Well here's the episode of show "Koi no Karasawagi ~Much Ado About Love~" that featured Gackt as requested by Koakuma-san. It's hosted by Akashiya Sanma, who is probably the most famous comedian in Japan. He might seem quite mean with the comments he makes, but just keep in mind that he's just joking around as well....that's his job. There's a section that would be pretty hard to understand without reading the translation notes......unless if you watch a lot of Japanese comedy.
mediafire link
mediafire link
TRANSLATION NOTES
There's a lot more than I expected....
Marguerite De Navarre
Kimono + Tasuki
Are traditional Japanese clothing. 'Kimono' actually just means "things you wear" so it can be a wide variety of styles, but is typically seen as being these：
A Tasuki a long ribbon type of thing that you use to tie up the wide sleeves of traditional Japanese clothes.
Yamashita Tatsurou
Yamashita Tatsurou was one of the biggest music stars during the 70' and 80's and is one of the most successful singers in Japan.
Trend Words
They talked a lot about Japanese trend words which would be impossible to understand unless if you often watch Japanese variety shows and comedy. The ones that were brought up were popular about 2~3 years ago, but as these people are all one hit wonders, most would have disappeared from TV by now or are about to....
HIGE DANSHAKU: Means "Beard Baron" and received a lot of TV time for their act....which is pretty boring to be honest. They just shout out "Renaissance!" for some reason, and "_____ yanaika~i!" which means "_____ isn't it?" If you're interested for some reason check out this pageHige Danshaku (Owarai Hive)
KOJIMA YOSHIO: Was famous for dancing around in his tiny speedos and punching the air yelling out "But it doesn't matter!!" after rhythmically describing some sort of situation. Surprisingly, there was a video on youtube with English subtitles.
Welcome home- WISH!!: This was started up by musician/personality Daigo, a person also famous for being in the rock group 'Breakerz'. He would basically say "WISH!" on the end of the sentence and do some hand signs with his arms crossed. The last time I went to Japan (or the time before....?) this was really popular, and it was common to see mannequins at shops set up with that pose.
HIBIKI "My Apowogies!": I can't really be bothered explaining his one but....It's just famous for an ugly fat guy in a school girl outfit saying "I'm sorry" in a rude and insincere way. I couldn't really think of anything closer than what I translated it as but it sounds too cute for what it actually is... I couldn't find a video of that particular bit so I'll just post one of them talking. They might do it at the end, I don't know I couldn't be bothered watching it.
KODAMA HIBIKI: Is just a veteran comedian with the same name as the previous groups.
MONSTER ENGINE "IT IS I......": This is from a series of famous sketch by the comedy group Monster Engine called the "Playings of the Gods". The plot (well it's not much of a plot but...) usually starts of with someone in trouble, or doing something bad. The long haired guy comes and introduces himself as "I am God....." and starts starts saying he will help or punish that person (depending on what he's doing). That person will then take off the cloak he's wearing and say
- "It is I....", which is answered with
- "It was you....?",
- "You were tricked again....", "
- "I didn't notice at all....."
and ends with "This was the playing of the Gods that cannot be fathomed today"
....or something along those lines. It's basically using awkwardness as humour.
Love Hotel
You might know about these already, but as they're sort of exclusive (I think?) to Japan I'll explain it. It's basically a hotel you go to to have sex. Since Japan is a small country with people living very close to each other in the cities, people might be able to hear you going at it with your partner.....or someone less important to you. And so the love hotel was born, a place where you can go have sex without letting your neighbours or family members know. These places often have very elaborate rooms (spinning beds, jacuzzi etc) and are equipped with all the sex toys and products you may want, and have collections of erotic videos you can view.....There are no receptionists and you pay through a machine that feeds you a key, or to people behind some sort of wall so that they can't see you.
Fortune Slips
In Japan people celebrate the new years by visiting a temple or shrine, where they sell 'Omikuji', which are slips of paper foretelling your luck for the coming year. It tells about various things such as your health, income, relationships and success at work or school. There are different ranks of luck you can get, with the best being Daikichi ("Big Luck" or "Great Blessing") and it is considered good to keep it in your wallet if you get one. Go to this wikipedia page for the other ranks : Omikuji Wikipedia
The Line of Fate
Is a line on your hand that is used to measure success at work when palm reading.
Dreams Come True will be mad!
Sanma says something like "Dreams Come True will be angry at you!". Dreams Come True is a music group and one of their most famous songs are called "Miraiyosouzu" which means something like 'Plans for the future'. So he was implying that they'd be angry at the girl for complaining about her boyfriend talking about the future too much
I can't stop laughing each time I see a video featuring Sanma lol
ReplyDeleteI was quite surprised by some of these women's comments!
I didn't know it was such a big deal to eat pan or rice lol
About the girl not happy with her boyfriend talking about his dreams when they'll be 50, myself like Sanma I was a bit surprised about her reaction.
But what surprised me the most is probably the first woman saying she met a rich guy with a big house and after that went straight to his house, I had the same reaction like Sanma!
And when the same woman was laughing while saying she listened to Maki Goto's music, somehow I was smiling because she did a reference to Maki Goto but in the same time to see this woman embarrassed while revealing this, it was also kinda sad somehow and it reminded me that in Japan Idols are not taken seriously (well, Idols are made for entertainment but still, no need to feel embarrassed when you say you listen to Idol music in my opinion)
(@GodzillaRadio: Someday you should do a post about how Japanese audience perceive Idols. It would be interesting as topic.)
By the way do you have the date of this show? (Just to see which Maki Goto's promotion they are talking)
Thanks a lot for these subtitles!
It was very funny and interesting. Occidental people who have only stereotypes about Japanese women (shy, etc.) should watch this video, it gives an interesting glimpse about how Japanese women really think even if these women's reactions are exagerated.
Yeah I was fairly surprised too. Most of their opinions seemed kind of self centred and selfish. It seemed like they were treating themselves as a hopeless victims even though they could have easily done something about it anyway....like the stupid person with the bread and rice problem. The person complaining about sharing the hotel bill was also annoying with her reasoning ("We became one but became two again when paying" or something). If you became one, then that makes you equal, so it makes more sense to share the bill..... But oh well, I don't really care that much anyway.
ReplyDeleteHmm as for your suggestion, that does sound interesting to write about. However, I'll have to admit that I don't really know enough about the attitudes of general Japanese people regarding idols to be able to write a good post unfortunately...
From what I see, they are looked up to and admired as being better than most other people, and TV directors and stuff make sure that they get treated carefully and made to seem like they're superior to the ordinary personality or comedian. I get kind of annoyed at it though, as most of them aren't really that impressive and don't deserve such treatment, and only do so because they are 'idols' and have good managers marketing them (eg. Johnny's Entertainment).
Haha even so, there are the odd few with talent, but overall there are less impressive ones now then they were back in the past. Well that's my opinion about it, and I'm someone who's not exactly a fan of idols bar a select few so.....
Oh, and this episode was aired on 2nd of May 2009. Thanks for all of your comments and opinons! They were interesting
@GodzillaRadio : Thanks for your reply and for sharing your opinion from an objective point of view. What you say is right and even charts (like Oricon) often confirm it about Idols. After some few years audience's interest progressively drops.
ReplyDeleteI guess about the lack of humility is often common among male and female Idols but somehow I can understand it because Idols are marketed since they are really young and everyone around them only tell them positive feedbacks (included fans) and the day they decide to take another path, difficulties start.
Well, the audience is unfortunately fickle and always in need of new fresh faces.
Currently I'm interested with some Idols turned (or trying to turn) artists.
Personally I find interesting when some Idols want to explore some other musical areas and also to see their real growth.
Thanks for the precision of the date, it correspond to Maki Goto's promotion for "Sweet Black Project" (which I found it interesting with a lot of involvement from Goto even if as always the general audience wasn't interested) so I don't understand why this woman was laughing with awkwardness while mentioning it (her reaction was silly in my opinion lol)
Do you know if the women saying these stories as real witnesses or are just comedians?
Yes there are a select few that actually have talent and do evolve into true artists, or at least can be admired for what they do.
ReplyDeleteAnd I suppose it just seems like there are more untalented people now as the untalented bunch from the past have disappeared and have been forgotten whereas those that are around today are still active. haha....
Aaand no those women are all ordinary people.
Great work again. Thank you!
ReplyDeleteAlthough I was having troubles and Dailymotion was acting up but I finally can watch it ! 8D 8D
ReplyDeleteThank you very much for your work & for all those info ♥♥
Koakuma
I laughed my ass off...Thank you for this post!!! you made my night I dindt know there were so good japanese tv shows ;)
ReplyDeletei heard his name mentioned several times in Gaki no Tsukai (referring to Sanma-san) but now that i seen a subbed vid of his, he is really funny and entertaining.
ReplyDelete