Ep. 27 Passion for Punchlines

Written by Cordelia, edited by Grace

In this episode, we are going to delve into a manga and its TV show adaptation that aired this year in the spring: だが、情熱はある (Passion for the Punchlines or However, the Passion is There).

Listen to the full episode :

About the Story:

This drama is based on a true story, and is about Yama Chan and Wakabayashi, both of them are actual owarai comedians in real life. They are different but very similar at the same time. A TV producer, Shima, sensed the chemistry between their talents. They are from different owarai groups but formed as a group in 2009, named "Two People who are missing something" (たりないふたり).

So, just as the narrator, NTV announcer Asami Miura, reads at every beginning of the episode, "This is a story of two people, this is not a story about friendship, not a story about success. And there is no value for most people to take this story as a reference for their decision-making. But, they still have passion for what they are doing, and passion to tell the world about their experience and story."

What is Manzai:

So, both Yama-Chan and Wakabayashi are owari comedians and perform manzai. Manzai is a traditional style of comedy, very similar to stand-up comedy but with a much older storytelling comedy performance.

Manzai typically features a duo of performers, consisting of a serious straight character (tsukkomi) and a comedic one (boke), engaging in rapid-fire joke exchanges. The majority of these jokes center around shared confusions, clever wordplay, and various verbal humor.

If you ever watched manzai, you might question why most of the manzai is told in the Osaka accent. It was because the largest comedy entertainment company, Yoshimoto, is based in Osaka. are the ones who introduced manzai to Tokyo audiences and cemented the term "manzai" in Japanese culture. If you want to learn more about manzai, the Akutagawa Prize novel, Spark, written by Matayoshi Naoki, is a good one to read. The novel was also adapted into a TV show, which is available on Netflix.

Yama-Chan and Wakabayashi and Their Casts:

First of all, Yama-Chan and Wakabayashi are not friends. They were both born in 1983, and were in the same school year.

Wakabayashi is the straight storyteller of a group named Audrey, pronounced Odori in Japanese, with his high school classmate, Toshiaki Kasuga. Audrey was formed in 2004 and won second place at the M-I Competition in 2008. In the story, we learned that Wakabayashi’s dream to become a owarai-jin - a owarai comedian - was disapproved by his father, and for most of his life he was not allowed to show emotions.

Masayasi Wakabayashi is someone who is extremely introverted, but, no doubt, he is a really talented and funny comedian. Kaito Takahashi, who plays the role of Wakabayashi in the drama, is a Johnny's Entertainment idol and a member of the music group King and Prince, is always anxious and runs in the dark and feels he has something in common with the character Wakabayashi. Even the producer of the TV Show says that the reason for appointing Kaito to play the role was because Kaito and Wakabayashi had a very close connection and similarity.

After taking the role, the real Wakabayashi even took Kaito out for food and discussed a lot about the script with him. Wakabayashi could not, and still cannot, believe a Johnny's idol played a role for him.

I did not believe it at the beginning as well, but Kaito did a great job. I don’t really know a lot about Odori, but I did listen to their manzai, laughed hard, and also listened to their All Night Nippon’s radio program. Wakabayashi has the gift of storytelling, indeed.

And Yama-Chan, real name Ryota Yamasato, is someone who is too good at envy since the day he was born. This was how he was described  in the TV Show, and also by many people close to Yama-Chan. I think my listeners might know him from watching Terrace House on Netflix. Yama-Chan is one of the commentators who sits on the sofa and wears a pair of red glasses. To be honest, I personally knew nothing about Yama-Chan, and I actually got to know him through his partner, Shitsu-Chan, who is a female manzai artist.

Shintaro Morimoto, the actor who plays Yama-Chan in the drama, really did a great job. Audiences can tell how much work and preparation he has done to become Yama-Chan—the voice, the way he talks, and also his body movement and facial expression.

Yama-Chan and Wakabayashi are so different but so similar in many aspects.

I don’t think many people will get how much I love this TV Show, even though I am not a huge fan of manzai. But from a TV production perspective, this is a great show. Reflecting the inner man and conveying the human touch, that's what manzai is all about. To make a biographical dorama in the style of manzai, through the process of becoming famous, to spit out the most humble and unpleasant things in human nature, to entertain the public, and to bring tears with laughter, it just shows how powerful this script is.

Wakabayashi is super self-reflective. He is not self-centered. Self-reflecting is not equal to being self-centered. He is just aware of himself, both good and bad. He knows. He tries. Because of the high self-awareness and unusual path to where Odori is right now, Wakabayashi wrote a book to share his experience, called, 社会人大学人見知り学部 卒業見込 Prospective Graduates of the College of Social Studies, Faculty of Shyness in 2013, and at the same year, his father passed away.

The most vital part of being and living is to know who we are, without using others' words. Since most of what others say is just a projection.

Wakabayashi’s father was an interesting person, and although he had a family to raise and feed, he kept on job hopping, and often quit or got fired. He seemed to live his own life and have his own temper, not caring about pleasing others. Somehow, Wakabayashi is similar. That might be the reason why Wakabayashi had a hard time with his father. His dad did not really support him on the path of being an owarai comedian, but just let it happen regardless. After Odori won the second place at the M-1, his dad all of a sudden was inspired and wanted to practice guitar again. What a funny old guy.

In the 11th episode, Wakabayashi took his very ill dad out from the hospital for a break from his medical treatment, and they went to a bookshop. His dad wanted to pick some books by himself because, "on the way of finding something, the most interesting part is not to get to the goal, but to meet other vital new things on the path as well."

Maybe for Wakabayashi, not just the second place at M-1, not just the ANN radio program, but also the love and care from family, friends, and his aibo, Hatsuka.

I was touched the most by Wakabayashi. I listen to Odori’s radio show, All Night Nippon, but I knew nothing about them personally. There was a time where I did not understand why Hatsuka was so popular… for example, I did not like his pink outfit.

After the show, I was amazed by Hatsuka’s weird trust in Wakabayashi. He believed Wakabayashi is a funny person, he believed Wakabayashi is talented, he believed Wakabayashi’s words, he seemed not to have his thoughts that much, but he stands there still for Wakabayashi. Hatsuka is the ideal Aibo - the ideal partner.

Of course, neither Wakabayashi nor Yama-Chan are perfect; they indeed are missing something. However, they had passion. Their passion never leaves them, and their passion keeps them moving and going.

Are You Enjoying Your Life Now?

There is one person in the show, Tani Show, full name Tani Shotai, who is at the same agency as Odori. He often asks Wakabayashi and Hatska, "Are you enjoying your life now? Are you happy?

On the day 21-year-old Wakabayashi first met Mr. Tani Show, Tani Show looked at Wakabayashi’s face and said, "Your face seems to say, 'go to hell, everyone.'" Wakabayashi worried his core was seen by Mr. Tani Show, then realized that it is useless to lie in front of Mr. Tani Show, so he decided to be himself around this wise guy.

It took me a while to find out that Tani Show is a character built upon Ken Maeda, who was also an owarai artist and passed away all of a sudden in 2016. He was a huge influence and support to Odori.

Happiness arrives for Wakabayashi very slowly. The first several episodes were hard to watch, as they talked about the hardest times for both Wakabayashi and Yama-Chan. But, slowly, the audience is so happy to see the success of Odori. I cried after watching the episode of the M-1 competition; I was so excited and proud of them.

Again, in episode 11, at that bookshop, Wakabayashi asks his dad whether he is happy at this moment or not. His father says, "I am too happy to die now; somehow I want to live longer."

What is happiness?

Happiness?

Maybe for Wakabayashi, happiness is meeting people who love the same things, hate the same things, and let him be himself. And maybe, because he met Mr. Tani Show, he had the reason to keep the passion of manzai, the passion of being an owarai artist, alive.

As an audience, I appreciated it so much that they did not give up.

Ending:

At least we have passion, and at least they had passion. Passion is the key to help them get through the hardest times, mentally and also physically. Passion gives energy, to be energy and not just do energy. For example I have passion for books, drama, movies, writing, food, and drinks. No matter how hard life is, I still keep on going because I have this passion for books, drama, movies, writing, food, and drinks.

Living as yourself, even though no one is watching, you can also watch yourself, to live the best life you can in your mind. And, someone somewhere you don’t know might be inspired by you just because you are living and being yourself. Just like how "Two People Who Are Missing Something" inspired Creepy Nuts, one of the most famous Japanese Hip Hop Groups.

I hope you enjoyed this episode. Currently, the TV show is not available in English at this moment. I personally translated any dialogue mentioned in this episode, which will be included in the references section. This episode was edited by Grace and written by me, Cordelia.

See you soon in our next episode!

Reference:

TV Show website in Japanese: https://www.ntv.co.jp/daga-jyounetsu/