In this week’s episode there’s a special guest in the studio with the girls – Tatsuya Yamaguchi from the boy band TOKIO. It’s unusual for a Johnny’s group member to be on a female idol show but it’s all to do with the annual 24 Hour Television extravaganza in which TOKIO is participating along with AKB48.
A mascot of some sorts (what is it – a white deer or something?) comes into the studio and tries to look cool whilst playing a guitar until his performance is rudely stopped by Sata who bashes him over the head!! This part of the show had Tatsuya asking some questions to the girls. It was a short but sweet segment and it seemed that Yuko and Kojima were smitten by his appearance on their show. All the girls had a lot of fun interacting with him. I’ve no idea what the questions he asked the girls to answer and besides it was the next segment that made this episode so interesting for me.
It’s the conclusion to Takamina’s rakugo challenge and there’s a recap of what’s gone down before. There’s an unexpected twist to this tale. Takamina can’t do the challenge as she was taken to hospital feeling very unwell and with little time to prepare she had to pull out. The Bad Boys go to the rakugo master and tell him the bad news. Luckily enough, Miichan steps up to the plate and takes up the challenge on Takamina’s behalf. The rakugo master thinks up a new story involving some ducks for her but she has only 5 days to remember the whole story before there’s an event at the Yokohama Blitz to promote No Sleeves’ new single Kimi Shika. At the event, Takamina addresses the 1,400 fans in attendance explaining why she couldn’t do the challenge. Her voice is beginning to crack and tears are starting to fall down her face. She must have been feeling bad for letting down all the fans that were looking forward to hearing her rakugo tale. Anyhow, Miichan sits down and recounts her story to the fans and it goes down really well judging by the laughter from them. Miichan was fantastic and to think of how little time she’d had to remember everything is just a testament to how good she is and it showed the heartwarming bond between herself and Takamina. You could see how much it meant to Takamina watching from the sidelines along with Kojima. I wonder if Takamina will receive a new challenge for No Sleeves’ next single or will they perhaps move now to the members of Watarirouka Hashiritai? We’ll see?
To close the show, there’s a live studio performance of Heavy Rotation – it sounded like the chords for the song was different and it was slower in rhythm just like last week.
Next week: Tatsuya Yamaguchi has more fun with AKB48 and there’s another cooking challenge between some members.
