Watching? TBS Sunday Theater “Hanzawa Naoki,” Sundays at 9 p.m.
Sakai Masato’s unconventional banker Hanzawa fights enemies in and out of the bank in Ikeido Jun’s ten-episode drama. From a 19.4 percent premiere on July 7 the numbers climbed; episode 5 on August 11 hit 29.0 percent in Kanto (31.9 peak) and 29.5 in Kansai (32.6) — a super monster show. TBS is like a sibling of the Mainichi, whose head office is in Palaceside Building, so we share the joy.
The 18th was off for the World Athletics; from the 25th the second half has Hanzawa, promoted to the Tokyo head office, crossing swords with Senior Managing Director Owada (Kagawa Teruyuki), likely his greatest foe,
and showing what “double return” and “tenfold return” look like — something to look forward to. TBS will air a digest of episodes 1–5 at 2 p.m. on the 25th, a chance to catch up if you missed them.
Program goods often sell in station shops. Hanzawa goods at the TBS Shop in the Akasaka headquarters included, from the start, a “character-illustration salt set” (yakiniku, black rock, curry, bamboo-roast, and tonkatsu salts, five kinds, 300 yen). At the end of July came key holders and straps with catchphrases and business cards (525 yen each)
= photos right and below, and on August 14 the “double-return manju” (nine for 840 yen) = photo upper left. The wrapping is Hanzawa’s card design, with a card sticker as a bonus.
For conversation… on the way home from Takebashi I got off in Akasaka (there happened to be a drinking party nearby) and peeked in the shop: as in the top photo, the manju said “sold out.” Key holders
and straps were gone too; of the salt there was not a shadow. The shop also has Tokyo Station and Solamachi (beside Skytree) branches; all seem the same.
Key holders and straps are also on the TBSishop net shop, temporarily out of stock. No extra salt production is planned.
I hear the manju sold out in a little over a day and people are waiting for stock. “Restock expected this week,” they said, and they will post on the shop site (http://www.tbs.co.jp/tbsshop/akasaka.html) when the date is set.
I have been a salaryman for decades, so I too once had a nasty boss (not now). I cannot say I never thought a Hanzawa-style outburst would have felt good.
This manju — do you have the courage to give it to your boss? If you can give it lightly, your company is surely a good one!