Hello! Project's Station '25 ~YT · TV · Radio · Magazines~

[zam_ho]

I saw Funasshi on Music Japan last night. What exactly is that yellow thing suppose to be? A lemon or some other thing?
And what is its connection to Okamura?

[Celedam]

Google is your friend. Top hit…

http://en.rocketnews24.com/2013/08/08/jiggly-yellow-pear-funasshi-named-top-mascot-in-japan/

There is no relationship to Okamura. He's just parodying it because it's popular right now. That's what he does.

[erilaz]

Momoko is so damn amazing. .__. Will forever respect her for being able to go through with that character all the time. @.@

Not to mention the beating that she takes for doing it!

My copies are in the post.

Just ordered mine last night!

[stam4o]

So, who's he?

Wow.

I forget sometimes that we're still getting new fans who don't know the lore…

Takashi Okamura is a comedian. He's the boke of the manzai duo Ninety-Nine. His partner, Hiroyuki Yabe, is the tsukkomi. Together they're the hosts / principle members of the hugely popular and long-running show Mecha-Mecha Iketeru!, or "Mechaike" for short.

In the autumn of 2001, when MM were riding high on the Golden Era, Mechaike got together with Tsunku to arrange a special episode in which they took the girls on a school field trip, supposedly to make up for all of the normal experiences the girls miss while working after school and on weekends. Of course, being Mechaike, those normal experiences all went hilariously wrong.

As part of the premise, while the girls were on the trip they were no longer MM. Instead, they were students at Okamura Joshi Kōtō Gakkō (Okamura Girls High School), or "Okajo" for short, complete with their own uniforms and emblems.

And so began the Mechaike Okajo series of specials.

In the spring of 2003, Mechaike ambushed MM again and forced them all to take a real middle school evaluation test to see who was the bakajo (stupid girl) of the class.

In the autumn of 2003, Mechaike ambushed MM again and forced them all to participate in a real sports festival to see who was the kusojo (crap girl) of the class.

And in the spring of 2004, Mechaike and MM worked together to ambush Tsuknu. This time, they pretended to be the Okajo Chorus Club, and they proceeded to mutilate several well known songs including some of Tsunku's own.

After that, MM went into their decline and Okajo just sort of disappeared.

Anyhow, the Mechaike Okajo specials are a huge part of the group's lore. They've all been subtitled by and for foreign fans, and they're still so fondly remembered in Japan that Fuji TV is releasing them on DVD ten years after the fact. That's why this recent appearance was such a big deal for us — we're hoping and praying that if MM continue to regain their popularity, there could be a new, full-length Okajo special.

Or something. Anything, really. Not just this one brief appearance to promote the DVDs…

When H!O is back up, I strongly recommend you search the tracker for "Mechaike Okajo" and download everything you find. In the meantime, here's an excerpt from the sports festival…



(Most of the specials are on DailyMotion, but they're poor quality and not well organized. Get the real things from the H!O tracker.)

Thanks for the info, that was great! And yeah, I agree, it would be awesome if they could could do something like this now too.

[Panic Nancy]

Hello! Project Station #43…

Really late, but I loved Ayumi in the Funwari Koibito Ichinensei performance. She looked so happy.

After watching both Juice dance shots, I kind of wish that they had one of those girls who is an okay or weak singer but a really, really good dancer (all the best dancers in H!P seem to be this way; it's like you're only allowed to have so much talent, lol). Sayuki and Karin are definitely good, but they aren't really top-tier dancers. Juice is the only group without any. Oh, well. They make up for it with their vocals.

[Parhelion69]

If you think about it, Karin and Sayubee would've qualified as top-tier dancers a few years ago.

It just tells you about the high quality dancing present in (most of) H!P

[zam_ho]

IMO, Smileage is the group that doesn't have a top-tier dancer. Karin is a great dancer in my book

[321BreakinOut]

Did u like forget Akari exists o_o; ?

[zam_ho]

^From what I've seen Takechan is not yet at the level of Riho/Ishida/Karin/Captain/Chisato. She has the potential but she a bit rough around the edges, so to speak.

I hope Takechan is a member of the H!P dance club. So she can get up to that level.

[Sohee]

She's not.