Categories: japan

"Namu Amida Butsu!", an event with Mizunaka Masaaki, Maeno Tomoaki, and others! The director reveals, "I wanted Maeno-san to do a funny scene."

A special event of “Namu Amida Butsu! -Rendai Utena-“, “7,000,520,000,059th Buddha Conference”, was held on Feb. 2, 2020. Mizunaka Masaaki (as Taishakuten), Maeno Tomoaki (as Bonten), Suzuki Tatsuhisa (as Ashura Ou), Kakihara Tetsuya (as Dainichi Nyorai), Hirakawa Daisuke (as Amida Nyorai), Morikubo Showtaro (as Shaka Nyorai), Kijima Ryuuichi (as Monju Bosatsu), Horie Shun (as Fuken Bosatsu), Murase Ayumu (as Miroku Bosatsu), Kawai Kengo (Fudou Myouou), and Otsuka Takeo (as Mara), came on stage and entertained the audience of the mortal world with talk sessions, variety segments, recitations, etc.

This anime is based on the Klesha Purifying Battle RPG “Namu Amida Butsu! -Rendai Utena-” and was broadcast from Apr. to Jun. 2019. The story depicts two Dharmapala, Taishakuten and Bonten, who try to save the people from their Klesha and Ashura Ou going its own ways. The entertaining slapstick lives of the unique Buddha's living together was well received.

The event began with the cast members coming out of “Bonnou Temple”, where the Buddhas live together.
The first agenda was “These are the points to check out on 'Namu Amida Butsu! -Rendai Utena-'”. The talk session had Hirakawa and Morikubo as the MC and explained which points director Oguro Akira wanted to show.
Among the various scenes such as “Bonten running backwards” from episode 1 and “the beautifully drawn animals” from episode 2, the director commented on the comical scene where Bonten ran backwards and knelt down to apologize. He said he wanted Maeno, who often plays a cool role, to do a funny scene. The topic turned into if anyone has apologized with such energy and Maeno recreated it on stage, bringing laughter to the crowd.

The next segment of the event was “Hotoke no Shiren mo Sando Made! Three-game match at Bonnou Temple!” (A wordplay of “Hotoke no Kao mo Sando Made”, a proverb that means you can only go so far). The cast members except for the MCs Morikubo and Hirakawa, were divided into two groups “Ei (A) Team” and “Bii (B) Team” and went through three trials.

The first trial was “Bukkome! Side Dish Request Box!” which was inspired by the “Side Dish Request Box” in the anime, followed by the second trial, “Match it! Buttobi naming!”, which was derived from Dainichi Nyorai's strange sense for names. The trial was to guess what name Kakihara as Dainichi Nyorai has given to different things. There was also fan service of Horie in the day time and Kasai in the night time coming down to the seats and asking questions by themselves. The event was warmed up by both the cast members and the fans.

After the third trial “Wing it! Opposite Shaka Shaka Rock Paper Scissors” was a recitation of the sequel to the TV series. The Buddhas try to surprise Shaka Nyorai with its birthday, but things start to go south when Bonten tells Taishakuten about the surprise… As usual, it was a slapstick comedy of their everyday life.

At the end of the event was a greeting from each of the cast members. Just like the last episode of the anime, the “Buddha Conference” finished with the words from Hirakawa as Amida Nyorai, “Korenite Ikken, Raku Chakku”. (wordplay of “Korenite Ikken Rakuchaku” which is similar to “That's all folks!”)

(C)DMM GAMES/Visualworks/Namu Ami Utena Project

Mizukami Miharu

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