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The story
At the October 6 press conference for the new season of the medical drama ER 24 Hours (Kyumei Byoto 24 Ji), lead actress Nanako Matsushima reportedly shared her “regrets from her 20s” with the younger cast. The report set off a 5ch Geino/Sports Breaking News+ thread about the “dark history” of her appearing on a Tunnels show at age 19. The discussion spread between those who remember the era’s signature gag — “It’s not a fart, it’s just air getting in” — and those debating the order of events between her breakthrough and her TV commercial work, with Ryoko Shinohara and Yasuko Matsushita, who went through similar segments around the same time, also coming up.
2026/10/8
On October 6, a press conference was held for the Fuji TV medical drama series ER 24 Hours (Kyumei Byoto 24 Ji), with lead actress Nanako Matsushima among those appearing.
During a segment where younger cast members asked for advice, she looked back on her 20s and gently told them “how important it is to stick with something long-term, whether it’s a hobby or your work.”
Source: jprime.jp / Original article here
What people said
Plus she was cute
Funny how they both have "Matsu" (pine) in their names
Back when Matsushita was doing her singer stint and went on HEY!HEY!HEY!, the two guys from Downtown brought up something along those lines with her
that'd be exciting
I was too young to get it at the time, but
that was basically code for queefing
She's done for
If that were Takako Matsu though…
Now that she's massively famous they never bring this up at all
She kept going on Tunnels shows even after she made it big though
They milked it for material and kept having her on, idiot
If she really treated it as dark history, wouldn't she just stop appearing?
Even past 075, she's been on Kuwazugirai and Kitanatoran loads of times too
The "Gift from the Sea of Malaga" bit was funny too, right
That's basically a famous quote lol
Wasn't the Tunnels appearance actually first?
The one where she climbs from the back seat over the headrest into the passenger seat going "Oma-ta~"
What car and model was that commercial even for?
She was going "saru saru saru~" (monkey monkey monkey), wasn't she
She must have nerves of steel
Well, going that far is exactly what made her a star
Without the Tunnels shows she'd have ended up some half-baked race queen or gravure model
Getting picked as a regular on primetime variety already puts her way beyond that level
If anything it's a miracle she went from doing that to landing lead roles in dramas
No, if anything that's exactly what gets you cast — the "wow, she'll go this far?" factor
Kind of like actresses who get more work after doing nude scenes
Shinohara kept popping up as a guest on Downtown's shows even after she made it big
But Matsushita…
It's the generation with the most people in it, so if you're busy complaining about this stuff, a rival just takes the job
Those two put their bodies on the line and that's how they got their shot and rose up
Background and key points of this discussion
In late-’90s variety TV, shows built around Tunnels regularly ran extreme, body-on-the-line stunt segments for up-and-coming female talent. More than a few of those women — Nanako Matsushima, Ryoko Shinohara, and Yasuko Matsushita among them — went on to become leading actresses in drama and film, and the thread was split over whether appearances like these actually kick-started their breakthroughs. The fact that she was only 19 at the time is the sort of detail that invites debate when viewed through today’s lens, but the overall tone of the thread was nostalgic, treating it as a kind of “rite of passage” on the road to stardom. How she herself felt about it at the time wasn’t addressed at this press conference.
*This article is excerpted and summarized from the 5ch (Geino/Sports Breaking News+) thread “[Just Air Getting In] Fans Stir Over Nanako Matsushima’s “Regrets of My 20s” Confession, Reviving Her Intense “Dark History” with Tunnels [Ailuropoda melanoleuca★]“
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