# 放課後PODCAST#392 世界はペア曲であふれてる - Show: アフター6ジャンクション 2 - Published: 2026-10-19 - Canonical: https://podc.club/en/episode/1505337177_4782fb054f2f.html - Audio: https://pdst.fm/e/pscrb.fm/rss/p/traffic.megaphone.fm/TBS8887638946.mp3 - Source: Edited from a machine transcript of the first 30 minutes of the episode. Not an official summary. Minutes after the live broadcast of the 'World's Best Pair Song Grand Election' special, MC Utamaru (宇多丸) and the After 6 Junction 2 (アフター6ジャンクション2) team sat down to reveal the full vote tallies — from first-place 'Ain't No Mountain High Enough' at 57 votes down to songs that barely registered. The episode also delivers a report from RHYMESTER's appearance at the outdoor festival Soraon 2026 in Bibai, Hokkaido, which had been cancelled in summer due to typhoon flooding and finally staged as an autumn comeback on October 18. ## What this episode answers ### What were the vote counts from first place all the way down to the barely-ranked songs in the pair song election? First place went to 'Ain't No Mountain High Enough' with 57 votes, second to 'Natsu no Owari no Harmony' (Inoue Yosui & Tamaki Koji) with 35 votes, and third to 'Under Pressure' (Queen & David Bowie); tenth was 'Futari no Island' (Chage & Aska), after which multiple songs clustered tightly around 8 votes. ### What was the 'MISIA Phenomenon' that almost occurred involving RHYMESTER's own song? A joke comparing an MC announcing his own song on his own program to MISIA supposedly naming herself number one every week on her own radio show; 'Once Again' was sitting in tenth place at 9 p.m. but fell out of the rankings over the next three hours, narrowly averting the scenario. ### Why was 'Defying Gravity' from Wicked considered weak as a pair song? Elphaba's verse is a strong first-person monologue and Glinda's side essentially 'sings the rival's argument,' so the equal back-and-forth balance that defines a true pair song is weak; songs like 'A Whole New World,' where dialogue is distributed evenly between the two singers, were cited as stronger examples of the form. ### How do technical difficulty and visual coolness differ in 2-MC rap exchanges? Looking impressive from the outside does not equal technical difficulty; RHYMESTER's 'Back & Forth' is visually spectacular but 'Nishihara Shokai no Akinai' is musically far harder — Utamaru says someone in the group makes a mistake somewhere every single time they perform it. ### What was the Soraon Festival in Bibai, Hokkaido, and how did this edition come to be held? The outdoor festival in Bibai was cancelled in summer after heavy rain from a typhoon flooded the venue; a revenge autumn edition was held on October 18, with RHYMESTER, Rei, and JQ (Nulbarich, currently on hiatus) all rescheduling to perform full sets together on a meadow stage. ## Article ## Post-Broadcast After-School Talk on the Pair Song Election Recorded at Dialog Studio on October 19, 2026, at 10:34 a.m. — minutes after the special-week live broadcast ended — the after-school session brought together MC Utamaru (宇多丸), show writer Furukawa, Monday director Shibata, and Monday AD Katayama. Tallying the votes, sequencing the reveals, and scheduling commercial breaks had all been a scramble on the day, but the team agreed they still carved out relaxed talking time. Guest chemistry also earned praise: Gota-san's encyclopedic musical knowledge balanced well against Su-san's sharply idiosyncratic taste in soul and hard rock. ## Full Ranking Revealed with Vote Counts With the broadcast finished, Utamaru read from his complete tally sheet and released the numbers the main show hadn't had time to cover. **First place: "Ain't No Mountain High Enough" with 57 votes. Second: "Natsu no Owari no Harmony" (Inoue Yosui & Tamaki Koji, 井上陽水＆玉置浩二) with 35 votes.** A recent viral a cappella video of the two artists has been spreading among younger listeners, the team noted, likely boosting both awareness and votes. Third was "Under Pressure" (Queen & David Bowie), with films like *Bohemian Rhapsody* and *Atomic Blonde* cited as factors behind its support. Tenth place went to "Futari no Island" (Chage & Aska). Tied at eleventh were Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande's "Defying Gravity" from the musical *Wicked* and RHYMESTER's own "Once Again" (ワンスアゲイン). Utamaru revealed that "Once Again" had been sitting in tenth place as of 9 p.m. — meaning he would have been obliged to announce his own song on his own program. He dubbed the scenario the "Imaginary MISIA Phenomenon" (架空のMISIA現象), a joke referencing a fictional situation in which MISIA announces herself number one every single week on her own radio show. He even demonstrated the self-congratulatory delivery: "And this week, embarrassingly, number one is once again me." In the event, the votes shifted over the following three hours and "Once Again" dropped out of contention entirely. "That was close," he said with evident relief. ## Songs That Narrowly Missed Chage & Aska's "Say Yes," which guest Gota-san had predicted would top the chart, finished with just 2 votes around 106th place. "Ya Ya Ya," from the same duo, fared far better — 13th place (tied) with 8 votes. Also clustered at 13th were "Scream" (Michael Jackson & Janet Jackson) and "Soko ni Ai wa Oshare ja Nai" (Okamura Yasuyuki & Koizumi Kyoko). Su-san's passionate pick "Arigatou" (Inoue Yosui & Anzen Chitai) placed 16th with 5 votes; Puffy's "Asia no Junshin" took 17th with 4. Votes for "A Whole New World" were scattered across multiple recorded versions, and Barbee Boys' total was split among several of their songs rather than concentrating on one. Taken as a whole, first place's 57 votes stood well clear of a dense logjam of tracks clustered around the 8-vote mark — the top tier, Utamaru observed, was quite solid. ## The Art of 2-MC Interplay A discussion of "Futari no Island" expanded into a broader conversation about technique in two-MC rap. Utamaru was emphatic: **technical difficulty and visual coolness are entirely separate things.** RHYMESTER's "Back & Forth" (バック＆フォース) looks spectacular from the audience's perspective, but "Nishihara Shokai no Akinai" (西原商会の商い) is musically far more demanding — someone in the group makes a mistake somewhere in it every single time they perform it. The real craft, he explained, lies in knowing when not to subdivide the exchange too finely, and in building toward a climax where the back-and-forth density accelerates — a structure he illustrated by citing the famous scene featuring RUN DMC and Double Trouble. The skill is making what "looks amazing from the outside" land at exactly the right moment. ## Hokkaido Bibai: Soraon Festival Revenge Edition Utamaru reported on the outdoor festival he attended the previous day, Sunday October 18. Bibai (美唄) — the characters literally mean "beautiful song" — had hosted the planned summer edition of Soraon 2026, but heavy rain from a typhoon flooded the venue and the event was cancelled. An autumn revenge edition was organized, and RHYMESTER, guitarist-singer-songwriter Rei, and JQ of Nulbarich (ナルバリッチ, currently on hiatus) all rescheduled to perform full sets. The meadow venue offered standing space at the front and camp chairs at the rear, drawing attendees of all ages. RHYMESTER opened their set with "Once Again." Listener B from Osaka had driven 180 km from Rankoshi to attend and wrote in that "my chest was burning and I watched the whole show with tears streaming down my face." Listener Cappy described the camp area filling so completely with children who had come to see influencer Shinako that the crowd stretched across the entire rear of the site. Utamaru closed with a broader reflection: "Just going to Sapporo doesn't mean you've seen Hokkaido. I want to properly travel to all parts of the island." ## Takeaways - "Ain't No Mountain High Enough" topped the pair song election with 57 votes — nearly double runner-up "Natsu no Owari no Harmony" at 35 — while RHYMESTER's own "Once Again" came within hours of forcing Utamaru to announce his own song on his own broadcast, a scenario he called the "Imaginary MISIA Phenomenon." - In 2-MC rap, visual spectacle and technical difficulty are separate virtues: "Back & Forth" looks impressive but "Nishihara Shokai no Akinai" is harder to execute cleanly, with someone making a mistake somewhere in it every single performance. - RHYMESTER, Rei, and JQ reunited at the autumn revenge Soraon Festival in Bibai, Hokkaido, opening with "Once Again" in a meadow before a crowd of all ages — including a listener who drove 180 km from Rankoshi to be there.