Arashi -- Troublemaker

 

There have been some changes to the Friday night lineup on TV Japan over the past several weeks. One of the big ones has been the disappearance of one of my favourites "VS. Arashi" which featured famed Johnny's Entertainment group Arashi（嵐）and various celebrities in a series of games. 

Now I realize that it's been nearly a couple of years since Arashi decided to break up but "VS. Arashi" on TV Japan was behind the original Japanese schedule by a year or two, so we were still enjoying Ono-kun and the rest of the guys making merry on Cliff Climb and Kickin' Sniper. However, the pandemic walloped the entire planet including Japan and its television industry. Apparently the last several months before the game show finished its own run, the guys and the guests basically had to jettison all of those physical games and settle for some technical wizardry and social distancing to do stuff that wasn't exactly as fun. But from what I hear, a similar show has popped up starring former Arashi member Masaki Aiba（相葉雅紀）and some of the newer Johnny's members, so maybe TV Japan might get a crack at that show.

Anyways, it's really "VS. Arashi" where we were getting our weekly dose of Arashi. I've never gotten into the dramas which starred any of the guys, but for any of those shows, you can be sure that an Arashi single has been placed as the theme song. So it goes with "Troublemaker", the guys' 29th single from March 2010. Written by H. Suzuki and composed by Masashi Ohtsuki (both names are in romaji), it's another one of Arashi's uptempo driving tunes which led the drama "Tokujo Kabachi!!"（特上カバチ!!...Extraordinary Quibbling!!）that was televised on TBS that year. Unfortunately, I couldn't find any YouTube footage of the series (although I could find an English synopsis on "My Drama List"), but it did star Arashi member Sho Sakurai（櫻井翔）and actress Maki Horikita（堀北真希）as head-butting legal eagles.

"Troublemaker" hit No. 1 on Oricon and ended up as the 3rd-ranked single of 2010, going Triple Platinum. It also got Arashi another invitation to the Kohaku Utagassen that year. The song is included on their ninth studio album, "Boku no Miteiru Fūkei"（僕の見ている風景...The Scenery I'm Looking At）, released in August 2010. It became the No. 1 album of the year.