Wednesday, July 08, 2015

Top 10 actors who have made a breakthrough in the first half of 2015 (Oricon)

1) Kubota Masataka

2) Fukushi Sota

3) Saito Takumi

4) Ayano Go

5) Yamazaki Kento

6) Sometani Shota

7) Nishijima Hidetoshi

8) Higashide Masahiro

9) Sakai Masato / Suzuki Ryohei

Source: Oricon

3 comments:

Jed Medina said...

I enjoy visiting your blog because you posted some interesting news. I also publish a website about Japanese movies. I'm a lurker for a long time, but wanted to comment on this one post.

The word breakthrough as used here, for me, refers to someone who has yet to be hugely successful on something - in this case, actors who made big success on TV or movies. But many of the names on the list are already successful actors with many movies and doramas. I find the word breakthrough not only confusing but quite honesty, improper.

I have no idea how Oricon do this ranking, perhaps just to satisfy certain interest like these powerful agencies, but to put Shota Sometani who won international awards with box office hits like Parasyte below Sota Fukushi or even Masataka Kubota is just plain WRONG.

ELLASAM said...

Kubota Masataka
Did well in death note so far so I think this ranking is quite OK except sato fukushi shouldnt be in this rank at all

Chiaki said...

Essentially, this is a ranking derived by survey results so it is not surprising to see some people thinking of this as somewhat like a popularity poll. Besides, you can't really deny that Fukushi has indeed been getting more exposure which some respondents probably equate that to "making a breakthrough" in his career. I would have been more upset with the results if Kubota was beaten by Fukushi.

I think Kubota Masataka is well-deserving of his No.1 spot here especially after seeing how he performed in the first episode of Death Note. Frankly speaking, I hated how the drama changed the basic character settings especially when it comes to removing the "genius" factor in Light and making Yamazaki Kento binge on the energy jelly drinks instead of the desserts. What made me really angry was seeing how Yamazaki flaunt his abs obviously to please fangirls but this is totally not how L should behave. That said though, Kubota was pretty good in showing the "human" side of Light i.e. his fear initially when he realised what the Death Note was capable of and he was equally good when he showed how Light was seething with anger when challenged by L. This guy should go far with the right opportunities.

The term breakthrough is probably not that appropriate for some of the names in this ranking. If you look at what Sakai Masato achieved through Hanzawa Naoki, that is a breakthrough. Similar for Saito Takumi when he appeared in Hirugao or Nishijima Hidetoshi in the case of MOZU (the drama wasn't that good though). Then again, those aren't "current" achievements so it's strange why they are in the top 10. Perhaps using the term "most attention-grabbing" or "most talked-about" might be more suitable? Anyway, there is no clear selection criteria so I don't think we'll really understand what the voters had in mind.