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The story
The new Bayside Shakedown film has hit theaters, sparking discussion on a 5ch live-commentary thread. According to the thread’s original poster, the movie keeps teasing that Eri Fukatsu will appear, but she never actually shows up on screen — instead, an “AI Waku” recreates his voice to deliver the character’s famous lines. Commenters also noted that the actor cast as Mashita and Yukino’s son (supposedly 21 years old) is actually in his 40s, and that the directing style feels reminiscent of Yuichi Fukuda’s work. Meanwhile, opinions split between praise for the beauty of Eri Fukatsu and Yuki Uchida, and the view that it was actually better she didn’t appear — with the debate centering less on the film’s quality and more on its directing choices and casting.
What people said
・An "AI Waku" is born from having Waku's voice "fed into an AI." He delivers his famous lines in a slightly off, uncanny voice — you honestly can't tell if it's meant to be Waku or actor Chosuke Ikariya himself.
・For the role of Mashita and Yukino's son (supposedly 21), they somehow cast a so-so Johnny's talent who's over 40.
In a bad way, it just looks exactly like a Fukuda film.
Muroi "is heart"?? (likely autocorrect mangling 死んだ, "died") Why?
What exactly is this guy being considerate of by not just writing "died"?
Just iPhone autocorrect being flaky.
Well yeah, this one's aimed at the Ice Age generation (Japan's lost-generation cohort).
Wasn't there a painfully boring detective doing kung fu in part 3 too?
That one had extra noise on top of it too — like, someone good enough to get sent overseas as a police liaison wouldn't be that dumb, and the whole "Chinese person = kung fu" idea is just such a shallow stereotype.
Even now, in 2026, it's still got the exact same vibe.
The recent Muroi movie was still doing the same thing — "kids who play phone games are no good, go play outside!" and "girls who leave for the city after high school are the worst, slow country living is the best!"
I guess AI Waku is the answer to that.
By the way, at the end it glitches out and says something bizarre before it's over.
That probably makes the anime division president's position pretty secure.
An incoming Fuji TV president these days could probably land an even better seat by leaving the company.
Pretty sure that was the TV special that aired before the first theatrical film.
Bayside Shakedown
ER (Kyuumei Byoutou 24-ji)
What's next?
Nurse no Oshigoto (A Nurse's Job)
They're doing 101st Proposal right now
After retiring, he went out into a blizzard in the woods to look for his dog and died.
The dog made it back home on its own.
Right when I was thinking "this movie's heroine isn't that cute…" she suddenly showed up and was gorgeous on a whole different level.
That's because Japan's creative talent gets used up in this order: manga → novels/anime/games → live action.
Re: #77
The entertainment industry, advertising, and TV just use it as their own private club, so craft and expression end up not mattering at all.
Come on, that's gotta be an exaggeration.
Go ask an AI.
They're just squeezing it out because they don't have any other content that makes money.
Honestly the first half alone would've been enough. Even the fan theories — the one thing keeping hope alive — got crushed in the second half.
I know an animator who said all of Japan's talent is concentrated in manga and games.
Spending the whole 140-minute runtime building pressure for Eri Fukatsu to show up feels gross.
You're the ones who staged it like Sumire died just to drum up ticket sales.
Just enjoy the old-timers goofing around in that meta, self-aware way.
For me, the cast's age didn't match the tone at all, and it was painful the whole way through.
Background and Discussion Points
The Bayside Shakedown franchise has been a popular series since its first theatrical film, released in 2003. Chosuke Ikariya, who played the character Heihachiro Waku, passed away in 2004. The “AI Waku” that became a talking point in the thread appears to be an artificial recreation of his voice — a device that stirs a mix of discomfort and nostalgia in longtime fans. Opinion in the thread split over whether Eri Fukatsu’s absence should be read as a deliberate directorial choice or as teasing designed purely to drive ticket sales. The discussion also branched into broader criticism of Japanese live-action film in general, with complaints about an industry structure where talent goes to manga, novels, anime, and games first, leaving only the leftovers for live action by the time it gets there. That said, it’s worth noting that the specific plot details described here come solely from the thread starter’s account, not from an official announcement or first-hand reporting from a press screening.
*This article is compiled as an excerpt and summary of the 5ch (Nandemo Jikkyo G) thread “This new Bayside Shakedown movie is insane lol.”
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