A report on the Japan premiere of the film 'Taroman: The Great Expo Explosion,' in which Taroman moves freely and carefreely around the theater, delighting audiences to their hearts' content.
The Japan premiere of '
Official website for the film 'Taroman: The Great Expo Explosion'
https://taroman-movie.asmik-ace.co.jp/
109 Cinemas Osaka Expo City, where the film's advance screening, 'Berabou Japan Premiere,' was held, is located inside LaLaport Osaka Expo City, adjacent to Expo Memorial Park, the former site of the Osaka Expo held in 1970. As a result, if you head towards the cinema from the nearest station, Expo Memorial Park Station on the Osaka Monorail, you will come across the Tower of the Sun, which is the motif of 'Taro Man.'
Arrived at 109 Cinemas Osaka Expo City.
A Taroman panel was waiting in the lobby.
Life-size Taroman No. 2 and the strange beast Jug Baron.
A poster signed by Director Fujii and stills from the trailer were also on display.
The event was packed to capacity, with tickets selling out immediately, and was hosted by FM802 DJ
After Mr. Iimura called out to the audience, Director Fujii and Taroman entered the stage. I was waiting to see what would happen, but just after Director Fujii entered, Taroman ran up the stairs to the auditorium with a boy. The boy was one of the audience members, and it seems that Taroman chose to play with the boy rather than greet the audience on stage.
Iimura and Director Fujii watch Taroman, who appears to be playing with a boy, at the back of the stepped audience seats.
Taroman sat down next to an audience member, borrowed a parasol, opened it, and began to receive something. It was also permitted to take photos of Taroman during this stage greeting.
About six minutes had passed since the call, and since Taroman was not going to come down even if he was called upon, Director Fujii left him in the audience and began his speech on stage. However, Taroman seemed to get excited at this point, as he used the spotlight shining on Director Fujii to project his own shadow onto him.
Director Fujii continues to speak despite being interrupted (?) by Taroman.
The TV version of 'TAROMAN: Taro Okamoto's Special Effects Drama,' broadcast on NHK's E-Tele, was a late-night special effects drama with episodes lasting five minutes, but this film is 105 minutes long. Even if the entire film is nonsense, it's tolerable if it's five minutes long, but the director struggled with the fact that it's nonsense for 105 minutes. Another difficult point was creating a world of 2025 (Showa 100), which was imagined in 1970 (Showa 45). The explosion scenes were carefully crafted using techniques such as dripping paint into a water tank to make them look like they were made in the 1970s.
Regarding the appearance, the footage was projected onto a screen once it had been produced, and then filmed to add a rough texture. The voice acting of 'actors with a Showa-era look' was dubbed by 'actors with a Showa-era voice' to create a special effects feel from the past. Because of this, there are no actors who appear in recent commercials or are 'famous people,' leading some people to mistakenly believe that the work was actually aired in 1970.
While Director Fujii is having a serious talk, Taroman is playing in the shadows.
Taroman comes down from the audience wanting to go home. Of course, he doesn't go home, even though he makes the gesture of going.
Director Fujii revealed that, since this is a special film, he recreated the black dot that appears in the upper right corner of old films as a signal to change the film every 15 minutes, and made an eye-catching image appear when the film was changed.
Meanwhile, Taroman goes around handing out empty capsules to the audience.
He also gave some to Iimuro-san and Director Fujii. Why are the capsules empty...?
After distributing the cards, Taroman left the arena again, but this time he sneaked up and clung to Director Fujii's feet. Was Taroman a cat...?
And just when it seemed that Taroman had left the stage for the third time, a throng of additional guests appeared from the theater entrance. At first, it seemed like there would only be one or two, but before you knew it, the number of guests had filled up the entire area in front of the screen. Seeing the sheer number of people, Iimuro retorted, 'This is something you do at places like Osaka Castle Hall, not at a movie theater.'
'Taroman Expo Explosion' Japan Premiere - A large number of guests invade the stage greeting - YouTube
Everyone gathered together and started dancing to 'Explosion! Taroman.'
'Taroman Expo 2005 Explosion' Japan Premiere - Everyone dances together 'It's an explosion! Taroman' - YouTube
There was also a photo session for visitors in between the press photo sessions, and the stage greeting ended in great excitement.
After the screening, numbered tickets were distributed to those who had purchased a movie ticket card that day, and a signing session with Director Fujii was held, which was a huge success.
'Taroman: The Great Expo Explosion' will be released nationwide from Friday, August 22, 2025 at 109 Cinemas Osaka Expo City and other theaters.
By the way, Taroman also took a commemorative photo with the Tower of the Sun.
Within Expo Commemoration Park, the site of the 1970 Osaka Expo, there are buildings that allow you to feel the excitement of that time, such as the Tower of the Sun, designed by Taro Okamoto, and the Osaka Expo Memorial Hall, the EXPO '70 Pavilion. Additionally, since 2018, the interior of the Tower of the Sun has been open to the public by advance reservation.
'Tower of the Sun' Official Website (Osaka Prefecture Expo '70 Commemorative Park Office)
https://taiyounotou-expo70.jp/
The synopsis of this work is as follows:
The year was 1970.
Just as Japan was excited about hosting the World Expo,
A terrifying beast that has come to destroy the Expo attacks!
To fight against random strange beasts, random power is needed.
However, the world of the future will be filled with order and common sense,
Bullshit power was on the verge of extinction.
CBG (Earth Defense Force) will protect the Expo.
Head towards the future with Taroman!
The trailer looks like this:
Movie 'Taroman Expo Explosion' Trailer (60 seconds) [Released on Friday, August 22nd] - YouTube
©2025 'Taroman: Expo 2025' Production Committee
Distributor: Asmik Ace
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