From our other sites
The story
Toru Hotaru, former member of the comedy duo Amagari Kesshitai, appeared on TV Asahi’s “Mimi no Ana Kappojite Kike!” (“Open Your Ears and Listen!”) and spoke about the influence of Matsumoto Hitoshi’s book “Testament,” which became a bestseller with over 2 million copies sold. On the thread, users debated whether the “teasing” aimed at Tennen Shizai and Ninety-Nine back then was actually an attempt to crush them, along with the shifting relationship between Matsumoto, Hamada, and their junior comedians.
Matsumoto Hitoshi’s “Testament” Had Insane Influence… Toru Hotaru: “I Think They Even Teased Tennen Shizai for Dancing” — The Book Sold Over 2 Million Copies
TV Asahi’s “Mimi no Ana Kappojite Kike!” aired on the 24th, with Toro Salmon’s Kubota Kazunobu and Westland’s Iguchi Hiroyuki serving as MCs.
On this episode, Toru Hotaru of the former duo Amagari Kesshitai appeared as a guest.
Source: news.yahoo.co.jp / Read the original article here
What people said
Hosshan too.
That's not something you can easily say…
As for 'isn't he retiring' — these days he's turned into the terrifying Baumkuchen Man (a mocking nickname referencing the sexual-misconduct allegations against him)!
Any woman who eats it ends up getting hauled off in the location van!
Somebody, please stop this Baumkuchen Man terrorizing all of Japan!
The Ice Cream Man from that American movie has become real life!
I bet streaming pays more these days than TV, where fees are shrinking.
Over a decade ago, Degawa said Ninety-Nine's annual income was 200 million yen.
I think Okamura's the top earner, but his only regular gigs are Gurunai, Chiko-chan, two Kansai local shows, and a radio slot,
so even at a high rate, it's probably not as much money as people assume.
I'm never quitting, no matter what.
Teasing him about the Adidas tracksuit was no joke.
and there's a scene with Miyagawa Daisuke in it — he's got long hair like Kimutaku (Kimura Takuya) had back then, and it looked so out of place.
And Junior, who was the poster child for being one of Matsumoto's yes-men,
also hated the Tennen Shizai crew, Ninety-Nine included — and later, after Miyasako left Yoshimoto, he was blatantly kicking a man while he was down.
It's less 'teasing' and more like he was actually trying to crush them.
there's a bit where Ninety-Nine chartered a helicopter just to get from Kishiwada to an event in Nara.
I did read it standing in the bookstore though.
Takeshi's the one who got overtaken by Downtown and Tunnels in comedy long ago.
He hasn't produced anything in comedy since the Heisei era began.
I respect him as a film director, but as a comedian he's a thing of the past.
— and not even playing it for laughs.
What he was doing wasn't any different from Yasushi.
the real goldfish poop is someone like Kimura Yuichi.
Miyasako only got popular thanks to Yoshimoto in the first place, but he mistook it for his own doing,
went off the rails solo, and left Hotaru behind.
I think that was the era they got along worst.
Downtown themselves sang and had girls screaming over them back in their Osaka days,
even though they used to trash comedians who dyed their hair or bulked up…
'Old men are total perverts, y'know?!'
(Lizard Old Man, Episode 1 — a Matsumoto sketch character)
Moriwaki's own personality probably played a part in his case,
but it's a wonder Nakayama Hide never got crushed.
Hide-chan's talent agency has a lot of pull.
Up until that whole Fuji TV incident, he was shielded by his partner Hamada and Chairman Osaki,
but once those two started keeping their distance, the gilding completely peeled off Matsumoto.
Background and Key Points
Matsumoto Hitoshi’s “Testament” (遺書) came out in 1994, when he and Hamada Masatoshi’s duo Downtown were consolidating their grip over Japanese TV comedy through Yoshimoto Kogyo, the Osaka-based agency that also produced Ninety-Nine (Okamura and Yabe) and the trio Tennen Shizai, both junior acts under the same “senpai-kohai” (senior-junior) hierarchy that structures Japanese comedy troupes. Selling over two million copies was extraordinary for a comedian’s essay collection, and it cemented Matsumoto as a cultural arbiter whose on-air “ijiri” — the teasing/needling routine central to Japanese variety comedy — could make or break a junior act’s image.
The thread doesn’t agree on how to read that teasing. Some posters treat it as ordinary senpai ribbing (the Adidas tracksuit jokes, the hip-hop styling), while others insist it was calculated to suppress rising kohai, especially once Ninety-Nine’s earnings reportedly began rivaling or exceeding Downtown’s own.
What’s missing for outside readers is the context behind the asides about Miyasako Hiroyuki and Matsumoto’s declining protection: Miyasako left Yoshimoto in 2019 amid the agency’s “yami eigyo” (underground/unlicensed event) scandal, and posters allude to Matsumoto cutting ties without explaining that background. Likewise, the “Fuji TV incident” references Matsumoto’s 2024 sexual-misconduct allegations, which triggered his indefinite hiatus and the erosion of the protection he’d enjoyed from Hamada and former Yoshimoto chairman Osaki — the unstated frame behind the thread’s schadenfreude.
*This article is excerpted and summarized from the 5ch (Geisoku Sokuho+) thread “[Entertainment] Toru Hotaru: ‘I Think They Even Teased Tennen Shizai for Dancing’ — Matsumoto Hitoshi’s ‘Testament’ Had Insane Influence.”
Leave a Reply