Yuji Oda Chokes Up Over First ‘Bayside Shakedown’ Film in 14 Years: ‘I’m Now the Same Age Ikariya-san Was as Wakui’

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The story

The online completion event for the film “Bayside Shakedown N.E.W.: Dash Through the Metropolis” (opening September 18) was held in an online-only format on September 6 after the in-person venue event was canceled due to severe weather. Lead actor Yuji Oda spoke about how it felt to return to set now that he’s the same age Chosuke Ikariya, who has since passed away, was when he played the character Wakui — and revealed it brought tears to his eyes. On 5ch, the topic sparked a flurry of reactions touching on the relationships within the comedy group The Drifters and Ikariya, the box-office outlook for the series, and the current state of Fuji TV.

Yuji Oda on First New “Bayside Shakedown” Film in 14 Years: “It Brought Tears” — On Ikariya-san: “I’m Now About the Same Age as Wakui”

A live online broadcast for the film “Bayside Shakedown N.E.W.: Dash Through the Metropolis” (directed by Katsuyuki Motohiro, opening on the 18th) was held on the 6th from the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building, bringing together lead actor Yuji Oda (58) and the rest of the star-studded cast.

A completion press event had originally been scheduled at the same venue that day, but was canceled due to severe weather.

Source: news.yahoo.co.jp / Original article here

What people said

2AnonymousSep 6, 2026 23:43
Watching Osaka night-view videos on YouTube beats watching Peace-kun from Omiya Park (a famous red panda at the zoo there) any day.
7AnonymousSep 6, 2026 23:47
It's already lost its novelty, and now it's picked up bad buzz too — that stings.
10AnonymousSep 6, 2026 23:50
People always bring up how bad relations were within The Drifters, but really the only friction was Shimura vs. Ikariya, Kato vs. Ikariya, Takagi vs. Ikariya, Nakamoto vs. Ikariya, and Arai vs. Ikariya — overall they actually got along fine.
13AnonymousSep 6, 2026 23:53
Re: #10
So Ikariya was the root cause of it all lol
25AnonymousSep 6, 2026 23:56
Re: #10
It's simple — Shimura and Ikariya had a falling out, and the group just split into Kato on Shimura's side versus Takagi and Nakamoto on Ikariya's side.
Kato didn't dislike Ikariya enough to cut ties with him, but he respected Shimura and let him do things his own way.
61AnonymousSep 7, 2026 00:30
Re: #10
No idea how Shimura felt about Ikariya, but before he passed away, Ikariya secretly paid out of his own pocket to go see one of Shimura's stage shows, so he clearly still cared.
Apparently he'd also happily bring up Shimura in conversations with his son.
11AnonymousSep 6, 2026 23:52
The TV drama series really was good.
Once they started churning out movies and spinoffs, it got boring.
66AnonymousSep 7, 2026 00:34
Re: #11
The spinoffs really were dull.
14AnonymousSep 6, 2026 23:54
It's streaming on TVer now so I watched it again after a long time — so much smoking.
The free stream of Initial D the other day was also wall-to-wall cigarettes, which killed the mood too.
15AnonymousSep 6, 2026 23:54
So he's about the same age as Wakui now?
Back in the day, Wakui felt way more like an old man to me.
22AnonymousSep 6, 2026 23:56
Re: #15
Wakui's character was written as 60, but Cho-san (Ikariya), who played him, was actually 65.
17AnonymousSep 6, 2026 23:55
You think it'll hit 10 billion yen at the box office?
24AnonymousSep 6, 2026 23:56
Re: #17
No way — 3 billion would already be a win.
Last year's Muroi spinoff movie only did about 1.5 billion.
18AnonymousSep 6, 2026 23:55
Oh, that's the 'We can't lock down the conference room!' line, isn't it?
20AnonymousSep 6, 2026 23:55
True. Thinking of it that way really gets me.
21AnonymousSep 6, 2026 23:55
Why is there no one with that kind of quiet patience anymore?
39AnonymousSep 7, 2026 00:10
Re: #21
Because he ended up ticking off a lot of people.
23AnonymousSep 6, 2026 23:56
It's basically guaranteed to flop spectacularly.
29AnonymousSep 6, 2026 23:58
Re: #23
The production budget's only a few hundred million yen, so hitting 1 billion would roughly break even after everything's deducted.
If it hits 2 billion, that's a big enough hit that they'd start talking sequel.
32AnonymousSep 7, 2026 00:03
Re: #23
Even with GTO, I figured a smash hit was a stretch but assumed it'd at least lock in a solid 7-8% rating — instead it came in at just 3-something percent.

With this Bayside Shakedown movie too, part of me hopes for something like 5 billion yen, but realistically it might land just under 3 billion.
26AnonymousSep 6, 2026 23:56
Wakui: "You went to university, and yet you never got promoted."
28AnonymousSep 6, 2026 23:58
It's also a film that let Fuji TV employees get a little too full of themselves, and these days that alone is enough to trigger backlash — poor Oda.
30AnonymousSep 7, 2026 00:01
What's amazing about Chosuke Ikariya is:
Lived through World War II in the '40s
Played as the opening act for the Beatles in the '60s
Became hugely popular in the '70s on "8 O'Clock, All Present!"
Won over a whole new generation in the '90s with Bayside Shakedown
He's basically a living witness to the 20th century.
31AnonymousSep 7, 2026 00:03
I'm bracing myself for the content to be paper-thin, but the trailer still gets me hyped.
33AnonymousSep 7, 2026 00:04
It's wild that even Soichiro Kitamura, who came off so scatterbrained on the show, is from the generation that lived through the war.
41AnonymousSep 7, 2026 00:12
Re: #33
Today's actors just can't replicate the aura that generation has.
Even when they look successful and happy, there's always a faint shadow to them.
34AnonymousSep 7, 2026 00:05
It's also impressive that he's still running a blog at 90.
https://ameblo.jp/soichiro-kitamura/entry-12974826695.html
36AnonymousSep 7, 2026 00:06
TVer's streaming 'No Money!' right now, go watch it.
38AnonymousSep 7, 2026 00:08
Re: #36
Honestly this one's better than Bayside Shakedown.
49AnonymousSep 7, 2026 00:19
Re: #36
That was a great drama.
Oda, Zaizen, the two small-time thugs, Mikio Azuma, Taima — everyone in it was so likable.
37AnonymousSep 7, 2026 00:06
Re: #29
The Muroi spinoff pulled in just under 2 billion, so surely the main series entry will do even better than that, right?
45AnonymousSep 7, 2026 00:17
Once Bayside Shakedown flops, Fuji TV's really got nothing left, huh. Might as well bring back Waratte Iitomo!
53AnonymousSep 7, 2026 00:22
Re: #45
They've still got two Demon Slayer releases and Chiikawa left 💦
65AnonymousSep 7, 2026 00:33
Couldn't make out a word anyone was saying in the last drama installment.
Still enjoyable though, with Yusuke Santamaria and Yui Natsukawa in it.
76AnonymousSep 7, 2026 00:48
Re: #65
Yeah, it got all garbled and hard to hear.
Brings back memories.

Background and Key Points of the Discussion

“Bayside Shakedown” is one of Japan’s most iconic film franchises — the first theatrical film in 1998 grossed roughly 10.1 billion yen, and the 2003 sequel brought in about 17.3 billion yen — and this latest release marks the first new mainline entry in 14 years. Thread opinions were split on box-office prospects, with some optimistic based on the series’ track record and others more skeptical given the underwhelming performance of recent spinoff films. As for Chosuke Ikariya, a long-running rumor holds that The Drifters were plagued by internal discord, but some posters testified that the real friction was mainly between Ikariya and Ken Shimura rather than bad blood across the whole group — worth noting the gap between the public image and firsthand accounts.

*This article is compiled from excerpts and a summary of the 5channel (Entertainment/Sports News+) thread ‘[Entertainment] Yuji Oda on “Bayside Shakedown”: First New Film in 14 Years, “It Brought Tears…” — On Ikariya-san: “I’ve Come Back at About the Same Age as Wakui”.’

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