Akari Takaishi stars as the heroine in the NHK Asadora drama series "Bakebake " (NHK General, Monday-Saturday 8:00 AM, etc.). In the 24th week, Tsukasanosuke(Takashi Takashi Okabe ) gently comforted Heaven ( Tommy Bastow ), who had been fired from the Imperial University. Okabe has appeared since the first episode, playing the heroine's father, a character who, despite his flaws, is lovable. We spoke to producer Kuniomi Hashizume about Okabe's role in " Bakebake."
The character played by Okabe is Tsukasanosuke Matsuno, the father of the protagonist Toki (played by Takaishi). He was a high-ranking samurai in the Matsue domain, but when the Meiji era began, he lost his income and lived in hardship and poverty. He is a character who clumsily struggles to do what is best for his beloved family.
Hashizume explains, "Up until now, Okabe has always played characters who have been left behind by the times. Tsukasanosuke has had his circumstances improve and is living a good life by chance, but I think he is one of those who did not succeed in the flow of the times."
"I wanted to create a character that shows that even though he lives each day to the fullest and enjoys life, there are other ways of living as well. I think what makes Tsukasanosuke a character is that even though there's nothing he can do about it, if he's happy, that's all that matters."
Regarding Okabe's acting, he praised her, saying, "She has a long-standing relationship with the scriptwriter, Mitsuhiko Fujiki, and she knows better than anyone how to act out Fujiki's scripts, so she brilliantly embodied that world."
"Mr. Fujiki's way of developing the script, and how he showed us what kind of emotional tone makes his scripts interesting to perform, really helped to determine the direction of the actors' performances. In that sense, I think Mr. Okabe really created the world of the story."
When the cast first did a script reading, after Okabe read his lines, the other cast members changed how they delivered them.
"All the cast members are very skilled actors, so as long as you understand which approach they're taking and what direction they're going in, you can express yourself well. When I actually heard Okabe-san deliver his lines, I realized, 'Oh, that's how I should act,' and my approach changed. I think Okabe-san showed me the direction in which Fujiki-san's script would become more interesting."
While "Bakebake" is known for its unexpectedly humorous plot twists, Hashizume says, "If you try to act in a way that makes people laugh, you won't get to appreciate the charm of Fujiki's script."
"It's sometimes described as having a 'New Comedy-like development,' but actually, the way we perform it is the complete opposite of New Comedy. New Comedy has a punchline, and the approach is to figure out how to make people laugh in relation to that punchline, but with ' Bakebake,' we don't focus on the punchline; we create it so that people laugh through the straightforward performance. We could perform it in a New Comedy style, but if we did that, it wouldn't be funny. Mr. Okabe showed us that, and I think all the cast members were able to perform in that style until the very end."
The story is entering its final stages, with only one week of broadcasting left. What kind of ending awaits Toki, Heaven, and the members of the Matsuno family? I want to watch until the very end.
