As soon as the New Year dawned, Kintendo’s commercial was released through the media and official social media accounts.
< Kintendo’s secret weapon! SwitchOn finally revealed by the Hoshino family >
< A new Kintendo SwitchOn for the whole family to enjoy together is here... >
< The power of the Kaoi family! Site traffic overload causes shutdown... Presales hit one million units in record time... >
< Taking over not just TV and YouTube but social media too... The public cheers the Hoshino family’s warm, happy Kintendo playtime >
The moment the commercial was released, the media rushed out article after article.
TV, YouTube, and even social media. Once the Hoshino family’s cheerful SwitchOn gameplay was revealed, people immediately started preordering SwitchOn in droves.
The public’s attention was drawn all at once by the family’s unforced warmth, the way they played with genuine enjoyment, and the innocence of the Kaoi couple’s children, the famous twins and their third child, Ame, whom the media had never really shown before.
From the 30-second cut to the 1-minute version, even to the 30-minute edited version uploaded on Kintendo’s official website. The Kintendo marketing team’s brilliant move had worked perfectly, with clean, clever edits in a variety of formats that stirred not only fans but the curiosity of the general public as well.
- Damn, this looks insanely fun lol
- Dug out the Kintendo BS I had at home like crazy
- Uil? What year is this lol going straight to tear up SwitchOn
- My daughter begged me to buy it, so I did. Honestly, I just wanted it myself and used my wife as cover lol
- Bought one to put at my in-laws’ place too~ ^^ Gonna do some Ring Fitness dieting too, two birds with one stone
- Aren’t Ai and Ruby and Ame too cute? Seriously, the mom and two daughters are all carbon copies and adorable ㅠㅠㅠ
ㄴ Ruby and Ame are so cute...
- That Kaoru bastard has been the celebrity paying the most taxes for five years straight. You should pay double taxes too.
- Aqua-kun’s squat form is perfect;;
ㄴ I was shocked too. Is he really in middle school?
On top of that, the ad was praised for leaving in the tiny comedy points instead of editing them out.
For example—
【 ...... 】
【 Hehe~ V~ 】
- Ruby-chan’s Mario Kart attitude was insane
- If it were me, I’d have flicked her on the forehead lol
- Ruby-chan is too cute!!!!!!!!!!
ㄴ If you didn’t save a GIF of this, you have no right to call yourself Ruby-chan’s fan
- Aqua-kun is cute ♥ If I had a boyfriend like Aqua-kun, I’d seriously pat him on the head every day
ㄴ That’s scary
- The Aqua-Ruby siblings still get along even after growing up
- A siscon and brocon sibling pair.
- You can tell Aqua-kun really cherishes his little sister
Or the scene where Aqua looked at Ruby, who had passed him and crossed the finish line, with a complicated expression—
【 Crack—! 】
【 ...... 】
- Huh? How the hell did he break that?
- Was that thing breakable?
- I used to do judo, and to break that you’d have to be basically superhuman... I couldn’t do that even with grip strength alone.
ㄴ My friend was a production assistant when they filmed that ad, and he said everyone freaked out because it was the first time they’d seen someone break it with pure strength lol
ㄴ Isn’t that Kamiki guy a gorilla?
ㄴ An actor doing what even judo athletes can’t do lol
- The miracle of 2.6 seconds didn’t happen for nothing
ㄴ As expected of the founder of Kamiki-style
ㄴ If you shook his hand, it’d probably crush yours
ㄴ My condolences to whoever ends up becoming a son-in-law of the Hoshino family...
- Am I the only one who thinks Kaoru getting flustered is absolutely hilarious? lolllll
- The only three things that can fluster Kamiki-kun: his wife, his daughter, and Ringcon
- Ah. That is what a “father” is. You can tell just from the fact that the twins are living well and not causing trouble.
- So Aqua-kun was the first disciple of Kamiki-style too
ㄴ So that’s why he smashed that pervert’s wrist!
Seeing Kaoru get flustered after his wife and youngest daughter cheered him on and he went into full serious mode, only to end up crushing the Ringcon with brute force, people either burst out laughing or reacted in shock.
His monstrous strength even brought back into the spotlight old image macros of Kaoru glaring coldly at 『Yonezu Taishi』 during a past joint fan-signing event, generating all kinds of new jokes.
【 Papa, that’s cheating! 】
【 Hahaha. A match is a cold, hard thing— huh!? 】
【 Yes, Dad. Since it’s a cold, hard thing, I’ll go first? 】
【 ...... 】
【 Dad!!! Ame is on Dad’s side! Do your bestttt! 】
Kaoru and the twin siblings racing together in Mario Kart, with Ame sitting on her father’s lap and cheering earnestly, made viewers feel a heartwarming sense of family love.
And the biggest finishing touch of all!
【 Puu— 】
【 Heheh-★ Uu~ does Amber want to do it too? 】
The fact that the beautiful youngest son, hidden from view until now, with purple hair just like Ai and the Kaoi couple, made his first appearance in a Kintendo commercial.
The beautiful 『Ai Hoshino』, a legendary “idol” and “actor” who had completely established herself in Japanese pop culture.
And her adorable youngest son 『Hoshino Amber』, who looked exactly like her.
The sight of the “mother,” smiling at her son with star-bright eyes full of maternal love, her appearance unchanged as if time itself had stopped.
At last, the true meaning behind Kintendo SwitchOn choosing the Hoshino family as its advertising models flew straight into the public’s hearts.
- Amber-chan is seriously so cute
- Just like Ai!!!!!!!!
- That’s a son, right? I thought it was a daughter ㄷㄷ
ㄴ I thought it was a daughter too.
- So cute ㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠ It really is like amber, just like the nameㅠㅠ
- God is holding an angel. God exists, and his name is 『Ai Hoshino』.
- Ai doesn’t age. She doesn’t grow old. Is she growing the elixir of immortality that even Qin Shi Huang gave up on, on her balcony?
- Eternal idol. Even as a mother, she is still an eternal idol. Her aura and charisma are still shining!
- Kamiki, you bastard, pay more taxes. Just die, die!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
- Just like the Aqua-Ruby siblings, Ame and Amber will be very fun to stan later on!
ㄴ Can I lie down here?
ㄴ Boarding
ㄴ 4444
Thanks to this emotionally resonant ad that stimulated consumers’ psychology and stirred empathy, Kintendo SwitchOn achieved the fastest sales record in history.
Even on social media, the “Kintendo Challenge” craze spread, with consumers voluntarily uploading videos and photos of their own families playing the same games the Hoshino family had played in the ad.
On the darker side... the “Ringcon Smash Challenge” Kaoru had accidentally created also rose sharply in popularity, but it quickly died down under a barrage of netizen criticism about injury risks during the challenge and about how the production supply of Ringcon was already running short, making it a stupid thing to do.
After Ai’s childbirth, they had taken a break, and Kaoru had also gone into semi-retirement to focus on childcare together, so his activities had become sparse. For that reason, fans welcomed this ad appearance like a welcome rain after a drought, even shedding tears over it.
Of course.
"Ame~ Aren’t you doing SwitchOn today?"
Ruby, lying on the bed, smiled and asked Ame, who was nestled in her arms beside her.
Like a baby rabbit popping up, Ame lifted her face, her star-bright eyes sparkling as she hugged her sister tightly.
"Yep! I’m taking a break today! Ame likes being with big sis more!"
"......Kyaaaah! Ame! Being this cute is cheating, cheating!!!"
"Waaah- sis, I can’t breathe!"
Even without playing Kintendo, Ruby and Ame were happy simply because they had each other.
-
After the Kintendo commercial shoot, time passed again.
April, when the three siblings began the new school term. Around the time Amber had started flipping over and crawling.
Kaoru met Director Gotanda at their usual cafe for the first time in a while.
In fact, it was because Director Gotanda had contacted him first and asked to meet.
In this industry, Gotanda Taishi was one of the few people who could call Kaoru out with a single phone call.
Of course... if Kaoru ignored the call or refused because it was a hassle, Director Gotanda would show up at his house in person, so Kaoru usually gave in and went.
Still, Kaoru had a hunch while guessing the reason for the meeting that maybe this time it wouldn’t be about a project.
As always, Director Gotanda had finished shooting an independent film, the film had been showered with praise, and he had won awards again at a film festival— in a sense, he now enjoyed glory and honor that could not be compared to the past.
But when Kaoru looked into Director Gotanda’s eyes, he could tell that before long, that stubborn anti-establishment streak of his had begun to flicker there.
Only a freak recognizes a freak.
Kaoru had known from the moment they first met that Director Gotanda had a strange personality and a value system different from everyone else’s.
Director Gotanda was clearly thinking about overturning this reality, where he was doing so much better in the film world than he had in the past.
Not by failing on purpose and then showing his true worth(?), but by shaking up the existing paradigm a little and figuring out how to give the critics and the public a middle finger... it looked like he had developed the artist’s peculiar compulsion to break free of conventions.
Maybe that was why he had stopped working on projects for the past few months while coming up with a new one— Kaoru cautiously guessed...
"Want to do it?"
"......"
His long, shaggy hair and beard.
But instead of the sharp madness of an artist... just a listless pair of eyes.
Kaoru slowly flipped through the screenplay for the next project that Gotanda handed him.
One of only two actors who could casually turn the screenplay he had personally written in front of the great Director Gotanda as if it were a convenience-store magazine, Kaoru set the script on the table and sipped his coffee.
"I thought you’d be doing a film, but it’s a drama?"
"Yeah. I’m sick of films. I’m doing drama."
"......"
Sometimes I think Aqua is the more mature one. Kaoru set down his coffee cup and tapped the script as he spoke.
"Isn’t this the kind of writing you don’t usually like, Director? It’s pretty..."
"Provocative? Sure is. Probably everyone’s going to freak out. Like, ‘That Gotanda guy is doing this as a drama, and with a rotten premise like this?’ But it’s solid, isn’t it?"
"Even so, adultery is adultery, isn’t it? You want me to play an adulterer. I’d get pelted with stones."
"That’s why I put in the magical phrase ‘an affair with a reason.’ If a perfectly decent person cheats, they get hated, but an affair with a reason makes people immerse themselves in the backstory and feel heartbroken instead."
Kaoru shook his head at Gotanda, who shrugged and drank his coffee.
For an unmarried middle-aged man to say something like this. Had he developed a late-life affair with some married woman with a husband at some strange cabaret?
The artist’s madness in pursuit of endless creative fulfillment was frightening indeed.
"......"
The content was pretty explicit, and the subject matter was provocative too. But the screenplay’s strong pull and heavy emotional line, so characteristic of Director Gotanda, made the actor’s curiosity about it beat faster in his chest.
However, the affair partner— in other words, the somewhat intimate yet blunt emotional acting with the other female lead, along with the kiss scenes that came with it— was a huge burden for Kaoru.
"If my wife finds out, either me or the director is going to..."
"That’s why!"
Bang!
Director Gotanda slammed his palm down on the table.
The coffee cup jumped and clinked, but neither Kaoru nor Gotanda paid it any mind.
With a meaningful smile, Director Gotanda spoke in a low voice.
"Show this script to your wife too. And get her permission."
"...For me to appear in it?"
"No. Not just to appear. Tell her to allow a ‘joint appearance.’ A ‘married couple joint appearance,’ that is."
"......"
At Gotanda’s unexpected proposal, Kaoru’s face twisted beautifully.
Gotanda had expected that reaction, but seeing it with his own eyes, he looked like he was having the time of his life as he habitually tapped and fiddled with the cigarette case in his jacket pocket.
"A married couple joint appearance? You mean I’m supposed to appear in this drama together with Ai... wait. Then—"
"Ah. That way Ai will approve, won’t she? I deliberately set it up that way from the start, making the wife sexless and the husband a live-in son-in-law, just so I’d keep you in mind. That way, he’d burn even hotter with the other woman."
"............"
His blue eyes vanished behind tightly shut eyelids.
Kaoru massaged his throbbing temples and sank into thought.
He had played countless roles until now. He had played a son who murdered his father, and even a country bumpkin prosecutor who came up to the city bent on revenge.
But adultery— to be precise, the role of an adulterer with a reason— was a first in his life. And on top of that, Gotanda had even plotted from the beginning to cast his wife as the affair partner for a married-couple joint appearance.
As an actor, he really was interested in this script, but he never imagined Gotanda had gone this far to arrange things for him.
A real-life married couple becoming an “affair with a reason” pair in a drama.
Had there ever been a precedent for that in the history of the industry?
A husband and wife co-starring as leads in the same drama, and not only that, but the roles they played were an adulterer and an adulteress.
“I don’t know what Ai would think, but... somehow...”
Kaoru let out a long sigh.
If he took this to Ai, wouldn’t she welcome it with open arms instead?
To him, who since his debut had never once filmed skinship with another actress, setting a record that had never existed before.
If, as Ai hoped, his wife got to take his first kiss scene...
"Understood. I’ll think about it."
"Think hard. Really hard. I’ll set my phone notification volume all the way up."
"......"
Kaoru shot a cold look at Director Gotanda, who was already making a confident fuss, and then sipped the rest of his coffee with a sigh.
His head hurt.
-
Ai quietly set the script down on the table and let her star-bright eyes sparkle brilliantly.
Kaoru, witnessing the unprecedented moment when light burst from his wife’s eyes, was left speechless.
He had expected it.
He had expected a positive reaction, but he hadn’t expected this much.
At the sight of his wife’s honest(?) gaze, filled with blatant desire and delight.
Kaoru pulled out his trump card.
"If the babies watch this drama, then from an educational and emotional standpoint—"
"Our Aqua, Ruby, and Ame wouldn’t possibly confuse reality with drama. You dummy— Oru. We all watched [The Usurper] together too. In [My Sea], Kaoru was a killer host, remember?"
His wife shot back logically in a cold voice, looking at him like he was spouting nonsense, and Kaoru cleared his throat and scratched his forehead.
Unbeatable logic.
They had already watched [The Usurper], where he played a sociopathic son who murdered his father, together as a family.
And [My Sea], where he played a host with antisocial personality disorder who brutally murdered a gang’s debt collector... the twins were probably underage for it, but they had definitely watched it through the back door.
He had seen the twins practicing by trading the lines from that work back and forth several times, so honestly, Kaoru already knew this logic wouldn’t work either.
And even little Ame had already developed enough reasoning power to write critiques, going beyond simple reading reports and even composing review essays after reading recommended books meant for middle and high school students.
Because their parents were actors, the children had learned to distinguish fiction from reality and to analyze works from the moment they could walk, so ironically Kaoru had no logic left to use.
"And— I really want to do this work! I think it’ll be the most fun role I’ve ever had. A young single mother with a middle school daughter... Director Gotanda, that’s so fresh!"
At his wife, who was smiling softly with sparkling star-bright eyes, Kaoru gently touched her warm, soft hand and replied briefly.
"Not because you’re looking forward to the kiss scenes?"
"Eh— maybe that too~★"
"..."
To his wife, who did not hide her desire, who made her star-bright eyes sparkle and rubbed her lips against his hand.
Kaoru, for the first time in a very long while...
'Scary.'
He ended up feeling fear.
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