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Japan Times
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- Japan Times
'Glass Heart': A flashy rock fairytale scrubbed of grit
There are drum rolls and eye rolls aplenty during 'Glass Heart,' Netflix's extravagantly insubstantial musical drama about a college student who gets plucked from obscurity to play drums in Japan's hottest new band. Tenblank is the latest venture of Naoki Fujitani (Takeru Satoh), a reclusive musical genius who just can't help being brilliant and looking gorgeous all the time. He's enlisted some top-class collaborators — session guitarist Sho Takaoka (Keita Machida) and keyboardist/track maker Kazushi Sakamoto (Jun Shison) — compared to whom new recruit Akane Saijo (Yu Miyazaki) looks like an enthusiastic amateur. However, Naoki knows she's the right person for the job: They've already jammed together during the show's ludicrous opening sequence, in which they somehow manage to have a duet while he's playing grand piano on a rain-soaked festival stage and she's out in the car park. Don't worry, there's plenty more where that came from. 'I'm sure this sound was a gift from the gods,' Akane declares in voiceover, and 'Glass Heart' is forever reminding you about how great the music you're listening to is. The show drafts in a host of songwriting talent — most notably Radwimps frontman Yojiro Noda and music producer Yaffle — to ensure that Naoki's songs consistently sound like something you might hear on the Spotify Top 50 Japan playlist, albeit without a common signature that would make them feel like the work of a single person. Tenblank's success is preordained, so the show has to find drama in other places: professional and personal rivalries; medical complications; plot contrivances so clunky they're almost funny. Naohito Fujiki gets to embody the evils of the industry as music producer Ichidai Isagi, a Salieri to Naoki's Mozart who's been left creatively impotent since parting ways with his former collaborator. Yet there's a striking lack of friction to the whole thing. This rock fairytale has the sanitized feel of one of those musical biopics that's been pre-approved by the artist's estate. Although 'Glass Heart' is based on a series of light novels by Mio Wakagi, its central narrative is pure shōjo manga (girls' comic) stuff, as Akane falls in love with Naoki while attracting the amorous advances of another bandmate. It should be swoon-inducing, but the conspicuous age gap between Miyazaki and her co-star makes it as awkward as Satoh's onscreen coupling with Nana Mori in 'April, Come She Will' (2024). If you just want to see Satoh (who also produces) playing a rock star, 'Glass Heart' more than delivers. He's in his element during the concert sequences, shot with thousands of extras at musical meccas including Tokyo's Hibiya Open-Air Concert Hall. The band members aren't too shabby, either. Miyazaki has an endearing energy, while Machida is well cast as Sho, even if he has to wait until episode eight before he gets anything interesting to do. Shison, sporting thick-rimmed specs and a center part, seems to be cosplaying as Takuya Kimura's character from hit 1990s series 'Asunaro Hakusho' (a suspicion that's confirmed when he re-creates one of that show's most famous scenes). 'Glass Heart' goes out on a triumphant high, with an episode-length concert performance that's clearly modeled on the finale of 'Bohemian Rhapsody.' It's a rousing climax, but there's no escaping the sense that Netflix has blown an enormous amount of cash on a nearly seven-hour music video.
Asahi Shimbun
14-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Asahi Shimbun
Radwimps drummer builds voice-operated kit for comeback
SAN FRANCISCO—Pushed by a strict but empathetic professor, the drummer of popular rock band Radwimps plans to restart his musical career that was derailed by a neurological disease. Satoshi Yamaguchi, 40, has been on hiatus from the group since 2015 after developing dystonia, which caused involuntary muscular contractions in his right foot and made it impossible for him to properly step on the pedal for his bass drum. He has studied the disease in the academic world and jointly created a voice-operated drum for his musical comeback. Yamaguchi said he was inspired by people in Silicon Valley. 'Those who I met in Silicon Valley gave me a lot of love,' Yamaguchi said. 'I'm grateful more than words can say.' FROM CONCERTS TO RESEARCH Formed in 2001, Radwimps quickly soared to popularity, particularly among the younger crowd. The band's production of music for such animated feature films as megahit 'Your Name.' heightened the group's fame, leading to sold-out shows in both Japan and overseas. Yamaguchi, however, took leave from the group after the dystonia symptoms worsened. He joined Keio University as a visiting researcher and started studying the disease among musicians. Through his work, he gained an opportunity to have lunch with Takako Fujioka, 57, an associate professor of music at Stanford University specializing in brain functions. At a 'tonkatsu' (deep-fried pork cutlet) restaurant in Tokyo in 2023, Yamaguchi told Fujioka about his experience. The neuroscientist shed tears and said how sorry she was for him. Yamaguchi decided to go to California, where Fujioka works, to continue his research. He attended an English language school near San Francisco in autumn that year while visiting Fujioka's lab at Stanford. She was tough on Yamaguchi when teaching him how to act like a researcher. She told him to engage in more academic conversations and refer to papers and theories to express his ideas instead of talking on a whim. All of Fujioka's students are musicians who design instruments and develop software. After repeated exchanges, Fujioka suggested to Yamaguchi that he create a system that would allow him to play the drums again. Although caught off-guard by the idea, he decided to give it a shot. Fujioka held a computer-related job before she felt that she had hit a wall. She switched careers and became a brain-wave researcher in her 30s. That was why Fujioka emphasized to Yamaguchi the importance of putting all of his energy into a field to which he could channel his passion. She also advised the musician to narrow the purpose of his research to, for example, finding a cure or other reason. Yamaguchi took a personal approach. He had recorded the stress he felt when he experienced symptoms, and he used those feelings as 'data.' 'He put his experiences into words and was exploring ways to study them somehow,' Fujioka recalled. 'At the same time, it might have helped Yamaguchi's rehabilitation.' REGAINING THE FUN Yamaguchi got further inspiration for his project from Roy Hirabayashi, founder of San Jose Taiko, a Japanese-American drumming group, and his wife PJ, both of whom helped him rediscover the fun of music. After seeing San Jose Taiko perform live, Yamaguchi visited the band members at their rehearsal space. Hirabayashi gave advice to Yamaguchi on playing the 'taiko' drums. 'I said, 'I don't want you to think like a Western drum player. I want you to start from zero,'' she said. She said she also urged Yamaguchi to feel a spiritual tie with the traditional Japanese instrument. 'The way that I teach is really becoming aware of the universe and Mother Nature, energy, wanting him to really feel that connection by having a drum that's made out of wood and animal hide,' she said. Yamaguchi, who hadn't played the drums for a long time, found it exciting and regained the happiness of playing music. He also noticed that Hirabayashi and other performers shouted out something like 'don-pa-don-pa' just before hitting the drums. That further inspired Yamaguchi to develop the voice-operated bass drum. Hirabayashi said she noticed a change in the Radwimps drummer. 'He was just so open and wanting to learn,' she said. 'He is crediting us for changing his life. We could also see it. There was some kind of shift in the way and his enthusiasm.' Yamaguchi continued holding discussions with Fujioka and other experts. In December, he unveiled the drum set he jointly developed with Yamaha Corp. The instrument uses a sensor that detects the voice of the player to vibrate the bass drum and produce the sound. 'I want to play music with the members of Radwimps again with a smile on my face,' Yamaguchi said. 'I believe this epoch-making technology can lead me to that future.' While hoping to make a comeback as a musician, he intends to finish a paper he has been working on for four years. He also plans to move on to a Ph.D. program to continue his research.
