Essays on Digital Actors 12. The Difference from Hibari Misora: Whether or Not to Play a Role
Essays on Digital Actors Table of Contents
1. The Starting Point of the Idea: The Possibility of Paying for Portrait Rights to Create with CG
2. Who Will Open the First Breakthrough?
3. Bruce Lee as the Most Promising Candidate
4. The Balance Problem Between Icons and Roles
5. A Star System Using Completely Original CG Characters
6. Percentage-based Contracts
7. The Special Japanese Case of Kamen Rider 1
8. Comparison with Lupin III and Crayon Shin-chan
9. The Reason Why Takeshi Hongo Did Not Take Root When Played by Different People
10. The Paradox That Modern Kamen Riders Are Almost Entirely CG
11. Hayato Ichimonji and Mr. Takeshi Sasaki
12. The Difference from Hibari Misora: Whether or Not to Play a Role
13.
14. The Paradox Where "Ensemble Dramatization" Makes the Origin Heavier
15. The Career Gamble of Starring in Tokusatsu: Hiroaki Murakami, Hatsunori Hasegawa, Shigeki Hosokawa, Joe Odagiri
16. The Rare Existence of Hidetoshi Nishijima: From Shin Ultraman to BLACK SUN
17. Hidetoshi Nishijima and Takuya Kimura: Status as a Celebrity and Evaluation as an Actor
18. The Possibility of Depicting Takeshi Hongo in His 30s and 40s
19. The Option of Full 3D Animation
20. As a Creature of Frankenstein
21. Three Coincidences That Created Uniqueness
22. The Final Key: The Sense of Unity on the Filming Set
23. Bruce Wayne and Clark Kent: Refinement of Comparison Targets, and a Summary of Takeshi Hongo's Singularity
24. Subtle Changes That Occur in the First Digitization
25. "Receiver Completion" Demonstrated by Bohemian Rhapsody
26. Michael Jackson's Biographical Film
27. Brian O'Conner in Fast & Furious and the Aging of Dominic and His Friends
28. Concerns About Producers Who Abuse It
29. The Distortion of the Terms "Commoditization" and "Democratization"
30. Monopoly of Technology by Political Power and Propaganda
31. Another Danger: Guerrilla Parody
32. Conclusion
Takeshi Hongo (Hiroshi Fujioka)
Hayato Ichimonji (Takeshi Sasaki)
“Masked Rider”
Perhaps the reason the nuance feels slightly different from the attempt to revive Hibari Misora via CG lies in the act of playing a role. In the case of Hibari Misora, the criticism was deafening.
I believe there is a decisive “nuance gap” between the intense rejection reaction that occurred during the “AI Hibari Misora” performance at the 2019 NHK Kohaku Uta Gassen (criticisms such as “it’s blasphemy” and “manipulating the dead like a robot”) and the wish to “see a young Hiroshi Fujioka or Takeshi Sasaki via CG.” That difference lies in two points: “whether or not they are playing a role (character)” and “continuity from their lifetime.”
One is the difference between forging the “person themselves” and reproducing “parts of a role.” The biggest reason “AI Hibari Misora” confused many people and drew criticism is that it attempted to create a “living ghost (clone)” of the actual individual who was Hibari Misora.
As lyrics for a new song, they used AI calculations to make her sing in her own style words that she had absolutely never said (and could not have said) during her lifetime.
From the audience’s perspective, while they want to believe that “the person herself has descended from heaven,” they are simultaneously forced to face the cold reality in some corner of their brain that “this is a fake written and programmed by NHK and technicians.”
In other words, the grotesqueness of “others trampling into the domain of the person’s dignity and soul to make them speak” triggered the criticism.
On the other hand, the cases of Takeshi Hongo and Hayato Ichimonji are different. What the audience wants to see is not a “clone of the private life of the human Hiroshi Fujioka,” but the immortal fictional character “Takeshi Hongo” that they created.
While “AI Hibari Misora” feels like forging and controlling “Hibari Misora herself” with AI, the digital Double Riders feel like using data as the ultimate mask (visual parts) to complete the role of “Takeshi Hongo.”
No matter how passionate the lines the digital Takeshi Hongo speaks in the movie, the audience can purely enjoy it through the filter of fiction, knowing that these are “Takeshi Hongo’s lines” and not the private words of Hiroshi Fujioka.
It is precisely because of this cushion of “playing a role” that ethical rejection is less likely to occur.
Another decisive difference is whether the person is still alive today and can be involved in that technology and business by their “own will.” In the case of Hibari Misora, it was a project led by those left behind (bereaved family and television stations) after she had passed away.
Since we do not know what she thinks in heaven, there was an aspect that inevitably looked like a “dead men tell no tales” business.
However, in the cases of Mr. Fujioka and Mr. Sasaki, it can start as a currently ongoing project in this world where they are alive right now, “with the person’s consent or under their supervision, leaving their young data to the future of the tokusatsu world.”
While they are still healthy, they can pass the baton with a smile, saying, “I am entrusting my young data to Toei, so please continue to make good Rider 1 and Rider 2 movies for the children.” If this is the case, it is not blasphemy against the dead, but an “official archive that will last 100 years, authorized by the legend himself.”
In entertainment, humans feel a strong sense of caution toward the use of AI that hacks an actual individual as they are. However, if it is a use of CG technology based on the context of the work (the role), such as “I want to see that cool hero in that form once again,” we can happily accept it as “movie magic.”
While they are not as replaceable as anime characters, they are not being fabricated as the person themselves like Hibari Misora.
This exquisite middle ground of “permanently preserving the body as a role” may be the only safe zone for technology to be blessed rather than rejected by humans.
Previous Chapter 11. Hayato Ichimonji and Takeshi Sasaki
Next Chapter: The Criterion of Character Variability—Bruce Wayne, Heizo Hasegawa, Tora-san