In an excerpt of Kanta Ishida’s column of “Through Otaku Eyes” for the Daily Yomiuri, Ishida writes about “Death Note” actor Kenichi Matsuyama (L) who plays another manga character for a new Japanese drama “Zenigeba” shown on NTV.
Is Kenichi Matsuyama the acting genius the world of manga culture
has been waiting for? I thought so while watching Zenigeba, a drama
currently being broadcast by the NTV network on Saturdays at 9 p.m.
I should note that creating a television version of the manga
Zenigeba is an astounding idea itself. Zenigeba is about Futaro
Gamagori, a boy who becomes money-mad after his mother dies of an
illness that would have required treatments too costly for the poor
family to afford. He grasps at wealth and power even to the extent of
using murder to get ahead.
Zenigeba was drawn by mangaka George Akiyama, also known for
Haguregumo, and it was initially serialized in the magazine Weekly
Shonen Sunday in 1970. Social situations such as student movements at
the end of the 1960s, pollution and underground culture are heavily
mirrored in Zenigeba. Because of its gruesome content, the manga was
designated a “harmful work” in some regions.
Zenigeba was adapted into a film in 1970, starring Juro Kara. Still,
one would never have expected it to become a source of weekend
prime-time television.
I also was skeptical about a handsome actor like Matsuyama playing
Futaro. But…what a formidable actor he is! I have been glued to my
television every week since January, when the show started.
The drama is set in the present day, and several changes have been
made to the setting of the story. Still, Futaro’s ill deeds are mostly
the same as in the manga. But Matsuyama has been able to express not
only Futaro’s monstrous horribleness but also his sorrow and even the
love-starved mind behind his ghastly acts.
I have a strong personal attachment to the manga, which made a deep
impression on me when I read it when I was 10. But the TV drama is
beyond challenge as it also is blessed with an intense script and
high-quality production.
In any case, why is Matsuyama so well suited to playing manga
characters? He had his breakout role as L in the film Death Note, a
manga adaptation. He also showed a great performance as Soichi Negishi
and his alter ego, Johannes Krauser II, in the manga-based film Detroit
Metal City and as Robo, a boy with an otaku devotion to robots, in the
TV drama Sexy Voice and Robo. In the film Kamui Gaiden, which will be
released in autumn, Matsuyama will play lonesome nukenin (runaway
ninja) Kamui.