Real Fake DVD/Blu-ray cover.
Stylized as REAL⇔FAKE. A Japanese drama starring Yoshihiko Aramaki, Keisuke Ueda, Ren Ozawa, Ryuji Sato, Ryunosuke Matsumura, Masanari Wada, Toshiyuki Someya, and Shouta Aoi.
The story centers around the disappearance of Akane, a popular male singer known for having the voice of an angel. News outlets have reported it as a suicide, but is that really all there is to it? Akane was scheduled to join Stellar CROWNS, a new musical group composed of some of the nation's biggest stars, including idols, actors and singers. As the news of Akane's disappearance makes waves in society, a suspicious document reaches Akane's agency: "Akane is alive. The criminal is one of the group members." In order to flush out the criminal, the president of Akane's agency hires the film director, Moriya Hidetoshi to film the 6 members of Stellar CROWNS under the guise of making a documentary about them as they begin living in a shared house together. What is real? What is fake?
A second season titled Real Fake 2nd Stage was released on June 15, 2021.
Unmarked spoilers are present on this page, due to the sheer amount of twists the show has.
Real Fake contains examples of
- All There in the Manual: Facts about the characters and their pasts are often found in supplementary materials with nary a mention on-screen.
- Nagisa has a sister that he's very close to.
- Yuusuke and Nagisa being in a Teen Idol group did not get referenced onscreen until 2nd Stage, but this was actually written in their character bios on the official website way back during the first series.
- Mizuki uses a stage name.
- Moriya was The Charmer in high school, but stopped dating women after he became close to Akane.
- Ambiguously Gay: Akane and Moriya's relationship greatly resembles two people who had unresolved crushes on eachother in highschool and then reluctantly drifted apart, still carrying a torch for the other even 12 years later.
- Reijiro also makes what is apparently an earnest attempt to confess feelings to Rin, musing to himself that Rin is cute when Rin assumes that he's joking and turns him down.
- Masayuki and Nagisa already had a bit of
Ho Yay in the first series, but 2nd Stage turns it up to eleven when it reveals that despite the group moving into a much larger, permanent home with enough bedrooms for everyone, the two are still choosing to sleep in the same bed.
- Bad Liar: While the others search for hidden cameras, Reijirou struggles to lie to Moriya when he's told to keep him occupied, very nearly blowing their cover.
- Bluffing the Murderer: Well, not so much murderer as it was plagiarist, but Moriya is able to catch out President Sawakida using this technique.
- But Not Too Foreign: Reijiro was born in Japan, but went to live in Australia for an unspecified number of years before returning very shortly before the events of the series.
- Cast Full of Pretty Boys: The cast is almost entirely made up of attractive men.
- Childhood Friends: Reijiro and Rin as well as Akane and Moriya. Borderline cases are Yuusuke and Nagisa and Yuusuke and Kakeru, as they met as teenagers and weren't particularly close then.
- Corrupt Corporate Executive: President Sawakida in the first series, Kamishiro in the second.
- Driven to Suicide: Akane's brother. Akane as well, but Kakeru stopped him in time.
- Driving Question:
- 1st Stage: What happened to Akane?
- 2nd Stage: Who is spreading the rumours?
- Even the Guys Want Him: Akane is a beautiful idol with a large male fan base, including Masayuki.
- Everyone Is a Suspect: The plot is Moriya trying to figure who among the cast is responsible.
- Everybody Did It: Everyone in the group is responsible for Akane's disappearance. But they're actually hiding Akane to help him and he's perfectly safe.
- Evil Costume Switch: Invoked. Akane in the first series is dressed in white to symbolise his purity and goodness. Come 2nd Stage, Akane has gone from victim to potential suspect of being behind the new mystery, and he now dresses entirely in black to reflect the role switch.
- Fair-Play Whodunnit: The story centers around Moriya trying to figure out who is responsible for Akane's disappearance.
- Fire-Forged Friends: Moriya and Stellar CROWNS become this at the end of season 1.
- Fish out of Water: Kakeru comes from a rock band background and starts off the series awkward and stilted because he doesn't know how to act like an Idol Singer. He gets better at it after season one, but remains an obvious outsider to the genre.
- Heel–Face Turn: Mizuki and Kouki go along with Kamishiro's plans to undermine Stellar CROWNS so that they can get back into the music industry, but they want to do so on the basis of hard work and genuine talent. Once they realize that Kamishiro is willing to resort to violence, blackmail, and frame-ups, they join forces with Stellar CROWNS and bury the hatchet with Nagisa and Yuusuke.
- Hidden Depths: 2nd Stage reveals that Moriya knows martial arts and he's good enough to take down men much bigger than him. The same series also reveals that Reijirou is a master hacker.
- Hollywood Hacking: Some extremely egregious cases in 2nd stage, in which characters just rapidly type without any sort of text box visible on the screen and the blind typing somehow makes a loading bar fill faster.
- Idol Singer: Almost every character but Moriya is an idol, but especially Akane, Nagisa, and Yuusuke.
- I'm Not Here to Make Friends: Pretty much the attitude of everyone in Stellar CROWNS, until The Reveal happens and the audience finds out that this was mostly an act.
- Informed Flaw: Much is made of Reijirou struggling to fit in on his return from Australia, but he doesn't act or sound any less Japanese than the rest of the cast. We never see any social awkwardness when interacting with Japanese characters, and he likewise lacks any stereotypical traits you would expect to see in an Australian man to justify any concerns of a cultural faux pas. Of course, it's also possible that he's merely anxious that he wont fit in and has fooled himself into thinking the cultural divide is worse than it really is.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold:
- Moriya's very aggressive in getting dirt on the group and he invades their privacy by planting hidden cameras in their house, but this is only because Akane is his old friend and he thinks one of the group may have kidnapped or murdered him. His real personality, seen in flashbacks and after The Reveal, is much kinder.
- Limited Wardrobe: Everyone to an extent, but Akane is probably the most notable case. He wears the exact same outfit in almost all of his scenes in season one, which gives the impression that he hasn't changed his clothes in almost a month.
- Long-Haired Pretty Boy: Akane in the first season. In 2nd Stage he's had an Expository Hairstyle Change.
- Never Suicide: Akane's disappearance is assumed to be a suicide. It's not.
- New Powers as the Plot Demands: In 2nd Stage, Reijirou suddenly reveals that he's a master hacker in the same episode that the he and Moriya need to hack into a security system.
- Noodle Incident: When Moriya asks Reijirou how he became a master hacker, he simply answers "I'll let you imagine".
- Old Friend: Akane and Moriya.
- Pet the Dog: Moriya is intrusive and suspicious of the group in the beginning, intentionally acting like a jerk to make them angry in hopes of getting them to accidentally reveal information about Akane, but when Reijiro asks him for advice on how to deal with the culture shock of returning to Japan, he gives him a genuinely thoughtful answer that greatly comforts him.
- Put on a Bus: Rin leaves the group between the first and second series to study abroad.
- Remember the New Guy?: The second series introduces Koki and Mizuki, two former groupmates of a Teen Idol group that Nagisa and Yuusuke were members of in highschool. They were never mentioned in the first series. Downplayed in that their group dissolved many years ago and the split was far from amicable, so it would be understandable if they didn't want to talk about them.
- Stranger in a Familiar Land: While distracting Moriya, Reijiro worries that he no longer fits in with other Japanese people after spending several years living in Australia. Fortunately, Moriya reassures him that his differences are a positive trait, and he's no longer bothered by it at the end of the first season.
- Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: The first season ends with the Corrupt Corporate Executive head of Queen records facing justice for his plagiarism and being fired from the company. This is portrayed as a happy ending, but 2nd Stage reveals the realistic consequences of what happens when a company suddenly has a big scandal and loses their president; Queen Records is without a leader, their stock is crashing, and they've lost respectability in the industry. Akane is made the new president, but he is inexperienced with this side of the industry and is struggling with many problems he is entirely unprepared for. His desperation and inexperience make it all too easy for new Arc Villain Kamishiro to take advantage of him and set off all the conflicts of 2nd Stage.
- The Fake Cutie: Rin acts cute and cheerful in front of the camera, but immediately drops the personality for something surlier and more masculine when it's off. The change is sudden as flipping a switch, which mildly disturbs Moriya and makes him suspicious.
- Unsettling Gender-Reveal: Downplayed. Masayuki claims that he was disappointed when he found out Akane was a man, but he's still openly a fan and is clearly joking when he says it.
- Wholesome Crossdresser: Zigzagged with Akane. His outfits resemble dresses because of the long flowing materials, but he's actually wearing pants the entire time. In 2nd Stage, he ditches this sort of look and his wardrobe is entirely masculine.
