NMB48: Geinin Season 2 – Episode 12: Fish is good, but Sanma is king

Bow down, when he comes to your town.

I know that Akashiya Sanma is one of the legendary comedians of Japan, but exactly how legendary, I wasn’t quite sure. I don’t watch other J-entertainment programs besides NMB and some AKB, and some J-Dramas.

Well.

Holy crap.

When Maachun and Ripopo fall to their knees and bow down, you know you are dealing with something serious.

Football Hour is even more nervous than NMB.

Sanma reacts to idol introductions.

It’s one thing to be funny on your own show, but it’s another thing to be a legendary comedian on a show that teaches idols to be funnier. It’s like Michael Jordan visiting your high school basketball team.

Milky is fearless.

One thing I noticed about Milky is that she just dives straight in. She walks right up to Sanma and says “I’m from Nara!” while everyone else is cowering from being starstruck. She tries to get Sanma to suberi to see how to escape it, and he outplays her. As much as I harp on Milky for not improving and just relying on being cute, I like how her personality just takes over you. Sure, she’s known for fishing, but that’s because of how strong her social aura is. I still remember watching an episode of Naruhodo High School when they’re trying to figure out how a certain magic trick is performed, and she walks up to Acchan and starts talking to her about what she thought he was doing when other people of her generation would crap their pantsu standing next to her.

On the other side, Sayaka has admitted that she turns into a pansy when she’s with AKB (and resolved to change it).

And you can’t stop Riichan from being Riichan.

Maachun asked Sanma what’re some good things to keep in mind during adlib sections, and he tells her that tempo is key. So Riichan lazily walks in front and Sanma smacks her with the fan saying WTF, don’t do that, I was just talking about tempo. And when he goes to tsukkomi her again, Riichan was already standing in front again and he can’t find her. THEN when he asks who’s next, she doesn’t raise her hand.

Maybe this is why Milky and Riichan get along so well. They have these personalities that are just so strong.

Sanma is the same thing, this is supposed to be instructional and yet he’s still extremely funny while teaching them how to be better.

Yui is just giddy when he says she does a good job.

Nerves are super high, people are super nervous yet are really excited when they get praised, and heartbroken when they’re not.

Have you ever seen Fuuchan this flustered?

Too flustered.

Milky and Sanma continued to have great chemistry. Sanma hinted to her to say “oooooooh” as if she was confused so that he can say “Oooooh Mambo!” She didn’t and she got slapped. Then she says it and she still gets slapped. Then she uses the “etto” setup that Fuuchan did and gets slapped again. Then she randomly says “Oooooh” when the camera’s not on her.
And yet somehow Sanma responds perfectly every time.

This combination could rival Gotou/Nana.

Gotou admits he’s learning a lot too.

Honestly I thought Milky’s joke was a fail, but the chemistry was just so good that you had to give it to her.

One of the pleasant surprises from Geinin has to be Akarin. She seems so diva-like and high class, whether it’s because of her characters or even because of the scandal, but every single time she shows up her jokes have been awesome. The theme was about a teacher you wouldn’t want to have.

Akarin – “I don’t really want to say this, but let’s all close our eyes, and whoever stole Tanaka-kun’s money needs to raise their hand.”

*raises her hand*

Lavish praise deserved!

It’s really a shame that Sanma was only there for 10 minutes. He was a bit mad about it, and so am I. The DVD extras better be good!

After the drama part wrapped up, which confused me, there was also a surprise heart-to-heart.

Legit letters.

Legit tears.

Yui announced that she’s transferring and gives out various postcards (which I *think* was her comedic gimmick in the show if I remember correctly) and the surprise was that the message on the postcards was actually related to her stay with NMB. I’m almost certain that the rehearsal had different things on it, since I believe Nana said something about that.

Either way, really nice to see how they acted in response to that. Poor Ripopo. When she said “I’ll listen to your radio show,” as part of the script, she said it all choked up and I had to try not to laugh.

Our final manzai was Yokoyamada.

And it was a little too short…

It’s a shame that this is the last memory of Yokoyama in NMB. Her manzai was decent, good even, and I’m really gonna miss what she offered to NMB. I really liked Yui in Bimyo and I liked her just as much in Geinin. She has a knack for comedy in the idol world and it’s just a shame that she won’t be able to develop it further in NMB.

Farewell, Geinin…

And thus wraps up another season of Geinin. I really enjoyed it and it was something I looked forward to every week, especially since I stopped watching AKBingo! and I needed another weekly show to keep me going in this fandom. I’m hoping something else pops up to replace it. And not just another TV show like a Black Million, but another show in this style where we can just see them act goofy.

So here’s to Suberi Devil Nana, an always annoyed Sayaka, the adorable Milky, the silly Maachun, the depressed Ripopo, and the deadpanning Yuihan. Here’s to a great supporting cast of Momoka and Anchu. Here’s to a final appearance of Hitomin. Here’s to a lively Fuuchan, a high-class Akarin, and the puppy-like Riichan.

And last but certainly not least, perhaps actually the most, here’s to Football Hour. Gotou had superb performances and carried a lot of the improv sections with his wit, and we didn’t get much Iwao this season but his bit parts in the drama were hilarious.

Bye bye, Iwao!