NEW!#196【この聞き上手ぅ！】

Watching Shiki Theatre Company's "The Little Mermaid"

Peco went to see a preview performance of Shiki Theatre Company's (Gekidan Shiki) newly opened production of "The Little Mermaid," which began in August, from a seat in the fifth row from the front. Repeating how "truly amazing" Shiki Theatre Company is, she urges Jessica to go see it too, insisting she "absolutely must." Jessica hasn't managed to go yet and laughs that she'd better hurry so the two of them can talk about it while sharing the same feeling.

The Shock of Reuniting with Ariel — Shion Tanihara — After 11 Years

Peco first saw "The Little Mermaid" 11 years ago. She never forgot the performance of Shion Tanihara, who played Ariel at the time, and even as she kept watching footage of other actresses in the role afterward, she remained convinced that "Ariel means Shion Tanihara" to her.

Checking the cast for this new production, she was stunned to find Tanihara once again in the role. Looking up her age, Peco found she is now 40 — meaning she would have been around 30 or 31, the same age as Peco and Jessica are now, when Peco first saw her play the teenage Ariel. And yet now, viewed from the fifth row close enough to see her pores, she looked every bit the teenage Ariel all over again.

One of Ariel's key moments is a scene where she swims underwater on wires. Because Shiki Theatre Company insists on diaphragm-supported singing, performers must sing with full core engagement even while suspended with their feet off the ground — an extremely difficult technique, Peco explains. "How much effort must she have put in over these 11 years," she said, admitting she felt almost ashamed of herself by comparison. Jessica responded that if she were the one on stage, nothing could make her happier than someone who was moved 11 years ago being moved all over again now — and the two shared a quietly emotional moment.

The Power of a Good Listener, Learned Through Essay Interviews

The conversation turns to the interviews Peco did when she recently published an essay collection. Over more than 25 hours of interviews, she never once hesitated with an "um." Despite considering her own memory poor, the words kept coming naturally whenever the interviewer was skilled at drawing them out. Time passed so quickly that she found herself thinking "is it over already?", and she reflects that "you rarely get the chance to look back on your life this thoroughly — just for that, I felt grateful."

Jessica agrees that interviewers can be "almost frighteningly good" at their job, and the two talk about their admiration for people who are good listeners. "I want to become someone who's good at drawing things out like that," Peco says — a line that ties directly into this episode's title, "Now That's a Good Listener!"

A Message from a Korean Male Fan

In the listener message segment, the hosts introduce a message from a Korean man living in Korea, Mr. Im. His Japanese comprehension is around 60-70%; he began learning the language because of a Japanese girlfriend he dated in his twenties, went on to major in Japanese at university, and now uses it at work as well. He says the podcast might be less about studying and more about the fact that it's simply too entertaining to stop listening to. Peco and Jessica jumped for joy, shouting things like "come to Korea" and "give me a job," thrilled that a native Korean speaker listens every day to the two of them chatting in full-on Kansai-dialect energy.

Facing the Boyfriend's TikTok Live Gifting Problem

Next comes a message from a woman known as Reo-kun's mama, 34. Her boyfriend of five and a half years initially told her he'd spent "20,000 yen" on TikTok live gifts to a young female streamer known for revealing outfits, but later confessed he'd actually spent 70,000 yen in a single month. She wrote in asking, "Can I believe him?" and admitted that all she can do is half-jokingly snipe things like "I hope he goes bald" or "I hope he gets a stomachache."

While saying that watching such streams isn't a problem in itself, Peco and Jessica point out that the 70,000-yen figure, combined with the fact that it happens on a social platform with an unsettling "close enough to maybe actually meet" distance, creates a discomfort that differs from ordinary live-event spending. They closed with practical advice: the fact that he confessed at all shows his sincerity, and if the relationship isn't at the point of breaking up over it, the realistic path forward is for the couple to discuss and agree on a spending cap going forward.