NMB48: NMB to Manabu-kun – Episode 44: Tap dat dance, the conclusion

Last week I went on vacation, and this week I came down with a terrible stomach virus.

But now I’ve had some time to catch up. Or rather, since I took sick leave, I can catch up, lol.

Aika and Kanakichi practicing while filming for something else.

We get to see the conclusion of the tap dancing segment. It’s kinda funny because it’s fairly predictable… like Dragon Ball Z. They train all hard and it’s difficult but then they manage to train well and succeed! I thought it was cool with the jump roping thing, but it feels a bit overplayed on Manabu now.

Sayaka comes by to troll. Interesting clothing choice by Maachun too.

Milky comes by to dispense advice.

I thought Milky’s advice was totally the advice that she’d give, which is that they need to watch their facial expression… that’s something she takes a lot of pride in and always seems to mention it interviews. I think she overdoes it sometimes though, especially at the expense of actually looking like she’s singing. Then again, I wonder if that’s the whole point of this idol business…

All dressed up!

Getting nervous before the big performance.

When I watch this stuff, I kinda miss performing on a big stage. Or on a stage in general. Granted, my performances were limited to uh, DDR tournaments, but still, I miss being able to do stuff in front of a crowd. I still can, I guess, but no one will come out to see me. But yeah, I miss all that stuff, the feeling of being nervous before something big, practicing so damn hard to perfect your small little thing, looking out into the faces of the crowd as they stare at you… that stuff is so cool.

I suppose that’s one reason why I love watching this stuff. Living vicariously through them…

Uuka why so salty, lol.

So as expected, especially since it was in some news outlets, our NMB girls perform admirably and succeed. You could also see Kanakichi’s expression during her solo part look really strained at worried so everyone laughed at her, then as the song went on she relaxed and looked the part.

All in all it was a decent segment, though I guess I’m just saying that because AIKAAAAAAAA. I swear, Aika is going to go places real soon…

And for some reason I kept thinking that the teacher looked really cool, haha.

NMB48: NMB to Manabu-kun – Episode 43: Tap dat dance

AIKAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!

AIKAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!

I quite like Aika. She was the fastest promoted member, yet strangely because of her fast promotion to Team N, she’s missing out on a lot of the hype that the KKS team is getting right now. It’s sad to see when she writes about how she wants to perform at the KKS performance, and it seems as if she wishes she had more time to spend with the 4th gens.

On top of that, Team N performances are few and far in between. It seems like there’s one a month, if that, so while her KKS friends are getting experience subbing for Team M and Team B II, she seems to be missing out on that push.

She also randomly gets bad luck, as recently somebody was arrested for credit card theft, and he was using those credit cards to buy tickets for none other than Aika-chan. Sad stuff.

Nevertheless, here she is, with Kanakichi and Maachun. She also appeared on Kanakichi’s fishing program, so maybe… incoming pair? Maybe.

The teacher has a cool jacket though.

I’ve actually been spoiled already to the results of this since it was in some of the news. Essentially our 3 girls are picked to perform a tap dancing number to open for a musical/play. The theatre is actually right next door to the NMB theatre.

The play is based on Americans or something. “American Variety Bang!”

Funny story, when I was in Osaka last October, I did see advertisements for this, and, as an actual American, I am always genuinely curious as to what other people think about us. Especially me, because I forget how culturally diverse it is here, and when I identify myself as American in Japan it causes slight confusion at first.

Obviously, I won’t be able to watch this musical.

It has black people and a Michael Jackson impersonator though!

Of course, you should be quite used to the pattern. Girls learn something new, struggle through it, minor crisis and all that.

Aika being the only one who has experience.

The two girls laughing at Maachun’s steps.

They all fall down.

Footage was available a few weeks ago, so you can find the results if you look hard enough. However, the results on Manabu-kun are coming on in the following week.

Still, I really like the fact that Aika is getting some push now, and I definitely want to see her get more stuff.

NMB48: NMB to Manabu-kun – Episode 38: Nana enters the Danger Zone

Does this really look like a person who wants to go airborne?

Even though Nana was in tears when she was, err, “selected” to go skydiving, there was something about her that made me think this was going to turn out really well. Maybe it’s because she hilarious reactions. Maybe it’s because she looks and acts like a lazy bum, but when it all comes down to it you know she’s good ’till the end.

Whatever the reason may be, here she is!

And so, this had to be one of the most entertaining parts of Manabu-kun I have ever seen.

Even Nana’s tsukkomi is on point.

Her reaction ability seems to have improved remarkably, perhaps an effect of working on Ohayo Asahi Desu for so long. Her tsukkomi timing is really good, but it’s a natural tsukkomi. (We’ve all seen what happens when she tries to tsukkomi for comedy on Geinin.) She even came up with some quick-witted jokes… for example, skydiving here costs ~$500 (!!) and she declared with pride that her Osakan blood is enjoying the “free” discount.

“Looks like an old plane.”

Nana, expectedly, is not too psyched about jumping out of an airplane. They try and get in some basic practice before they actually go up in the air.

The instructor demonstrates how to get off the plane.

Practicing that flying form.

I remember the first time I went skiing, which was two years ago. I didn’t get off the ski lift properly and, according to my cousin, I “got some air” as I fell off the lift and faceplanted into the snow.

Good times, I guess. =)

One of these days I’ll go skydiving. I feel like once you actually jump off the plane it ain’t no thang, but right before you do it is when you would have to deal with some of the nastiest butterflies ever. It looked pretty fun here.

They played a flashback of Nana’s great memories before she did the jump.

…along with hilarious captions.

Nana acted exactly as I would expect to act myself: frozen from fear from jumping off the plane and holding on to the side of the aircraft only to have the instructor force it off and jump.

Just jump.

Saying that feels so liberating. Perhaps skydiving is in the cards for me…

Nana shows us her non-idol face.

But in the end, she’s entirely elated.

“It was so fun!”

Again, I’m not exactly sure why, but having Nana do this segment feels right. I feel glad for her and it feels like something I wanna do soon.

Sayaka’s commentary actually looked like she wanted to go skydiving herself, she seemed to really enjoy the whole thing. Maachun just seemed to laugh at Nana’s funny faces, lol.

 

The rest of the Manabu-kun special seemed fantastic, though admittedly I only watched this part and the part with Shimarena/Kinoshita H./Renapyon. Renapyon is soooo good, that’s all I have to say about that.

NMB48: NMB to Manabu-kun – Episode 35: It all falls down

Once again, I skip the educational part. I think they were talking about the Sengoku Jidai or something. Basically, history in Japan that I don’t really care about. I mean, I’ve tried to care about it, but it’s kinda hard to care when you don’t really have any vested interest in it. It’s hard enough when it’s not Samurai Warriors.

Let’s go back to playing with dominoes!

Good Lord, the pain doesn’t end.

5 hours and they’re not even halfway done. This seems like the most annoying thing in the world. You can just feel it getting into everyone’s heads.

Even the cameraman is going mad!

Momoka beats some sense into him.

One of my favorite parts of Renapyon is when her character breaks. And oh, does it break.

She starts complaining about why the rest of Team M isn’t there.

I swear, the penalties for losing the games in between are some of the most vicious penalties ever. They’re already trying super hard not to screw up on their own, and they still do. But to unleash more problems? That’s just cruel.

NMB: Where the Roomba becomes your mortal enemy.

Momoka telling Ayabaa to take care of her pet Roomba better.

But the ROOMBA CARES NOT

They play another punishment game, and lose on the first try, so back to more ridiculous looking things.

Huh?

Ayabaa clearly gets the worst.

And finally, they finish their dominos! Well, not really, but time ran out.

I thought the goal of the whole thing was just to build the picture, but nope. Turns out they actually have to destroy it.

That has to suck. You spend the entire day trying to make a picture with dominos, knowing in the end it all will mean nothing. Perhaps we can sum up the vagaries of life as somewhat of the same thing.

Here we go…

The NMB logo part looked pretty cool.

And they call it a success, though it’s like the Spurs win in 1999: It needs an asterisk.

Sometimes you just have to feel bad for people. This is one of those moments.

And poor Natsumin, she’s always crying but wants to be on TV, lol.

I haven’t been watching Manabu-kun religiously. In fact, you might even say, I don’t really watch it at all. However, with that said, at the end when they give out their awards, it turns out that someone completed a set of 5.

Was there really any doubt? She doesn’t even have any idiot awards.

What kind of great prize does she get?

Oh my goodness: Green Tea Gelato.

Damn, that looks amazing. One reason I’m partial to Japanese desserts is because they’re not really too sweet. American desserts are just incredibly sweet to where I can only have a spoonful before I need an entire mug of coffee or something. And Filipino desserts are the sweetest things I’ve ever had. Do not recommend. I bet they wash it down with a spoonful of sugar or something.

Apparently one of these is $55 and she gets 5 of them. Damn, that’s a lot. Maybe it’s like those watches that they sell where they’re always 95% discounted. Original price $500, pfft.

Sayaka’s teeth are sure enjoying it.

NMB48: NMB to Manabu-kun – Episode 34: Someone ordered Dominos.

Oh Renapyon…

I didn’t bother watching the news part. I’ll probably go back to it later, something about weather and clouds and stuff.

Instead, we get more Renapyon. God, her character is so awful. I’m hoping that she turns it into something later… it’s kinda why I like BKB, he’s very aware of how fast his routine gets cheesy and he incorporates it into his comedy routine.

She looks like she’s gotten bigger here. Or maybe I just took a bad photo.

This is not the pizza.

I didn’t watch the first dominos episode which seemed legendary, but seriously, why would they make them do such a horrible and torturous task?!

Twice, no less?!

Momoka sounds all serious to start with, but it’s pretty clear that she hates this.

Maybe it’s just me but Momoka seems kinda confrontational lately. She’s still hilarious, but sometimes it’s like… really cold. When I skipped through the episode it did seem like she was pretty aggressive towards the teacher. Hopefully it’s just her variety personality.

As expected, hours are being spent building some strange domino structure, and then we all laugh when they accidentally knock one down.

To break up the monotony they have to do little minigames and are punished if they don’t do it correctly.

Not only are you tortured by having to use sock puppets and mittens, but you also have Renapyon using sock puppets.

Occasionally Momoka goes in the back and trashes on Renapyon’s character.

But then, occasionally Rena will do something silly like this… and I really feel she has to be somewhat intelligent. There’s no way she’s convincing us that’s she udon princess from udon country. She has to know comedy.

Momoka leaves for 20 minutes, so you think she’s taking a nap like last time, but as it turns out…

More of Team M is here to help!

I feel like this is just a disaster waiting to happen. It’s missing Aapon’s random enthusiasm, and Ayabaa is usually hopeless and useless, lol.

NMB48: NMB to Manabu-kun – Episode 33: Shinka Shoubu. HAJIME!

It’s evolution, but it’s not the fighting game tournament.

This episode is about the theory of evolution. Yes. Seriously.

Let’s be glad that they didn’t air this episode in the Deep South of the US. I’m sure many religious groups would take offense.

The word for evolution is “Shinka.” It does not mean “Sinker pitch.”

As you all may know, the theory of evolution was proposed by Charles Darwin.

WHY WOULD YOU RAISE YOUR HAND AND RANDOMLY GUESS PIERRE?

Because I’m slow, I didn’t realize until halfway through the episode that the entire gallery is all of Team M.

oooooooooooooooohhhhhhhh AARIN. I mean, Arii.

Did you know that that is ShimaRena’s natural hair color? She went on G+ to deny dying her hair. What a crazy world.

Darwin proposed his theory after visiting the Galapagos Islands.

The same animal would have different properties depending on which island they appeared on.

Evolution being caused by genetic mutation.

When you think about it, it’s actually kinda crazy that they were able to hypothesize about evolution without even knowing about DNA and genes. And then even crazier is that this was discovered only 130 years ago. Research sure moves quickly. Let’s pause 10 seconds for station identification to wonder about how great the human race is.

The next topic details the evolution of the giraffe, and why its neck is so long.

Momoka says they use it to get the other giraffes away.

Rena, well… I have no idea what she’s saying.

Rena is my sleeper pick of Team M. She seems absolutely dumb, but there’s something to her that’s more than meets the eye. She originally caught my eye because she looks like Mayuyu sometimes, and then she caught my ear because of her mega high pitched voice. I’m not sure if her suberi is intended or not. She’s also had some really quick witted answers during MCs.

Anyway, the common hypothesis was that longer necked giraffes would have easier time eating from trees, but actually…

It’s a fake! The longer neck makes it harder to drink water which is more important for a giraffe.

It turns out that the evolution was just by chance. Huh.

It’s said the the giraffe evolved from the animal on the left for no real reason.

We then move on to a discussion about humans.

Like Bonobos, who apparently have a very peaceful society.

Everyone applauds for peace.

Humans have 94-99% genetic commonality with both chimps and bonobos, and chimps have a more warlike society whereas bonobos are really peaceful and cheery, so there is some thought that it was mix of the two.

“What makes humans different?” Nana’s answer: We have teeth.

Nana was uh… quite, slow today. She really needed to watch herself because she has 4 of the baka badges that they award to the dunce of the classroom after each episode. If you get 5 baka badges, you have to go skydiving. (Conversely, you get a prize if you get 5 of the good student badges.)

The homosapien clique. It’s actually kinda weird to think that all of these related human species went extinct and only the homo sapien remains.

That’s enough evolution talk. I’ve forgotten how this show can really lull you to sleep. It doesn’t seem like the hosts have really improved either.

And for your take home message, 99% of humans are gonna die.

Continuing from the Challenge 48, it’s back to the circus with Rika, Muro, and Konomin. And we even get last episode’s audience back.

What a squad!

I don’t know how it happened, but somehow Konomin and the rest of the BII Faint Unit jumped up to be my BII Oshimen. Konomin just has this air of coolness while looking spacy.

And she makes an adorable clown! Sayaka approves!

Lookin BAWS

I get the feeling that Konomin is also liked by the senior members, as Sayaka and Milky were calling her kawaii throughout the performance. And somehow, almost anything Sayaka likes, I tend to like…

(BKB! BKB! BKB! Hiiiiiya~ Omatta~)

Murokana becomes a hulahoop expert. Maachun becomes… well, I don’t know.

I get the feeling that Murokana will be super hot when she grows up. But as of right now she still needs a bit of work. I can definitely see her building a following soon and increasing steadily in popularity, though.

Rika what did they do to you?!

They didn’t work you on the trapeze well enough though.

I still remember when they had people do the trapeze on Challenge 48. My favorite part was Maachun, since she was acting all scared, and she got on the trapeze and was like “AHHHHHHHHHH” before executing the transfer perfectly.

Rika didn’t seem to have enough practice, and she failed. But that’s it, there’s nothing crazy, no habanero juice to drink.

Back to the evolution episode, ShimaRena earns the good student award. And the idiot award?

We’re going skydiving.

NMB48: NMB to Manabu-kun – Episode 32: Sekuhara Rino

There was always this joke at work, where we say that we’re taking sexual harassment training, but what we really mean is sexual harassment prevention training.

I bet you would be sued in Japan for that joke. This episode was either enlightening or depressing.

I’m not even sure if the guest lawyer was trying to look like that one idol-loving comedian.

I don’t think I’ll ever get a pair of red glasses like that. It creeps me out too much.

So this episode covers more than just sexual harassment, but also “power harassment”, or abusing your position as boss.

This year there were 10,000 cases of sexual harassment. That seems low for some reason.

The comedian demonstrating obvious sexual harassment in terms of touching someone.

Apparently you can get sued for asking the age of a girl, or even for asking if she has a boyfriend as that infringes on your privacy.

Man, if that were true here…

I don’t particularly like it when people ask me my age, or ask if I’m seeing someone.  Doubly so when people make fun of me for not seeing someone or not being married already. I get really pissed off about that because they kinda look down on me. And man, if I wanted to look down on people for sucking at something, I can come up with a laundry list, but I don’t because I’m polite.

Well, I’m angry now.

“If your confession makes the other person uncomfortable then it can be sexual harassment.”

I find this funny. Obviously they can’t read the other person’s feelings, because if they would they wouldn’t confess. Of course it might look bad to socially experienced people, but that’s not always the case…

B2 represent

Since I’ve been paying more attention to things like stages and radio, I was starting to think that NMB wasn’t N-centric anymore. I forgot about this show…

Also, since I’m developing into a big Uuka fan, I actually looked up her reputation online and it turns out she occupies the “loli with big boobs.” Uh. Awkward. I’ll stick with the beaver thing. Wait, that didn’t sound right either.

Ugh.

Maybe it’s sexual harassment. I don’t know.

Also, you can get insurance for sexual harassment. And Sayaka is still shining brightly.

The segment about power harassment was kinda boring, although I swear, if those rules were in effect in the US, I would be able to get my boss fired. Ah well, that is neither here nor there.

Milky and Nana getting into a little tussle.

Nana and Milky seem to have a lot better chemistry lately. I’m not sure why. Maybe they secretly miss being on the same team.

For Challenge 48 or whatever they’re calling it, we go to the circus.

KONOMIN

Spacey Konomin is here! She’s like a cooler version of Komorin. She acts and seems ditzy but there seems to be some intelligence behind her actions… like she knows what she’s doing, but she just *seems* spaced out.

ATLASPHERE

After taking a ride on this weird Atlasphere-esque machine, they move on to the Eliminator to watch the circus and learn some roles. Rika will handle the trapeze, Muro will do some hula hoop business, and Konomin will act as a clown? Or something like that.

Muro struggles because she can’t understand the English-speaking instructor.

Well. That’s a blow to English fans =)

The training footage seemed pretty sparse, though there was a lot of focus on Rika.

Showing off her blisters

I’m confused why they didn’t give her chalk for practice to rub on her hands. Isn’t that what they normally do?

Also, sometimes I feel bad for Rika. She’s really big. She’s not fat, she’s just… big. But she might get mistaken for being fat. That saddens me.

That wrapped up the challenge section, next week is when they actually perform.

I decided to give this show another go, mainly because I need to continue to shore up my Japanese, and because it’s been a long time since I’ve seen “Senbatsu.” I say that, but their role is still pretty minor in this show. Man, I really wish they had a Naniwa Nadeshiko 2 or maybe a Geinin! 3 or something. I feel like it’s those shows that keep me as a fan.

NMB48: NMB to Manabu-kun – Episode 7: Uncooked Men

I know what I like.

I haven’t been watching Manabu-kun. I don’t know who the new hosts are but they are way more boring compared to the allstar trio of Jinnai, Kenkoba, and Tamuken. On top of that, the first episode was about taxes and I was just like… whatever. I don’t care about taxes. Even if Docking talked about taxes I’d probably skip it.

Also there’s no Megumi-chan.

That withstanding, I decided to watch this episode because it’s about ramen.

I don’t know even know what this guy was doing.

Some guy actually comes and drops the history of ramen. I was actually surprised to learn that it is a relatively new food. Well, I guess it really took off around the same time hamburgers and hot dogs took off in the US, but I always thought it had some historical value. Guess I was wrong on that one.

Something about Sayaka’s smile in this episode made my day a lot brighter.

Whenever I talk about ramen, though, I’m a little confused. I get cravings for it, I enjoy it, I will go long distances to try a new bowl… but for some reason I’m a little hard-pressed to consider it one of my favorite foods. I’d consider a Double-Double from In-N-Out Burger (a California chain) one of my favorite foods and it does occupy the same spot that I’d put ramen in: comfort food.

I have yet to figure out why this is, though.

So on the show they go through a lot of the history and cover some of the regional specialties of ramen and such. I find it fascinating but on the other hand it kinda sucks because I won’t experience those regional specialties. I still remember going to Texas and not trying their BBQ. And there’s a ton of BBQ I still have yet to try. And I live here! Compare that to living overseas and trying to eat North Carolina-style BBQ and you get the same feeling I do.

The next topic is tsukemen.

Yo we got battles now

Tsukemen is much newer. I think it only started booming a couple years ago, and it differs from ramen in that you have your toppings on the side of the broth. Your broth is also a lot thicker, because you need to dip your noodles and the broth needs to stick when you do it.

Interestingly, on the program, they said that tsukemen was invented for convenience because you could eat it right away, whereas ramen is served hot and you have to wait for it to cool down, etc.

They also mentioned that tsukemen has no regional representation, except perhaps Hiroshima-style.

Mmm… Hiroshima style…

I’ve had Hiroshima-style once. In Tokyo, actually. My friend asked me to eat lunch with him while he was on break, so he took me to this real home-style place. I actually thought we were going to someone’s house until we stepped inside… and it was an absolutely fantastic bowl of tsukemen as well. There’s something about the sesame flavor in Japan that tastes much better than here.

While tsukemen is almost always offered at ramen places here in LA, I don’t think I’ll ever get Hiroshima-style. (There is a place called Ikemen that serves a great Italian-fusion tsukemen that uses basil and tomatoes, but it’s in Hollywood and traffic is always terrible if you want to go there, not to mention the horrible parking situation. This is the pain of living in LA.)

After, the hosts and some people sampled a pick from the guy who lectured about ramen, and a pick from the guy who lectured about tsukemen. The tsukemen store being introduced was actually backed by the guy who gave the lecture on tsukemen. And I think he was the comedy partner of the guy with the hat and the bow tie.

I think they should use this pairing more often.

HEY WAIT THAT’S NOT THE DIPPING BROTH

In the end they voted for the tsukemen over the ramen. I don’t know how I feel about that. They are similar, but they are also quite different. Maybe they should throw in Mentaiko pasta as a contender?

I also thought Sayaka was a vegetarian. Idol life must be hard on her.