Hachimitsu to Clover Real-Life Movie CM

With the impending launch of the "Hachimitsu to Clover" real-life movie next week, here's a feature of this film along with some screenshots of the 15-sec CM shown on TV. As there are a couple of magazines and websites including Nikkei Entertainment, GyaO and S-women which are promoting this movie, there will be more information on this topic as soon as I have time to post them here. Coupled with the fact that the long-awaited Volume 9 of the manga was released on 14 July and the second season of the anime is now running, this summer can truly be regarded as one belonging to Hachikuro.

The CM begins with the line by Mayama where he says that it's the first time he has ever seen someone falling in love. This is with reference to Takemoto's first meeting with Hagu where Mayama knew right away that Takemoto was attracted to Hagu at first sight even though it took a long time for Takemoto himself to realise how he feels.

With regards to Hagu who's played by Aoi Yu, I mentioned before that after watching a short clip of her and Takemoto played by Sakurai Sho, my first impression was that her saccharine-sweet voice is very close to that we have heard from Kudo Haruka in the anime. Appearance-wise, Aoi's small build, hairstyle and her looks are rather similar to Hagu to a certain extent. However, I cannot comprehend the rationale of having a pair of huge headphones while she is painting. Although I understand that the story in the movie is different from the manga/anime, I would have rather that they stick to the original settings instead of adding little changes here and there especially those pertaining to the characters' unique traits.

This scene featuring Hagu and Morita i.e. Iseya Yuusuke gives the impression that they are comfortable in each other's presence and seem to enjoy being together. That's very different from the original because I don't even remember any scene where Hagu smiles that brightly before Morita. Most of the time, Hagu runs away in fright when Morita chases after her and she's so tense in front of him that she cannot be her usual self. Likewise for Morita who's not the type to show his true thoughts in front of others, he has never spent quality time with Hagu other than the impromptu "date" which left Hagu rather upset. That's why I have mixed feelings about this scene. On one hand, it shows Hagu and Morita behaving so much like a couple made for each other but on the other hand, I keep reminding myself that this has never happened in the manga/anime. Maybe for those who have never watched the anime nor read the manga would be able to appreciate and enjoy this scene better than I do.

Next up, we have Yamada Ayumi played by Seki Megumi. Appearance-wise, I think she does look like Ayu from certain angles especially when she ties up her hair in one of the pictures I saw from a magazine feature. Come to think of it, she looks more like Ayu when she's smiling. In this particular CM's scene, she is facing downwards so it's quite hard to see her face and compare to that of Ayu. However, the tall and slender look plus a tinge of sadness on her face which is especially evident when Ayu is pining for Mayama, seems quite close to the impression I've gotten from the manga/anime. I've not heard Seki's voice yet in the CMs I've watched so far thus I can't judge yet as to whether she can convey the inner world of Ayu convincingly during the voice-overs.

Kase Ryo plays Mayama and the first time I saw pictures of the cast, he was the one whom I felt was closest to the appearance of the original character. Mayama is tall, wear spectacles and always has that brooding look whenever he thinks of Rika. Kase has the basic attributes of Mayama but what strikes me most was how close he looked like the character in terms of his features. Usually, you can do changes to the hairstyle or clothes when you want to look like a character from a manga/anime but to look so close to the character is quite a rare instance. For this particular scene, I'm guessing that this might be the one where he waits outside Rika's apartment like a stalker and looks up at her place with longing. Although this scene is treated with a slight comedy touch because Mayama gets teased for being a stalker, the flip side is that it also shows how much Mayama wants to see Rika but has to suppress his desire so as to fulfil his promise of being someone good enough to be of help to Rika before he meets her again.

And now, we have the lead character Takemoto played by Sakurai Sho. Frankly speaking, I was rather apprehensive about him playing the lead when news of the movie came out. It is partly due to the fact that Sakurai has not done much acting on TV and lacks exposure to various types of roles but if the short clip I introduced before on this blog is a gauge of his performance, I guess I will fall in love with his potrayal of Takemoto. He seems such a sweet guy who will probably get heartbroken because of Hagu's feelings towards Morita. If you are talking about physical appearance, I thought it would have been better for him to cut his hair shorter right at the beginning since that's how Takemoto looked like. However, given the tight schedule of the filming, I guess it's not possible for his hair to grow back that quickly to depict the transition of time so that wasn't taken into consideration when doing character design. Nevertheless, I'm still looking forward to seeing his performance in this movie.

Last but not least, here's Iseya Yuusuke who plays Morita. Personally, Morita is my No.1 favourite character but I'm not too pleased with what I'm seeing here. I don't like that long hair and the pierce on the chin since that deviates from the image of Morita I have based on the manga/anime. I would prefer that there is some deviation on the character behavioural traits than to do changes to the physical appearance of the character. Thus, I will need to see the movie before I can say whether I'm totally displeased with Iseya's handling of the role or I will be convinced by what he has done.

I've already ordered the making-of DVD for this movie which will arrive by the end of the month with other items which I'm also buying. As such, I believe I should be able to give a review of that within one week after I finish watching that DVD.