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Toma Ikuta

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Toma Ikuta
Born
Toma Ikuta
Years active1996–present

Toma Ikuta (生田 斗真, Ikuta Tōma, born October 7, 1984 in Hokkaidō) is a Japanese talent artist part of Johnny's Jr. under the supervision of Johnny & Associates.

His family consists of a father, a mother named Hiromi, a younger brother named Ryuusei, and a dog named JAM. His father wanted to name him Ikuta Tamegorou, but his mother changed it to Toma because it was easier to say. He used to be called Toma, Touma, or Toma-chan by his family and friends. Younger juniors in the agency used to call him Toma-san and that morphed to Tomasu. This name was used to be his “trademark” as he hosted a corner named Meitantei Tomasu in the Shounen Club program.

Career

Toma Ikuta used to be in a variety show for kids called Tensai Terebi kun. Being a member of a then all-children band called Strawberry Parfait, he was popular with the audience. He was then offered to enter Johnny's Entertainment, together with a fellow bandmate in Strawberry Parfait, Eiji Wentz (who is presently the other half of the singing duo, WaT). Toma auditioned and got accepted; he started to participate under Johnny's Jr in September 1996.

Soon after he was grouped with three if the five members of the current J-pop unit, Arashi. Together, they formed a group called M.A.I.N. a name that was formed from the initial of each member's family name: [Jun Matsumoto| Jun Matsumoto], [Masaki Aiba| MasakiAiba], Toma Ikuta, and [Kazunari Ninomiya|Kazunari Ninomiya].

With the debut of the three members into Arashi in 1999, Toma was grouped with a Jr. unit named B.I.G. (Bad Image Generation), along with ten other popular Juniors of that time, which included Koki Tanaka and Junnosuke Taguchi of KAT-TUN. Tomohisa Yamashita of (NEWS) had also been a part of the group, with whom he is still very good friends with. Soon after, B.I.G. was reduced to just Toma and Tomohisa.

In 2002, Hideaki Takizawa, the leader of Johnny's Jr., had debuted together with Tsubasa Imai, forming the duo Tackey & Tsubasa. Ikuta was among the top Tokyo juniors at that time, and so the group 4TOPS was formed in order to replace Takizawa and Imai as the leaders. The group consisted of 4 members: Ikuta, Yamashita, Jun Hasegawa and Shunsuke Kazama. The graduation ceremony of Takizawa and Imai, which also served as their debut concert, formally inducted the four young men as the leaders of Johnny's Jrs., whose job was to host the variety show, Shounen Club.

April 2003 came and the tempopary group NewS was formed with Yamashita as the leader. While initially only formed to cheer for Japan's Women's Volleyball Team, this group was then made to debut formally. Having lost one of its members, 4TOPS disbanded. The fans started to call the rest of the members as 3TOPS. Ikuta hosted his own segment, Meitantei Tomasu in Shounen Club after NewS and KAT-TUN took over hosting the show; not so long after, he and the two remaining members started working on solo projects, such as dramas and stage plays, and gradually stopped appearing in the variety show.

Toma had appeared in many dramas with different roles, that of being a rebel teenager in Kinou Wa Tomo Kyou no Teki (NHK, 2004), a young man who had lost his only love in Gekidan Engimono: Otoko no Yume (FujiTV, 2005), as well as a police officer in Dekabeya (TBS, 2005). In 2006, Ikuta played the role of Box, an obssessive-compulsive neat freak, in the manga-turned drama Akihabara@DEEP (TBS, 2006), together with fellow 3TOPS member Shunsuke Kazama. He had also appeared in the sequel of the popular drama, Hana Yori Dango, Hana Yori Dango: Returns, as a man out for revenge on the male protagonist, which coincidentally was played by then-M.A.I.N. and present-time Arashi member, Jun Matsumoto.

Ikuta has already participated in numerous Musical stage plays produced by Johnnys entertainment, such as PLAYZONE, SHOCK and West Side Story (both the Shounentai and Arashi versions), as well as non-Johnny's Entertainment-produced stage plays (Azumi, and Azumi Returns). One of his biggest breakthrough roles on stage was his first leading role in the Shinkansen*NEXUS volume 2 stage play "Cat in the Red Boots", as TOMA-sama. The stage play's premise was based loosely on his life.

As of June 2006, he became part of an unofficial group within Johnny's Entertainment called No Border, which also includes Tomohisa Yamashita ( NEWS), Jun Matsumoto (Arashi), Shingo Murakami (Kanjani8), Atsuhiro Satou (former Hikaru Genji), Koichi Domoto (Kinki Kids), Tatsuya Yamaguchi (TOKIO), and Hideaki Takizawa (Tackey & Tsubasa). It was formed when the 8 members from the different Johnnys groups met up for dinner, later on deciding to name themselves NO BORDER, a name Ikuta had come up with. They are known to interact freely, bypassing the senpai-kouhai relationships normally formed between Johnny's members. There is a 7-part round-robin on their J-webs about the formation of the group. Each member has a specific colour - White, Black, Red, Pink, Purple, Gold, Blue, and Grey. However, who holds which colour is still unknown.

The 2007 FUjiTV summer drama Hanazakari no Kimitachi E ~IKEMEN PARADISE~ (popularly known as Hana Kimi or IkePara), controversial in its gender-bending nature, was perhaps Toma's biggest break in Japanese Entertainment. Just as Maki Horikita achieved a Best Actress award for her role in the drama, his portrayal as Shuuichi Nakatsu, a young man who starts to question his sexuality after falling in love with his new classmate Mizuki Ashiya (who was actually a girl in a boy's disguise) in an exclusive, all-boys school, has merited him Best Supporting Actor awards in three award-giving bodies, and has also opened more opportunities for him as he started to become one of the most in-demand young actors.

Following his successful portrayal in Hana Kimi he was on stage again as starred in the Shakesperean play, The Two Gentleman of Verona.

While working on the stage play's production he had also been slated to star in FUjiTV's winter drama for 2008, the live adaption of Chika Umino's popular manga, Hachimitsu to Kuroba. He took on the role of Yuuta Takemoto, a struggling Architecture student in an art school who had mediocre talent and who fell in love at first sight with Hagumi Hanamoto, played by the young [[Riko Narumi]. His role as the silent but constant observant in the drama earned him another Best Supporting Actor award.

Because of Hana Kimi's popularity, FujiTV decided to air a Special 2-hour episode, announcing it early 2008. Without a specific air date it became highly-anticipated, and months after on October 2008, the boys of Osaka Gakuen came back on air; Ikuta reprised his role as the comic Shuuichi Nakatsu. Hana Kimi SP had a viewrship rating of 21%.

His rise to fame had also brought about another project; this time a double-lead with Arashi's leader Satoshi Ohno, in the Japanese adaptation of the Korean drama Mawang. The drama, called Maou (The Devil), was about a lawyer (played by Ohno who seeks to avenge the death of his younger brother, who had been killed by a detective (played by Ikuta).

Furthermore, in October 2008, Toma was back on stage again. This time he played the role of Danny in the Japanese musical of "Grease", which was staged both in Osaka and Tokyo, together with Tomoyuki Yara, member of the Johnny's Jr. group M.A.D.

January 2009 marked Toma's first ever appearance in the FujiTV's golden time slot for dramas, as he played an intern forensics specialist in the serial drama VOICE, together with Eita and Satomi Ishihara.

Ikuta also has his own mobile diary Jweb named Tomagoto (Toma’s words). Then temporary, the jweb went by the names Tomagoto, Tomagoto Hyper, and Tomagoto NEO, before officially becoming a permanent Jweb on December 15, 2007. Aside from the jweb he also has his own corner on Wink Up Magazine entitled “Ikuta Toma no Ikita Kotoba” (Toma Ikuta's Words to Live By). On this corner he writes a one-page essay about his experiences, and included pictures taken from his own camera [1].

TV dramas

  • Voice (12 January - ? March 2009) Ishizue Ryosuke)
  • Maou (July - September 2008) (Serizawa Naoto) [2]
  • Hanazakari No Kimitachi E ~Ikemen Paradise~ - SP [3]
  • Honey & Clover (January - March 2008) (Yūta Takemoto)
  • Hanazakari No Kimitachi E ~Ikemen Paradise~ (July 2007 - September 2007)
  • Hana Yori Dango II (Returns) (Episode 1) (January 2007) (Oribe Junpei)
  • Akihabara@DEEP (June - August 2006) (Box)
  • Asuka E, Soshite Mada Minu Ko E (October 2005)
  • Dekabeya, Police Story
  • Gekidan Engimono (Otoko no Yume) (2006)
  • Kinou Wa Tomo Kyou no Teki (5 January - 9 February 2004)
  • Hito Ni Yasashiku (Be Nice to People) (Episode 5) (2002)
  • Neverland (2001)
  • Bouken Kazoku
  • Engimono – America (2002)
  • Aguri (1997)
  • Kowai No Nichiyoubi
  • Shijou Saiyaku no Date (Worst Date) – Episode Chocolate Valentine
  • Love & Peace
  • Nekketsu Renaidou
  • Kinyou Jidai Geki
  • Gekidan Engimono – Nemureru Mori No Shitai
  • Psycho-meter EIJI2 (Episode 5) (1999)
  • J-Ke No Hanran
  • Tuesday Suspense Drama
  • Gozen 3Ji no Rooster

Musicals

Recognitions

Trivia

  • Ikuta was the one who came up with the name NO BORDER.
  • He ranked no. 2 after Shun Oguri on Oricon survey conducted from High School girls "which celebrity they would want as a boyfriend" [8]
  • He is a big fan of Backstreet Boys. He even begged Music Station’s staff to let him in the studio to watch Backstreet Boys rehearse.
  • He used to call his mother “Okaa-chan” when he was little, but after being teased by M.A.I.N’s members, he called her “Okaa-san”.
  • Toma is also a fan of X Japan, especially of popular guitarist Hideto Matsumoto. He once talked on the phone with Subaru Shibutani (Kanjani8) for an hour, just discussing X-Japan.
  • He and his younger brother Ryuusei are fans of GLAY and they attend every single concert during his spare time.
  • He and Shun Oguri had to kiss 12 times for the drama, Hanazakari No Kimitachi E.
  • He and Oguri were the ones who came up with the nickname Horikitty for Maki Horikita who they acted together on Hanazakari no Kimitachi E.
  • He and Eiji Wentz used to be in a kids band named "Strawberry Parfait", but when they got an offer to enter Johnny's, only Toma accepted.

References

  1. ^ Wink Up Magazine - Wani Books
  2. ^ Double (W) lead role for Satoshi Ohno & Ikuta Toma - Sankei Sports
  3. ^ "Hana Kimi" SP confirmed - Tokyograph
  4. ^ Toma Ikuta, Miki Fujimoto in "Grease" - Sankei Sports
  5. ^ 54th Television Drama Academy Awards - Nikkan Sports
  6. ^ Nikkan Sports Drama GP award
  7. ^ Nikkan Sports Drama Grand Prix: Ikuta voted Best Supporting Actor - Nikkan Sports
  8. ^ Oricon: high school girls want to date Shun Oguri - Tokyograph
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