"I'm in Tokyo, and this is some kind of movie star comeback system?!"

In the scene, Yu Sakamoto stands in the corner holding a script and rehearsing his lines, while Ken Watanabe, playing Date Masamune, stands in the center.

This behind-the-scenes footage was completely unedited and without any deliberate filming techniques; the camera was simply set up aside, recording everything truthfully.

But it was precisely this unpretentious scene that captivated the Nishino family, making them forget to even touch their bowls and chopsticks.

In the scene, Sakamoto Yu and Watanabe Ken are both dressed in theatrical costumes, but they are in a modern conference room.

Despite the incongruous setting, no one felt out of place.

There was neither action rehearsal nor set construction.

With her distinctive Edo-style accent and delivery, she managed to deeply immerse the family watching on television in the drama.

They watched it with great interest.

It was as if a storyteller was personally guiding them through the entanglements and sharp edges of that period of history.

This clip isn't very long, only five minutes long.

Five minutes later, the camera cut away without hesitation.

"Ugh! How did we switch the screen like this!" The father complained first, frowning, his tone full of displeasure.

"Damn it, I was just getting to the exciting part, and you cut it off!?" The older brother, who had previously been disdainful, was now stamping his feet in frustration.

"Ah... I haven't seen enough of Sakamoto-kun's scenes yet!" The daughter cupped her cheeks, looking disappointed.

This scene unfolded simultaneously on various television screens.

A moment later, almost everyone thought of a solution at the same time.

Call NHK!

At this moment, the NHK audience service department, which had been receiving very few calls, suddenly found itself with a flurry of ringing phones, as if a switch had been flipped.

The staff present were all taken aback and looked at each other in bewilderment.

At that moment, a manager who had just come out of the meeting room saw the scene and his expression changed:

"What happened? The Emperor has died?"

"No, no!"

A subordinate covered the microphone and quickly waved his hand, "It's a viewer calling to request a replay of the clip..."

As soon as the other operator picked up the receiver, the other end launched into a tirade of abuse:

"Do you guys even know how to broadcast a show? I was really getting into it, give it a replay right now! Replay it immediately!"

"Oh? Sir, I'm sorry, this is the audience service department, not the broadcasting room, this..." the staff member quickly explained.

"I don't care about broadcasting stations, just replay it! I want to see the behind-the-scenes footage!"

The other phone call was from a housewife:

"I was watching Sakamoto-kun reciting his lines, and then it just stopped? What's wrong with NHK?"

"I'm very sorry, we..."

"Stop apologizing, just replay it! Replay my Sakamoto-kun segment!"

Similar conversations were constantly taking place in the audience service department.

The staff had no choice but to patiently reassure the audience on the other end of the phone while constantly apologizing, and the entire office was plunged into a busy yet absurd atmosphere.

Upon seeing this display of force, the higher-ups immediately reported it to higher authorities.

These sudden, large-scale audience reactions are called "major audience movements".

It needs to be reported to the Broadcasting Ethics Committee or the General Affairs Section of the Program Administration for an emergency assessment.

Immediately, the service department manager, program bureau representative, and public relations manager formed an emergency task force to discuss countermeasures.

After contacting the broadcasting studio and the technical department, they began to confirm whether the current program could be rebroadcast.

The answer is: No.

Television signals are broadcast linearly, and temporary interruptions require scheduling across the entire network, affecting subsequent programs.

The only exceptions are disasters and major royal news.

Since the Emperor didn't die, this anecdote naturally couldn't be rebroadcast.

......

The next morning, at the Nishino family's dining table.

My father was flipping through the Asahi Shimbun, chewing on a pickled radish, when he suddenly hummed in agreement.

"What's wrong?" The mother sat down with the miso soup in her bowl.

"Last night's behind-the-scenes footage got a rating of 32."

"Thirty-two? How much?" The mother had no concept of this number.

"That means one in three TVs is showing it." The father put down his newspaper, his tone incredulous. "And this is just a side story."

My daughter poked her head out from the kitchen: "Isn't Sakamoto-kun amazing?!"

"Yes, yes, you have good taste." Her mother rolled her eyes at her, but a smile played on her lips. "Come and eat."

My brother ate in silence, without saying a word.

Last night, after watching the behind-the-scenes footage, he returned to his room and tossed and turned, unable to sleep. The plot was stuck in his mind like a nail.

"...There is something there." He said softly.

"What?" The daughter didn't hear clearly.

"It's nothing!"

"Stop arguing, we're watching the news!" The father held up the newspaper, interrupting the siblings' antics.

The television began broadcasting the morning news.

Yumiko was wearing a navy blue suit jacket.

The background features the NHK news logo and a light gray-blue backdrop.

Good morning. This is an announcement about last night's program.

"After yesterday's broadcast of 'One-Eyed Dragon Masamune,' we received a lot of feedback from viewers who pointed out that 'the rehearsal scenes in the intermission suddenly stopped.'"

"In response to viewer requests, we will rebroadcast the entire segment tonight at 7:35 PM under the title 'Special Episode: Masamune the One-Eyed Dragon - Five Minutes Behind the Scenes.' Please tune in."

We sincerely apologize for failing to meet the audience's expectations.

As soon as the words were spoken, the screen switched back to the regular morning news broadcast, with scrolling subtitles indicating:

"Special rebroadcast tonight at 7:35 PM!"

Upon seeing this, the brother and sister stared wide-eyed. After a moment, they exchanged a glance and then jumped up.

"Yeah!!"

Last night, according to statistics, we received 2300 calls within an hour, most of which demanded an apology and a replay of the behind-the-scenes footage.

The situation became so serious that the NHK morning news anchor apologized on behalf of the family and promised to rebroadcast the story that evening.

But this is only the beginning.

The broadcast date for the main drama is set for January 4th.

There are still two days until the official broadcast.

After it was played once that evening, the customer service department's phone lines were ringing off the hook again.

........

On the afternoon of January 3, the culture section of the Asahi Shimbun published an interview.

The interviewee is Professor Haruta Haruo of the Faculty of Letters at the University of Tokyo—a successor to Shinichi Hashimoto's linguistic tradition and one of the authorities on Japanese linguistics.

When asked about the behind-the-scenes stories of the recently popular drama "One-Eyed Dragon Masamune," Professor Haruta put down his teacup and slowly said:

"I watched that behind-the-scenes footage."

"That young man—Sakamoto-kun, right?"

I believe his tone is not simply an "imitation" but a fitting "reproduction."

The reporter pressed further: "Restore? What does that mean?"

Professor Springfield pushed up his glasses:

The biggest difference between Japanese in the Edo period and modern Japanese is not in vocabulary, but in phonetics.

Modern readers find Edo-era dialogue either too rigid or too soft.

Sakamoto's spoken word, from its rhythm and pauses to the handling of the ending sounds, is very close to the linguistic feel of that era.

"This is the most accurate Edo dialect I've heard in a Taiga drama in recent years."

The reporter then asked, "What do you think of the online criticisms that he 'used connections' to get in?"

Professor Springfield waved his hand:

I don't care about those things.

But for an actor to master lines to this extent, to say he "lacks talent" is an amateurish statement.

After this interview was published, no one questioned Sakamoto Yu's accent anymore.

With a prestigious professor from the University of Tokyo endorsing it, who would dare say the "tone is wrong"?

Everyone was stunned. How could an actor recreate the Edo period accent to such an extent?

This wave has even dragged in people who weren't interested before.

Before evening even arrived, the service department's phone lines were already pounding again.

Many people inquired whether there would be any rebroadcasts tonight.

Left with no other option, NHK could only confirm through its evening news that the broadcast would be re-aired.

In this behind-the-scenes footage, everyone discovered something new.

In a clip of less than two seconds, a schedule is revealed, in which Yu Sakamoto's name appears multiple times.

The document not only includes the scene arrangement between Sawaguchi and Sakamoto, but also the scene recordings of Sakamoto and other actors.

After Ishihara's explanation, everyone realized that this was the crew's rehearsal schedule, and the schedule clearly stated that Sakamoto Yu was responsible for correcting accents.

Now it's a perfect match. The production team already knew about this and had Sakamoto Yu give the entire crew individual practice sessions.