The special edition of ＂Wild Boar Renovation＂ is more like an extended version of the story review.

Maybe it’s my illusion, but this year’s solar circle always seems to have the flavor of "Renaissance". At the beginning of the year, the news that Ayumi Hamasaki gave birth out of wedlock caused many Chinese media to explode. The ensuing discussion on the neon "N big singers" makes people return to the golden age of J-Pop at the turn of the century in a trance. In the following months, the posts of Genese’s artist CP group were pushed up from time to time in major public entertainment forums. Fans of various factions who insist on different arrangements and combinations can still argue for dozens of pages after more than ten years. Adding the latest fire to this retro craze is that Japanese TV station NTV announced that it will broadcast a special episode of the classic Japanese drama "The Great Transformation of Wild Boar" twice on April 11th and 18th.

Poster of "Wild Boar Renovation"

"Wild boar" spanning 15 years

The Wild Boar Renovation premiered on Japanese TV at 9: 00 every Saturday night from October 15th to December 17th, 2005. The TV series tells the story of how a popular student in the school, Tonggu Xiuji, and his slightly eccentric friend, Akira Kusano, turned a self-abased transfer student, Nobuko Kogu, into a campus star through the plan of "wild boar transformation".

Stills of "The Great Transformation of Wild Boar"

The "Wild Boar" with an average audience rating of 16.88% became a social topic for a while after the broadcast, and three main actors, Kamenashi Kazuya, Yamashita Tomohisa and Maki horikita, also became popular in Asia. During the broadcast of the TV series, Gui Li and Yamashita borrowed the names of the characters in the play to form a limited combination "Xiu Er and Zhang Zhang" and released "Youth Amigo" as the ending song of the series. This single successfully sold 1.626 million copies, and it took only three weeks to become the sales champion in Japan in 2005.

Unlike the current campus idol drama which is directly equated with love drama, the most important core of The Wild Boar Renovation actually lies in the growth of each character in adolescence. Of course, the "good taste" of CP composed of two professional idols also makes a large number of people still talk about "wild boar" 15 years later. During these years, no matter how the groups they belong to change, Gui Li and Yamashita have always maintained a good cooperative relationship.

Stills of "The Great Transformation of Wild Boar"

Not only will "Xiu Er and Zhang Zhang" reunite in various music programs every once in a while, but in 2017, they also co-starred in the TV series "My Destiny’s Person" and released the single "The Opportunity to Pass by" under the new combination name of "Turtle and Mountain P". They originally expected to release their new album "SI" and hold a concert tour in Japan this year, but unfortunately they had to postpone it because of the epidemic.

In fact, creating a new era of "Xiuzhang" again is also an attempt of Genese, the firm to which they belong, even though the results of several attempts are not satisfactory. The latest effort of the J family is "Young Police: A Midnight Runner" starring Nakajima Kento of Sexy Zone and Zi Yaoshuang of King & Prince Ping Ye. Although the popularity and strength of these two people are the Top level of their respective generations, as far as the clips released so far are concerned, the reactions of fans are mostly "difficult". In fact, the reunion of Xiuzhang three years ago was also due to the unsatisfactory production level of My Destiny’s Person, which did not reach the expected splash. It seems that no matter what era, the quality of TV series itself is always the most important determinant.

Replay under epidemic situation

On the other hand, if you are really attracted by the "special articles" in the news and expect the "wild boar" to make any new moves after a long time, you may be disappointed. Judging from the first words that have been broadcast, the TV station basically just cut the original 10 episodes into two episodes about an hour long for rebroadcasting. Although the producer Hideyoshi Kono said on Twitter that the plot has been adjusted in consideration of the way modern audiences watch the drama, on the whole, this special article is more like an extended version of the plot review.

In fact, this method of "Wild Boar" replay is also common to Japanese TV stations under the influence of COVID-19 epidemic.

Stills of "The Great Transformation of Wild Boar"

Since mid-March, NHK and the five largest non-governmental broadcasting companies have started to compress program production. After Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe announced on April 7 that seven counties and cities across the country, including the capital Tokyo, would enter a state of emergency, all TV stations were basically left with the variety stocks and news that had been made. New TV dramas in spring have been postponed for at least two weeks, so the new broadcast of old dramas has become the best choice to fill the gap.

Further study, in fact, each station has different strategies for the selection of replayed episodes. First of all, there are many sequels of old dramas in the spring file. So it is natural to replay the highlights of the first season. For example, Japanese TV station Water 10 was originally scheduled to broadcast the second season of "Sending the Queen" starring Ryoko Shinohara, and now it is decided to broadcast the first season of the same drama premiered in 2007 on 15th and 22nd. Asahi Wood 9 is going to broadcast the first season of BG: Bodyguard starring Kimura Takuya to warm up the sequel originally planned.

On the other hand, for new works that are not sequels, it is mainstream to replay old plays starring the same actor. For example, the 10th TBS film "Mobile Search Team MIU404" starring G Ayano and Gen Hoshino is now saved by the selection of the old drama "Obstetrics Doctor Hong Bird" starring both of them. Another way is to start with the theme. Mu10 of Fuji TV changed Satomi Ishihara’s Cinderella Pharmacist into a Japanese version of Good Doctor starring Kento Yamazaki two years ago. The two dramas with the same medical theme also conform to the atmosphere of the current epidemic. Finally, it is a good way to replay last season’s explosive drama "Endless Love" directly like TBS’s fire 10, which is "simple and rude".

Stills of "The Great Transformation of Wild Boar"

In fact, when the epidemic began to have an impact on TV stations one after another, many Japanese viewers called on social networking sites to start voting for everyone to choose the drama they want to watch most. But the reason why TV stations turn a blind eye to this sound is worth pondering. Some Japanese media directly pointed out that if the voting is open, the final result must be that some TV dramas starring idols win the top spot, and whether they can cover all audio-visual groups is a big problem. Furthermore, even if the TV station makes its own choice, it seems that the complete replay of the whole drama is not a feasible option at present. Behind this is not only the "grey reason" that some actors can’t appear on the TV screen because they are caught in various scandals, but also the "adult consideration" that is similar to the DVD copyright restriction of TV dramas that have been sold. How to break through the tight encirclement under the predicament of a sharp decrease in manpower but a sharp increase in the demand of home audiences has become a difficult problem that all TV stations in Japan have to face under the epidemic situation.