From our other sites
The story
A statement has been issued from the camp of Hitoshi Matsumoto, one half of the comedy duo Downtown, regarding “Downtown Plus,” the monthly subscription service he helps run. The statement’s use of the phrase “business as usual” was picked up on a 5ch live-discussion thread, where posters piled on with complaints — about how the monthly fee is being handled, about the fact that his partner Masatoshi Hamada barely appears on the service, and about a lineup that’s mostly rerun archive footage. Reactions converged on a single point: what happens to the service going forward?
What people said
Pay up and show your support.
Couldn't make it on its own, so they sold it off to U-NEXT, and now it's just been reduced to one more piece of content on U-NEXT.
At least stream some content from Matsumoto's prime, come on.
If Hamada's not on it, it's "Downtown Minus," not Plus.
Meanwhile the public image of him is basically "guinea pig" at this point (a nickname tied to his sexual-misconduct scandal allegations).
Wait, seriously? He's not?
Nope, he's not.
Almost the entire archive is footage from just the last few years anyway.
Worrying.
Hamada's entourage has always been like this —
– guys who never made it big, so he can call them up anytime to run errands
– serious types who don't want to "do comedy" in their private life
– yes-men, tight-lipped guys who won't blab about Hamada's sensitive private business
– guys who aren't part of some other group
When that's all you recruit, well, of course it turns out like this.
He was an "inkya" (a socially awkward, introverted type) deep down from the start.
All of them degraded ages ago, honestly.
They were only ever coasting on brand recognition.
That's a pretty harsh take.
Far from it — if you keep paying the annual fee, they're throwing in stuff like a T-shirt he's supposedly worn or a backstage-visit voucher, desperately trying to keep subscribers from canceling.
I mean, he's literally doing the exact thing he used to call out.
According to Matsumoto himself, it's "an obvious, basic right" — so what happened to him, lol.
Exactly one year, huh.
Honestly, that's incredibly disrespectful to the 500,000 paying subscribers.
Background and key points of this topic
“Downtown Plus” is a paid streaming service launched primarily by Hitoshi Matsumoto, run on a model where viewers pay a monthly membership fee. What sparked discussion this time was the use of the phrase “business as usual” in a statement announcing the service’s continuation — the thread showed a split between those who felt “isn’t that phrasing dishonest as an explanation to members?” and those who thought people were “reading too much into it.” Another point of contention is that, despite being a service branded with the duo’s name, Matsumoto’s partner Masatoshi Hamada is barely involved — opinions differ on how to judge the actual substance of the service. Note that details the operators have not officially explained — such as through what channel or medium the statement was released, or what the actual refund policy for the monthly fee is — cannot be confirmed from 5ch posts alone.
※This article is compiled as an excerpt and summary of the 5ch (Nandemo Jikkyo G) thread “[Bad News] Hitoshi Matsumoto issues a statement wwwwwwwwwwwwwww“.
Leave a Reply