"I'll appear for free!" Seki Tomokazu Gives Ultimate Encouragement to Kawashima Reiji's Declaration to "Produce a Stage Reading."

Say You To Yo Asobi Friday 【Tomokazu Seki × Reiji Kawashima】 #26 was broadcast on ABEMA on Friday, December 5, 2025, starting at 10:00 PM JST.

In this broadcast, a special segment requested by Reiji Kawashima himself, "A Commemoration! Reiji Kawashima's 30th Birthday: A Deep Talk with Seki-san SP," was held to celebrate Kawashima's milestone 30th birthday on Sunday, November 30th. A genuine 90-minute one-on-one talk unfolded over warm oden, taking place in a private setting with just the two of them, without even the staff present.

Tomokazu Seki Reveals Complex About His Acting, Recalling Being Told, "You're Skilled, But I'm Not Moved."

This talk segment was realized through Kawashima's strong desire, following his 30th birthday, to "sit down and talk seriously with Seki-san." Kawashima had prepared 30 questions beforehand and gave a wry smile, saying, "I packed everything I wanted to ask, so it ended up being quite heavy." Seki kindly responded, "Feel free to ask me anything," and the one-on-one talk immediately began.

As the two discussed "acting"—including Seki's approach to performance, his roots, and his non-negotiable standards—Kawashima asked, "Have you ever experienced a setback in acting?" Seki immediately replied, "All the time." He then confessed to a particularly impactful episode: his respected senior, Hiroshi Masuoka, told him, "Your acting is skilled, but I'm not moved. It's not good acting." Seki revealed that he had received similar critiques repeatedly from directors and senior staff members in the field. "That's fatal, isn't it? It was the last thing I wanted to be told," Seki recalled, speaking frankly about the long period of struggle he endured realizing that "merely delivering a skillful performance is not enough."

Amidst this struggle, Seki shared that a certain incident during a stage play with his long-time friend from his training school days, Miki Nagasawa, became a turning point. Seki, who was directing the play, received a call from Nagasawa after the performance. She criticized him, saying, "Seki, won't you act a little more?" That comment caused all the feelings he had suppressed to surge out at once, and he revealed that they spent the whole night arguing intensely over the phone. During this argument, he suddenly realized, "The feeling of the role I'm playing now is similar to my current state of mind." The next day, he poured that emotion directly into the role and performed, realizing for the first time that he "was able to act with a completely different feeling than before." Nagasawa also told him, "See? You can do it when you try," leading Seki to finally acknowledge that "my acting until yesterday was something entirely different."

Seki confessed, "Even now, I don't really feel like my acting is 'complete' or 'good enough.'" He continued, "I think there are parts that have improved, but I still feel that it's insufficient, and there are still shortcomings. That's precisely why I want to constantly keep changing." Kawashima was deeply moved by Seki's ongoing struggle as an artist and his commitment to constantly confronting his expressive challenges.