As a continuation of the Tano article from a few months ago, I decided to dedicate an entire article to another 12th generation member: Takahashi Juri. It would not be wrong to call her one of the major stars of AKBingo in 2013: along with Karen and Tano she has been responsible for riling up the show. She has managed to secure herself a unique position on the show with an eccentric but stoic sense of humor. Since I have never seen another idol quite like Juri I want to share my thoughts on her variety character and the future potential of it.
As I’ve written in a couple of other posts already Juri has a unique sense of humor. It’s obvious when you see her on AKBingo. Her bizarre monoboke creations on AKBingo were memorable and her flip answers always have a bit of surreality to them. Her Google+ updates are more like poems in terms of word choice and rhythm. Most recently her peculiar way of thinking became apparent on AKBingo’s Battle Burger Shop episodes as she gave unusual hints, like melonpan for Mount Fuji as there is a product called “Mount Fuji Melonpan”, but even Bad Boys couldn’t quite keep up with that – however it worked sufficiently without a proper response. In addition, she has a good onscreen chemistry with Karen and that showed up in Battle Burger Shop as well: she picked a funny fight with Karen after she used her color wrongly. Furthermore, she didn’t forget that joke and used it to her advantage later on in the episode. That sort of skill is rare among AKB members, especially younger members, so I would like to see her being encouraged to do even more variety in future. That is something she really does come up with her own instead of being hinted to do by the staff or other members so it is even more respectable than the usual input of AKB members in variety shows.
Another thing that Juri has that many other members don’t is the capability to do something to rescue herself after failing. Adding even something to a failed joke shows good understanding and capability of variety and Juri has quite often succeeded in such cases last year. Take the newest Ariyoshi AKB Kyowakoku episode (6.1) for example: after her attempt at telling a funny story failed and no one reacted, she was adept at turning her failure into a laugh riot by referring to Sekine Tsutomu’s fantasies earlier on in the show. It was a genius move rare can do: I would only expect something of that caliber from veterans like Miichan or Sasshi. Furthermore, her way to introduce her story was good in a subtle way: she played down her ability to tell a story by being uncertain whether she is really good at it and that she had only claimed so under the circumstances. The ability to recover from failure and make that failure usable (on a TV show for example) is an important ability for anyone appearing on TV. Reading the atmosphere and being able to come up with something to turn the tables is really difficult, especially for an idol. Most idols end up either not talking out of embarrassment or are simply edited out of the show when it happens.
It goes to tell something about Juri’s potential that it was obvious on Kyowakoku that the comedian Sekine Tsutomu took a liking to her. Sekine doesn’t seem to be an AKB fan in general and handles even his own AKB jokes with less enthusiasm than his other material. Yet regardless of that he enjoyed Juri’s eccentric fantasy character, created multiple catchphrases for her in a single episode and in general said she’s interesting on a few occasions. For Juri to turn from an unknown member to an interesting one in just one shoot even in the eyes of a veteran comedian shows that she has variety potential – if she were to focus on it more and were the management willing to send her to various non-AKB variety shows. She even brought her own Degawa Tetsuro imitation that Sekine taught her to do better and it is an imitation of good quality as long as she comes up with more to say. Despite her visible nervousness she was able to catch his attention.
I would like to see other comedians work together with Juri – she may not be the type to come forward herself in non-AKB shows, but I’m sure she could deliver if she was encouraged by others. While I’m not sure whether she aims to be a talento or do variety in her future career she seems to be quite motivated in her TV work. When she was unable to talk in one TV shoot and had to leave one due to a high fever she was so frustrated she ended up writing about it on Google+. I can only hope that attitude springs her development in variety and gives her courage to leave an impact when she is given a chance to appear in a non-AKB variety show.
Variety 48 