On May 7, 2016, Maniac Hero/ヒーローマニア生活, a film by director Keisuke Toyoshima, hit Japanese theaters. On that day there was a special screening and stage greetings at the TOEI Marunouchi Cinema in Tokyo.
Plot by Asian Wiki: Nakatsu (Masahiro Higashide) was laid off at his company and now works part-time at a convenience store. One day, Nakatsu forms a vigilante group to protect his town with Toshida (Masataka Kubota), who has a mysterious physical ability, Kaori (Nana Komatsu), who is a female high school student with excellent information gathering abilities, and Kusaki (Tsurutaro Kataoka), who wields hammers under his sleeves. As they punish evil doers, the group gains popular support…
…but with power comes great responsibility, and a very shady, power-greedy individual with a political agenda is very much interested in the group.
Silly, goofy and very much in the slapstick comedy genre or style, Maniac Hero is not as superficial as it seems. The super heroes (they don’t have supernatural powers actually) are kind of anti-heroes, they’re sometimes weak and lost like many human beings and there’s an interesting and entertaining take on the dangers of authoritarian power in the name of safety and security. Special post on this blog: Atypical Avengers.
Playing Kaori, Komatsu Nana had quite a solid supporting role, some sort of female lead indeed. She was witty and funny and underwent radical change at some point in the story, in terms of looks: from geek/bookworm to sultry secretary. Kaori special post on the French Blog (mostly pics): Kaori dans Maniac Hero.
‘I had never acted in a comedy before, so when I heard about the opportunity, I was really looking forward to it. I was also very happy because the director Toyoshima and the other actors were all people I had wanted to work with, and I was looking forward to the shooting.’ (Nana Komatsu, Tokyo Headline interview)
Official Film links (still online when so many movie sites and accounts are taken down just a few months after the DVD release): Facebook – Twitter – Official Film Site
Stage greetings
Sources: Cinema Life – Movie Walker – Spice ePlus – Tokyo Headline – Cinema Today – Fashion Press – Natalie Music
N.K. International 