The 2007 Kohaku Uta Gassen is over and done with (spoiler: The White team won) and unfortunately, DJ Ozma was NOT invited this year (not that he did anything worth inviting him for) so there was a serious lack of scantily clad dancers on the show.
The show seemed a bit looser this year, possibly due to the hosts: Nakai Masahiro (中居正広) of SMAP and Shofukutei Tsurube (笑福亭鶴瓶) are very familiar with each other since they host the show ザ!世界仰天ニュース (Za Sekai Gyouten News) together. Shofukutei is a comedian by trade and Nakai is not exactly the most serious of people (dig his choice of attire for the closing section of the Kohaku) and together they put on a show that didn't seem as serious as usual. There were lots of interviews and comedians and not as many of those time wasting "skits" they like to put on. Not that the interviews were riveting or anything like that. I was pre-occupied with watching them change the sets behind the guests and hosts as they were talking. Or watching people getting beat up during the K-1 show.
Naturally, Mikawa Kenichi and Kobayashi Sachiko did their gigantic dress up thing but the grandness of both were undermined; Mikawa by the appearance of IKKO shouting どんだけ〜 and coming out to dance during his song (it was planned) and Kobayashi by Nakai and Shofuktei walking right up to her right after she finished singing and seemingly freaking her out (it didn't seem planned).
Also, it seemed like they were trying for a wider audience this year, putting together AKB48, Leah Dizon and Nakagawa Shoko (中川翔子) to make a special Idol section. Actually, speaking of boobies...
(photo taken from here.)
Leah tried her best but...
No Ozma, no boobies.
Know Ozma, know boobies.
(Yeah, I stole that line from a DVDVR. I don't know where it came from.)
