In Seoul on November 8, the KBS Arena buzzed with a live performance by Tenblanks, the rock band featured in Netflix’s Japanese drama Yuri Heart. The set was led by Sato Takeshi, the actor who plays the band’s frontman Fujitani Naoki, who performed before about 2,000 fans for 90 minutes.

The following day, Sato told a studio in Hannam-dong that Korean fans sang along to every song, and that the atmosphere was so electric that an encore was unplanned but happened. In Yuri Heart, he portrays the “genius composer” Fujitani, playing piano and bass and singing, with most performance scenes carried out without doubles. Despite the praise for his vocal and instrumental performance, he modestly rated his musical ability at about 30 out of 100.

Yuri Heart marks Sato’s debut as a producer, and he cited Makoto Shinkai as an inspiration, noting that he has watched Your Name and Weathering with You and that he wanted to create a work where music and imagery blend seamlessly. He added that he has been deeply committed to promoting Yuri Heart, traveling to Taipei, Seoul, Hong Kong, and Bangkok to perform Tenblanks’ songs from the drama’s soundtrack, and he even directed the music video for Tenblanks’ song “Yeongwonjeonya” (Eternal Night).

The actor also linked his Korean connections to his broader career, mentioning his role in the Japanese remake of tvN’s My Husband and Wife and praising the Korean crew as “the best to work with” and expressing a desire to collaborate again with Korean writers. He said that since My Husband and Wife, he has frequently visited Korea and formed many new relationships, expressing interest in working with writers Park Ji-eun and Kim Eun-sook in future projects.