The Twelve Constellations Story (Episode 10)
The tenth room, ruled by Saturn. This is a room where accumulated achievements speak for themselves amidst the rough seas of modern society, which could be called the trials of this Earth. Ritsuki, from the production department of a talent agency, opens a path for comedians struggling daily in the unique world of the "comedy industry," which is often dismissed as just emotion and sense, using logical procedures based on objective data. What will the serious Ritsuki, who handles both public and private matters with precision and diligence, achieve through her hard work and unyielding perseverance...?
Capricorn, Weaving Laughter
"Going on air. 5 seconds before..."
|Ritsuki| is a behind-the-scenes employee in the production department of "Enya-Kora Entertainment," a talent agency that produces comedians, where she is in charge of progress and management, such as timekeeping for comedy shows and securing backstage flow. Her work was always perfect. She ran the stage without a minute of error, brushed off the comedians' selfishness, and handled things coldly. She is a highly skilled workwoman who is so serious, accurate, and quick that she is nicknamed "The Professional" by those around her.
Inside Ritsuki, there was always a quiet passion and an intense thirst. Watching the comedians standing on stage from behind the audience, she always looked at the up-and-coming producers and was never satisfied with her own current situation.
"The times are demanding them," they say... Those people always try to settle things with intuitive words. But the reason that duo became popular was because the comedian who performed just before them successfully eased the tension in the audience. Social trends are nothing more than the result of the wavelength and gears of that moment meshing together. Why does no one evaluate the person who creates that mechanism? Ritsuki strongly wanted to give shape to "certain achievements that everyone acknowledges" in this world with her own hands.
One day, she is informed that the agency's cold policy change has been decided.
"Any young comedian who comes in last three times in a row during auditions is fired immediately!"
On the list that came down from above were the names of three comedy duos that Ritsuki had been paying attention to for some time.
The first is a solo comedian named Sabon. He has extreme stage fright, and when it's time for the real performance, his voice cracks desperately, making it impossible to hear what he is saying. However, the structure of the jokes written in his notebook was more precise and funnier than anyone else's.
The second pair, |Deko and Boko|, look flashy, but their talk tempo is mismatched, and they cannot improvise. However, the two have distinctive voices, and when those frequencies overlap, they are an impressive pair that strangely makes you laugh.
The third group is Giroppon, a former elite manzai duo with too much pride to fawn over the audience. Their jokes are often too intense, causing the audience to pull back, but the irony they show toward society hits the core. Ritsuki had properly analyzed and understood the strengths of each comedian.
They compared themselves to their genius-type peers or juniors who knew how to get into the good graces of their seniors, and were rotting in the corner of the dressing room.
"It's fine for them because they have talent. We're just disposable pawns anyway."
Giroppon grumbles with plenty of sarcasm.
The moment she heard those words, the fuse inside Ritsuki was perfectly ignited. The structure where their partial excellence was not recognized by society due to their clumsiness and was thrown away like trash seemed so inefficient and irrational to her that she could not sit still. Ritsuki stood quickly in front of them and said in a calm tone, extremely coolly and powerfully.
"Please don't compare yourself to others and decide your current position on your own. The reason you aren't selling isn't because you lack talent. You just don't understand the right way to show yourselves to express your characteristics to the fullest on the stage called society."
"Then, what should we do to shine?"
Sabon asks Ritsuki.
"Let me produce you!"
🎤
Ritsuki made a direct appeal to the company and launched the so-called "Loser Team" to take charge of them. From here, Ritsuki's "comedy structural reform through logic" begins.
Her guidance was thorough data-ism, the exact opposite of hot-blooded sports spirit.
I made Sabon, a solo comedian with stage fright, stop trying to memorize his scripts perfectly. Furthermore, I encouraged him to use his talent for intricate plotting to help write material for the mismatched duo, effectively having him take on the role of a comedy writer as well.
For the mismatched duo whose timing was always off, I intentionally used that 'mismatch' to create their material. I advised them to practice their off-beat harmony with good tempo, treating it as a dissonant comedy routine calculated down to the second.
For Giroppon, a former elite duo with high pride, I told them to use their cynical, cold-blooded nature to function as MC-like facilitators who engage the audience during their manzai, allowing them to skillfully handle the chaos while involving the venue.
"Comedy is not about sense. It is an academic discipline where you construct a building called performance and dialogue upon the infrastructure of audience psychology."
Rizuki thoroughly researched the strengths and weaknesses of others, building and implementing strategies down to the millimeter on 'which position would allow them to beat others.'
At first, the comedians were skeptical, wondering if such a logical and constructive strategy like Rizuki's could really work in the world of comedy, where being funny is everything. However, seeing her believe in 'their potential' more than anyone else and running around the theater while getting her hands dirty, they gradually came to place absolute trust in her.
🎤
One year later. The preliminary round for the most prestigious comedy award, which determines the pinnacle of comedians, was held. They, who had been dubbed the 'losers of Enyakora Entertainment,' stirred up explosive laughter with their movements and teamwork based on their respective calculated data. Above all, they were happy that they were able to express what they found funny in front of an audience. It goes without saying that the person happiest to see them like that was Rizuki herself, who had believed in their potential and never gave up.
The perfect puzzle of roles she had created had its pieces fit together as their one-and-only weapon at the award show that day, and they were brilliantly reborn. No one would ever call them 'losers' again.
And so, they successfully passed the preliminary round and advanced to the finals. It was the dream golden time, a live broadcast. On that dream stage, they shone brighter than ever before. The judges praised them, the audience was drawn into a vortex of laughter, and the venue was rocking with excitement. Rizuki watched that scene quietly from the darkness of the wings, just as she always had.
At the moment of the final results announcement, amidst the never-ending applause, the winning duo grabbed the microphone and shouted through tears.
"Can I call out the name of the best producer who brought us this far! Rizuki-san! We aren't losers anymore! We won!!"
The cameras all at once captured Rizuki in the wings. She wasn't good at being in the spotlight. She preferred being behind the scenes after all. A place where she had continued to be involved with many people, compared to others, and rubbed shoulders with them. But the experience and effort she had built up to this point would not lie. That place now stood firmly as an unshakable 'Castle of Abundance' that she had created with her own hands.
Rizuki relaxed her mouth just a little, looking proud, and checked her watch.
"Two minutes left on air. Hurry up and accept the trophy, and head to the ending..."
Rizuki hid behind a shadow and breathed a sigh of relief. She had finally left behind the 'form of happiness' she had desired. Her heart was filled with a great sense of relief and happiness.
After the live broadcast ended, the comedians ran to Rizuki first. They praised each other, and for the first time, Rizuki shed tears of joy. Then, the solo comedian Sabon spoke words of thanks to Rizuki.
"This might be the first time I've seen you laugh like that, Rizuki-san. You were shining so brightly! Thank you so much."
"Next time, make a routine with someone like me who works behind the scenes as the lead."
"Eh! That's difficult. I'll probably stutter and crack again."
"Do your best! Yo✋"
As she gave a pat of encouragement to Sabon's back, her smiling figure was like a single flower blooming from the mud, playing a beautiful, confident melody.
The Capricorn 10th House is a Capricorn that, despite receiving the baptism of the 'star of trials,' Saturn, steadily fulfills its mission until it is satisfied, doing exactly what needs to be done. It is always conscious of how it is accepted and how to achieve success in the rough seas of this society. It is a representative of the Earth signs that steadily carries out tasks based on data that has been firmly accumulated from things obtained through intuition. It does not try to stand out by going to the front, but it possesses a lot of know-how that can be used in the real world, and once it starts talking, it is a person who can express the many ideas and skills acquired so far that lie at the foundation with plenty of humor, or express talents different from others in their own way. It can be said that a certain sense of security amidst severity symbolizes this 10th House. In the next 11th room, a world will be revealed where all living things existing on this Earth can be treated equally side-by-side and 'brought to life.'
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