Hi there! This is the BELONG Media editorial team.
To all of you who read our articles — have you ever wondered, “What if the editor of a music media outlet had quietly started doing something completely different?” It turns out yabori has secretly awakened to a new creative pursuit. And when he traced it back to its roots, he ended up at a rather unexpected comedian.
So this time, three BELONG Media staff members — yabori (moderator), wakiki, and maririn — sat down to talk at length about the theme: “Comedians and bits we want to recommend.”
The goal? To give you a peek at the kind of sense of humor the people who usually write about music actually have.
In this first installment, we turn the spotlight on a side of yabori you don’t usually get to see. The conversation starts with a strange and unexpected connection between sketch comedy and creative writing.
I’ve recently started writing one-minute fiction. The trigger was a TV show called Henseio Kawashima Season 2, where Matayoshi was the presenter and various people were asked to write one-minute stories. Kaga from the duo Kagaya and Niiyama from Sayaka were on the episode, and the theme was “work.” Kaga’s piece was really good — the last line flipped the whole thing on its head. I thought, “That’s brilliant!”
Kagaya — that’s the duo with Kaga Sho and Kaya Soya, right?
maririn
yabori
Yeah, exactly. And that’s when it hit me — the way you construct a manzai routine and the way you construct a skit are probably fundamentally different. A skit feels a lot closer to one-minute fiction.
That makes sense. A skit doesn’t work unless the punchline is clear, but manzai is more like, “Alright, alright, thank you very much!” — it ends in a slightly different way.
maririn
yabori
Right, right. Manzai just kind of rambles along and then stops pretty abruptly.
It really does end suddenly, doesn’t it? Like, “That’s enough of that!” and boom, it’s over. (laughs)
wakiki
yabori
The way the ending lands is completely different. So with that in mind, I wanted to talk about the comedian who has influenced my writing style and my worldview the most — and I think it’s Impulse.
Impulse and Monster
yabori
Around middle school or high school, I used to watch this TV show called Enta no Kamisama all the time. Impulse was on it, along with Anjash and Drunk Dragon. Looking back now, I realize I was pretty heavily influenced by all of them. I rewatched some Impulse sketches recently — there was one set in a school nurse’s office. It takes this warm, cozy setting and then slams in this hardcore twist: the school nurse is actually a yakuza. That feeling is really close to what I want to do with my one-minute fiction.
Like, a hardboiled element suddenly crashing into everyday life.
maririn
yabori
Exactly! And remember when we talked about Monster before — the Naoki Urasawa manga?
Right, when we were talking about manga recommendations.
maririn
yabori
Yeah. There’s an Impulse sketch called Kiseru — it’s about fare evasion on trains. Tsutsumishita plays the station attendant, and Itakura plays the guy who got caught jumping the turnstile. But then Itakura suddenly says, “I am Johan Liebert.” Johan Liebert is this incredibly dangerous, genius villain from Monster.
Oh! That blond boy!
wakiki
yabori
Yes! I think Itakura was influenced by Monster when he wrote that. It made me feel like we’re into similar kinds of manga. I never would have noticed if I hadn’t started writing myself.
So the foundation of what you find funny is similar? You want to bring that kind of element into your one-minute fiction too?
wakiki
yabori
Exactly. I also want to write something like Anjash’s misunderstanding-based skits, but that’s really hard to pull off in 600 characters. Rewatching them, I was struck all over again by how polished they are.
A misunderstanding skit really can’t work unless the setup is incredibly precise.
maririn
yabori
So true. Rewatching it just confirmed all over again how good they are.
So, what did you think?
We started out meaning to talk about comedy we love, and somehow ended up in a structural analysis of sketches and fiction — very on-brand for yabori.
He shared how rewatching Impulse led him to discover the roots of his own creative style — something he never would have realized if he hadn’t started writing. And the fact that Impulse and Naoki Urasawa’s Monster turned out to overlap in their influence made for a quietly satisfying discovery.
Sketch comedy and fiction — both are really just about hiding a twist inside everyday life. This conversation gave us a small but real glimpse into the core of how yabori creates.
The next installment of Staff’s Little Room continues with the same theme: “Comedians and bits we want to recommend.” Stay tuned!
We hope you’ll keep an eye on what BELONG Media does next!
A-indie - Good indie music in Asia - is a music media platform run by BELONG, a Japanese music organization. We publish music articles with a focus on indie music.
- is a music media platform run by BELONG, a Japanese music organization. We publish music articles with a focus on indie music.