Sunny, cold day.
I’m going to need a scarf soon.
I watched the М-1 Grand Prix that I had recorded. I hadn’t watched it since it resumed after a hiatus of several years, so it was refreshing to see it for the first time in a while.
The group that made me laugh the hardest was not the winning duo, but the group Yoneda 2000, who did not make it to the finals.
I have always been a fan of Oriental Radio, and perhaps because I like rhythm-based manzai, I found the group to be a perfect match for my own sense of humor. Anyway, it was new. And it was funny.
Personally, I think that Tetsu & Tomo started rhythm manzai, Oriental Radio perfected it, EXCIT popularized it, and 8.6-second Bazooka squeezed it out (my own prejudice), so I felt that their appearance was the first new arrival in a long time.
Their material is available on YouTube, so you can watch it for yourself, but their surrealistic rhythm manzai was a sight to behold.
I am not an expert on comedy, but I like the new style anyway. King Gong’s speed that seems to fold in on itself. Audrey’s use of time differences. Jarujaru’s play on words. I was impressed when they appeared from time to time.
Just by being presented with a style that has never been done before, I am impressed before I laugh. That is how difficult it is to create a new style from scratch. I really feel it keenly when I write novels.
Even in the world of novels, it is difficult to create a new style, as in the case of Haruki Murakami, whose novels are known as Haruki Bushi, and Banana Yoshimoto, who has raised personal feelings to the level of universality. Conversely, those who are able to create a new style are the ones who will be at the top of their game.
Listening to rhythm manzai, one wonders if such a style could somehow be applied to novels.
Soseki Natsume once loved rakugo and tried to incorporate a sense of rhythm into his writing style (e.g., I am a cat, Bo-chan, Sanshiro).
Not long ago, Genichiro Takahashi and Kenji Maruyama experimented with various writing styles. More recently, Sayaka Murata and Ryo Asai?
When I try to write a rhythmical, rap-like style, my writing inevitably becomes light. It is hard to write serious things. In fact, I would like to write essays or other miscellaneous writings that are “full of flavor and lightly seasoned with tea,” but when I try it, I find it difficult.
How can I write something that is easy to read but deep and difficult? Recently I have been thinking, and I am sure I will be laughed at for saying this, but a good reference might be the “sutra. When I read sutras or listen to monks reading sutras, they are rhythmical and easy to listen to, yet at the same time they convey deep truths. It may be the same with the Koran. Except that it just makes me sleepy.
I think the recent popularity of audiobooks is related to this. I have written before that the affinity between novels and YouTube (video) is low, but I think the affinity between sound and rhythm is high, and I think it will be required more in novels in the future.
The importance of sound and rhythm, and incidentally, surrealism. This young female duo has taught me this. I will support them for a while.
I feel like asking a waterfowl, “Where do you come from?
