It has been revealed that actor Yui Okada, who announced his marriage on the 3rd of this month, will be making a guest appearance in episode 5 (exclusively broadcast on TVer from 11am on April 14th) of KDDI x TVer's new original program "About Our Company! ~Secret Lunch Meeting~," which regularly features talent Murashige Anna and freelance announcer Takahashi Maasa.
This is the second original program in the KDDI x TVer content co-production project, and is a talk variety show where people listen to the "secret stories" of people working in society. Murashige and Takahashi appear regularly, and new episodes are released every Monday. Okada will make a guest appearance in episodes 5 to 8 of the 12 episodes.
The setting is lunchtime at a certain company. Murashige and Takahashi have a daily routine of chatting over a playlist where working women's worries and "secret stories" are uploaded as audio. They empathize with "Monku-chan" who uploaded the audio to the playlist, and express anger at "Konna-san" who troubles "Monku-chan", while eating "recommended sweets" that accompany their conversation with the guest, and engage in real and refreshing talk.
Okada will appear in episodes 5 to 8, which feature a wide variety of "secret stories" from nursery school teachers about their "old-fashioned bosses" and medical office staff about their worries about their "newbie-killing bosses who hide their shoes." How will Takahashi respond to the comments of Okada and Murashige, who are from the same generation? The conversation between the three is sure to be a highlight.
As an exclusive content on TVer's official SNS, the three cast members, who tend to poke their noses into everything, will also be broadcasting a segment called ``We'll Choose the Best Answers'' in which they will arbitrarily decide on the best answers to ``messages that are difficult to reply to'' sent in by ``complainers.''
Comments from the three performers are as follows:
◇Comments from Yui Okada, Murashige Anna, and Takahashi Maasa
--First of all, please tell us your thoughts after finishing the recording.
Takahashi: We talked a lot this time too (laughs).
Murashige: We talked nonstop!
Okada-san: I learned a lot listening to my seniors' stories!
Murashige: There's no end to complaints, is there? It's fun to complain about it yourself and to hear it from others. I thought it was interesting to hear complaints about people and environments that have nothing to do with me through this program.
Takahashi: I was also surprised at how talkative the "complainers" were and how well they chose their words!
Murashige: I've said this to a lot of different people, so I guess I've gotten used to it (laughs).
Okada-san: I think the "complainers" who told me this story are troubled by the "problematic" ones, but they have stories that can be used to get people excited, and I'm a little envious of them. I'd like to worry with them. In my everyday life, I don't often have such experiences...
Takahashi: That's true, there aren't many troublesome seniors in this industry.
Okada-san: That's right. I don't have any contact with people like that, so I learned that there is a world like that.
--Is there any episode involving "Monkuchan" that particularly made an impression on you?
Takahashi: For me, it was the one where my shoes were cut off.
Okada-san: That was a brutal episode!
Murashige: When I heard that he had two mistresses, I felt a sense of danger. There are so many attractive men around him. He could hide the fact that he was married. I thought it would be scary if he were deceived. I have to be careful!
Okada-san: I learned that nursery teachers and principals have a lot of problems. I thought it was a job where you deal with children, but you also have to look after adults... I realized it's a really tough job.
--In the last recording, we asked Murashige-san and Takahashi-san about some "secret stories" in reference to the show's title. If you have any, I'd like to hear them from Okada-san.
Okada: Actually, I'm tired of social media (laughs), so I often stop replying to messages... When I was a student, messaging apps became popular and it became easier to contact people, but I got tired of having to quickly mark messages as read and reply. On the other hand, it seems like everyone is replying slower now.
Takahashi: That's right!
Okada-san: Not everyone is like that, but I get the impression that there are more and more people like me. We used to keep in touch every day, but once we became working adults, that stopped.
Murashige: I can understand the desire to do a digital detox.
-Finally, please give a message to our viewers.
Takahashi: There were a lot of different worries this time too. I think some of them will apply to viewers. There were a lot of opinions from Murashige-chan and Yumi-chan, who are in their 20s, so I hope you will take them into consideration. In fact, when I listened to the opinions of the two young people this time, there were several moments when I thought, "Maybe I can understand the feelings of the 'problematic person'!" I hope people of a wide range of ages will watch it.
Murashige: I thought the same last time, but there's no end to complaints (laughs). I enjoyed it again this time. All the "Complaint Girls" were very cheerful in their speech, so we were able to proceed with the program in a cheerful and positive manner. However, I think that there were moments when it was hard to stay cheerful when you were worried. I was moved again this time by seeing everyone laughing and talking after going through that. Every time we finish recording this program, I think, "Let's do our best in life!" I hope that the viewers will also take it in a positive way and watch it.
Okada: To be honest, I thought there wouldn't be many people my age who would want to hear about the past. But when Murashige said, "I want to know about the past because I don't know about it," I realized that there are people of the same generation who think differently. I was able to hear an opinion different from mine, and I thought I could respect him. And with Maasa-san helping to summarize the opinions of the two people with different opinions, I think the conversation was well-balanced and could be seen from various perspectives. I hope that viewers will enjoy the show as if they were part of the conversation with the three of us.
Takahashi: If I tell her old stories, Yumi says, "I don't like it when you tell me old stories," and if I don't, Murashige says, "I want to hear old stories" (laughs). Through this recording, I was reminded that organizations are difficult. I learned that both superiors and subordinates need to be able to see through each other and figure out how to deal with each person.
