Welcome to my humble site....

Hajimemashite minna san....welcome to my site on my fave Japanese Pop Culture likes such as dramas, movies, magazine scans, promo events etc. Mainly concentrate on my faves...Risa Watanabe... Kyoko Saito... Yui Kobayashi....Nana Owada.... Nene Shida.... if you're a fan at all of any of them then you've come to the right place(!) but many others are featured here besides them. Do mainly quick reviews on things I've watched, try to make the reviews brief, quick to read through with not too many spoilers, just whether they're good or bad and why I thought so plus whether you may find them enjoyable. Many, many screenshots are included from everything I've watched plus any video trailers if they're available. Hope you find something that interests you, don't hesitate to comment, arigato gozaimasu!

Search This Blog

Sunday, July 26, 2020

Nogizaka46: 'Nogizaka 46 Hours TV' with Manatsu Akimoto


 No pics like the above in this segment but least we do see a bit of her cooking..... well, actually the cuisine was probably prepared by the staff. Those two dazzling pics are from Manatsu's second photobook, will have a post with the entire book in about eight days. Hmmmm, or should I wait until August 20th as on that date she'll be hitting the age of 26 which may also be the one year anniversary of her becoming Nogi's second Captain. That's too far in the future so expect the original date.


 Think this is the sixth segment I've reviewed and have enjoyed them so much more than their regular variety show, wish they'd have more than one of these every other year. Subs were once again done by the fine folks at Beam Subs and the team this time was Good Enough Subs. They did say a few more segments would be done so hopefully they'll feature some of my faves which would mean more of these recaps. We'll let Manatsu do the introduction to this 14 minute segment....


.... which was for a new restaurant she just opened. Manatsu never said her name in this show but she didn't use her real one and you'll see that in some of these skits. In that above screenshot she's mentioning what else takes place at the restaurant besides serving yummy food and that's to help solve all of her customer's problems, perhaps it was a takeoff from the 'Midnight Diner" drama?

 Manatsu ended up having five customers which of course were all Nogi members. The one problem though was she never solved any of their problems.... and two of them were because of a customer complaining about her! Kind of wish this was a bit longer and did say that about another segment as fourteen minutes weren't long enough to chat with five members. Up first is one of my faves from the group and the last person to have a segment recapped.





 That fave member is Minami and her solo segment featured her on a camping trip could have been twice as long as it was. Her problem was that she's horrible at filling out group surveys which appears to be a frequent happening for the group. Minami never knows what to say and was wondering why her mate Manatsu is such a whiz at the surveys. Manatsu's answer was that she constantly takes notes of what the other members say or do, maybe because she's the captain?
 From what Minami said it appears the behind the scenes staff takes her suggestions seriously such as what to do on their variety shows and for this special which aired live. That was kind of an okay answer or at least compared to the rest of them. Minami seemed satisfied for the most part but sadly before they could get into more details her time was up and making an entrance was customer #2.




 One thing I've never learned are the names of the fourth generation members save for one. I don't follow them nor are they ever included in any group posts as I just think they're too young and as mentioned I'll never discuss them as there's plenty of older members to talk about. So I had no clue who this next member was as her name was never mentioned. Her problem was that she had borrowed some money from a member when they traveled to Shanghai for a Nogi concert but to date hasn't paid this gal back yet, should she?

 That would be the right think to do but the problem was the loan was in Chinese currency, about 300 yuan. Neither knew the exchange rate but I just checked it out and seems like that loan wasn't a huge one as in Japan it would be 4,500 yen or about $43. Manatsu pondered for a few seconds and said why not think of it as a gift and forget about paying her back! Luckily that bit wasn't too long and whoever lent the member the cash may be out $43....




 Third mini segment within the segment was my fave and it was a pleasant surprise to see Mai who is looking better than ever. In a few of these segments that I've recapped we have learned a few personal things about the member's lives which have been interesting. Much of the action was scripted but there was also much that was ad-libbed as it was a live show, this and the final skit we learned a few things about these gals which were my favorite parts.

 As many may know for a long time Mai was a OL for Sony so she's a bit of a regular gal who would go out with the other ladies at the office. That's what she still does and her problem was the drinking sessions she's had with Manatsu!!!! From what Mai said it seems they go out often and 3-4 times she mentioned how tipsy Manatsu became. Her problem was that her personality changed so much when she over imbibed and how could she tell her friend what a pain in the a** she was! That seemed like it threw Manatsu for a loop as it really appeared she was expecting a different problem. Manatsu kind of stammered around for a bit and never fully told Mai how to solve the problem with her 'friend' getting drunk but took it all in stride.





 Mai wasn't quite done yet as she had a second problem with her friend named Manatsu. Seems this Manatsu person is one who is often tardy, especially when they go out drinking and eating but also when they leave the Nogi office(?) for the day. The pair seem to live in the same apartment building so usually share a taxi or ride home but Manatsu often keeps her waiting, sometimes for over thirty minutes which drives Mai up a wall.

 We keep learning little bits of the member's lives as Mai said sometimes she gives up waiting and goes home with Hinako who is the group's most punctual member, who would have thought that?! Seems she may live in the same building and I really need to find out that address.... then again the pair have mine which should be good enough! But Manatsu did admit to being too slow at times which has been a problem forever it seems with her. Once again no concrete answer from the restaurant chef who just said to 'Love the selfish parts of her' and what an enjoyable segment that was.





 Up next was another fourth generation member and the only reason I knew who it was because her name was mentioned. The girl's name was Yuri who looked to be about fifteen but actually will be turning 19 in less than two weeks. The problem she's hoping Manatsu can solve is with her voice and how can she talk louder. Yuri does talk very softly though can speak louder but when she does she gets all tense and her voice sounds too aggressive. Manatsu's astute solution to the problem was.... don't change a thing as you voice is fine the way it is!(?).





 Up last was another big fave of mine which was Erika and it's been so nice seeing so much of her in this special show as I've also seen her in two other segments. She too has a problem with a friend named Manatsu, the chef' said 'This Manatsu must be one popular person!'. Erika's beef with her mate was that she never returns phone calls. Something like that isn't a rare thing but Erika hated how Manatsu would call to say call her back but would never answer when Erika did.

 Erika referred to an April 11th call which shocked Manatsu, why would her friend remember a call from so long ago and this show took place on June 19th. Back in April is when the stay at home order was issued and on that date Manatsu desperately wanted to talk with Erika but when she returned the call there was no answer, not just once but for the whole night!






 Her delicious dish was meat and potatoes which was also Minami's dinner. Back to Erika's problem with Manatsu never calling her back even after leaving messages to do so. Erika seemed a bit peeved at her friend but then again she is a decent actress, what she wondered was how to face Manatsu with her gripes? As has been the norm there was no solution for Erika as Manatsu said to live with her friend's problems as the chef was sure she still loved Manatsu. Erika was kind of shocked at the lame answer and wanted to get into a more heated discussion but sadly that was the end of the segment.


 Not the best of the six individual segments I've recapped but once again it was quite an enjoyable one and as mentioned it's so nice to lean a bit about what the members are like in real life. Not sure what will be up next in this series of 'Nogi 46 Hours TV' segments but have learned that Mai's will be subbed soon and that's one I'm really looking forward to. If you're a Nogi fan would recommend any segment which can be found at Beam Subs, plenty more screenshots from all of the mini segments.