Tomokazu Maeno, Aya Uchida, Atsushi Abe, and Other "Northern Kanto Voice Actors" Battle in Local PR Showdown! Tomoko Kaneda Repeatedly Makes Offbeat Comments

■During Ibaraki’s introduction, Tomoko Kaneda’s comment “Gyoza is famous too, right?” draws a flurry of retorts from the Northern Kanto voice actors

During the broadcast, there was a scene where the three voice actors from Northern Kanto each gave a presentation on their home prefectures to Tomoko Kaneda, who is from Yokohama City in Kanagawa Prefecture. At the beginning of the program, when Kaneda commented on her impression of Northern Kanto saying, “The weather forecast is about the same, so I feel an affinity!”, Maeno quickly joked back, “Well, that’s because it’s all Kanto after all,” kicking off the program with lively banter.

In the “Show Off Your Hometown! Local PR Battle!” segment, the three Northern Kanto voice actors promoted their home areas. Maeno introduced features of Ibaraki Prefecture in the local dialect, such as “There’s an airport!” and “We lead the nation in production of many kinds of vegetables and fruits.” However, when Kaneda said, “Gyoza is famous too, right?”, the studio burst into commotion. Abe, from Tochigi which is famous for “Utsunomiya Gyoza,” reacted by saying, “That’s a foul!” Maeno added, “When it comes to Gyoza, that’s Tochigi, right? Northern Kanto folks can’t claim stuff from other prefectures!” Uchida followed with, “That’s a yellow card!” making everyone in the studio burst into laughter.

Even after that, while Abe introduced the beauty of Nikko in Tochigi Prefecture and Uchida promoted Gunma’s hot springs, Kaneda kept making misstatements. When Kaneda commented on Gunma’s mountains, saying, “That looks like the kind of mountain Mito Komon would climb!” Maeno immediately retorted, “That’s our ace in the hole!” Additionally, when the topic shifted to konnyaku, Kaneda said, “I love konnyaku! Shimonita Konnyaku!” confusing it with Shimonita green onions (from Gunma), which prompted even more studio-wide retorts. Sobii also commented, “Please give Tomoko Kaneda about seven yellow cards worth of leeway!”

The show featured a segment called “Tomoko Kaneda Judges! Local Gourmet No.1 Deciding Match!”, where the three presented their highly recommended local gourmet foods. Kaneda expressed surprise at how delicious they were, making the gourmet showdown highly entertaining.

Towards the end of the show, saying, “I want to introduce Sobii to my local friends!” the mascots from Northern Kanto appeared. Shimon-chan from Shimotsuma City in Ibaraki Prefecture, Gunma-chan from Gunma Prefecture, and Takauji-kun from Ashikaga City in Tochigi Prefecture joined Sobii for the “Everyone Shake It! Pedometer Challenge.” The mascots were shown shaking pedometers attached to their foreheads, and Maeno, sounding confused, said, “Is it okay for us to air this!?” causing even more laughter in the studio.

(C)AbemaTV, Inc.