<h2>Non-award-winning comedians in increasing demand</h2>
<figure id="attachment_457859" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-457859" style="width: 2046px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="d91f3027"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2026/02/6ee32b9aacf121fac3e4b6f72b6ae29d.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-457859" class="wp-caption-text"> His stage name comes from the confectionery &#8220;Hyoroku mochi&#8221; (rice cake). His unique character and appearance have won him commercials. He recalls how &#8220;Saraba Seishun no Hikari&#8221; (Farewell, Light of Youth) changed his life.</figcaption></figure>
 In the Oricon News survey&#8217;s &#8220;Breakthrough Comedians of 2025,&#8221; Aoki Macho (30) of &#8220;Kakeochi,&#8221; Hiyoroku (38), and Minamikawa (43) were ranked first, third, and fourth, respectively.
 Hyoroku was also nominated for the &#8217;25 Shintō/ryūgo taishō (New Words and New Words Award), and has been featured in several dramas, including the NHK historical drama &#8220;Belaboku: Tsutaje Eika no Yumebanashi. In recent years, achieving results in the awards race has been a shortcut to a breakthrough, but the variety of programs has become more diverse with the establishment of missed shows. However, the demand for &#8220;non-award-winning&#8221; comedians with strong characters or those who can be easily used on location has been increasing.
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 Aoki is a member of &#8220;Rabbit! (both on TBS), and these two shows have &#8220;become like the industry&#8217;s casting catalog,&#8221; according to a broadcaster.
 In &#8220;Lavit! looks at the comedian&#8217;s ability to cope on live TV, and &#8216;Mizudow&#8217; looks at his or her human skills when pushed to extremes. If a comedian can produce results here, it is safe to say that his or her ability is impeccable. It&#8217;s easy to get your name mentioned at casting meetings.&#8221;
 YouTube for &#8220;Saraba Seishun no Hikari&#8221; and &#8220;New York&#8221; is a place for discovering young talent on par with these two programs.
 With production costs being cut, stations cannot afford to send staff to theaters or hold auditions. Both of them are very good at teasing young, inexperienced comedians, and they have become a kind of &#8220;instruction manual for comedians.
 With the establishment of missed programs, the importance of &#8220;thumbnails,&#8221; which convey the content of a program in a single image, has also been a plus for &#8220;non-award-winning&#8221; comedians.
 The first step is to get people to play the program, so it is important to make a compelling thumbnail. There is a growing demand for comedians who are in season and have strong characters, such as &#8220;one-hit wonders. The comedian from an awards show is skilled, but not as good as the pull of the look and feel. The demand for short, official cutout videos is also increasing, so I think the popularity of impact-type comedians like Hyoroku will continue.
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 According to the broadcaster mentioned above, a female pin-up comedian from Beijing, China, who is currently a graduate student at the University of Tokyo, is attracting attention as a successor to Hyoroku.
 Her use of Japanese with a touch of venom and expressiveness sets her apart from past &#8220;katakoto&#8221; foreign talents. Her strength lies in her ability to handle both hinagata talk and location work.&#8221;
 An increasing number of comedians are announcing that they will not participate in the awards race. A broadcaster continues.
 In order to get results in the awards race, you have to take time to work on your material,&#8221; a broadcaster continues, &#8220;but you can&#8217;t do that in the quarterfinals. If you lose in the quarterfinals or so, you run the risk of being labeled as &#8220;boring. With the increase in the number of prizes, the merits of winning are also decreasing, so there will be a further shift away from the &#8220;award race.
 As the times change, so do the ways in which comedians market themselves.
 ⚫︎2020February 20-27, 2014

 Hiroyuki Komatsu

 The rise of "non-award-winning" comedians, as evidenced by Aoki Macho (No. 1), Hiyoroku (No. 3), and Minami Nikaaga (No. 4), are the breakout comedians of 2013. Lavit! Some say that "Mizudau" is turning into a casting catalog.

They are sought after by a variety of people these days! Why Aoki Macho and Hiyoroku are “in demand”!

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