100th Post! My Ultimate Bias, Yanagi Kotaro

Woohoo finally my 100th post! Did I really write that lot here?

Anyway, still amazed that I can write 100 post! (And maybe more in the future!)

Actually you may realized it already that I’m getting lazier these days hehe but I hope I can start writing more often again! I have many drafts saved but it take a long time for me to continue finishing it sorry hehehe but just to let you know, I have many post planned!

Actually, I was going to make a 100th post about an international fanpage account I’m making for Magipri (it’s on progress btw! Please look forward for it okay~) but yesterday suddenly in the middle of my very bad day… miracles happened!! This person came back from the dead.

You know, how it feels when you’re already marrying with fourteen kids but then your first love came back?? Not that I’ve ever experienced marriage, but uhhhhhhh I know that the love is still there!! The old flame is still burning so hot despite I thought I already forgot all about it! So since I was blessed with such miracle I decided to make my first love as the 100th post..

Ah, you must be confused reading what I wrote above, so let me explain. Back then, years ago when I was such a nijikon (I only cared about anime and 2D  things), Yanagi Kotaro was the person who led me into an amazing but harsh 3D idol world! Yes, so maybe without him, there will be no me, the rainbow pudding who wrote all about Japanese idols in this blog!

By the way, I think it will be easier to introduce him by storytelling you guys from how he became my first love until now.. I think it will be very long, I hope you can bear reading this huhu.

(Btw sorry for the LQ picts of him in this post, it’s kinda hard to look for HD pict of him especially his photos were mostly from years ago)

 

The first time I knew him was because of Prince of Tennis 2.5D Musical (Tenimyu). I’m a big fan of Tenipuri and one day I decided to watch the musical videos.. actually back then I don’t have expectation because..uhhh? Human playing an anime character? But turns out I like it very much! I remember watching the 2nd generations musical first (There are 10 generations until now) and enjoy it. Back then 2.5D wasn’t anything like how it is now: with great actors and budget and many anime adaptation. The jokes were amazing, but some had bad singing voice, a short actor had to play a tall character, etc,  but it’s still interesting and I realized that the main character, Echizen Ryoma, doesn’t really move a lot in the stage. Me and my sister (who watched it with me) thought maybe it was because he is a cool character so he shouldn’t run around. And with the chaos engulfing the show, I joked around with my sister: “Ryoma’s actor doesn’t even need to be good at singing or dancing, I think he’s there because he’s cute” which turns out to be my biggest mistake ever….

So at the graduation of the actors (which was to move on to the next generation) they had a speech and when it’s Echizen Ryoma’s actor’s turn, he said things about accident and all, which made me curious. So after that, I googled about it and found out that, the accident was true. Before, he was a dancer and also the actor for the first generation and was very famous because of it, but one day he got hit by a car and went into coma for two weeks, badly injured in his body and vocal cords. Even the doctor predicted he would be bedridden for the rest of his life. But after that he worked really hard that he can walk and sing again, though not perfect, and performed once again in the second generation. Realizing that I was mocking such an amazing and hardworking person, I felt really ashamed and guilty.. Yes, that Echizen Ryoma actor is Yanagi Kotaro..

Yanagi Kotaro as Echizen Ryoma. Back then he was still 18 y.o

Anyway, after that I tried to searched about him again and found out about his group, D-BOYS, their videos, their project, and songs. Maybe you know the infamous Shirota Yuu and Endou Yuuya? Those people are Yanagi’s best friends and always taking care of him, and he called Yuuya with ‘Darling’. Or Seto Kouji? Araki Hirofumi? Horii Arata? Yanagi lead them back then in D-BOYS, haha. Well the thing is, their group was kinda big back then, but recently it’s kinda abandoned by Watanabe Entertainment though they still push them by buy one get one strategy lol.

Anyway, after I followed all of their videos, I realized that… I came to like Yanagi a lot!! Wow, somehow, I forgot how it happened, but it’s not because he was sickly or handicapped or because of how he survived his accident.. but surprisingly because of his personality!

Yanagi was raised overseas until he was in middle school, He was born in German, lived in India, and attended a boarding school in America. That’s why he can speak english and he was very blunt and mypace like foreigner are (well you know how Japanese tend to be very polite and all). He does and says whatever he wants despite the people around him, that sometimes I think it will get bad if not Yanagi who said it. He would also says bizzare things and acted like a child most of the time even though he’s actually an adult. And to me it was utterly hilarious!!

Oh, and he has a catch phrase “Oreyanagi”, means I’m Yanagi. He sometimes also calls himself with Oreyanagi.

Like for example, he often guested in a Nico Nico douga live called Bugi Ugi Night where Kimeru, Kazuki Kato and Yagami Ren hosted. They would always call him E.T. (Alien), he would blabber endlessly at something that even sometimes the MC can’t proceed  because of the sound, and would cover his mouth with their hands lol. At games he would always do unpredictable things, like if they play a drama he could change the story as he like. The people around him also has soft spot to him despite his straightforward tendency, because of his funny and innocent remarks, although sometimes kinda dirty.

A real screenshot from the said show

Maybe one of the reason for the soft spot is because he is a fairy. This is also one of his amazing traits. Have you heard of #10yearschallenge? Well, that challenge wouldn’t mean much to Yanagi because he seems to never age. See the Tenimyu picture up there? It’s when he was 18 years old. As of 2019 he is now 33 years old and he still looks like he’s 18! Actually, even when he was 20-ish years old, people are already confused about his age and there’s even a time when he went into a BugiUgi show and read a comment asking about his age… Which is funny because he answered he’s already 26 y.o, the same age with the MC Yagami and only one year younger from Kazuki, whom looks way older than him. Oh, and Yanagi sometimes would come to see Tenimyu and meet the new Echizen, and wow despite the 10 years differences they looks like the same age lol (or maybe younger?).

Yes, they have 10 years difference, this is when Ogotan was 17y.o

And he’s still short too. So visually he still looks very young lol.

But since three years ago, Yanagi went hiatus to focus on his medical treatment and after that he was never seen again… not! Well, he usually appeared once a year by some people’s photos in social media or by people’s stories that they met him. So imagine that he doesn’t really age and we can only know him through myth lol, that’s why I call him by a fairy. But yeah, I still wait for him and wished he would come back someday. As long as he’s healthy…

As usual, I waited for his photo last year too, since it’s been a year. But it’s been two weeks past the new year and he never appeared so I kind of gave up… until something magical happened!!

柳浩太郎くんと久しぶりに会った。精神形成時を外国で育ったからなのか、相変わらず口から出る言葉はストレートの直球で、よほどの名捕手でなければ受け取れない、って性格は何年経っても全くそのままだった。ごはん食べてやるよ、と言ってデザートを二品も注文した。相変わらず元気だった、大丈夫だ。 pic.twitter.com/HpNRCEDSU6

— 片岡義朗 (@YoshiroKataoka) January 16, 2019

Yanagi appeared in a photo with a producer of Tenimyu and BugiUgiNight!! Fyi the producer likes Yanagi very much since back then he was involved in the Tenimyu Audition where Yanagi passed and he would laugh the loudest when Yanagi guested at BugiUgi, even though staff should’ve stay quiet.. Yanagi teased him back by calling him ‘Hage’ (baldie) haha. Anyway from the photo Yanagi still looks the same though he looks older now thanks to his blonde hair! Last year when he still has black hair he basically looks the same as he was 10 years ago, though.

And more miracle appeared! I thought it was only a once a year appearance like last years and I was happy by just that, but Yanagi actually made an Instagram account!! He only uploaded his doodles there so people think it’s fake but Kimeru confirmed that it’s official lol.

If you are interested, please, pelase follow him at @yanagiktr !!

I don’t know if he will come back to acting one day or not (actually his friend already made a stage that he can return to anytime he’s ready) but seeing him update not just once a year, even though it’s only doodle… I’m so happy!

And yeah, as I said far up there, I seemed like I already moved on before, since I already had more bias, never really mentioned his name anymore except if it’s important or if I miss him.. but yesterday when he appeared again after a long time, my heart aches and yeah, I realized that he’s still that person who meant so much to me! Hahah. Maye if I have to choose to buy his random doodles or Magipri’s CD, I’ll end up choosing his doodles.. (ups!)

Ah, I’m bad at explaining huhu his charm can only be known by experiencing it yourself, I think. If you are interested in his video I have a few.. you can google about him or contact me 🙂

His book’s that I owned

Oh!! and do you know that he also wrote a book?? His own biography titled ‘Shougai Yakusha ~ Hashirenakutemo, Serifu o wasuretemo’ which translates as ‘Handicapped Actor~ Even if I Can’t Run, Even if I forget My Lines’ which is really good! I actually bought the book and amazed by his way of writing which is so straightforward like his personality. In the book he told mainly about the accident and how he cope from it. At the start of the book it’s kinda funny but to the end it became so sad… By the way the book is in Japanese, so if you can’t read Japanese, I’m sorry that you can’t understand since there is no full translation of the book 😦

But if you are curious, this documentary video actually depict the book so much! But again it’s still in Japanese with no sub haha. There are 5 parts of the video btw.

 

Well, I don’t know what you’d say about this, since Yanagi is barely even an idol himself lol. But I hope you can know there’s someone out there that overcame all his disabilities with his great charisma and still came so far in the entertainment industry.. He’s living well despite his condition, so we should do our best too to live happily! 😀

If you can, please help support him too in the future since the fairy has descended once again! Follow and like his IG post okay? Or even knowing about him a bit after reading this is okay! He’s a legend after all lol. His story must be passed down  😉

Thanks for reading this long post!

Yes, I love OreYanagi!