Teen Regime


Teen Regime is a 2022 Japanese science-fiction mini-series written by Reiko Yoshida. Set in 202X where Japan's economy has failed, it stars Fūju Kamio as Aran Maki, the 17-year-old Prime Minister of an experimental city governed by young leaders and artificial intelligence as part of Project Utopi-AI. It aired on NHK on Saturdays from May 7 to June 4, 2022.

Synopsis

In 202X, Prime Minister Tsuguaki Washida aims to develop human resources for Japan, ridiculed as "Sunset Japan" after the collapse of its economy due to the aging population and rising unemployment rate. He orders Kiyoshi Taira to plan a local city governed by young leaders using artificial intelligence. Aonami bids to be the experimental city, and political AI Solon selects four young people as cabinet ministers, including Aran Maki, the 17-year-old Prime Minister.

Cast

Main

Supporting

Ūa cabinet members

Project Utopi-AI

Sachi's family

Production

Development

In 2022, planning for the Saturday drama slot, broadcast on NHK World-Japan, started. Through research by overseas producers on what was expected of a Japanese drama, the motifs of artificial intelligence and science fiction emerged. Reiko Yoshida was contacted for the script, and she came up with the plot of a "17-year-old's empire" where a young Prime Minister builds a nation of young people and fights against an aging society. Producer Ayumi Sano suggested combining the motif of AI with Yoshida's plot for the story of a 17-year-old using AI to run the government. The production team then worked on researching and developing the plot. Though producer Kei Kurube found the political aspect of the plot difficult, he decided he wanted to create something new.
Yoshida initially conceived a dystopian plot, but after meeting with Sano, it was changed to Maki resigning as Prime Minister and his reforms remaining in Ūa. After the plot was changed from a dystopia, main director Takegoro Nishimura and production designers decided to make Ūa "a place that everyone wants to go to".
The collaboration between Sano, a commercial producer, and NHK, a public broadcaster, was due to Sano having retired from TBS TV, then working as a freelancer. Though Sano became an employee of Kansai Telecasting, he participated with his company's understanding to fulfill his personal goal to "challenge what only NHK can do". On hiring Yoshida, who mainly works on anime, for the script, Sano said he thought, "If I'm going to make science fiction, I'd rather work with a scriptwriter in a different genre than the serial drama scriptwriter I usually work with."

Pre-production

Sano recruited Ryoma Hattori, part of NHK's video design department and thus usually not involved in dramas, to brainstorm gadgets like Utopi-AI's user interface, the branding of the city, and to make everything feel like a live-action.
Kiyoshi Taira, played by Gen Hoshino, did not initially exist in the plot, but Sano wanted a character that fought between the young and elderly. According to Sano, once the bubble generation retired from the film industry, he thought it was finally time for his generation to make a comeback, but it quickly became the age of "raising the digital natives of the next generation"; his generation was "taken off the ladder" and Sano wondered how people would react to a "middle-management-like person".

Filming

The three towers of Solon were filmed at Hario Radio Tower in Sasebo, Nagasaki, and there was also filming in the telegraph room of the tower. The directors looked for "cities, towns, and villages that are experimenting realistically" and "beautiful landscapes where the science fiction world and life co-exist". They described the towers as "beautiful no matter where you look at them, and no matter where you look at them, they are strange". After projecting it on a monitor, it was selected for its impact.
The facility where the Sagawa family prepares to move into Ūa was filmed at the Yokosuka Museum of Art. The Aonami City Hall was filmed at the town hall in Higashiizu, Shizuoka. Mamiana Shopping District was filmed in various parts of Japan, including Tonō Market in Sasebo, Nagasaki. The history of the filming locations, such as the telegraph room being built during the Taishō era, and the stores being built using an air raid shelter, were incorporated into the plot.
Shooting was done without the cast knowing what the actual scene would look like, such as in scenes where the smartglasses where involved. Yamada, in the role of Snow, an AI, acted alone while filming, setting the timing for when Snow appears on the monitor to correspond with Maki.

Music

Yuta Bandoh, who became acquainted with Sano with Omameda Towako and Her Three Ex-Husbands, worked on the music for Belle, and decided to produce the music for Teen Regime similarly. Bandoh hired Shohei Amimori and Ryō Maekubo and also reached out through Instagram to Tomggg, who accepted the offer immediately. Bandoh used the method of "film scoring", where he composed music while watching videos, pasting a temporary audio over the video, sending it to the rest of the team, and responsibility for the key scenes of each story was assigned to team members.
The theme song of "Koeyo" was composed by Bandoh, with vocals provided by Moeka Shiotsuka of Hitsuji Bungaku, an alternative rock band. It was released on June 1, 2022, and was included in the soundtrack released that same day. Shiotsuka wrote the lyrics, and Takuro Okada arranged the song. Shiotsuka said that she was able to challenge things she "would never have dreamed of alone, such as delicate melody lines and experimental arrangements." She wrote the lyrics thinking of the characters after reading the script many times. Shiotsuka also voiced Snow, played by Anna Yamada.

Reception

Accolades