From a B-grade idol to a complete turnaround: The “historic turnaround” made by manager Michi Iijima on the eve of SMAP’s breakup.

Kimutaku’s big break was inevitable.

In 1993, Takuya Kimura finally appeared in Fuji Television’s “Tsuki 9” drama Asunaro Hakusho. However, it was not the leading role. He was flanked by Michitaka Tsutsui, who played the lead role. ……, which is also hard to believe nowadays.

In this drama, Kimura completely eclipsed Tsutsui in the lead role, setting the stage for the explosion of his popularity. The script was written by Eriko Kitagawa. Yes, three years later, he would write “Long Vacation” for the same “Tsuki 9”.

After “Yume ga MORIMORI” (The Dream is MORIMORI), also from Fuji Television, finished airing, “SMAP x SMAP” would begin in the spring of 1996.

SMAP’s breakthrough was already in sight.

How did SMAP, a failed idol group, make a major comeback?　In “Johnny’s and Japan” by Toshihiro Yano (Kodansha Gendai Shinsho), there is a description of “the shift from dress-up to dress-down by SMAP.

Dressing up, yes, glittering costumes like Hikaru Genji and Shonen-tai, do not suit SMAP. Dressing down, casual clothes that look like fashionable everyday wear, suits SMAP well.

This is not a flashy disco with a mirror ball spinning in the bubble era. It is the world of a club where there is no dress code and people are relaxed in their everyday clothes.

In every way, it is the exact opposite of the aesthetics of Johnny’s, which reached its zenith in the Showa era. However, this has become the new aesthetic of the Heisei era.

SMAP has abandoned the star power of the former Johnny’s. It is, so to speak, the anti-Johnny’s. It is, so to speak, the anti-Johnny’s. Neither the genius Janie Kitagawa nor the shrewd Mary Kitagawa helped them. An amateur clerk helped them. Those who rejected Johnny’s are shining as the new Johnny’s stars. It was SMAP, who abandoned the pride of Johnny’s, who built a new pride of idols.

That’s right. Then, there are those who gently reached out to them. The era that once abandoned them, ……, yes, the “era,” had somehow become SMAP’s greatest ally.

In the next article, “[The Day a Star of the Heisei Era Was Born] The Unwritten Rules of Johnny’s,” which SMAP radically changed on April 15, 1996, we will take a deeper look into the background of the birth of the famous song “One and Only One Flower in the World,” which made history as the idol representing the Heisei era.