In this final episode that aired about a week ago, Downtown goes on a mid-day barhopping with Sakagami Shinobu (a long-time actor whose popularity on variety shows exploded around late 2013) and Sashihara Rino (HKT48) and Takahashi Jouji (rock artist) joining the group later.
The three get various levels of drunk (Sakagami reaching critical levels) and talk about various subjects (marriage, their relationship as a kombi, the current situation of TV in general). While nothing particularly new information comes up, there were few things worth mentioning (bottom of this post).
[size=150:62n5h2zi][b:62n5h2zi][url=http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2k40a4:62n5h2zi]Dailymotion (HD)[/url:62n5h2zi]
[url=https://mega.co.nz/#!14lgTa4S!FBLr3SYfK3PWumhTyrdOFtE0uSa46VOy4XezkxOueG4:62n5h2zi]Mega (722 MB)[/url:62n5h2zi][/b:62n5h2zi][/size:62n5h2zi]
[img:62n5h2zi]http://i.imgur.com/jd6X2NV.jpg[/img:62n5h2zi]
This was the show that’s getting replaced by the upcoming "Downtown Nau" as discussed in the general news thread. I haven’t seen any earlier episodes, but spotted this one on a matome site, watched it and thought it was pretty good, so I wanted to share it here.
For those who don’t know Japanese, few excerpts (written during the upload of raw to MEGA):
[quote:62n5h2zi][hide:62n5h2zi]When asked which celebrities do they go usually drink with and/or consider to be their friends or a person they really trust, Matsumoto answered "Nakai-kun" (most likely Nakai Masahiro, a member of SMAP who co-starred in the drama "Densetsu no Kyoushi" with Matsumoto and also is a semiregular guest on Wide na Show where Matsumoto is a regular). Hamada didn't give any names and when strongly inquired who does he really trust, he answered "No one".
Sasahara asked how exactly did Matsumoto's marriage happened and he told that when her wife (obviously not his wife at that time) got into an accident in a taxi and when taken to a hospital, they planned to take an X-ray. The hospital staff recommended to take a pregnancy test just in case and she agreed. After getting a positive result, she called to Matsumoto to tell about it, who was ironically at a konpa at the time.
Matsumoto once again presented few metaphors:
- When asked about their relationship as a kombi, Matsumoto said it really resembles being married; for both of them, it was their first "relationship". They've done it for a long time now and while there isn't really anything special in it anymore, there's no real reason to break up. "That being said, it's still sexless. Only the memories of the time when he was still great [in bed] remain".
- When asked about current television and comedy, Matsumoto said that there's two categories: the "speciality stores" and "convenience stores". Popular shows with mainstream appeals are convinience stores, who carry all sorts of things that everybody from small kids to elderly people use. Downtown ended up becoming a "speciality store"; they really aim to produce laughter and take it to the next level without paying attention to ratings. If speciality shops ever die out, the convience stores will also be brought to an end and keeping that balance between speciality and mainstream is the thing that broadcasters should pay attention to.
Near the end, Sasahara asked what the two really think about each other.
Hamada said that he really respects Matsumoto because it's only thanks to his talents that Downtown has come so far. He doesn't mind Matsumoto doing movies and other stuff because it's something that's impossible for himself.
Matsumoto said that Hamada acts as a complement for the few things that are missing from himself, like MCing (interaction with guests) and few random ideas. However, he denied respecting him in any way, especially as a human being.[/hide:62n5h2zi][/quote:62n5h2zi]