It took me an unusual amount of time to get to this episode of VS Arashi (VS 嵐) – sorry about that. I’m currently adjusting my workflow around some new activities that I’ve added the past couple of months, and others that used to dominate my time that are winding down (I finished the first complete draft of my new sci-fi novel!). I think I’ll have a new flow going soon.
Anyway, the episode started with the members of Arashi talking about what they associate with summer. Aiba-kun answered with soumen, while Ohno-san offered watermelon.
The purple tag in the corner says that August 8th is Fuji TV day (a fortunate date, of course, and they’re in the middle of their Odaiba Expo as well), so the opposing team this time is made up of Fuji TV announcers. The tag also hints that there might be some fun involving Ito-san – the regular announcer for VS Arashi.
Luckily, Fuji TV keeps great profile pages for their announcers, including their names rendered in English, so I was able to get their names without any trouble. The announcer team had Miyake Masaharu-san, Honda Tomoko-san, Kato Ayako-san, Mita Yurika-san, Uchida Reina-san, and Mikami Mana-san. Now, from the profile pages I see that Fuji TV has an equal number of male and female announcers, so what’s with the gender split here? I ask because I’ve seen way too many things involving a single male leading a team of women lately (the first half-hour of the FNS marathon in particular) and there’s something about it that seems . . . primitive.
J-Everything 