FNS27
This year's FNS27 was kind of surprising. I was planning on watching only the swimming games and the Nakai baseball challenge part, plus the finale maybe. Even though Nakai was announced on most of the corners, I thought he was only going to be in a guest position. But I ended up watching much more because he was actually the main MC of 90% of the corners. I'm still wondering how it ended up like that and why he wasn't announced from the start as one of the main hosts. Was that decided from the beginning or was he added later for some reason? During the whole thing, I noticed that Okamura was too stressed because of his final dance challenge, so maybe he asked for Nakai's help because of that?
SMAP vs mechaike
Sports challenges and competitions are one of the situations where SMAP's deep bonds show the best. Being the hate-to-lose group, they were totally serious about fighting to win, but, at the same time, I was under the impression that they had two other strong thoughts besides winning: 1/protecting the members from getting injuries and 2/leaving no regrets. Maybe because of what happened last year, they were all protective of Kimura and the injured Tsuyoshi, and at the same time they were all pushing Goro because they wanted him to shine and recover from last year's "trauma". It reminded me of their guesting on TFPII when the members for each game were chosen in a way that aimed to make every member shine and finish the show with no regrets, rather than to maximize their points. I loved how Nakai "threatened" san-naka to make sure he didn't hurt Kimura again, told Tsuyoshi that he didn't have to overdo it for the diving contest, and then...ALL THE NAKAGORO!!!!!!!!!! I think he wasn't serious one second about making Goro do the bungee jump. He totally knew Kimura was going to be a HERO and do the bungee in a way so cool it makes it look like a victory for SMAP rather than a batsu game XD
And we even had some ShinGoro, TakuGoro, 2TOP and Santaku moments thanks to the bungee jump!
Chibikko honki dance
The kids were awesome and full of talent. All my favourite teams got in the Best 8 in the end! But the corner could have been much better, production and hosting wise. I think there was too much focus on the guests like Exile instead of the kids themselves, and useless interruptions of the flow with the random collective dancing and mezamashi. I think it could have been also more interesting to announce the team's scores immediately after the perfs. And I totally agree with Nakai scolding 99 for the slow rythm.
TED
I had 5% of hope that it would have some serious, interesting talks, but of course it had to end up like your typical mechaike style corner. It surely had some funny moments and it was successful as a parody. But while their conclusion was "There's no TV crisis", my own conclusion was "TV, especially Fuji TV, is in deep shit".
Dream cover
One of my most favourite corners. I loved the covers and the perfs, especially May J., Wada Akiko, Moriyama Naotaro, Toshi...
Also, I need a full version of NakaixTsuyoshi perf. SxS staff, I'm counting on you!
Sports challenge
Nakai on serious mode. Do I need to say more?
Honki Dance Live
Okamura surely did his best. Again, the production/directing could have been better. For example, the loud sound coming from the monitoring studio was annoying and made it impossible to get immersed into the actual live and feel the full magnitude of the challenge and the struggle. At least the sounds totally shut up at smap's part XD I have to give Fuji credits for the complete surprise and the awesome staging of smap's appearance though. It was the coolest thing ever!
Also, it was cool how the other 4 members disappeared immediately after the perf to avoid stealing the spotlight from 99 and the mechaike members, and just left a present in heir name. Just like a team of heroes with secret identities :D they're the real Televimen after all....It reminds me of TOKIO on the latest 24hrtv when they suddenly appeared to support Leader in the end of his marathon and then refused to enter the main venue.
Overall, the show was different from the image I had in head of the Honki concept, but I guess it suits mechaike style. I've seen a lot of comments on the yahoo news article saying that Nakai and SMAP saved the show and, I don't want to be mean to mechaike, but I can't deny that I kind of agree.
The review was probably too biased but I can't help it XD
SMAP vs mechaike
Sports challenges and competitions are one of the situations where SMAP's deep bonds show the best. Being the hate-to-lose group, they were totally serious about fighting to win, but, at the same time, I was under the impression that they had two other strong thoughts besides winning: 1/protecting the members from getting injuries and 2/leaving no regrets. Maybe because of what happened last year, they were all protective of Kimura and the injured Tsuyoshi, and at the same time they were all pushing Goro because they wanted him to shine and recover from last year's "trauma". It reminded me of their guesting on TFPII when the members for each game were chosen in a way that aimed to make every member shine and finish the show with no regrets, rather than to maximize their points. I loved how Nakai "threatened" san-naka to make sure he didn't hurt Kimura again, told Tsuyoshi that he didn't have to overdo it for the diving contest, and then...ALL THE NAKAGORO!!!!!!!!!! I think he wasn't serious one second about making Goro do the bungee jump. He totally knew Kimura was going to be a HERO and do the bungee in a way so cool it makes it look like a victory for SMAP rather than a batsu game XD
And we even had some ShinGoro, TakuGoro, 2TOP and Santaku moments thanks to the bungee jump!
Chibikko honki dance
The kids were awesome and full of talent. All my favourite teams got in the Best 8 in the end! But the corner could have been much better, production and hosting wise. I think there was too much focus on the guests like Exile instead of the kids themselves, and useless interruptions of the flow with the random collective dancing and mezamashi. I think it could have been also more interesting to announce the team's scores immediately after the perfs. And I totally agree with Nakai scolding 99 for the slow rythm.
TED
I had 5% of hope that it would have some serious, interesting talks, but of course it had to end up like your typical mechaike style corner. It surely had some funny moments and it was successful as a parody. But while their conclusion was "There's no TV crisis", my own conclusion was "TV, especially Fuji TV, is in deep shit".
Dream cover
One of my most favourite corners. I loved the covers and the perfs, especially May J., Wada Akiko, Moriyama Naotaro, Toshi...
Also, I need a full version of NakaixTsuyoshi perf. SxS staff, I'm counting on you!
Sports challenge
Nakai on serious mode. Do I need to say more?
Honki Dance Live
Okamura surely did his best. Again, the production/directing could have been better. For example, the loud sound coming from the monitoring studio was annoying and made it impossible to get immersed into the actual live and feel the full magnitude of the challenge and the struggle. At least the sounds totally shut up at smap's part XD I have to give Fuji credits for the complete surprise and the awesome staging of smap's appearance though. It was the coolest thing ever!
Also, it was cool how the other 4 members disappeared immediately after the perf to avoid stealing the spotlight from 99 and the mechaike members, and just left a present in heir name. Just like a team of heroes with secret identities :D they're the real Televimen after all....It reminds me of TOKIO on the latest 24hrtv when they suddenly appeared to support Leader in the end of his marathon and then refused to enter the main venue.
Overall, the show was different from the image I had in head of the Honki concept, but I guess it suits mechaike style. I've seen a lot of comments on the yahoo news article saying that Nakai and SMAP saved the show and, I don't want to be mean to mechaike, but I can't deny that I kind of agree.
The review was probably too biased but I can't help it XD