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The Making of Sanaich

How 19-year-old Sana Hiroki transformed himself into an 80s yaoi icon

Maraich is special to the Patalliro! series even before author Maya Mineo realized it. He confessed to planning to kill him off after a few chapters but saw the character had a life of its own and therefore he felt compelled to let him live. I wonder if this happened before or after Maraich was assigned to be 18 years of age, because Maya Mineo fell in love with his wife at first sight when he was 27, which is Bancoran’s age, and his wife 18. In the manga Maya-sensei also jokingly stated that Bancoran’s cheating was in no way a reflection of his own behaviors. And the fact that Maya-sensei’s now-mangaka daughter saw Patalliro as a sibling growing up kind of indirectly shows how Bancoran and Maraich’s relationship is in certain ways a representation of Maya-sensei’s own marriage. 

Maya-sensei is delightfully weird, as you would expect from the man who created Patalliro! in the first place. So a lot of the decisions he has made about his story and characters don’t fit into boxes. He said he wasn’t good at drawing women so he made all his characters gay even though the pretty boys he draws are all indistinguishable from women. 

And even though Maraich was one of the most important characters of the story, he never bound himself or anyone else to any set ways of portraying the character. Maraich was famously voiced by female voice actor Fujita Toshiko, and Maya-sensei had characterized Maraich as “a girl with a boy’s body”, despite the fact that Maraich throughout the series has used “boku”, which is the male first-person pronoun and on several occasions made it clear that he is a male and has no problem staying that way. So the whole thing is a very fluid situation and Maya-sensei is almost always just free-ranging.

When Stage Patalliro! became a thing but the cast has not been determined, Maya-sensei called his daughter Marie to ask about whether Maraich should be played by a man or a woman. Little did he realize that because Marie was raised on all the BL manga he had gathered over the years in his household, there was only one possible answer from a hardcore fujoshi.

The conversation was first revealed in Marie’s own comic series:

“100% MALE!” was Marie’s instant reply. So we might have her to thank for Sanaich.

“For real?” was Sana’s initial response after being cast as Maraich. He didn’t know Patalliro! prior to the play and there was little in common between he and his character. Maraich looks like a woman, and was voiced by a woman, moreover Maya-sensei sees Maraich as a girl at heart and even wants a female to play the role, everything was mounting on Sana who has so far made his name by playing a serious character.

A known hard-worker, Sana did not dwell on the pressure and dived into the series. He read the entire manga(which was 90+ volumes and counting) and watch the anime on DVD(49 episodes not counting the movie). It was then when he saw that Maraich always uses “boku” when referring to himself. 

“So there is still a part of him that is a boy.”

He expressed his thoughts to Maya-sensei when they sat down for an interview for the first time. And Maya-sensei, being his free-ranging self and all, essentially advised him to approach the character his own way. That is to say, he doesn’t have to feel confined by the anime’s female voice(which would be impossible for him to mimic anyway) or even Maya-sensei’s own characterizations. They have cast a boy, so Maraich now is a boy and there is nothing wrong with playing him as one.

“I often see (Maraich) being called ‘the one in a million pretty boy’ so I thought, ‘Ah, he’s a boy after all.’”

“My voice is so deep.”

“My shoulders are a little too wide.”

The photoshoot was just one of the places for such concerns, where Sana had to come up with very feminine and even erotic poses. Luckily he got advice from the staff and he also observed the women around him. He ultimately settled for a “worried” face, expressing the inner thought of “What do I even do...”

(Aoki Tsunenori, who plays Bancoran, said, “I didn’t receive any special instructions for the photoshoot.”)

The result was stunning.  

Tsune: I don’t dislike girls with wide shoulders at all. It’d definitely score a pass for me.

Sana: I’m so glad ♪ (A/N: the music note was printed in the actual interview)

(Despite that, Sana carried the same concerns with him even long after the show was over. In these two clips(1/2) where he watched himself as Maraich on stage, you can still see him feeling uneasy about his voice and any sign of masculinity, despite his fellow actors' repeated reassurance that he was adorable and his style was really good. )

To look like the character is one thing, to give him life on stage is another.

Even though they have established the fact that Maraich is a boy, he is still a feminine one. A lot of ideas flew around from the director and others on how Maraich would behave under different circumstances(80s female idols were an important point of reference). Once the directives were in his head, Sana realized he had indeed started acting more “girlish” even without realizing. He started to obsess over make-up, buying fashion magazines targeted at women, and unconsciously dancing in a very feminine manner... At one point he wondered if he had gone a little too far and really became a girl, but he was also having so much fun so he just laughed it off. 

However, there was another elephant in the room: Maraich and Bancoran’s same-sex relationship, which was something new to both actors.

Sana: (while staring at Tsune) I want to convey the ultimate love story that even the audience would envy. Tsune: I never injected love to a boy this way though~ Sana: I have never fallen in love with a man before so...please take care of me! Tsune: Well, me neither. (LOL)  (A/N: the bracket notes are also printed in the actual interview)

Since both actors considered themselves to be straight(haha), Maya-sensei advised Sana to think of himself as a boy with a girl's heart to help him approach same-sex romance for the first time. Tsune then declared, “Sana I’m going to treat you like a girl now” which Sana happily agreed to. They indeed grew to enjoy each other’s company, sometimes caught by fellow actors sharing a private moment together and both spoke very fondly of the experience even long after the show was over.

And there’s the fanfiction-like story of how they managed to kiss without feeling embarrassed.

Here’s a video you have probably watched 200 times because I reblogged it 2000 times.

They were determined to get this right. Tsune said in a later interview that he didn’t want people to think they were faking the kiss so a simple brush on the lips was out of the question. Kato Ryo(Patalliro), who somehow always gets asked about the kiss even though he personally was not involved, also said they both really went for it with all they had.

And there is also the love-making. Neither spoke much about it unfortunately but we know this position was coined by Kato Ryo and there was a lot of trial and error happening under everyone’s watchful eyes. So we at least know they had to rehearse in the middle of the room with everyone watching.

Alas, Maraich is more than just a pretty face.

Maraich is a trained assassin and literal killing machine. Check out Sana’s epic high kicks in this action sequence with Tsune.

Maraich is also a sentimental lover. His solo "That Man" is an expression of his rawest emotions, and a very subtle tribute to the fact that Maraich was one of the earliest manga characters to be shown engaging in masturbation.

Remember how Sana was concerned about his deep, manly voice? In Maraich and Bancoran’s duet "Snipers of Love", you can clearly hear that Tsune's voice is a lot higher than his but that did not keep this song from being one of the most brainwashing tracks coming from any stageplay. 

And there’s also this moment of truly seamless acting:

Maya-sensei's daughter and mangaka Yamada Marie grew up with BanMara. Yet even she, after watching the stageplay, found herself shipping BanMara even harder and started to actively use the term "Sanaich", combining the actor and character's names.

Kato Ryo, who was the determining factor that made the play even remotely plausible, mentioned how having Sana as Maraich and Tsune as Bancoran helped him relieve a lot of the pressure. Patalliro, Bancoran and Mariach are the pillars of the original story, and it is not surprising that the stageplay could only work out when there are three competent and talented actors to fill those roles. In fact, in many group and solo interviews the three of them did before and after the play, they brought up how watching each other get into character gave them confidence and even more faith that this play - long considered an impossible project - will work out just fine.

In the end, Sana probably found that he and Maraich had more in common than he first thought. Sana is a very talented and hardworking actor. His subsequent performances as Sesshomaru in Stage Inuyasha and Bedivere in Stage FGO were also highly praised, but I still feel Maraich is his most outstanding performance to date. There's just something about Sanaich that feels so natural, something close to perfection came out of that flawless addition of unabashed boyishness and Maraich's sentimentalism.

After the final performance, Sana wrote on his blog,

"I am so happy to be able to play Maraich. So happy that I might have got pregnant...LOL"

And here’s a gif of him having fun.

Well, he's just not pregnant...yet.