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Manzai with Matoku and Yomita

Kaji Motomiya

on Aug. 27, 2011

A little introduction to this new project.

"Manzai with Matoku and Yomita" is a comedy mini-series that runs alongside with Toyroom SOS.

Manzai is a Japanese form of comedy act involving two people: the tsukkomi, or the straight man, and the boke, the funny man. The two trade jokes that often consist of wordplay, misunderstandings, double-talk, verbal gags, and joke puns.

The boke Matoku is played by figma Mato Kuroi, whose stage name "Matoku" is a play on "mataku", or "Geez…", an expression used to convey mild surprise, dissatisfaction, delight, or annoyance. It's also a combination of her first name and the first syllable of her given name, "MatoKu". With her array of faces, Matoku can easily pull the joke just by switching her face.

The tsukkomi Yomita is played by figma Yomi Takanashi. While her stage name doesn't have a play on anything, her gentle smile and dissatisfied expression allows her to lead the joke to the pun. When having to deal with Matoku's silliness, she has a habit of muttering, "Matoku…" as if she was saying "Mataku…" Like Matoku, her stage name is the combination of her first name and the first syllable of her given name, "YomiTa".

Each Manzai strip will always make fun of something I'm a part of, someone I know, places I've been, etc. You may or may not know the joke, but I will always leave an explanation in the end.

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Despite the release date here on DrunkDuck, "Manzai with Matoku and Yomita" will run a regular release every other Sunday, starting October 2nd. I need time to make jokes. I hope you enjoyed this little mini-series I cooked up. Don't forget to also check out my main comic series, Toyroom SOS, now running on Season 2!