is a Japanese

manga Manga ( Japanese: 漫画 ) are comics or graphic novels originating from Japan. Most manga conform to a style developed in Japan in the late 19th century, and the form has a long prehistory in earlier Japanese art. The term ''manga'' is ...

and

anime is Traditional animation, hand-drawn and computer animation, computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside of Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, in Japan and in Japane ...

comedy series that follows the adventures of two brothers (and their cousin) Hideki, Ichiro, and Mako who form the band, "Nerima Daikon Brothers." The show uses a

musical comedy Musical theatre is a form of theatrical performance that combines songs, spoken dialogue, acting and dance. The story and emotional content of a musical – humor, pathos, love, anger – are communicated through words, music, movement ...

format, with the characters often breaking out in song to show their emotions or go through a montage scene. The melodies of the songs are sometimes recycled episode after episode with different lyrics substituted for the particular situation. The musical comedy format is rare in Japanese animation and the show's style is heavily influenced by musicals such as ''

The Blues Brothers The Blues Brothers are an American blues and soul revivalist band founded in 1978 by comedians Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi as part of a musical sketch on ''Saturday Night Live''. Belushi and Aykroyd fronted the band, in character, respecti ...

'' and Kollywood musicals such as '' Muthu''. The show was originally licensed by ADV for $124,800 and the first volume was released on DVD in December 2006. In 2008, the show became one of the ADV titles transferred to Funimation Entertainment.

Plot

The trio lives on a stage constructed in Hideki's

daikon Daikon or mooli, ''Raphanus sativus'' var. ''longipinnatus,'' is a mild-flavored winter radish usually characterized by fast-growing leaves and a long, white, root. Originally native to continental East Asia, daikon is harvested and consume ...

patch in the

Nerima is a special ward in Tokyo, Japan. The ward refers to itself as Nerima City. , the ward has an estimated population of 721,858, with 323,296 households and a population density of 15,013 persons per km2, while 15,326 foreign residents are ...

ward of

Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, with an estimated 37.46 ...

. They dream of building a concert dome on the site and performing their musical act to sold-out crowds. They must avoid both an overzealous policewoman who has caught on to their money-making schemes and the desires of powerful people who want to take over the daikon field. The characters are aided in their adventures by the show's director,

Shinichi Watanabe is a Japanese anime director and voice actor. He is best known for his over-the-top adaptation of Rikdo Koshi's ''Excel Saga'', in which he appears as the character Nabeshin. Watanabe stated that the nickname Nabeshin (a name blending of ...

, who injects himself (in the form of his Nabeshin character from ''

Excel Saga is a manga series written and illustrated by Kōshi Rikudō. It was serialized in '' Young King OURs'' from 1996 to 2011, and its individual chapters were collected and published in 27 ''tankōbon'' volumes by Shōnen Gahōsha. The series fo ...

'') into the story as a rental shop owner. The show parodies many famous people and institutions in Japan including Junichiro Koizumi and his political followers;

Michael Jackson Michael Joseph Jackson (August 29, 1958 – June 25, 2009) was an American singer, songwriter, dancer, and philanthropist. Dubbed the " King of Pop", he is regarded as one of the most significant cultural figures of the 20th century. Over ...

; the

fortune teller Fortune telling is the practice of prediction, predicting information about a person's life.J. Gordon Melton, Melton, J. Gordon. (2008). ''The Encyclopedia of Religious Phenomena''. Visible Ink Press. pp. 115-116. The scope of fortune telling ...

Kazuko Hosoki was a Japanese fortune teller, as well as the author of over 100 books. In addition to her regular celebrity appearances on Japanese television, she was known for her belief that ancestor worship is central to Japanese identity. Biography Hosoki ...

, ''

Star Wars ''Star Wars'' is an American epic space opera multimedia franchise created by George Lucas, which began with the eponymous 1977 film and quickly became a worldwide pop-culture phenomenon. The franchise has been expanded into various film ...

'', Host club entertainers among many others. Until recently, anime television series did not make overt jokes about the current news topics like homosexual love, consumer credit, or the success of Korean artists in Japan such as

Bae Yong-joon Bae Yong-joon (; born August 29, 1972) is a South Korean businessman and former actor. He has starred in numerous television dramas, including, notably, '' Winter Sonata'' which became a major part of the Korean Wave. Bae retired from acting a ...

. ''Nerima Daikon Brothers'' features overt sexual gags such as in the first episode where a male casting director fondles Ichiro's crotch as he sits there and moans.

Characters

Main cast

; * Johnston, Chris. "Nerima Daikon Brothers". ''Newtype USA'' 5 (11) 54–55. November 2006. . : The protagonist, Hideki, is a 25-year-old owner of a

field in the Nerima ward of Tokyo, a region famous for growing Daikon. As children Hideki, Ichiro, and Mako made a pact to one day perform in a concert in a dome where the Daikon field now sits. One of the running gags in the series is Hideki's crush on Mako, his cousin. He would like to marry her, but he believes that he cannot because of the Japanese constitution. He is even tricked by a lawyer who tells him that he can change the constitution, even though such marriage is indeed permitted. ; * :The

straight man The straight man is a stock character in a comedy performance, especially a double act, sketch comedy, or farce. When a comedy partner behaves eccentrically, the straight man is expected to maintain composure. The direct contribution to the c ...

of the group, Ichiro is the soft-spoken head host at "Club Echo da Ekoda", is a pun on the Ekoda (江古田) neighborhood of Nerima ward, where the club is located. a host club where good looking young men wine and dine older ladies. He saves his tips and salary from his job at the host club in order to fulfill the goal of building the dome and had amassed at least 23,000 yen by episode 10 when it was stolen (by Mako!). Ichiro has some strange habits, such as his love for Pandaikon and his pet aegagropila (that he raises in a glass jar), and, more generally, a fondness for furry animals that borders on

zoophilia Zoophilia is a paraphilia involving a sexual fixation on non-human animals. Bestiality is cross-species sexual activity between humans and non-human animals. The terms are often used interchangeably, but some researchers make a distinction b ...

. His strangest ability is his power to make any person fall in love with him when he slaps them. Mako is usually the one at the receiving end of this, but he also took on a group of Oizumi's riot police before being finally taken down by a water cannon. ; * :The self-styled "former idol," Mako is Ichiro and Hideki's (self-proclaimed) 19-year-old cousin who is originally from

Okayama prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located in the Chūgoku region of Honshu. Okayama Prefecture has a population of 1,906,464 (1 February 2018) and has a geographic area of 7,114 km2 (2,746 sq mi). Okayama Prefecture borders Tottori Prefecture to the ...

and still has the distinct Okayama dialect of Japanese (portrayed as a

Southern American English Southern American English or Southern U.S. English is a regional dialect or collection of dialects of American English spoken throughout the Southern United States, though concentrated increasingly in more rural areas, and spoken primarily b ...

in the English dub). She is skillfully able to spend her older cousin's money on her lavish "Dom Perignon" tastes, but often deflects his marriage proposals by saying "the Japanese constitution does not allow it!," despite the fact that it does. She's attracted to Ichiro even though he does not return her affections and fights over him with Yukika. ; * :A panda who showed up at Hideki's daikon field one day and began eating the crop. Ichiro saved him from the others. He has

leaves spouting from his head. A new "member" of the band, he often appears when the group need help getting out of a pinch. ; This is another pun. The work can mean or the surname . a.k.a. Inspector Widgett (in series) * :A bumbling, but sexy policewoman, Yukika was initially suspicious of the Nerima Daikon Brothers after a series of suspicious building collapses that were the results of the Brothers schemes came to her attention. She disguises herself as "Deb Sukerno" a.k.a. "Lady Deb" (a parody of Japanese socialite Dewi Sukarno, a wife of

Sukarno Sukarno). (; born Koesno Sosrodihardjo, ; 6 June 1901 – 21 June 1970) was an Indonesian statesman, orator, revolutionary, and nationalist who was the first president of Indonesia, serving from 1945 to 1967. Sukarno was the leader of ...

.) She eventually becomes an admirer of the group, especially Pandaikon and Ichiro. She uses mechanical gadgets. She also keeps two mechanical pets Karakuri 1 and Karakuri 2. The Japanese public often refers to her as "Lady Dewi," another reference to Dewi Sukarno. ; * :As in previous series the show's director, Shinichi Watanabe, injects himself into the show. In ''Nerima Daikon Brothers'' he appears as the owner of the Nine-Dragons Rental Shop where he usually appears behind a window in silhouette. The characters come to him when they are in need of something to get out of trouble. The characters "entertain" the director with song and dance (and sometimes a bit of skin.) The items that Watanabe lends often get the characters into more trouble than they are worth, but they always get the character out of the predicament. The characters call him "Oya-san" meaning "Mr. Shop Owner" and he's called "Pops" in the English dub. ; Money Man & Bank Dancers * :When a character in the show, usually Hideki, runs out of money this shadowy character abruptly shows up with a group of playboy-style dancers who sing and dance around an

automated teller machine An automated teller machine (ATM) or cash machine (in British English) is an electronic telecommunications device that enables customers of financial institutions to perform financial transactions, such as cash withdrawals, deposits, fund ...

and usually forces the character into making a loan from the Nerima Agricultural Bank. The dancers and their theme song are parodies of the Takefuji Corporation, a consumer credit company. For around a decade, the firm aired commercials of scantily clad women "gyrating through a dynamic routine choreographed for maximum exposure." The commercials were removed from the airwaves after bank president Yasuo Takei was convicted of wiretapping. The commercials were later reinstated with a new cast of dancers.

Main antagonists

Nabeo Donabesawa * :One of Oizumi's two henchmen sent to distract the Nerima Daikon Brothers. He's refers to himself as Donabenabe : Donabenabe the owner of the Nerima Tsuushin a

tabloid newspaper A tabloid is a newspaper with a compact page size smaller than broadsheet. There is no standard size for this newspaper format. Etymology The word ''tabloid'' comes from the name given by the London-based pharmaceutical company Burroughs We ...

that prints fabricated stories about celebrities. In order to obtain the land around the daikon field he published falsehoods in the paper like "daikon carry the

plague Plague or The Plague may refer to: Agriculture, fauna, and medicine *Plague (disease), a disease caused by ''Yersinia pestis'' * An epidemic of infectious disease (medical or agricultural) * A pandemic caused by such a disease * A swarm of pes ...

" or " Piro Piro Bacteria". He also owns a female

softball Softball is a game similar to baseball played with a larger ball on a smaller field. Softball is played competitively at club levels, the college level, and the professional level. The game was first created in 1887 in Chicago by George Hanc ...

team called the "Nerima Donabes" and he approaches Hideki about building a baseball stadium in the daikon field. He took too long to cement the deal and Oizumi intervened. The character is a parody of "Nabetsune" ( Tsuneo Wanatabe 渡邉恒雄) media giant and president of the company that publishes the

Yomiuri Shimbun The (lit. ''Reading-selling Newspaper'' or ''Selling by Reading Newspaper'') is a Japanese newspaper published in Tokyo, Osaka, Fukuoka, and other major Japanese cities. It is one of the five major newspapers in Japan; the other four are ...

and which owns the

Yomiuri Giants The are a Japanese professional baseball team competing in Nippon Professional Baseball's Central League. Based in Bunkyo, Tokyo, they are one of two professional baseball teams based in Tokyo, the other being the Tokyo Yakult Swallows. They ...

. Nabetsune is actively involved in both the newspaper and the baseball team. Yūkel HakushonAnother pun. is an onomatopoeia word for a sneeze or "Achoo!" The word is a pun on the Japanese pronunciation of . * :The second of Oizumi's two henchmen sent to distract the Nerima Daikon Brothers. He is a pop-star who is world-famous for plastic surgery and has come to Japan to escape "adults" and turn Hideki's Daikon field into "Nerima-Land." He convinces Mako (who he calls "Wendy") that she will once again become an idol with his help. He's an obvious parody of

. His face resembles a Picasso painting and he dresses in a pink Peter-Pan-style costume. and at one point his nose is knocked off in a fight. The character also references songs from Thriller and Bad and ends every sentence with the interjection "Ow!" Prime Minister OizumiOizumi is an alternate reading on Junichiro Koizumi's surname (小泉). * : The lead

antagonist An antagonist is a character in a story who is presented as the chief foe of the protagonist. Etymology The English word antagonist comes from the Greek ἀνταγωνιστής – ''antagonistēs'', "opponent, competitor, villain, enemy, ri ...

. He is flanked by Madonna Diet Members. In order to privatize Nerima, he send out his subordinates to attempt to acquire the daikon field. He reveals that his true goal for the field is to build a shrine to the daikon in order to hold a yearly festival for veneration of the vegetable. A battle royal ensues between with the Brothers, Yukika, pandas, and dancing girls fighting Oizumi's supporters and the

Japan Self-Defense Forces The Japan Self-Defense Forces ( ja, 自衛隊, Jieitai; abbreviated JSDF), also informally known as the Japanese Armed Forces, are the unified ''de facto''Since Article 9 of the Japanese Constitution outlaws the formation of armed forces, th ...

. When all looks lost, Nabeshin shows up with a final weapon—a microphone that lets them sing of their dream. Oizumi likes their song and abruptly changes his mind about taking the daikon field and calls for a retreat.

Guest characters

The show's producers used both veteran and up-in-coming

voice actors Voice acting is the art of performing voice-overs to present a character or provide information to an audience. Performers are called voice actors/actresses, voice artists, dubbing artists, voice talent, voice-over artists, or voice-over talent ...

to fill in the guest roles for each weekly episode who were usually the characters who swindled the ''Brothers'' out of money. This type of casting has been used in other recent productions by Yoshio Urasawa, the series script writer and series coordinator. Roles are listed by episode number. :1. Casting Director ::A parody of controversial boy-band manager Johnny Kitagawa. :2. Korean Pachinko Parlor Owner ::A parody of

, a Korean actor popular in Japan. :3. Hospital Director :3. Chief Doctor :4. Police Chief :4. Yakuza Boss :5. No.1 :5. The Iron-Handed Wife :6. Madame Gokutsobushi ::A parody of

, a Japanese fortune teller and "

Iron Chef is a Japanese television cooking show produced by Fuji Television. The series, which premiered on October 10, 1993, was a stylized cook-off featuring guest chefs challenging one of the show's resident "Iron Chefs" in a timed cooking battle bu ...

" judge. The word "tsubushi" means "good-for-nothing" in Japanese. :7. Attorney Kakuhama ::Parody of

Kazuya Maruyama Kazuya Maruyama may refer to: * Kazuya Maruyama (politician) * Kazuya Maruyama (baseball) {{hndis, Maruyama, Kazuya ...

, a famous Japanese lawyer and television personality. The word Kakuhama means "beach bum" in Japanese. :7. Miyo-chan :8. Discount Store Owner ::A parody of " Don Quijote" a discount store chain in Japan.

Political references

The final episode of the series contains many references and criticisms of politics of Japanese Prime Minister Koizumi. The episode begins with the cliffhanger from episode 11 where Prime Minister "Oizumi" loudly proclaimed from the National Diet Building (which is propelled by jet engines high above the city.) Shortly thereafter troops, tanks, aircraft, and even ships begin swarming the (inland) ward forcing the city to privatize. Later he uses a bad pun on the word : This pun mirror's Koizumi's catch-phrase in his goal of privatizing the Japanese postal system. The episode also plays heavily on the Koizumi's "lion" theme. His face is

caricature A caricature is a rendered image showing the features of its subject in a simplified or exaggerated way through sketching, pencil strokes, or other artistic drawings (compare to: cartoon). Caricatures can be either insulting or complimentary, ...

d with a lion nose and lion whiskers. Koizumi gained the nickname because of his lion-like mane of hair. Koizumi and his party have embraced the nickname. Koizumi himself pens an e-mail column called "Lion Heart." His party also produced and marketed a lion-character with Koizumi's face called "Shishiro". The episode features Koizumi's supporters dressed in lion costumes, very similar to Shishiro, who go after the ''Brothers''. In addition, this episode makes reference to several happenings of the 2005 general election. Koizumi called the election after bills to privatize

Japan Post was a Japanese statutory corporation that existed from 2003 to 2007, offering postal and package delivery services, banking services, and life insurance. It's the nation's largest employer, with over 400,000 employees, and runs 24,700 pos ...

were voted down in the

upper house An upper house is one of two chambers of a bicameral legislature, the other chamber being the lower house.''Bicameralism'' (1997) by George Tsebelis The house formally designated as the upper house is usually smaller and often has more restric ...

. In order to defeat those who had voted against the measure, Koizumi employed "a star-studded cast of female candidates..., now ubiquitously referred to in the national media as Koizumi's assassins (shikoku),

hose A hose is a flexible hollow tube designed to carry fluids from one location to another. Hoses are also sometimes called '' pipes'' (the word ''pipe'' usually refers to a rigid tube, whereas a hose is usually a flexible one), or more generally ...

mission asto take out the prime minister's political enemies in the old boys' network that long held sway over the LDP." Koizumi had also instructed one of the candidates "to pitch herself to voters as 'the Madonna of reform'." Finally there is the term, "Koizumi children", the "83 new LDP Diet members...

ho are Ho (or the transliterations He or Heo) may refer to: People Language and ethnicity * Ho people, an ethnic group of India ** Ho language, a tribal language in India * Hani people, or Ho people, an ethnic group in China, Laos and Vietnam * Hiri ...

basically a cult of personality, these rookies need a manual to know what to say to the media, and applauded ecstatically during the prime minister's 26 Sep policy speech. These things are heavily referenced in the final episode. Oizumi is flanked by a cast of female Diet members who repeat every word he says. He calls Yūkel and Donabe his "children." And when he needs assistance in taking the daikon field he sends his "assassins", dressed in lion suits, to beat up the hold-outs.

Broadcast and release information

Manga

A manga version was published in Jive's Monthly Comic Rush and was published monthly from December 2005 until May 2006 according to the publisher's website.Jive Website
Publication information for Nerima Daikon Brothers

; an

The manga was drawn by Takamitsu Kondō and conceived by

Aniplex is a Japanese anime, music production and anime licensee company owned by Sony Music Entertainment Japan. Established in September 1995, Aniplex has been involved in the production and distribution of several anime series, such as both '' Fullm ...

and Studio Hibari.

Anime

The series that aired from 2006, 9 January until 2006, 27 March and was originally broadcast of the

TV Tokyo JOTX-DTV (channel 7), branded as and known colloquially as , is a television station headquartered in the Sumitomo Fudosan Roppongi Grand Tower in Roppongi, Minato, Tokyo, Japan, owned and operated by the subsidiary of listed certifie ...

system. Various other regional broadcast systems around Japan re-broadcast the show. Because the 30-minute show contains risqué humor it was broadcast at the 1:30 time slot in Tokyo. *

2006, 9 to 2 January, 006, 27 March Sundays 1:30 to 2:00 *

TV Aichi JOCI-DTV, branded as , is a television station in Nagoya, Japan operated by the Aichi Television Broadcasting Company, Ltd. (TVA; ja, テレビ愛知株式会社, Terebi Aichi kabushiki gaisha) and is an affiliate of the TX Network. Broadcast ...

2006, 12 to 2 January, 006, 30 March Wednesdays 1:58 to 2:28 *

TV Osaka is a television station affiliated with the TX Network in Osaka, Japan. The mascot character is "Takoru-kun" (たこるくん). History Television Osaka, Inc. was founded in 1981 as part of the reorganization of Tokyo Channel 12 Ltd (now TV T ...

2006, 13 to 2 January, 006, 31 March Mondays 2:00 to 2:30 * AT-X 2006, 2 to 2 February, 006, 20 April Wednesdays 10:30 to 11:00 A live-action music video was produced with the three main

performing the introduction song "Ma Ji Ya Ba" for which a single was released. A two DVD set of the show has been released. A full soundtrack CD of the show's songs is currently being produced. Originally there were 13 episode planned, however, there was only a 12-week slot open for the show on TV Tokyo. The 13th episode was mentioned at the 2006 Tokyo Animation Fair. It was supposed to feature a young venture company president as the target character who tried to acquire the daikon field. (This is reference to

Takafumi Horie is a Japanese entrepreneur who founded Livedoor, a website design operation that grew into a popular internet portal. After being arrested and charged with securities fraud in 2006, he severed all connections with the company. His trial began o ...

and his company

Livedoor was a Japanese company that functioned as an Internet service provider and operator of a web portal and blog platform before being brought down by a scandal in 2006. The company was founded and led in its first 10 years by Takafumi Horie, known ...

which was in the news with a recent stock scandal.)

Episode titles and ratings

The show was lauded at first for its novelty as a musical anime and gags on taboo topics. However, the ratings began to dive as the series got repetitive due to the reuse of songs in every episode and the quality of the animation declining. *Note: This from a ranking of animated programs in the Tokyo area only. *Also note: The English titles are not exact translations, however are the actual English titles.These are the correct episode titles from ''Nerima Daikon Brothers – Box Set (DVDs)''

Theme songs

*Opening theme The song debuted on the

Oricon , established in 1999, is the holding company at the head of a Japanese corporate group that supplies statistics and information on music and the music industry in Japan and Western music. It started as, which was founded by Sōkō Koike i ...

rating system at 44. Shigeru Matsuzaki last made the charts in 1978 with "The Ballad of the Lie". The Oricon press release for the song mentions that this is likely the first time that an artist has been made an appearance in the top fifty with a gap of 30 years between songs. :"Ma·Ji·Ya·Ba" ::Composer: Kaneko Takahiro ::Lyrics： Tasuya Ishii ::Vocals：Nerima Daikon Brothers ( Ayano Matsumoto,

Shigeru Matsuzaki , known professionally as and sometimes as Shigeru BROWN, is a Japanese singer and actor. He is most known in the West for his contributions to the Katamari Damacy soundtrack, performing the theme songs of ''Nerima Daikon Brothers'' and acting as ...

, & Shoutarou Morikubo) *Ending theme :"Very Ma.."The ending song is written in Katakana as "ベリマッ!" It does not have an ending syllable. It rhymes with Nerima. The word becomes "very much" and "very max" in the song. ::Composer: Takeshi Fujii (composer) ::Lyrics: Hiiro Misaki ::Vocals：Nerima Daikon Brothers ( Ayano Matsumoto,

, & Shoutarou Morikubo) ADV's dub includes English versions of the opening and closing themes as well as all songs in every episode. The only exception is the Prime Minister's theme in the final episodes, which was embedded in the Music and Effects track and could not be dubbed. The OP and ED themes are performed in English by

Greg Ayres Greg Ayres is an American voice actor who works on a number of English versions of Japanese anime series at ADV Films, Funimation and Sentai Filmworks. He voiced Hideki in '' Nerima Daikon Brothers'', Koyuki Tanaka in '' Beck: Mongolian Chop Sq ...

, Christopher Patton and

Luci Christian Louisa Michelle Christian (born March 18, 1973) is an American voice actress and ADR script writer at Funimation and Seraphim Digital/ Sentai Filmworks. She has provided many voices for English versions of Japanese anime series and films. Lif ...

Notes and references

External links

*
Official Site
*
TV Tokyo Site
*
Jive Website (Manga publisher's)
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Nerima Daikon Brothers ADV Films Aniplex Comedy anime and manga Funimation Musicals based on anime and manga Music in anime and manga Shōnen manga Studio Hibari