Arashi grows up? Surely not!
Another picspam ostensibly for flange5, this one unsolicited and probably way too long (these things easily get out of control, don’t they?). But I thought it might be interesting to explore one of the older Arashi programs that no one seems to pay attention to. Maybe with good reason, but I found it enjoyable despite its limitations.
Arashi no Waza ari, which ran for about a year during 2004 and 2005, was apparently supposed to be a more grown-up show than their previous programs. This might explain why it doesn’t seem to get any fan attention. After all, the only thing fans really want from Arashi is for them to be a bunch of light-hearted dorks. Witness the anti-serious format changes in D no Arashi and, more recently, Himitsu no Arashi-chan.
Note: I watched this raw, and I’m not entirely sure my vestigial Japanese was up to the challenge, so there may be a lot of mistaken interpretations here.
The program opens with the boys ranged along a table and surrounded by a jungle of plastic plants. For some reason this set reminds me of the Shounen Club Premium set in its earth-tone attempts at maturity and classiness. But without Taichi’s random flock of fake ducks.
They bring on a middle-aged entertainer of some sort (the mononominal Kitarou), and they discuss what it means to be an adult. Aiba thinks it’s about drinking beer. Hmm… clearly there is work to be done on this concept.
So Sho and Aiba go on location, cosplaying as middle school students. No complaints here. But one begins to question how ‘mature’ this program really is.
Gratuitous shot of Aiba being pretty. And Ohno watching very intently in the inset.
They have enlisted the help of Takaki Miho, who I believe was a singer in the early 80s. She immediately asks how old they are.
So then, why are they dressed as middle school students?
Sho: We are middle school students!
I guess this costume is meant to represent how very far they have to go until they can consider themselves adults. Let’s see… this was four years ago, and they continue to cosplay, splash around in corn starch, and otherwise act like incredibly mature adults on broadcast television. Yeah, maybe middle school was an astute choice.
So it seems that Takaki-san’s plan for demonstrating adult behavior requires a visit to the ocean. And specialized equipment.
Transform! Seriously. I couldn’t manage to cap it, but the three of them spring into the air, and the edit allows them to land wearing these new outfits. Sho, since he’s always into the cosplay, strikes a pose.
Aiba reacts appropriately, surely ventroloquizing the audience.
(Okay, actually, he’s responding to something the guest said that I couldn’t catch. This results in her reminding him that she’s twenty years older than he is. Like a good boy, he amends ‘kawaii’ to ‘kirei.’ I guess she thinks she’s too old to be cute? But she is! Just wait!)
So apparently being an adult involves … digging for shellfish.
Sho: Isn’t this something that kids do?
Aiba is summoned from off-screen. There’s no reason for him to run, of course, except that he’s Aiba.
Ah, it seems the old dude wants to give him some nice shellfish. Aiba hasn’t brought his bucket, so he improvises.
Aiba takes these back and shares them with Takaki-san, who is quite pleased. But he refuses to divulge his source - weren’t we learning maturity here?
Aiba and Takaki-san are having a very good time playing in the sand and looking at shells. Sho thinks they’re idiots.
Takaki-san seems to confirm this when she announces in a satisfied tone that ‘the ocean is a big miso soup!’
Umm… Sho’s response is ‘What the hell?’ (so I think my translation is relatively correct). Her explanation for this absurdity: she’s happy.
Yes, well. The results of their endeavors. The guest wins (it was mature of them to let her - and I’m pretty sure it was Aiba’s donations that put her over the top).
It seems that a local restaurant will prepare their shellfish for them, so they get to eat! And Takaki continues to be cute in her excitement about all this.
Aiba talks with his mouth full, of course. And chokes. Sho and Takaki just laugh at him.
I guess digging for shellfish doesn’t teach maturity all by itself (or not to Aiba, anyway), because Takaki-san now kidnaps the boys to some kind of tourist farm that has cows. And an awesome sign.
Once again, the fascination with having idols milk cows rears its trendily coifed head. As the farmer guy is explaining the process, he says to grasp the first (or maybe the biggest) nipple. Sho: ‘that’s a huge nipple!’ He seems pretty apprehensive about this whole cow-milking thing.
He gives a gingerly squeeze and is rewarded with success! And we, with cute Sho faces. &hearts
When it’s Aiba’s turn, he totally apologizes to the cow in advance. And when he succeeds in squirting some milk, he doesn’t seem to believe it - ‘no way!’
After their stint as dairy personnel, Sho proclaims that they have performed a journey to become adults. But Takaki thinks there’s more road to travel - this time on a more vertical axis:
Poor Sho. (Oddly enough, I think this bungee-jumping location is on the farm! What is this place? Also, why is the bungee tower flying an American flag?) When Aiba invites Takaki to demonstrate how bungee-jumping will help them to mature, she weasels out of it with cuteness.
But Sho lucks out after all - Takaki selects Aiba to take the fall.
Jun thinks this is hilarious - but Aiba will get his revenge on D no Arashi.
Abruptly, being adult means having a multi-course Japanese dinner in a ritzy restaurant. The food is beautiful, whatever it is.
But then there’s this clam-type thing that gets grilled at the table, and the creature sort of writhes around as it cooks. I don’t know if it’s still alive, or if the flesh just reacts this way to heat. Sho seems a little concerned about it, though.
I guess maybe these are mature foods? Maybe they have flavors that one grows into appreciating. Or maybe one just grows into being able to afford them. Notably, it is the youthful shellfish meal that Sho and Aiba bring back to the jungle studio for the others to share. Evidence that Arashi were allowed to eat at least once in April of 2004. Except for Jun, who doesn’t have his hands anywhere his chopsticks after the first shot.
*exasperated sigh*
I wish I could have picked up more of the conversation during the mature dinner. I’d like to think that it (and the conclusions the boys present in a voice-over thereafter) went something like: being an adult means being able to enjoy seemingly childish things as well as those activities typically seen to be ‘adult’. Maturity doesn’t have to mean cutting yourself off from enjoyable pastimes, or from learning about new things, just because you’ve reached a certain age. So it’s possible to spend the morning digging up shellfish and giggling on the beach, and the evening in a high-class restaurant, and not find any dissonance in this contrast. And there’s no need for Sho and Aiba (et al) to stop playing games and doing wacky experiments just because they’re over twenty. Definitely not.
Or maybe this is just wishful thinking from a nominal adult who enjoys cartoons and comics and might be just a little obsessed with one or two Japanese boybands. &hearts
Arashi no Waza ari, which ran for about a year during 2004 and 2005, was apparently supposed to be a more grown-up show than their previous programs. This might explain why it doesn’t seem to get any fan attention. After all, the only thing fans really want from Arashi is for them to be a bunch of light-hearted dorks. Witness the anti-serious format changes in D no Arashi and, more recently, Himitsu no Arashi-chan.
Note: I watched this raw, and I’m not entirely sure my vestigial Japanese was up to the challenge, so there may be a lot of mistaken interpretations here.
The program opens with the boys ranged along a table and surrounded by a jungle of plastic plants. For some reason this set reminds me of the Shounen Club Premium set in its earth-tone attempts at maturity and classiness. But without Taichi’s random flock of fake ducks.
They bring on a middle-aged entertainer of some sort (the mononominal Kitarou), and they discuss what it means to be an adult. Aiba thinks it’s about drinking beer. Hmm… clearly there is work to be done on this concept.
So Sho and Aiba go on location, cosplaying as middle school students. No complaints here. But one begins to question how ‘mature’ this program really is.
Gratuitous shot of Aiba being pretty. And Ohno watching very intently in the inset.
They have enlisted the help of Takaki Miho, who I believe was a singer in the early 80s. She immediately asks how old they are.
So then, why are they dressed as middle school students?
Sho: We are middle school students!
I guess this costume is meant to represent how very far they have to go until they can consider themselves adults. Let’s see… this was four years ago, and they continue to cosplay, splash around in corn starch, and otherwise act like incredibly mature adults on broadcast television. Yeah, maybe middle school was an astute choice.
So it seems that Takaki-san’s plan for demonstrating adult behavior requires a visit to the ocean. And specialized equipment.
Transform! Seriously. I couldn’t manage to cap it, but the three of them spring into the air, and the edit allows them to land wearing these new outfits. Sho, since he’s always into the cosplay, strikes a pose.
Aiba reacts appropriately, surely ventroloquizing the audience.
(Okay, actually, he’s responding to something the guest said that I couldn’t catch. This results in her reminding him that she’s twenty years older than he is. Like a good boy, he amends ‘kawaii’ to ‘kirei.’ I guess she thinks she’s too old to be cute? But she is! Just wait!)
So apparently being an adult involves … digging for shellfish.
Sho: Isn’t this something that kids do?
Aiba is summoned from off-screen. There’s no reason for him to run, of course, except that he’s Aiba.
Ah, it seems the old dude wants to give him some nice shellfish. Aiba hasn’t brought his bucket, so he improvises.
Aiba takes these back and shares them with Takaki-san, who is quite pleased. But he refuses to divulge his source - weren’t we learning maturity here?
Aiba and Takaki-san are having a very good time playing in the sand and looking at shells. Sho thinks they’re idiots.
Takaki-san seems to confirm this when she announces in a satisfied tone that ‘the ocean is a big miso soup!’
Umm… Sho’s response is ‘What the hell?’ (so I think my translation is relatively correct). Her explanation for this absurdity: she’s happy.
Yes, well. The results of their endeavors. The guest wins (it was mature of them to let her - and I’m pretty sure it was Aiba’s donations that put her over the top).
It seems that a local restaurant will prepare their shellfish for them, so they get to eat! And Takaki continues to be cute in her excitement about all this.
Aiba talks with his mouth full, of course. And chokes. Sho and Takaki just laugh at him.
I guess digging for shellfish doesn’t teach maturity all by itself (or not to Aiba, anyway), because Takaki-san now kidnaps the boys to some kind of tourist farm that has cows. And an awesome sign.
Once again, the fascination with having idols milk cows rears its trendily coifed head. As the farmer guy is explaining the process, he says to grasp the first (or maybe the biggest) nipple. Sho: ‘that’s a huge nipple!’ He seems pretty apprehensive about this whole cow-milking thing.
He gives a gingerly squeeze and is rewarded with success! And we, with cute Sho faces. &hearts
When it’s Aiba’s turn, he totally apologizes to the cow in advance. And when he succeeds in squirting some milk, he doesn’t seem to believe it - ‘no way!’
After their stint as dairy personnel, Sho proclaims that they have performed a journey to become adults. But Takaki thinks there’s more road to travel - this time on a more vertical axis:
Poor Sho. (Oddly enough, I think this bungee-jumping location is on the farm! What is this place? Also, why is the bungee tower flying an American flag?) When Aiba invites Takaki to demonstrate how bungee-jumping will help them to mature, she weasels out of it with cuteness.
But Sho lucks out after all - Takaki selects Aiba to take the fall.
Jun thinks this is hilarious - but Aiba will get his revenge on D no Arashi.
Abruptly, being adult means having a multi-course Japanese dinner in a ritzy restaurant. The food is beautiful, whatever it is.
But then there’s this clam-type thing that gets grilled at the table, and the creature sort of writhes around as it cooks. I don’t know if it’s still alive, or if the flesh just reacts this way to heat. Sho seems a little concerned about it, though.
I guess maybe these are mature foods? Maybe they have flavors that one grows into appreciating. Or maybe one just grows into being able to afford them. Notably, it is the youthful shellfish meal that Sho and Aiba bring back to the jungle studio for the others to share. Evidence that Arashi were allowed to eat at least once in April of 2004. Except for Jun, who doesn’t have his hands anywhere his chopsticks after the first shot.
*exasperated sigh*
I wish I could have picked up more of the conversation during the mature dinner. I’d like to think that it (and the conclusions the boys present in a voice-over thereafter) went something like: being an adult means being able to enjoy seemingly childish things as well as those activities typically seen to be ‘adult’. Maturity doesn’t have to mean cutting yourself off from enjoyable pastimes, or from learning about new things, just because you’ve reached a certain age. So it’s possible to spend the morning digging up shellfish and giggling on the beach, and the evening in a high-class restaurant, and not find any dissonance in this contrast. And there’s no need for Sho and Aiba (et al) to stop playing games and doing wacky experiments just because they’re over twenty. Definitely not.
Or maybe this is just wishful thinking from a nominal adult who enjoys cartoons and comics and might be just a little obsessed with one or two Japanese boybands. &hearts