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'If My Favorite Pop Idol Made it to the Budokan, I Would Die' Stage Play Casts SKE48 Idols
posted on by Anita Tai
The staff for the stage play of Auri Hirao's If My Favorite Pop Idol Made it to the Budokan, I Would Die (Oshi ga Budōkan Ittekuretara Shinu) manga announced the cast in a new video on Sunday, along with a visual and cast images.
The cast includes (top row, from left to right in picture above):
- Aika Kobayashi as Eripiyo
- Kaho Satō (SKE48) as Leo Igarashi
- Rika Aoki (SKE48) as Sorane Matsuyama
- Miyo Nomura (SKE48) as Maki Hakata
- Miyu Nakasaka (SKE48) as Yumeri Mizumori
- Yūne Hara (SKE48) as Yuuka Teramoto
- Ami Kurashima (SKE48) as Aya Yokota
- Anzu Omura (SKE48) as Maina Ichii
(Second row, left to right):
- Momoyo Koyama as Mei
- Kokomi Ito (SKE48) as Ruri
- Riina Sugimoto (SKE48) as Hinaka
(Third row, left to right):
- Mio Nishii (SKE48) as Harumi Iwaoka
- Kyoka Shinohara (SKE48) as Inoue Hanami
- Reona Ida (SKE48) as Ryoka Noda
- Misato Kawauchi as Natsumi Murai
- Yoshino Kitagawa (SKE48) as Kana Yamazaki
- Kimie Akahori (SKE48) as Maria
- Kotori Kojima as Kumasa
- Tatsuyuki Kawaratani as Yūki Moto
The stage play will run in Aichi from February 20-23 and in Tokyo from February 27-March 1.
Elements Garden is producing the songs performed during the live concert segments. Ichidai Matsuda is writing the script and directing.
The manga's comedy story centers on a woman called "Eripiyo," who is an extreme idol fan. She is wildly enthusiastic about Maina, the shy and lowest-ranking member of the minor underground idol group Cham Jam that performs in Okayama Prefecture. She gets so wrapped up in her love for Maina during a particular performance, that she has a major nosebleed. Eri will continue to give her complete devotion to Maina until the day she can perform at Budōkan (a major performing venue in Tokyo).
Hirao launched the manga in Tokuma Shoten's Monthly Comic Ryū in 2015. The series ranked on the top 20 list of manga for male readers in Takarajimasha's Kono Manga ga Sugoi! (This Manga Is Amazing!) guidebook in 2016. The manga has reached over 1 million cumulative copies in circulation. Tokyopop released the manga in English digitally and in print.
The manga inspired a television anime that premiered in January 2020. Funimation streamed the anime under the title If My Favorite Pop Idol Made it to the Budokan, I Would Die as it aired in Japan, and also streamed an English dub.
The series also inspired a live-action film in May 2023.
Sources: If My Favorite Pop Idol Made it to the Budokan, I Would Die stage play's X/Twitter account, Comic Natalie
