Your bizarre footnote for Sasuke 22

[joemello]

You remember Akiyoshi Nakao, right?



Sure you do. Quit lying.



Okay, here's a reminder:



So yeah, he's the cast representative from Rookies. Well, the dorama has come and gone, and the follow-up movie has become the highest grossing film in Japan in 2009, spending all four weeks no less that top in weekend gross. It's US$12.7 Million opening weekend is 12th all-time and 2nd-best for a domestic film. (Howl's Moving Castle sits 9th all-time). It could easily surpass US$70-75M total before it's done, which only happens to a couple of movies per year.

And there you have it. Yes, the kid fell down, but he's probably wiping his tears with ichi-man yen bills right now.

[Captain Obvious]

Jun 28, 2009 0:31:11 GMT -5 joemello said:

he's the cast representative from Rookies

Was he the only representative? I don't remember seeing any more, but during the original broadcast it seemed like it was treated as a group in a similar fashion as the qualifiers and the all-stars as far as the running tallies of how many of each group passed the first stage.

Then again, I had no idea what the "ROOKIES" mentions were referencing until the G4 broadcast.

[lostinube]

I wouldn't really call it bizarre. The show was popular enough to make a movie. The first time he was on, he was promoting the show. The second time, he was promoting the movie, this time in a more established position since the show was popular. It's not like he was a contestant who suddenly became successful.

The real interesting/bizarre footnotes will come in later years amongst the comedians if any of them hit it big. When Hard Gay went on SASUKE no one knew that he would take off and become famous overseas. He was just another comedian (whose career has tanked). The same with Sekai No Nabe Atsu in 20. He was just another comedian but not so long after the show he hit it super big in Japan.

Oh, and actors and comedians and whatnot in Japan don't make nearly as much as their American counterparts.

[Oti]

Good. I think our actors should be making just over minimum wage. Use the money you save to pay teachers.

[Ninja Chris]

Jun 28, 2009 2:49:12 GMT -5 Captain Obvious said:

Then again, I had no idea what the "ROOKIES" mentions were referencing until the G4 broadcast.

The only way I was able to put it together during the TBS broadcast, was that not only was either shortly before or after his run during the commercials, they showed a commercial for ROOKIES. They showed his face, the hat seemed the same (From a quick glance for each), and most importantly: They played the theme music during the commercial as well as his 'warmup' song or whatever.

[arsenette]

Having seen the Rookies commercials during Sasuke Maniacs and then the movie commercials all leading up to Sasuke I knew what it was. I also know fans of the show so I heard of the actual TV series. I also knew it was biiiiig.. when I heard he was coming back I went to see if he had a blog or something and I saw a CRAPLOAD of fansites, etc. I even put the wiki information on the show on my blog to show what the show was about. I knew it was going to be big if a regular TV series was spawning a movie.