Here's Memi's surprising comedy performance from last weekend's HINABINGO. She did an impression of comic Nishimura Hiyocho 西村ヒロチョ:
And here's the original, from Nishimura-san's YouTube channel:
Nishimura-san tweeted today that it made him happy that "Kakizaki Memi of Hinatazaka46" had done an impression of him (but it sounded as if he hadn't seen it).
I think Memi didn't really reproduce all of his moves and energy, but she added her own energy. Good performance. EDIT: Actually, the more I watch Memi's version, the more impressed I am. She didn't reproduce his routine, she rewrote bits of it (maybe using other stock things of his, but I couldn't find them). She gave us her feminine version of Hirocho. I've often thought Memi seemed to have a good sense of rhythm, and Hirocho's act depends a lot on its rhythms. The final "You're number one!" must come from Wakabayashi's line in GanaOshi.
A piece from the Entame website says that the group all seem highly motivated and work surprisingly well with the acid-tongued Koyabu Kazutomo. The piece picked out Memi's performance as the most striking so far, and talked about her "awakening" under Koyabu-san's influence.
Koyabu-san watched it smiling and delivered the judgment: "It was much better than I expected." Lol. From him, that's high praise, it seems. He especially liked the shouted "Fuuuu!"
Japanese comments say things like: "She really did it fully.... Beyond my expectations. It's really something fresh to see the burikko girl give herself to this so completely.... Fuuuuuuu!!"
Just got around to seeing #02 recently... and was indeed impressed by how much Memitan got into the skit... which was its own moe atop her already considerable powers...
ReplyDeleteShe didn't simply imitate Hirocho -- she did Memi's Hirocho, which was both homage and completely her own. I'd like to see Hirocho guest and do a few neta together with her. :)
#02 overall wasn't as smooth-flowing as #01 but there are only 2 EPs in the bag, nothing to worry about, really. Only two things distracted me a tiny bit:
-- Miipan. During her corner with Otake she seemed to act quite oddly; perhaps this was a medication she was taking... or (more likely) she was very intimidated by Koyabu. We know how sensitive she is (such as her breakdown during the hypnosis corner back on Keyakake). She did redeem herself with her Jackie (Chan) comment which I literally cheered for her for; it broke the awkwardness beautifully.
But what also caught my eye... is for someone that enjoys pan (bread) so much, that she'd only be average at baking sweets. Hang in there, Miipan!
-- MeiMei's skit with Kumi and Hinano. Was just a couple of minutes of awk, jokes that barely landed. Luckily Chairman Koyabu is well-versed in shepherding new talent so the flow didn't stall on his account.
Thanks for the interesting comments. I just wanted to say that I agree Miipan seemed intimidated. First evidence: they crashed the trolley into the wall, lol. This ep was apparently shot the same day as the first one, so it's understandable she was off-balance. Hopefully she'll get used to being with such a big Kansai star.
ReplyDeleteAlso, in the last part of that segment, he said that the cake got tastier the more he ate. I believe he also said his harsh comment gave them room to improve: I think more in how they accepted it than in their baking. He seems to take seriously that "teacher" analogy he mentioned in an interview.
Thanks for your reply :)
DeleteOh, have no doubt Otake's chocolate-banana bread OtaCake was good -- it looked amazingly moist and probably tasted as such. Was more Miipan's cookies that seemed to need Koyabu's tough love IMO... as they resembled the ceramic pucks I used to make as a kid (kinako cookies sound super-tasty, though)...
Koyabu is The Mentor for his New Comedy company... so am sure he was instructed to be just that -- hard, but fair, on the girls' variety. Am already loving how well the girl's are meshing with him so far.