It may seem strange to do this post now because Himitsu no Arashi-chan ended its run on 21 March i.e. yesterday after a 5-year-run. Frankly speaking, 5 years is a rather long time in the variety world when programmes get cancelled easily due to poor ratings and that's precisely the same reason which did Arashi-chan in. However, this programme isn't as bad as it seems as the low ratings suggest. At least that's what I think.
I didn't follow this programme right from the start and along the way, I stopped watching this when access to the programme wasn't readily available. Last year, I started to watch this again and caught up on some of the older episodes of which some were quite entertaining. Instead of trying to pinpoint why the programme didn't do well, I'll like to introduce some of the segments which I enjoyed a lot as a way to remember the good things Arashi-chan did:
1) Mannequin 5
This has got to be the highlight of Arashi-chan which typically shows 5 people coming up with their own fashion coordination based on a fixed theme. Usually, there will be 2 Arashi members along with a couple of special guests plus one or two comedians who gets paraded as models and four female guests will pick the person whose coordination wins their favour. The last one remaining will be left alone in the studio lamenting why he was not chosen. It's a relatively simple concept but what's interesting is that even with great looks or a good figure, it doesn't mean that you'll definitely be chosen by the ladies who have lots of scalding comments for these guys at times. Sometimes, what guys think they look in may come off as horrendous in the eyes of the opposite sex so this is a wake-up call for them of some sorts. At times, the comedians or guest stars manage to wow the ladies so much that the Arashi members get left behind with their "less-than-desired" fashion sense e.g. the double parka trademark from Sakurai Sho (wearing two parkas at the same time) or the Aiba-take from Aiba Masaki (three-quarter length pants). ^__^
There have been six Mannequin 5 SPs to date where all 5 members would fight against one another and head off to a shopping mall early in the morning to pick their clothes and accessories to match the theme. After they do that, the public was asked to vote for the best coordination and the loser would have to pose in embarrassing sets or poses for ads pasted on a trailer truck that went around Tokyo initially but later extended to other cities outside of Tokyo. I voted twice in this so it was fun as a viewer to see if your choice would win or be seen as horrible in the eyes of the majority.
It's a pity that they didn't end off with a Mannequin 5 SP in the final episode, I would have liked to see the Arashi members fight it out again with their fashion sense, or rather the lack of it at times.
2) Otona wa dekite touzen SHOW
In this segment, Arashi members and guests are asked to answer questions which are considered as common knowledge if they are indeed adults. There will be two teams who send out representatives based on the percentage of people in a particular category who manage to answer the question correctly and the losing team will have to drink bitter tea to help them "grow up" into adults. This segment can be rather informative and helps you know things which you might never have realised even though in terms of age, you are already an adult. There was once when it was really impressive to see Ohno get all the Kanji names of different types of fish correct. Frankly speaking, I know the names in Hiragana script but never really bothered remembering everything in Kanji which is commonplace in sushi restaurants. Being an avid "fisherman", Ohno really showed his knowledge about fish through this particular question. And you would be surprised that sometimes, the Arashi members have talents which you never knew about e.g. Nino being able to fold his clothes more neatly and faster than a married woman.
3) Arashi Sharehouse
The concept of this segment is that the Arashi members live together in this huge house and they will entertain female guests who come to visit them. Usually, there will be two members in each episode and depending on the combination and their interaction with the guest, this can be really entertaining at times. This is actually the newest segment which started barely a year ago and takes up about half the airtime. Sometimes, I find the editing a but choppy so the dialogue tends not to flow well when they switch topics too abruptly. Nonetheless, the fun part about Sharehouse is how you can hear interesting snippets about Arashi and the guests which you probably wouldn't know in the past. Some of the guests also cooked their specialties on the spot so it can be amusing to see how Arashi members are roped in to help at times but obviously, some of them are not very culinary-inclined. :-)
It's a pity that Arashi-chan has ended and Arashi are not back on TBS with their own programme as a group but rather Sakurai is teaming up with another comedian for a talk show. It remains to be seen if the new programme can do well (I'll check it out if there's an opportunity) but frankly speaking, one less programme to see the entire group together is sad news after all. I hope that Arashi will be back with a brand new programme on TBS soon and I stress, it's all 5 of them who have to appear together. ^__^
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