General and specific references for J-Ota Danshi Asahina-kun volume 2, chapter 9.
General References
Concert Carts
These are a staple of Johnny’s concerts at big venues! They’re tall platforms that circle around the venue such that everyone can get a good look at the group members. Sometimes multiple members get on a single cart, other times they each get an individual one. They have railings, walls or mini-railing armrests to make sure that idols don’t just faceplant off of them, and can sometimes be heavily decorated, almost like parade floats. Their path generally goes between the floor seats and the bleacher seats, so members must turn around every so often to evenly distribute face time with the audience, as Asahina notes. (I’m sure some Western artists use these, but personally I’ve only seen them used in Asian idol concerts.)
Here’s Sexy Zone at the 2019-2020 Johnny’s Countdown concert, riding around Tokyo Dome on carts:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jj67wpzr2oU
And NEWS and KAT-TUN at the 2010-2011 concert, on some of the more elaborate carts! (See also Nishikido Ryo performing from elsewhere as he spent NYE with Kanjani8, rather than NEWS.)
Happy Birthday, “Yaida-kun”!
Asahina-kun has a Christmas Eve date to celebrate “Yaida-kun’s” birthday! Buying cakes for idols’ birthdays is not uncommon among super-fans, though one usually enjoys them at home or with friends, rather than at a fancy restaurant on one of the most popular date nights of the year… Aiba Masaki’s (from Arashi) real birthday is also on 12/24 and he’s well-represented here. The stuffed animals represent Aiba’s co-hosting of the show Tensai! Shimura Doubutsuen (Genius! Shimura Zoo), a variety show with an animal theme, cohosted by the late Shimura Ken (Shimuken). He often is tasked with visiting and/or handling various animals, ranging from quotidian (dogs, cats, etc.) to exotic (lions, monkeys, etc.)
Here’s a compilation video of Aiba speaking English (poorly) that features a lot of clips from Shimura Doubutsuen!
Aiba’s parents own a Chinese restaurant in Chiba, so it’s not surprising that Asahina would pick up some personalized cooking tools for him (though he claims to not have cooked much until somewhat recently) – of course, what Asahina will do with them after is ?
Bodypainting…?
Tegoshi Yuya from NEWS (“Akoshi Yuki” in the manga, but see below) was involved in a segment on the variety program Sekai no Hate Made ItteQ where he let someone body paint him into a spider on TV while he was just wearing flesh-tone briefs. Also they got a lot of shots of him in the pose that Nanami-sensei depicted.
If you search you can find more pictures (or video), but I figure this one is descriptive enough without being NSFW (or NSFL, depending on your fear of spider-like things!)
Johnny’s often do extreme or whacky things on variety or game shows (crossdressing, attaching clothespins to themselves, eating weird foods, bungee jumping) but this was a new one for me, at least.
So about those past trials…
The two groups highlighted at the end of the chapter are “MUSE” (NEWS) and “Tai! Show! JACK” (Hey! Say! JUMP), both of which are shown here in their 2016 configurations with four and nine members, respectively. Of course, while I was procrastinating on translating this volume, Tegoshi left NEWS, leaving them with just three members from the original nine (!), and Okamoto Keito’s return to JUMP from attending acting school in NYC was indefinitely delayed by COVID.
You can see NEWS’ Massu joyfully beating the crap out of a pinata while yelling “TEGOSHI!” following his departure:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2i4wOsY-Al4
Page-by-page references
Page 26
The chapter title is joking that Ushubetsu is Asahina’s first “junior”, the title given to trainee Johnny’s before they reach a music debut with a group.
Page 28
Asahina is reading “Week Up” (Wink Up) on this page, which annually holds a poll of readers to determine the “best pair” (“best combi”) in Johnny’s. In 2016 the winners were Arioka Daiki and Chinen Yuri (Hey! Say! JUMP), while in 2017 they were Sato Shori and Kikuchi Fuma (Sexy Zone). You can see winners from 2013 (the start of the contest) through 2017 (the year this volume was published) here.
Do you know which year this page is modeled on? Let me know!
Page 29
Ushubetsu’s name is spelled with the kanji for cow (牛), which I guess is foreshadowing! It’s also the name of a river in Hokkaido.
Page 32
Kanjani8 did a collaboration with Hichew and there was a cube released, more or less identical to this except with fruits instead of sweets. Only 500 people won these cubes, and you had to buy two eligible Hichew products and submit their barcodes to be eligible. See the press release here.
Page 39
The three panels in the middle are based on actual members of Arashi, from the right:
1. Nino’s performance of Niji from AAA (Arashi Around Asia) 2008
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qwX8qGATCE0
(See Bilibili link if YouTube doesn’t work.)
2. Both Aiba and Matsujun have been seen in chef outfits like this (though seemingly mostly in baking/pastry-type contexts, rather than making food in a pan)
3. ????? Do you know what show this is? Let me know!
Page 41
“Sefudo”‘s “Kenchi” is Sekuzo’s (Sexy Zone’s) Kenty, aka Nakajima Kento.
Page 46
Kis-my-ft2 (Kisumai, and known alternately as “Kamumai” and also “Kick-me-fuk2” …) promotes a gum called “Watering KissMint” and gum containers like this one have been released with the members’ images on them. However, I haven’t been able to track down one with this appearance.
Note that Asahina is actually back on his “road to the five domes”-type narrative at the end here, but that seemed like a difficult nuance to pack into this one bubble.