2026年10月15日(木) ナイツ ザ・ラジオショー(パートナー箕輪はるか)

Matsumura Kunihiro's Kitano Brothers Set at Toyo-kan

The evening before the broadcast, manzai duo Shinjuku Cowboy achieved their shin'uchi promotion, and the Manzai Association brought Matsumura Kunihiro in as a special guest for the celebration at Toyo-kan. Matsumura performed a routine built around the Toyotomi Brothers — but delivered entirely through impressions of Kitano Takeshi and his older brother, Kitano Dai (北野大). Hanawa recalled that the impression of Kitano Dai was strikingly accurate: "The way he kept the two brothers distinct was genuinely funny."

Before the main set, there was a talk segment, but because no one knew what Matsumura was going to do until the last moment, Hanawa found it difficult to set him up properly. When the actual performance started, Matsumura wove in an episode about Hayashiya Pei's house fire, then muscled his way to the punchline via "Backdraft → Draft → it's the draft pick" — a forced word-chain that got a big laugh precisely because of how shameless it was. There was also a near-disaster: sensing that Matsumura wanted to do his Nakajima Ayumu impression, Hanawa tossed him the cue. The trouble was that Nakajima's voice resembles that of baseball manager Nomura, and audience members who lacked the context ended up thinking Nomura had been caught having an affair — requiring an immediate on-stage correction.

Drama *Blue Ocher* and the Limits of Impressions

Conversation shifted to actor Sakai's (坂井) role in the drama *Blue Ocher* (ブルーオーカー), where he plays two characters: Nogi Yusuke, who is relatively straightforward to mimic, and Liu Mingxian (リュウミンシェン), a Chinese character with a higher voice and a Chinese accent. Hanawa noted that calibrating the accent is tricky — too much and it stops being funny, too little and the character disappears.

The group also touched on a popular internet complaint about the drama's hacking scenes, where a character hammers a keyboard at Hollywood speed. Hanawa dismissed the criticism: "That's like pointing out the physics of gravity in Star Wars. Poking holes in the logic of a fictional world misses the point." What he genuinely praised was the precision with which Sakai differentiates the two roles — precise enough that some viewers are seriously theorizing that the characters have secretly swapped identities.

Next Week's Guest Takei So and the 20,000-Email Family History Flood

Next week's guest is Takei So. The hosts met him for a meal before recording and came away energized. Both Hanawa and Haruka agreed: "He talks about dreams and the future with real conviction — just being around him makes you want to push yourself harder."

Shortly before the recording, NHK's Family History (ファミリーヒストリー) aired its Takei So episode, and the volume of responses was staggering — more than 20,000 personal emails. Takei happened to be watching the broadcast in Kyoto and immediately started replying; he was still at it on the Shinkansen home. Knights have appeared on Family History themselves, but Hanawa was emphatic: "Takei's episode was a different tier entirely."

The details of Takei's background that the show revealed were equally extraordinary. He became champion in a golf decathlon, which drew him deeper into the sport. His very first swing-speed measurement came in roughly between Tiger Woods and Jumbo Ozaki — an almost absurd starting point. He was trimmed down to the final four candidates in a professional development program but had to withdraw for personal reasons. He then moved to America, where he developed a trick of bouncing a golf ball in the air and catching it, performed it at golf courses to attract attention, and through his own resourcefulness landed a sponsor.

Haruka's YouTube Yama-Wasabi Ramen Choke Goes Viral

Haruka collaborated with Kaname Stone (カナメストーン) on a YouTube video doing a cup yakisoba taste test. Among the products was a yama-wasabi salt yakisoba from Hokkaido convenience-store chain Seicomart — originally a gift Haruka had brought back for a director. The Seicomart clerk had warned her at the point of purchase: "Please be really careful with this one — it's genuinely dangerous."

In the video, the cooled-down salt yakisoba was manageable, but when Haruka slurped the steaming hot yama-wasabi salt ramen, she choked violently. The team used her contorted expression as the thumbnail, and views surged. The group's diagnosis: slurping hot ramen carries the steam — and with it, a concentrated blast of wasabi — straight to the back of the throat. Haruka had been on her guard and survived, but reported the flavor itself was genuinely delicious.

The Unanimous Verdict: Cup Yakisoba Is the Best

The yakisoba tangent opened a floodgate. Hanawa offered his theory on why cup yakisoba hits differently: "Because you pour the water yourself and then drain it yourself, you feel like you raised it — and that sense of investment amplifies the taste." Everyone on set agreed immediately. Brands like Peyoung (ペヤング) and UFO Yakisoba are household staples, and merely seeing them on a shelf triggers an urge to eat one.

Favorite toppings named: kimchi, natto, fried egg, and grated Parmesan. The question of why there are so few yakisoba specialty restaurants surfaced — the working theory being that the price point makes it hard to run as a business. Listener emails flagged specialty shops in Jinbocho and Asakusa, and one more in Kyoto specializing in Kyoto-style yakisoba. A debate over whether yakisoba is Japanese or Chinese cuisine devolved into the confession that even at Chinese restaurants everyone orders ramen over yakisoba. Final ruling: cup yakisoba is still the best.