The Hot Seat: Takafumi Horie

The chance to appear for the first time in a musical play — as the lead role in a modern-adaptation of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol — meant that businessman-turned-performer Takafumi Horie spent most of the end of last year treading the boards. To learn more about what this unique musical experience involved, and to find out what he’s planning to do next, Time Out Tokyo spoke to the man himself.

What led you to decide to take on the leading role in the musical play A Christmas Carol?
I’m not entirely sure. When invited to take part in something new, I’ve a tendency to just jump on board. Plus, I figured this particular kind of chance isn’t one that comes up all that often. It also offered the opportunity to do something groundbreaking by being the first to sell tickets to a play streamed on the Internet, via Nico Nico Doga — making it a play with a certain degree of social significance.

How did the invitation come about?
The idea came about when Nobuo Kawakami, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Dwango, and Hiroyuki, from 2Channel, suggested the idea, saying: ‘Horie-san, how about appearing in a musical?’, to which I replied ‘A musical? Sounds like fun! Why not?’. However, I never thought they meant actually starring in one. To be honest, to begin with, I thought they were joking!

How did you feel when you found out you’d be taking on the leading role?
Again, I thought they were joking. However, when producer Yoshiro Kataoka in charge of Nico Nico Musical at Dwango turned up, I realized they were for real. Although originally famed for having a hand in producing anime such as Touch, and High School! Kimengumi!, he’s also well known for having gone on to produce The Prince of Tennis Musical.

You may already know this, but Nico Nico Doga actually became popular alongside The Prince of Tennis Musical, the cast of which comprised largely of young actors and actresses with no prior musical acting experience — meaning they weren’t all that skilled at the time. As a result, many couldn’t say their lines properly and confused the audience. When aired along with subtitles on Nico Nico Doga it became a huge talking point — which is how Nico Nico Doga first became so well known.

It’s ironic, but after hearing that, I began thinking that a musical might be something I could actually pull off, which is when I decided to just do it. People like me, Kawakami-san and Hiroyuki, we all have the same kind of background, so when they first spoke about doing a musical, I didn’t think they really knew what they were talking about, and consequently I thought it was all a bit of a joke. However, when Kataoka-San (whose profession is actually in musicals) turned up saying ‘You’ll do it, right?’ I simply replied, without really thinking it all through, ‘Yeah, I’ll do it’.

Had you ever read the original story?
No, never! But after being assigned the role, I did read the manga. I once did some advertising-related work (I wrote some comments for display boards and wraparound bands for books) for a series of manga based on classic literature, named Manga de Dokuha, and as a result, I ended up with a copy of each of their publications — over one hundred of their books — in my house. I figured there might be a copy of A Christmas Carol amongst them, and as luck would have it, there was! It gave me a pretty good summary.

The musical is a version that’s been re-envisioned in a modern setting, in which the selfish, miserly old protagonist Scrooge is a president of an IT company. Apart from the IT aspect, were there any other similarities between him and you?
Scrooge is so bitter that he hates even Christmas — I’m not quite so obstinate (laughs); I love celebrations like Christmas! Scrooge is really miserable. He had dreams when he was younger: he wanted to make a company with the character Marley, and worked hard to try and realize those dreams; however, he ended up working too hard and consequently his lover left him… it’s a common story — one I can sympathize with myself. When you’re working hard on something that’s really enjoyable, you don’t care if it’s day or night, you don’t bother with things like dating and consequently it’s all too easy to let relationships fall apart. In that respect, Scrooge wasn’t so abnormal; however, his real failure was letting Marley die. After that, he became more and more obstinate and reclusive. Personally, I could never spend Christmas so alone.

What kind of things have you done for Christmas up until now?
I usually spend my Christmas pretty normally — I’ll eat dinner at a fine restaurant, and buy and exchange presents with people. When I was a kid, we put up a Christmas tree, ate Christmas cake and received presents from Santa Claus.

What was the best present you ever received as a kid?
I don’t really remember… maybe a Donjara set…

In order to prepare for the musical, did you do anything you’ve not done before?
I attended voice-training lessons. I asked the producer if there was anything I could do to help me prepare and he replied: voice training. However, after asking a few of my professional singing friends, I realized that getting an introduction to a professional voice-training coach isn’t all that easy. In the end, thinking it probably wouldn’t pay off, I asked Teru from Glay, and, what do you know, it turned out he knew someone who could help — someone who turned out to be really brilliant: the same voice coach who’s been coaching Teru since his teens (since before he even turned pro) and a host of others as well, including visual performers like Ryuichi Kawamura. Takuro, also from Glay, likened me having such an expert voice coach to ‘letting someone with no driving license suddenly drive around in a Porsche’. I figured the more expert the coach the better. I practiced speaking with a voice that originates deep down in the stomach, and slowly became conscious of what’s required to speak with a more powerful voice.

Did the musical become the thing that you spent the most time on?
Absolutely! But, although it took up the majority of my time, it wasn’t as strict as I imagined it would be. It turned out that each producer has his or her own methods, and although in some cases the script is finalized before production starts, usually, the script gets written as things progress – which is what happened with this production. We were often told ‘Here’s another ten pages’, or ‘This part’s been cut’, or ‘We’ve added few lines here’ — it continually changed as we practiced and rehearsed. Although it’s based on a well-established story, at times, it felt like improvisation — I’ve heard that some writers have performers improvise and just pick out the best parts to base their scripts on.

Interestingly, I came to realize that whenever we all went out drinking, it was usually me who footed the bill. If the whiteboard said ‘Yakiniku!’ we all went out for food after practice — and it was me who looked after the purse strings. In line with my role of Scrooge, it was a bit like I was the father and all the cast and staff were my family.

Misako Yasuda was also part of the cast. How about the two of you doing a triathlon together?
It wasn’t mentioned, but I have finished a full marathon once before. I managed to keep up with the other runners for the first 5km — after that I soon began to feel the strain and ended up walking the rest of the way. My biggest mistake was doing absolutely no preparation beforehand — terrible really. At the moment I’m quite fit, I can run, I used to be into cycling when I was younger and I’m also a pretty capable swimmer.

So when do you think you’ll be ready for your triathlon debut?
I'm not about to take part in a triathlon!! You’re getting way too swept up in the idea! Although, if I were to take part in a triathlon I’d want to buy a more suitable bicycle than the one I have now. All I have now is a mountain bike. It’s not bad actually; it has gears and components that are much more advanced than the bicycles I used to ride. Back then, who’d have imagined that bicycles might one day have electronic gear-shifting systems — we didn’t even have gears shifters on the handlebars. Developments in the world of cycling have made things easier. Before I could take part in a triathlon, I’d also need a new wetsuit; plus, I’d also need to lose about 10kg.

How are you going to lose 10kg?
There are ways; for example, eating less and cutting down on alcohol for about three weeks would be a good start. Eating mainly protein, not drinking any alcohol in the evenings and going to the gym two or three times a week would probably do it — after losing 10kg as many times as I have, you get the knack of it. The problem is choosing the right three weeks to do it in. Plus, I’m already 10kg lighter than I used to be and so no longer suffer from gastroesophageal reflux disease — making walking around the golf green a lot less tiring. So whether I’m willing to lose another 10kg or not is something I’ve not yet decided.

Is there anything else you’d like to try and accomplish?
Thanks to the musical I’ve had the chance to attend voice-training lessons and consequently my karaoke is better than ever, which is really pleasing. We live in an era where you could probably debut as an artist who makes humming songs. I’d like to make a song that conveys an important message — a rooters’ song. I’d write the words myself and the tune could sound like something by The Blue Hearts. After it becomes a bit of a hit, maybe it would become a karaoke tune. Thanks to the musical, I’m also now a bit of a dancer, so I could probably put on a performance at a summer music festival. I’d like to appear on stage at one of the big ones, like Fuji Rock or Summer Sonic.