Actor Aju Makita will be appearing in the TBS Sunday Theatre drama " Mikami Sensei " (Sundays at 9pm), starring Tori Matsuzaka . She plays Tominaga Ao, a student in class 3-2 who is the homeroom teacher at Rintoku Gakuin, a private high school where the main character Migami Takashi (Matsuzaka) is assigned under the government dispatch system. Tominaga is a cheerful, free-spirited character who doesn't worry about small details. She is childhood friends with Kanzaki Takuto ( Daiken Okudaira), who fought with Migami in the first episode, and is somewhat worried about the dangerous Kanzaki. Makita, who said this was her first time acting in a school drama, talked about the student role she was chosen for through an audition, the lead actor Matsuzaka, and the atmosphere during filming.
◇ First school drama. "This is the first time I've played a role that's this cheerful and clear-spoken."
In "Mikami Sensei," Takashi Mikami (Matsuzaka), a bureaucrat at the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology who wants to change education in Japan, is ordered to transfer to a private high school called Rintoku Gakuin. In reality, he is demoted, but Mikami takes to the podium himself and leads 18-year-old high school students living in the Reiwa era while standing up to authority... This is a "great reversal story of reviving education." This is a completely original story, and Shimori Roba, who will be teaming up with Matsuzaka for the first time since the movie "The Journalist," is in charge of the script for a prime-time drama series. Kazutaka Iida, who has been in charge of popular Sunday Theater shows such as "Anti-Hero" (2024) and "VIVANT" (2023), will serve as producer.
All 29 students in this production were selected through auditions.
"It was my first time to play a character who was so cheerful and speaks so clearly. Her way of speaking was very modern, and although she wasn't exactly a gal, she was a very powerful character, so at first I was worried whether I could portray the role as I imagined it. But the script was really interesting, so I really wanted to participate and did my best. The audition itself only happens once a year, so I was very nervous, but I just wanted to play Tominaga. I was very happy when I found out I could appear in a school drama on Sunday Theatre, and my mother is a big fan of dramas, so she was very happy for me."
When asked about the similarities between her and him, she said, "I think we're similar in that we both have personalities that make us want to have a say in everything. I'm not that proactive, though."
She tried to prepare herself to appear as cheerful as possible on set, but said, "When filming began, all the students were more energetic than I had imagined, and I felt that if I only continued to be cheerful myself, I would have lost out. So I set aside time to talk with the director and producer, and we worked out how to approach the role, and we confirmed things like, 'That person in that role is so cheerful, so I need to be even cheerfuler than that,' and so on."
◇ Co-starring with Airu Kubozuka for the first time in a year and a half: "We're motivating each other and doing our best"
The student roles were played by familiar faces such as Airu Kubozuka, with whom he has co-starred before, and Okudaira, who is a good friend of his from the same agency.
"It's been about a year and a half since I last worked with Airu-kun. It was my first time acting in a school drama, and there were a lot of people with experience, so I was really nervous, but having Airu-kun there made me feel very relieved. Our characters are completely different from the ones we worked on together in the last movie, "Happiness" (directed by Shinohara Tetsuo, 2024), so it's a bit embarrassing, but we're stimulating each other and doing our best."
"We're in the same agency, but we don't have many opportunities to work together. So when I heard that Okudaira had also auditioned, I thought, 'I definitely want to work with him.'" He continued, "I'd always wanted to work with him, so it felt like a wish come true, but it was a bit embarrassing."
Tominaga (Makida) is the student who talks the most with Kanzaki (Okudaira). When the other person is being cold, Tominaga goes and talks to him aggressively, and it's very difficult for us to take the lead in the conversation," he said.
"It's been about two months since filming began (the interview was held in January), but I feel like I'm finally getting used to it," he said. "I don't talk about our roles with the other students. We just have fun and encourage each other. We each have long lines, so when I'm done, we're like, 'Next, do your best,' and we work hard, pushing each other forward like passing the baton."
◇What is your impression of Tori Matsuzaka? After watching "The Blood of Wolves"
What is your impression of Matsuzaka, who plays Mikami Sensei? "I watched 'The Blood of Wolves' (2018) before going to the set. So I had a slightly scary image of him, but he talks to each student, and unlike Mikami Sensei, he's a really cheerful person, and when he looks at the situation on set, he tells the staff if they think it would be better to do it this way. He always thinks of us, the students, first and foremost, and I always think he's really cool," he said.
"I also had a teacher like that when I was a student," she revealed, smiling, "He was really encouraging and made me want to try my best and challenge myself in anything, so I would be really happy if I had a teacher like Mikami Sensei."
Tominaga also has many scenes with Mikami Sensei. "There are many scenes with Matsuzaka at game centers, and during those scenes with the two of us, he would talk to me about all sorts of things," he said.
"We talked about which of the works I've been in that I would like him to watch the most. I told him, 'I've been watching a lot of TV dramas recently to study,' and he said he wanted me to watch 'Yutori desu ga Nani ka' (2016), so I watched all of them. And the movies too. I told him I wanted him to watch 'Hoshi no Ko' (2020)."
Regarding her acting, she revealed, "Mr. Matsuzaka was surprised when I told him that I was struggling to be cheerful.I had been trying my best to be cheerful in the classroom, so he was surprised and said, 'So that was what came after you had struggled to be cheerful.' Riho Yoshioka(who plays the assistant teacher, Ms. Koreeda) told me, 'I hear you're struggling,' and gave me the advice that I should talk it over (with the staff) and do it carefully."
Regarding "Street Fighter," where she faced off against Mikami Sensei at the arcade, she said, "I don't play that many games, but for some reason I was drawn to that game and I played it for a while. I have two older brothers, so I like games." She also said that her favorite character is "the one with the long arms. Dhalsim (laughs). I practiced a lot for this production, and I realized how deep the commands are. I can now execute moves properly. I played against Matsuzaka-san, and he went easy on me. That's because I'm a very strong character."
Makida-san said that she had watched "VIVANT" at the Sunday Theatre before going on set. "Unlike other dramas, when I saw the proposal for "Mikami Sensei", I felt a strong will and a strong desire to "communicate this to the world!" I imagined that the set would be very tough, but that wasn't the case at all. The director, producers, and cast members were all really cheerful people, and although it was a long journey, I felt that we were all encouraging each other and working towards one goal, facing the same direction," she said emphatically.
