IiTomo is over ;_;
Nakai's speech made me in tears. But Shingo's speech was shocking... I don't even want to re-watch Shingo's one... subbing Shingo's speech was hell for me. Too much of Shingo's dark side was shown there... I feel scared to see it.
But anyway, I want to talk about it since the beginning.
In the opening, when they were all singing IiTomo's theme, I was in tears already. So weird. I don't feel any attachment at all to IiTomo, I think it's a boring show unless the guests are people I have interest in. To be honest, I feel glad the show is over cause now Nakai, Shingo, Tsuyoshi can have more rest. But it just occurred to me, that this show is a very important show in Japan :(
I love the part where they connect broadcast with Yoshinaga Sayuri in her movie filming location. She's a 69 year old lady but she looks like 60, so pretty! Apparently, Tamori is a long-time fan. Tamori's expression was so cute when Sayuri was talking to her. I've heard about her being a legendary actress so many times so I checked out her young pictures, and wow she was really, really cute and pretty when she was young. Tamori looked a bit shy and nervous hahaha.... I find them so cute, the ojiichan and obaachan^^
During the Sanma x Tamori talk segment, the IiTomo members sit on the audience seats. I love how Shingo and Tsuyoshi naturally sit next to each other. I was wondering if they were sitting according to their Monday team, Tuesday team and so on. But no, the IiTomo teams were sitting spread out and randomly. Seems like they were free to choose where to sit. Becky and Lola are bestfriends and they naturally sit next to each other too. Nakai decided to sit far away from ShinTsuyo, perhaps to mingle with the others.
Still on Sanma x Tamori talk segment, later on there were these veteran comedian duo-s came onto stage. Off the top of my head: Downtown, Ucchan Nanchan, Tunnels, Bakusho Mondai, 99... top comedian duo-s rarely seen together on the same screen. As all of them gather on the stage, the situation turned chaos, unorganized... they were just trying to do meaningless funny things... no one takes control of the situation, each of them do anything they want... I thought they are pros... But I guess it's just because the crew didn't give them any plan or script of what to do on stage? And Tamori didn't try to sort things out either, he was just watching them and laughing... maybe he was surprised, they all came (I think it meant to be a surprise for him). As an audience, it was quite difficult to watch... but I dunno, maybe the Japanese audience likes to see this kind of chaos moment? Then, Okamura 99 start pulling Nakai onto the stage "Nakai come on to stage! Nakai come on to stage!" seems like Nakai refused in the beginning, so Okamura had to pull him up .... at first, I thought that was just another meaningless funny thing Okamura did there. But after the commercial, Nakai didn't come down and he started acting like a host. It must be quite a pressure to be around those veteran comedians and they keep doing things as they like. But Nakai managed to take control of the situation and start to ask them questions. Acting like Tamori's co-host... reminds me of the good ol days of IiTomo Haru/Aki SP T_T Once again... I think, Nakai-kun sugoi naa... he could handle the inferior feeling towards these veterans and acted like a pro.
Later, Tunnels' Noritake brought a veteran script writer (writer of OSHIN and other legendary dramas in Japan), an 89 year old lady onto the stage, without any reason.(just trying to be funny) It really had no purpose. After a while, I was surprised to see Shingo and Tsuyoshi came on to the stage and took the old lady back to her seat. Was that Shingo's initiative to do that? No way, Shingo and Tsuyoshi would never dare to come in between those veterans. And you can see Shingo was lowering his head so low, like not wanting to stand out, when he came onto the stage. I repeated and paid attention closely and I caught a moment where Nakai glanced toward ShinTsuyo's seat direction once. Since then, I'm so sure Nakai was giving them glances a couple of time (not caught by the camera) giving signs to them to help him bring the old lady back to her seat. Sugoi... ShinTsuyo could understand Leader's signals from afar, just from his glances XD Confirmed once again, cause after ShinTsuyo lead the old lady to her seat, Nakai said to Noritake jokingly "Be responsible of what you did!" like saying, "You should've been the one who bring her back to her seat"
I find it so cute when Tamori looked so surprised that SMAP will perform a song for him^^ ARIGATOU has always been a very touching song for me. Totally in tears to see this.
Download Link Then comes farewell speeches by IiTomo regular hosts.
I was left in awe watching Shingo's speech.
Download Link I realized he's just an 11 year old kid pretending to be a 37 year old adult. It's like something that means the world for him has been taken away from him.
Tsuyoshi was so calm and composed. He always has a stable emotion.
Download Link And Nakai...
Download Link I was also in tears, but wondering whether he was just pretending to cry or was he really crying? Cause in the end, he was obviously bullying Tsurube, lol. I love his speech a lot. Very moving.
There had been rumors from a few years back that IiTomo's lead will be replaced by Nakai cause Tamori's health was deteriorating. When IiTomo ending news came out, I immediately associated them with the rumors I heard few years ago, but after I saw Shingo-Nakai-Tsurube's speech in the grand finale, apparently that's not the case... Seems like it was FujiTV's decision to end the long-running show. And sadly none of the IiTomo members/regular host know the reason.
What made Shingo so mad and asked the question "Why does it has to end??" I don't think it's because of the decision, but more of because they were not explained the true reason and just left them in the dark. It must be really upsetting for them to lose something important for them, not to mention they lost a job, without knowing the reason.
If Shingo or Nakai knows the reason for sure, I'm sure Shingo won't blurt out that question.
Oh well... I'm sure Shingo will be fine very soon. He will have a lot of fun working on the musical together with Koji and Arisa^^