. We assessed each person's aptitude and chose the person who best suited the character, and after making our selection, we fleshed out the character based on the characteristics of the person chosen."
Although the main characters are students, the title character "Mikami Sensei" has a strong impact, including his character design.
Speaking about Matsuzaka, whom he will be playing, Iida said, "This is the first time I've worked with him on 'VIVANT'. He's usually a very gentle person, but when he was playing this role, I thought he was very good at giving off a slightly mysterious vibe, including his appearance. Matsuzaka describes ' Mikami Sensei' as a 'person of love,' but I wanted to make him someone who has love deep inside, but is also somewhat elusive. Matsuzaka was the image cast from the time we started planning for 2020," revealing his confidence in the casting, which worked as expected.
Matsuzaka himself revealed, "He said that the movie 'The Blood of Wolves' (2018) was a turning point for him at that time. He said that ' Mikami Sensei' was his second turning point. He said he wanted to use ' Mikami Sensei' as a stepping stone to step up, and I thought that was a big responsibility (laughs)."
◇ Theme song "Look forward to it" unveiled on the first broadcast
Finally, when asked about the highlights of the first episode, Iida said, "I want to aim to make it a drama that is simply interesting, a drama that makes you want to press 'next episode.' I won't change that, and I would be very happy if people could take something away from watching it. This drama conveys things about life and society through education, so I hope that people will take that in, think about it, and talk about it with someone."
He also sent a message saying, "The theme song will be revealed during the broadcast. When it was announced that Sagisu Shiro would be in charge of the music, some people might have thought that there wouldn't be a theme song this time, but the theme song will be revealed during the first airing, so I hope you'll look forward to that as well."
The first episode of "Mikami Sensei" begins with a shocking scene, and I can't wait to see how it unfolds.
