Marukin Challengeland Natsu Special

Event Marukin Challengeland Natsu Special
Location Nippon Housou (Odaiba)
Date 1997.08.11
Time 17:00 - 19:00 (seiyuu appearance 18:45 - 19:00)
Cost free (send in postcard)
Guests Toyoshima Machiko (Ë­Åè¿¿Àé»Ò)
Kuwashima Houko (·¬ÅçË¡»Ò)
  • Report version 0.7 by Joe Petrow, 1997.08.13

The Marukin Challengeland Natsu Special was held in a 25th floor studio at the Nippon Housou center in Odaiba. The event was for a one hour radio broadcast, the last half hour of which would be broadcast all over Japan.

To attend the event, you had to send in a postcard to receive a ticket. I did not receive a ticket, but each ticket entitled two people entry to the event. So I went early and met some people from the Toyoshima Machiko mailing list ("Machirin's EYEland"), one of whom had a ticket not being used by anyone else, which I used to get in.

They started letting people on the elevator to the event hall at 16:30. I was number 13, but several people were already there, as they were participating in the event later on, so I ended up with a seat in the third row center. Approximately 200 people were at this event.

In front of the stage was a small, trampoline-like sumo dohyo. Around the dohyo were eight card-board sumo wrestlers, made by elementary and junior-high students from around the country, competing in the finals at this event.

At 17:00 the emcee came out and explained the event. They would begin broadcasting live on Nippon Housou at 18:00, and nationwide at 18:30. Before they went on air, they had the quarterfinals of the sumo contest (the cardboard wrestlers were set in the ring, and their creators would bang on the surface of the dohyo, attempting to knock the other wrestler down or out of the ring. The emcee then instructed us on a couple of calls the crowd would make during the show.

At 18:00, the show went live with a short radio drama. They had the semi-finals of the sumo tournament, and played a few songs (not much happened on stage during the songs and the commercials...)

At 18:30, they had another short drama, and went live nationwide. The finals of the sumo tournament was won by "Puhiyama", a sumotori based on the J-Pop idol group "Puffy" (built by a 14-year old girl who looked like a mini version of Puffy's Ami)

Finally at 18:45, Girls Be was introduced. Kuwashima Houko had her hair down, and wore a blue T-shirt with a long skirt. Toyoshima Machiko had her hair in a pony tail, and wore a red T-shirt with a knee-length mini-skirt (both skirts had matching patterns). They immediately sang "Zettai Dame", an upbeat song from their second album French Daisakusen, followed by a short version of "Mayonaka ni Oideyo" (only two minutes long. ;_;) After that they had an exhibition match between Puhiyama and a sumo wrestler created by one of the emcees (Puhiyama lost).

After some very brief talk, Girls Be was going to sing "Happy Birthday" to one of the emcees who turned 30 that day, but they had to go to a commercial. When they came back, Houko and Machiko only had time to sing the last two lines of the song (but in a very cute voice)

At 19:00 the show went off the air, and everyone said goodbye and left the stage.


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