From a B-grade idol to a complete turnaround: The “historic turnaround” made by manager Michi Iijima on the eve of SMAP’s breakup.
Akio Nakamori, Johnny's's Theory of Desire Chapter 2: It All Began with the "Breakup of SMAP" 4
Let go of your pride and start over.
Consider the dinosaurs. Giant creatures that once roamed the earth. However, the dinosaurs went extinct without a trace, and what ruled the earth afterwards was a small body and not much physical ability……. Yes, it was humans.
SMAP is not the dinosaurs of Johnny’s kingdom.
They were the little humans of the next era.
Of course, Michi Iijima couldn’t have strategically thought and managed them that way. She had no choice but to “do what she could” out of desperation.
They would do what their predecessors in Johnny’s had not done. The Best Ten” and “Night Hit Studio” are no more. If there are no singing shows to appear on, what are we going to do? That’s right, variety shows!
Idols have appeared on variety shows in the past. However, it was only as an afterthought after their singing career was successful.
It is unusual for a member of SMAP, whose face was not yet well known to the general public, to appear as a “lowly” member of Kinichi Hagimoto’s or Cha Kato’s variety show.
Or they auditioned and appeared in dramas on their own. It was not a leading role. It was a supporting role. They were called the variety group (Nakai, Kusanagi, and Katori) and the drama group (Kimura, Inagaki, and Mori), but they both did jobs that were not even listed on the TV program listings.
Their predecessors up to that point would not have done this.
Yes, they had abandoned the pride of Johnny’s.
There was a variety show called “Sakurakko Club” (broadcast from 1991 to 1994 on TV Asahi). The main group was a girl idol group of the same name, and SMAP was also on the show. The members of Sakurako Club were Miki Nakatani, Miho Kanno, Harumi Inoue, and others. They were playing games with SMAP in their swimsuits at the pool at Seibuen Yuenchi!
At the time, when I saw SMAP on the show, I was astonished and said to myself, “What? I was surprised to see SMAP on the show at the time.
Yume ga MORIMORI” was a variety show featuring Kenji Moriwaki and Hiroko Moriguchi (broadcast from 1992 to 1995 on Fuji Television). Two MORI and the third MORI was Katsuyuki Mori, and SMAP was also on the show.
It is hard to imagine now that SMAP, who later became national idols, were treated as backers of Kenji Moriwaki (!). It is hard to imagine that nowadays.
