01x03 - Manga-Based TV Drama

[bunniefuu]

A recap of the previous episode.

After applying to this high school,

we met the genius child actress again.

Are you taking our entertainment course?!

No, I applied for the general course.

Why?!

My sister applied for the entertainment

course, so I was worried and tagged along.

Huh?!

My brother has a sister complex.

Gross!

You know,

I've never really liked this girl.

But if you get in,

she's gonna be your senior.

Hmm, I see.

I can hear you two.

Aww, fine then.

Let's get along, Loli senpai.

I'll really bully you!

Then I'll be dropping by

the director's place.

Okay, bye.

Oh, wait!

Hey! I said hey!

Where are you going? Who's this director?!

Hey! Where do you live right now?

You listening?! I said hey!

What middle school you from?!

Are you a yankii girl?

How long are you gonna follow me?

Until you answer all of my questions.

You're still an actor, right?

No, not anymore.

I-I see

So that's that.

Let's chat a little!

Hey! You wanna go to karaoke or something?

No way.

Oh. Then maybe my place?

Isn't that closing the distance too fast?

I can't help it!

I am still a celebrity after all!

I can't just sit down at a café to chat.

There are no stores

with private rooms open at this time yet!

Oh, that's what you meant.

If that's the case

Oh, Kana Arima!

Haven't seen you in a while,

but you've grown!

Uh, well

I am still working

Compared to when I was a child actress,

I'm not as you know, but

Well, make yourself at home!

I see.

Hey, Aqua.

If you're not an actor anymore,

why are you visiting the director's place?

You sure you're not really

studying acting?

Well, I was taught everything,

but now, I'm like the director's assistant

aiming for backstage.

Really.

But I'm glad.

You were still in this industry.

Do you want seconds?!

Uh, I'm fine. I'm cutting down on sugars.

If you don't eat, you won't grow!

-You eat this.

-What?!

Jeez.

But what a shock.

Huh?

Director, I didn't know

you were still leeching off your parents.

You're still the same brat

that never respects your elders.

But it's nice.

My parents moved back to the countryside,

so I live in a dorm alone.

So, I usually depend on Uber for meals.

Really.

That must be expensive.

I'm fine!

Since at least my savings is loaded

from when I worked as a child star!

I freaking hate you.

Hey, Director.

Don't you have any videos of Aqua acting?

Umm, I do, but

Don't show it.

I was just delusional

and it's an embarrassing past.

I mistook myself for having talent

and made a fool of myself.

You heard him.

So if you wanna see, you gotta

talk this guy into acting yourself.

Is that how you wanna do it?

I'm not doing it.

Right now,

I'm cast as the heroine in this one title,

but there's a role that's still open.

You want me to talk with the higher-ups?

Nope.

What?!

What's the title called?

A drama based on a shoujo manga

called Mild Flavor Today.

I see.

Mild Today?

Yeah, you know it?

Anyone who's studied staging that

doesn't know it must live under a rock.

It's a masterpiece.

So you're interested?

I told you I don't act anymore.

If I talk to them,

it might smoothly go through.

Since the producer,

Mr. Kaburagi, likes me!

Kaburagi?

Is his full name Masaya Kaburagi?

That's right.

There are three cell phones

Ai left behind.

Two of them were for work and private use

and only had records of

other group members and agency staff.

Ai seemed careless, but she was

much more careful than I imagined.

I learned that she was

seriously trying to hide our secret.

The problem is the other cell phone.

This one was used by Ai

before she got pregnant.

It was several generations old,

so it was backbreaking to find

a replacement for the dead battery.

But that was nothing compared to

bypassing the passcode.

It's unusable for 30 seconds

if I get the passcode wrong

and I don't even know

how many digits it is.

It took me half a day

to try 100 passcodes.

It took me a month for 1,000 attempts.

Day after day

Day after day

Day after day

On the 45,510th attempt

ENTER YOUR PASSCODE

I finally reached the passcode

after four years had passed.

On that phone,

there were emails and numbers

of a dozen of those affiliated in showbiz.

And one of them was

Masaya Kaburagi

Hey, let's try it!

Most of the cast are close to our age too.

The main boy has a girly face,

so he's really cute!

-I'll do it.

-What?

Call the producer for me.

Why do you all of a sudden

Wait, no way

The main boy has a girly face,

so he's really cute!

Don't tell me you're

Let's do it.

I can't wait to see Aqua's acting.

Oh, but this set has some problems,

so be prepared, okay?

Hm?

FROM TOKYO

He was a child actor?

Yes!

Hmm.

He's got a pretty face.

If you with your strong acting skills

speak so highly of him, bring him in.

Okay, I'll leave it to you.

Is it settled?

Huh? Yeah.

Well, I don't care

who takes the role anyway.

MASAYA KABURAGI

What? Aqua, you're gonna be in a drama?!

Why did you tell her?

Because you would

never say anything yourself.

It's the agency's job to promote

the activities of registered artists.

Mama did say

that my future might be an idol

and Aqua might be a future actor.

So you never forgot those words.

It's not like that.

If I can meet the producer Ai had

interacted with when she was alive

and retrieve the root of his hair,

that'll be all I need.

I'm not thinking of doing anything great

like fulfilling Ai's wishes

or dreaming of becoming an actor.

What's the title of the show?

The title is Mild Flavor Today.

It's based on a shoujo manga.

Oh! I know it! Mild Today!

It's the one in Aqua's room!

It was interesting!

Don't read it without asking.

It's a drama by a recently established

streaming platform.

Three episodes

have already been released out of six.

There are many new faces in the main cast.

It's a rather small-scale series.

Looks like Aqua's role is the bad guy

in the last episode.

That's perfect. You do have an evil face.

Shut up.

It's a streaming platform's drama,

so we can watch it right now.

I wanna watch!

I hate humans.

Because everyone only thinks

about themselves.

Oh, it's Loli senpai!

You know,

are you even having fun

with a face like that?

What do you want?

Nothing. I just chased after a cat

and found you here.

What the heck?

Hey, you look cute when you smile.

W-What? Don't tease me!

Be honest with yourself.

Hey, you!

Don't touch my girl!

Huh? Who the heck are you?

Please stop, you two!

Don't fight!

Was Mild Today's story like this?!

For the most part, wasn't it?

The staging is good,

so it's not impossible to watch,

but there's these characters

that were never in the original story.

It's probably the production's direction

to use as many actors as possible.

Uh.

The flow of events

wasn't like this either, right?

When you cram 14 volumes

of manga into half a season,

some scenes have to be cut out.

The acting is also

Looks like

many inexperienced actors are in it.

I don't know, but this is awful!

You're being too straightforward.

I mean, wasn't Loli senpai

better at acting too?

KARAOKE CAN

Shut up! She said something like that?!

I hope she drops dead!

Your foul mouth sure hasn't changed.

I'll say this for my reputation's sake,

but there aren't that many high schoolers

who can act like me!

Then why did the show turn out like that?

This drama's plan is to cast as many

up-and-coming models as possible

so that it reaches

the female audience who likes pretty boys.

Acting skills aren't a priority.

But the title will be destroyed like that,

so that's why they're using me,

who's known for acting, as the heroine.

Considering that,

wasn't your acting pretty weak?

Obviously, I'm holding back!

The rest of the cast members are

all just cheesy actors!

Nice nails.

People become stronger with people.

Smile for me.

I'm the only one who can properly act

in the main cast, you know?!

What if I put on my best performance

in this group?

That'll just highlight the other actors'

cheesiness and it'll become a cheese fest!

Cheese fest?

I want to go all out and act too.

Who would want to go out of their way

to give a poor performance?

But, good performance

and creating good work are different.

It's true the seller's business scheme

stands out too much in this work.

There's no way this can

become an interesting piece.

When the author of the original story

came to the first episode's set

her look of disappointment

really hit me hard.

But the cast and crew are

each doing the best they can.

For the viewers and manga fans,

I want to make this as good as I can.

At least I'll make it worthy of watching.

If it's for that, I'll even act poorly.

Even if that means

hurting your reputation as an actor?

What's important as an actor

is communication.

Back then,

I used to flaunt my acting skills.

I was certainly popular,

but I never respected others.

That's why, once I had peaked,

jobs disappeared in an instant.

"A reason to use me

over children with better acting skills."

I realized that's what's important.

In fact, I'm a flexible actress now,

who's never stubborn, and works hard

to raise the quality of work.

Producer Kaburagi and I go way back.

He appointed me this time too,

because I'm aware of those things.

Since when did you learn

to be so cooperative?

I am an adult now.

Well, I'm sure it helps having this

great face that can rival that of models!

Actors really have nothing

but self-confidence.

And so, the filming is tomorrow!

It'll be released next week!

It'll be rapidly edited

and rapidly delivered!

We'll skip the read-through,

rapidly rehearse, and rapidly film!

The schedule is done for too.

The boy of your role griped and quit, so

we had to reschedule. It was a disaster.

Especially because it's not a great role.

But that's also why

I was able to squeeze you in.

Using connections

and skipping the read-through.

The same process again.

When we were kids, you told me off

when I did the same before.

Ah, good memories.

I never thought

I'd be the one doing it now.

What a dirty grown-up I've become!

Quit laughing.

But I can understand

how the director felt now.

You understand why I recruited you, right?

I don't care how much sh*t anyone gives us

or if they call us cheesy actors.

Please, let's make this

a great title together.

If it's with you, I believe we can do it.

A poorly planned project

with a cast that can't act.

But after hearing her story

and watching it over,

I can tell that the script

and staging are adjusted to the cast.

Even with bad acting,

you can tell there are many techniques

used to make it into something watchable.

The crew is good.

And the heroine has genuine talent.

This may work somehow.

TV dramas usually have read-throughs

and rehearsals indoors with the main cast,

and the director lays out

the storyboard off of that.

Normally, it's a dry run

or camera rehearsal,

then a run-through,

and then filming takes place on set.

But this location could only be secured

for one day,

so the dry run to the run-through

will be treated as one rehearsal.

Practice is done only once.

What a mess. Even my director

is a little more organized.

There's no budget or time.

-Yo, Kana.

-Hm?

Isn't this rain awful?

I wanted them to postpone the sh**t.

There is a bit of leakage,

but it'll be fine.

When it's humid, my hair gets frizzy.

This place is so muggy and unpleasant too.

Oh, let me introduce you.

This boy here is today's stalker role

I'm Aqua.

-Nice to meet

-Hi.

He's got a bad attitude.

I didn't even get his name.

He's the lead actor, Melt Narushima.

Well, he's young too,

and that's common for someone

who rose to fame smoothly.

Although, I'm not one to talk

Certain idol group agencies

have proper training for artists,

so they're well-mannered, liked on set,

and you can't go wrong with them.

There's a good reason why

they're always being cast.

And so, greetings are

an important duty. Go on!

Nice to meet you.

I'm Aqua from Ichigo Production.

I look forward to working with you today.

Yeah, nice to meet you.

Masaya Kaburagi.

The man who was affiliated

with Ai Hoshino somehow.

The one who could be

me and Ruby's biological father

as well as

the person involved in Ai's death.

I need to find a chance to retrieve

something that I can send for DNA testing.

That person just now is

in charge of this set.

His thoughts are passed on to the director

and then they get conveyed on set.

He has strong connections

with model agencies,

so this casting was mostly decided by him.

Anyway, he's obsessed with pretty faces,

so that's probably why he chose you too.

We're starting the rehearsal!

Let's do this. You got the script down

in your head, right?

My role is the stalker

who st*lks the heroine.

How ironic is this?

Since I'm gonna be playing a stalker

just like the one who k*lled Ai.

Ready, action!

We'll stop temporarily.

There's a bit of a leak here.

Then for this shot, let's increase

the dolly speed and go to the next one.

You can act properly.

And you said

you were aiming for backstage?

Anyone can do this much if they practice.

I'm just good enough

to not inconvenience others,

but there's nothing appealing about me.

The acting Kana Arima saw that day

was just an abnormality caused by

the contrast between my age and body.

Now that my body has caught up

to my mental age,

I'm just an average actor found anywhere.

If you were expecting

some kind of spectacular acting, sorry.

I was never

Well, it'd be a lie

if I said I wasn't expecting anything.

But it's enough.

Your acting is like that of a person

who's been practicing for a long time.

I like it.

Your detailed techniques

are thoughtful and careful.

It's like you're holding back your ego

and adhering to the story.

Maybe that's something unnoticeable

to the average person,

and aside from longtime actors like us,

it might not matter to everyone else.

Don't be so caring.

I have to be.

I am the leader here after all!

A lead role is a big job I haven't had

in a decade, so of course I'll work hard!

That's true, I haven't seen you lately,

so I was surprised you were still acting.

HAVEN'T SEEN YOU LATELY

The days of my dark ages were long.

I couldn't get work for so long that

my career was considered dead online.

But I always continued my acting lessons.

I didn't know

what I was working for anymore.

And the word "retire"

crossed my mind so many times.

But!

The time when my skills are acknowledged

has finally come!

I thought, "I'm really glad I continued!"

That's why, even if you didn't give

a spectacular performance,

I was just glad to know

you continued in this industry.

Just knowing the fact

that there was someone else struggling

in this dark unforeseeable world with me.

That's enough for me.

Can we resume the sh**t?

Melt has a magazine photo sh**t

after this.

Almost.

Ms. Arima is keeping the cast busy, so

Kana, she's really convenient.

She'll butter up anyone nicely,

so it's perfect to keep her around.

The name "Kana Arima"

is known to the public after all.

She left her agency becoming a freelancer,

so I can use her brand value

for close to no cost too.

What a bargain.

Well, just the part where she's fussy

about acting is a pain though.

This drama is only promotional material.

Acting skills aren't being demanded.

Seems like she doesn't understand that.

The time when my skills are acknowledged

has finally come!

You aren't being acknowledged.

That's reality for you, Kana Arima.

It's more rare

to be properly acknowledged.

I've got the sample,

so my mission's complete.

But

We'll resume the sh**t now!

Since I am here,

I'll have some fun before I go home.