In the history of the universe, what the man does is as tiny as dust. He is just a 29-year-old jobless, who is living in Australia-shape island floating 20 km away from Osaka.
His daily life is very simple. Gets up at the midnight, or sometimes at noon, and plays several video games and slot machines at his home with his little brother. His way to make his living is also the slot machine. On holiday sometimes he goes to pachi-slot shop near his house, and sometimes wins, but mostly loses and graves his powerlessness and helplessness.
Some may ask - why is this topic so important ?(or are you talking about yourself?) But what do you say if I say that everyday at least 10,000 people are minding about his life?
This guy, Nagai Koji, ex-carpenter from Ehime prefecture, is actually becoming famous for his Internet broadcasting from his home.
Originally, he was broadcasting his life via net-radio or peercast, and his self-mocked but sophisticated sense of humor, and unreserved way to unveil his life grabbed a certain number of people, especially slot-machine-fans who sympathize with Nagai and his lazy life.
*(It's off topic, but gambling via slot machine is illegally run by Japanese-Koreans in Japan, and they are as popular as Pachinko.)
But what boosted his popularity was the clips cut from those broadcastings and uploaded to some Internet-broadcasting services such as youtube or nikoniko doga. His very humorous way of playing video games – with a lot of narrations from himself, and his very amateurish but lovely technique grabbed hearts of lot of Internet audience. He got a title as a game master, 永井先生(Nagai Sensei), and his favorite phrase in Ehime acccent, "何ぞこれー"(what the heck is this??) spread among those geeks.
In the beginning, this poor slotter Mr. Nagai was just playing old video games with emulator. However, supported by those audience, now he owns Xbox360, Nintendo DS lite, PS3, and Nintendo Wii, and and lot of softwares for each machines.
Incredibly, fans of Nagai who wanted to watch his playing began to give those games as birthday presents. Not only video games, fans are also sending a lot of foods. Some even sent a sex toy to comfort himself. Look around, are there any such a richest 29-year-old single in this world? He is almost an idol girl, who can easily get what she wants from fans.
And speaking of idol, well, interestingly, he is an idol otaku. Or I should say he was.
Actually, it is not very recently that he began to produce himself and create a funny clip. Some morning musume fans who are still reading this blog may remember the mysterious three video clips which was uploaded when Abe Natsumi's plagiarism was uncovered. The ones in which a crazy guy is complaining about Natsumi's betray, and tore her photo book to pieces, and cooked them with a fry pan. Actually , this person is the Nagai-san!!!
*(History of Nagai-sensei including theseclips)
3 years later, the ex-star of Morning Musume fans returned as a superstar on the Web as a whole. An earnest fan who devoted himself to an idol( and felt betrayed), became an idol whose fans devote themselves to him. Amazingly, the total amount of money fans spent for his birthday is more than 300,000 yens.
And one of fans created a MAD movie featuring his voice while he is playing games!!
--
This Nagai-sensei's story reminds me of the grestest early days of Morning Musume.
Now Nagai-sensei seems to have alreayd lost his interest on that group, and his passion for love is spent for a kyabakura girl who squeezed 400,000 yens from this poor 29-year-old. But in the early days, among Morning Musume fans, including this Mr. Nagai, there are a lot of humorous crazy persons who can joke on Morning Musume and entertain people. Contrarily, I don't think that there are any interesting persons like Nagai-san among active fans of the group. Sometimes they made me laugh, but it is just because they are queer - especially for otagei-dancing. When Morning Musume became boring and became just a group for otakus who spent for it, the talented fans in early days also left.
Anyway, now he could demonstrate that he can earn 300,000 yens from his broadcasting, without working hard, just by playing Xbox or PS3. (He doesn't like Wii at this moment.) And even its hard and softwares can be given by his fans. Dose he become a kind of professional game player? There are some professional players of excellent skill in the world. But Nagai-san is just a poor and aged player who can't pass even the 1st stage of Ninja Gaiden. If he becomes the first professional unskillful game player.
But, unfortunately, it seems he won't. He tried to gather 500 yens from each viewer (total 50,000 yens to purchase a new video capture board if it went well) but it was criticized from the audience, and early this morning he made a declaration that he won't earn anything from his broadcasting, and won't make it his means of livelihood. So, although he became such a popular person even an underground idol girl talks about him, at this point, he seems that he will be just a eccentric person living in Ehime, who voluntary plays and reviews some newest video games, and spent a lazy life with his family.
--
--
By the way, whether it is profitable or not, why could he become such popular in few months?
It's true he is talented as comedian. I can say, he is funnier than average young comedians who appear on TV lately and sleep with some Morning Musume girls. But the most interesting point of his broadcasting is that he is using Reality-TV-esque approach, probably subconsciously.
Reality-TV-esque approach – or a documentary which includes live reactions from daily lives of people is also famous in Japan. However, in the most cases, the main characters of those documentaries are professional performers talentless people who are called 'talent'. So, most of them are fake.
Contrarily, the accidents occurs in Nagai's house is for real. While he is playing a game, an insect suddenly jumps in from the window. In early days, he covered his broken heart with a kyabakura girl outspokenly. His friends who live in his neighborhood frequently visits his house, and become 'special guest' of Nagai7s show. And even his mother sometimes interrupt his broadcasting by complaining his jobless-ness, and Nagai argues with her.
“Why are you playing video games everyday? Aren't you 30 year-old, Koji?”
“No... I'm just... just doing IT... yes, IT.”
Those raw materials stimulate our paparazziness in our hearts, and as if we watch the Reality-TV shows from Osborne family or Teutle family, we can enjoy Nagai family's show, and we can't take eyes off from Nagai's life when we liked the one.
So, in a sense, his broadcasting is the niche product of Japanese entertainment business. While Japanese Reality-TV-esque shows are appointing 'talents' to protect their traditional system, an ex-morning-musume otaku began the true(man) show from his 120-year-old house in Ehime via the Internet.
As long as he entertains people in this his original way, even if he doesn't earn from his broadcasting, it's sure he'll become more popular. And if his popularity becomes huge and can't be overlooked by traditional show business world, it's not a day dream that he'll be picked up by that world. And then, he may get what he wanted to- Morning Musume. It's always frustrating that comedians always sleep with idol girls, but if it is Nagai-san, who used to devote himself for an idol girl, it won't be so bad.
His daily life is very simple. Gets up at the midnight, or sometimes at noon, and plays several video games and slot machines at his home with his little brother. His way to make his living is also the slot machine. On holiday sometimes he goes to pachi-slot shop near his house, and sometimes wins, but mostly loses and graves his powerlessness and helplessness.
Some may ask - why is this topic so important ?
This guy, Nagai Koji, ex-carpenter from Ehime prefecture, is actually becoming famous for his Internet broadcasting from his home.
Originally, he was broadcasting his life via net-radio or peercast, and his self-mocked but sophisticated sense of humor, and unreserved way to unveil his life grabbed a certain number of people, especially slot-machine-fans who sympathize with Nagai and his lazy life.
*(It's off topic, but gambling via slot machine is illegally run by Japanese-Koreans in Japan, and they are as popular as Pachinko.)
But what boosted his popularity was the clips cut from those broadcastings and uploaded to some Internet-broadcasting services such as youtube or nikoniko doga. His very humorous way of playing video games – with a lot of narrations from himself, and his very amateurish but lovely technique grabbed hearts of lot of Internet audience. He got a title as a game master, 永井先生(Nagai Sensei), and his favorite phrase in Ehime acccent, "何ぞこれー"(what the heck is this??) spread among those geeks.
In the beginning, this poor slotter Mr. Nagai was just playing old video games with emulator. However, supported by those audience, now he owns Xbox360, Nintendo DS lite, PS3, and Nintendo Wii, and and lot of softwares for each machines.
Incredibly, fans of Nagai who wanted to watch his playing began to give those games as birthday presents. Not only video games, fans are also sending a lot of foods. Some even sent a sex toy to comfort himself. Look around, are there any such a richest 29-year-old single in this world? He is almost an idol girl, who can easily get what she wants from fans.
And speaking of idol, well, interestingly, he is an idol otaku. Or I should say he was.
Actually, it is not very recently that he began to produce himself and create a funny clip. Some morning musume fans who are still reading this blog may remember the mysterious three video clips which was uploaded when Abe Natsumi's plagiarism was uncovered. The ones in which a crazy guy is complaining about Natsumi's betray, and tore her photo book to pieces, and cooked them with a fry pan. Actually , this person is the Nagai-san!!!
*(History of Nagai-sensei including theseclips)
3 years later, the ex-star of Morning Musume fans returned as a superstar on the Web as a whole. An earnest fan who devoted himself to an idol( and felt betrayed), became an idol whose fans devote themselves to him. Amazingly, the total amount of money fans spent for his birthday is more than 300,000 yens.
And one of fans created a MAD movie featuring his voice while he is playing games!!
--
This Nagai-sensei's story reminds me of the grestest early days of Morning Musume.
Now Nagai-sensei seems to have alreayd lost his interest on that group, and his passion for love is spent for a kyabakura girl who squeezed 400,000 yens from this poor 29-year-old. But in the early days, among Morning Musume fans, including this Mr. Nagai, there are a lot of humorous crazy persons who can joke on Morning Musume and entertain people. Contrarily, I don't think that there are any interesting persons like Nagai-san among active fans of the group. Sometimes they made me laugh, but it is just because they are queer - especially for otagei-dancing. When Morning Musume became boring and became just a group for otakus who spent for it, the talented fans in early days also left.
Anyway, now he could demonstrate that he can earn 300,000 yens from his broadcasting, without working hard, just by playing Xbox or PS3. (He doesn't like Wii at this moment.) And even its hard and softwares can be given by his fans. Dose he become a kind of professional game player? There are some professional players of excellent skill in the world. But Nagai-san is just a poor and aged player who can't pass even the 1st stage of Ninja Gaiden. If he becomes the first professional unskillful game player.
But, unfortunately, it seems he won't. He tried to gather 500 yens from each viewer (total 50,000 yens to purchase a new video capture board if it went well) but it was criticized from the audience, and early this morning he made a declaration that he won't earn anything from his broadcasting, and won't make it his means of livelihood. So, although he became such a popular person even an underground idol girl talks about him, at this point, he seems that he will be just a eccentric person living in Ehime, who voluntary plays and reviews some newest video games, and spent a lazy life with his family.
--
--
By the way, whether it is profitable or not, why could he become such popular in few months?
It's true he is talented as comedian. I can say, he is funnier than average young comedians who appear on TV lately and sleep with some Morning Musume girls. But the most interesting point of his broadcasting is that he is using Reality-TV-esque approach, probably subconsciously.
Reality-TV-esque approach – or a documentary which includes live reactions from daily lives of people is also famous in Japan. However, in the most cases, the main characters of those documentaries are professional performers talentless people who are called 'talent'. So, most of them are fake.
Contrarily, the accidents occurs in Nagai's house is for real. While he is playing a game, an insect suddenly jumps in from the window. In early days, he covered his broken heart with a kyabakura girl outspokenly. His friends who live in his neighborhood frequently visits his house, and become 'special guest' of Nagai7s show. And even his mother sometimes interrupt his broadcasting by complaining his jobless-ness, and Nagai argues with her.
“Why are you playing video games everyday? Aren't you 30 year-old, Koji?”
“No... I'm just... just doing IT... yes, IT.”
Those raw materials stimulate our paparazziness in our hearts, and as if we watch the Reality-TV shows from Osborne family or Teutle family, we can enjoy Nagai family's show, and we can't take eyes off from Nagai's life when we liked the one.
So, in a sense, his broadcasting is the niche product of Japanese entertainment business. While Japanese Reality-TV-esque shows are appointing 'talents' to protect their traditional system, an ex-morning-musume otaku began the true(man) show from his 120-year-old house in Ehime via the Internet.
As long as he entertains people in this his original way, even if he doesn't earn from his broadcasting, it's sure he'll become more popular. And if his popularity becomes huge and can't be overlooked by traditional show business world, it's not a day dream that he'll be picked up by that world. And then, he may get what he wanted to- Morning Musume. It's always frustrating that comedians always sleep with idol girls, but if it is Nagai-san, who used to devote himself for an idol girl, it won't be so bad.
