Introducing: MaedaMaeda - Snow buddies, fish buddies and then some
Altough they´re "Big in Japan" for almost two years now, there´s almost zero information to find about them on non-japanese webpages. So that´s why I want to introduce Maeda Koki and Maeda Oshiro better known (or in this case: unknown) as MaedaMaeda to you.
MaedaMaeda is the youngest professional comedy duo of Japan ever. It consists of the brothers Maeda Koki ( born December 13, 1998) and Maeda Oshiro ( born December 7, 2000) . Both of them are active as actors (stage and commercials) since 2005 and had some very minor appearances in a few dramas as extras. Their story of success began as they started to do stand up comedy as a duo. Shortly after forming MaedaMaeda they already had their breakthrough by reaching the semi-finals of the "M-1 Grand Prix 2007" (A kind of "Star Search" for comedians only.) . This was a real kick-start and since then they are almost omnipresent on Japanese television. They did lots of guest appearances in variety shows like "Enta no Kami-sama" , "Oshare" and similar shows. They also were regulars in a series of CM´s for Marudai Food wich aired from June 2007 to July 2008.
Koki (l.) and Oshiro (r) in 2007
Due to their many appearances on variety shows as well as their live shows in Osaka, their popularity was on a steady rise in 2008. They even released a single called "Gucchoki Panda". I don´t post a MP3-sample by purpose, you don´t want to hear that, trust me!
After lending their voices to this "piece of art", Koki and Oshiro began to work on the voicing of the Japanese version of Disneys "Snow Buddies".
Koki voiced Adam (played by Dominic Scott Kay ) and Oshiro took the part of Shasta (voiced by Dylan Sprouse in the US-Original). The movie opened January 21,2009 at Japanese theatres (almost one year after the release in the USA). The (well, at least to me) funny thing about this is that it is Koki who has some similarities to Dylan Sprouse. If you have ever seen one of the early episodes of "Hotel Zack & Cody" that starred Dylan and his brother Cole and compare them with Kokis on stage performances you´ll get what I mean..
Despite of their popularity in Japan, no one (except for some avid watchers of Japanese variety shows) took notice of MaedaMaeda in the rest of the world. That changed at the beginning of 2009. And that was not because of acting in a movie, a drama or a TV-show, but because of Oshiro being just himself. With the supporting of Keiko the makers of the show "Panic face king" played a prank on Oshiro with a hidden camera that involved speaking fishes. Sounds pretty harmless, but in fact they took Oshiro on a real tour de force of emotions. I still feel a bit uncomfortable thinking about doing this to a eight year old boy and actually airing it on TV (on January 5, 2009). But what do I do..?.I uploaded it here, too. (Finally! A DOWNLOAD!)
File-Type : AVI
Duration: 7:25 Min.
Size: 74 MB
Download : MF
Because of the pure and emotional reactions of Oshiro, this clip became very popular for a while on the various video-streaming sites.
The year 2009 was going on with even more appearances in variety-shows, but it was Oshiro again who gained some extra attention besides of that. He guest-starred on the side of Domoto Tsuyoshi (KinKi Kids) in an episode of "33pun Tantei" (33 minute detective) that aired in March. The next step was taken by the Maeda brothers together: They were added to the regular cast of the drama "Akahana no Sensei" (starring Kamiki Ryunosuke and Suga Kenta). In this drama, wich is currently airing, they are playing..pretty much themselfes. They are two hospitalized brothers who open up every episode with a short stand-up that releates to the maintheme of the episode. Here´s an example, taken from episode 2:
File-Type: AVI
Duration: 1:02 Min.
Size: 16,9 MB
Download: MF
Speaking of stand-up comedy, I wrote several times that MaedaMaeda are regulary appearing in variety shows, but haven´t shown you any of it...so, here we go: This is from the most recent episode of "Enta no Kami-sama" ("The God of entertainment") :
File-Type: WMV
Duration: 2:22 Min.
Size: 19,6 MB
Note: Very very very very slight audio-delay (hardly noticeable)
Download: MF
And last but not least: They appeared in the SMAPxSMAP episode of July 27 alongside Tsuyoshi Kusanagi and Katori Shingo, who played the grown-up version of Oshiro (in a HIGHLY entertaining way..)
File-Type: AVI
Duration: 6:34 Min.
Size: 107 MB
Note: Join with HJSplit
Download: Part 1 (MF) Part 2 (MF)
I have to say that this was my favourite performance by MaedaMaeda...up to date!
I will introduce more of my "lesser known" favourites here on an unregular basis...so even if you´re only here because of the Johnny´s stuff...maybe you will find something you like , too.....
(And don´t worry...most of my favourites are related to JE in one way or another...).