The night the 'W Shoko' duo was too precious—a story about how I realized I could support them, albeit a bit late, thanks to Dokkiri GP

A few days after it aired, I watched Dokkiri GP on TVer. The targets were the 'W Shoko' duo, Shoko Haida and Shoko Aida. It was a time that was precious far beyond my imagination.

To be honest, until now, I had viewed the two of them from a distance, thinking, 'They seem like kind people.' But as I followed this broadcast, I realized I was completely tracking their every move with my eyes, and I genuinely thought, 'I could support them.' It's a bit of a late realization, but I wanted to write it down.

What happened in Higashi-Izu, Shizuoka?

This prank was an elaborate setup that took the two of them to Higashi-Izu Town in Shizuoka Prefecture under the guise of 'interviewing townspeople who claimed to have seen a UFO.' As the location shoot progressed, mysterious troubles continued to occur, and the W Shoko duo completely fell for the existence of aliens.

At the moment of the reveal, Yuko Ogura appeared as Princess Ringo Momoka from the supposedly exploded 'Korin Star.' Together with her alien minions, she began to belt out 'Koi no Shubi-duba'.

The comment Shoko Aida let slip at this moment, 'That was unnecessarily elaborate...', was just perfect. It was that exquisite reaction of someone who had been dragged through a panic, finally muttering with a voice mixed with exasperation and charm.

And then there was Shoko Haida. With a straight face, she kept firing off retorts like, 'Did you accept this as a job?' and 'Yuko-rin, was that lip-syncing?' It was also great to read later that after the show, Aida wrote on her blog, 'I was truly in a panic because of the elaborate setup,' 'Watching it calmly, there were many suspicious moments, and I laughed; it was full of things to retort to,' and 'Yuko-rin at the end was also unexpectedly cute.' The honesty of the victims themselves finding their own appearance funny afterward is what's good about it.

A 'kind of comedy where nothing ugly is shown' was successfully established

As I write this, I realized that this is probably what attracted me the most this time.

Prank shows are structurally a format designed to capture moments where 'the ugly parts of a person who has been cornered accidentally come out.' Anger, irritation, the leaking of one's true nature—those moments often become the crux of the comedy.

But watching the two W Shokos, that hardly appeared on screen at all. Even after being caught up in such a panic and receiving such an exaggerated reveal at the end, what remained throughout was 'human kindness.' I think that is quite remarkable.

Even when cornered, they didn't shift toward blaming anyone. Even when flustered, they didn't point their frustration at others. Haida's straight-faced retorts, while directed at the pranksters, sounded in a tone that somehow still respected the other party. Aida's 'That was unnecessarily elaborate...' also had charm mixed into her exasperation.

The prankster, Yuko Ogura, also didn't stand in a position to make the victims the butt of the joke; she took on the role by being the most exaggerated one herself.

The two of them were purely scared, purely exasperated, and purely laughing. It was just that, but the reason it felt so pleasant to watch was probably because a 'kind of comedy where nothing ugly is shown' was properly established.

The atmosphere on the internet seemed to be mostly the same

When I peeked at the reactions on the internet after the broadcast, they almost overlapped with my own impressions.

'The W Shoko prank was unimaginably funny,' 'Is today's Dokkiri GP a legendary episode?', 'The panic of the alien invasion was so exquisite that my stomach hurts'—these kinds of voices were lined up. The word 'legendary episode' is strong, so I won't go that far, but it was clear that a decent number of people felt that 'it was a good time to be able to watch this on a Saturday night.'

In an off-shot post from a little while ago, comments like 'They're like sisters,' 'The strongest duo,' and 'Always cute' had gathered, so it seems it was a combination already established as a 'precious duo' among fans. It seems I was just the one who noticed late.

With names differing by only one character, they seem to have known each other for over 10 years

The two are 'Aida Shoko' and 'Haida Shoko,' differing by only one character. They met for the first time on a music show and have known each other for over 10 years. There is a 9-year age gap, and they apparently call each other 'Sho-chan' and 'Sho-chan.' Haida previously wrote on Instagram in polite language that they are close not only at work but also in their private lives.

When you look at their backgrounds again, Aida-san has been on the front lines ever since her debut with Wink, while Haida-san has a career that includes being a Takarazuka alumna and serving as a 'singing older sister' for five years. Even though their generations, personas, and paths are all different, they strangely fit together perfectly when they are side by side.

Two veterans, with no hierarchy, no competition, just enjoying each other's company while having fun. It might be surprisingly rare to have a duo with that kind of atmosphere actually holding their own slot on terrestrial television right now.

I want to see more teams like this.

I was never someone who followed terrestrial television closely to begin with. Even so, since living in a world where TVer is the norm, I've gradually started opening up episodes of programs that catch my interest after they've aired. There's a feeling of being able to reach worlds I hadn't touched before, even if I'm catching up later, and there are nights when I think, 'TV is pretty good, too.'

This 'W Shoko' prank was one of those 'good times I arrived at a few days late.' It wasn't extreme or sharp-tongued; I could just laugh with peace of mind at their presence. I would be happy if more teams like this appeared on TV.

Thanks to Dokkiri GP, I feel like I might finally be able to support 'W Shoko' after all this time. I'm actually looking forward to the next night I see them on screen.

#WShoko #ShokoHaida #ShokoAida #DokkiriGP #TVImpressions #SaturdayNight #noteDiary