Taisei Fukumoto is an interesting young man. As one of the six members of the Japanese rock band Ae! group (Aぇ! group), he sings, plays bass, and looks incredibly good while doing it. He’s also incredibly funny. While I’ve had the pleasure of interviewing the group before, I hadn’t gotten the chance to sit down with Fukumoto one on one. But with the release of his series Saitama Host Club now streaming worldwide on Netflix, seemed like the perfect reason to do so. Taking a few moments out of his day, we sat down to chat about on-set antics, his thoughts on global recognition, and how much the boy loves to eat! 

What is your favorite memory from being on set?

The set used for the host club scenes always had vegetable sticks, real vegetable sticks, and bagna càuda sauce. Even though it was supposed to be just set dressing, and even though the catering company had made a lot of them, they were gone in seconds since the sauce was so insanely delicious! The food actually meant for us to eat (as actors) was also very good. There was a lot of udon noodles and ramen, which I usually ate 3 bowls of at a time. I think what I loved most was getting to eat with everyone. 

Come to think of it, I guess I always eat a lot while filming. In my previous drama The Way of the Hot and Spicy 2, which had a story centered around eating, I caught myself snacking both on and off camera. I even ate spicy chocolate given to me by my senior Akito Kiriyama (of WEST.). He was like, “why don’t you try it?” So I did, but couldn’t stop sweating as it was too spicy and as such the makeup lady got mad at me. She kept muttering, “how could you eat such a thing?!?” Everyone burst out laughing

Was there anything you were nervous about and how did your feelings change as the series went on?

Looking back, there are a lot of things I wish I had done better, even when the director, who did not usually throw out praise, told me it was good. I’m still new to acting though, so I think that is normal to feel that way. Someone who believes they’re already perfect isn’t open to learning. I want to always be open to learning new things and taking advice from my seniors. 

What are you most excited about for the series being available worldwide?

More recognition for more things I do! Setting aside Saitama Host Club for a second, I’ve been told The Way of the Hot and Spicy 2 is popular overseas already and that the first one is available across Asia on Netflix. Akito-kun (Kiriyama) was recognized by strangers in the street for his role in the series when he went abroad, which I think is really great! Jo-kun (Joichiro Fujiwara, of Naniwa Danshi) said that his fellow cast members in Pending Train also got stopped by total strangers in France who recognized them from the show, and I think it’s amazing that a show can become very popular even when the actors are not…yet! That’s the great thing about Netflix; it’s always there, so even older work can become popular later on when people stumble upon it. 

At any rate, I’m looking forward to being called “Kiseki” by strangers in other countries too one day!

In addition to Saitama Host Club and The Way of the Hot and Spicy 2 you can see more of Fukumoto and the rest of Ae! group each week on the official Junior CHANNEL on YouTube.

More Ae! group soon so… 

Stay Tuned!