Sunday, December 03, 2017

Terrace House, a Deeper Dive: Tokui

Yoshimi Tokui (b. April 16, 1975) is the oldest man on the panel and is almost exactly two years older than Yamachan. As such, he is probably the most frequent commentator though he certainly defers to You who is more in charge of the hosting and generally guides the conversation. He is charming and handsome, but also the earthiest of the panelists.

He is primarily an actor having had roles in a couple of dozen J-dramas and a few films. Like most tarento, he routinely appears on variety shows as well. It's generally hard to find anything he has been in other than Terrace House which has been subtitled in English. I have found exactly one such J-drama which has been fan-subbed: N No Tame Ni. He plays the role of a man who was murdered in his Tokyo apartment along with his wife. I watched the first 8 minutes or so of the series, but the show mostly focuses on the young people who committed the crime and what led to their doing so. I have no idea when Tokui's character makes an appearance, but its clear that his role in this drama is pretty secondary at best.

As you dive into Terrace House, though, you will quickly uncover the things that he is infamous for: Handjob Karaoke, Pero Pero House and condom ads. Everyone's initial impression of the first of those is that he hosted one of those wacky ongoing Japanese game shows that, in this case, involves men trying to complete a karaoke song before cumming while being given a hand-job. In fact, however, there have only been two episodes of the show and both were a part of the same show that resulted in Pero Pero House. The real story is that Tokui has been hosting a series of specials on an adult satellite network since March, 2013 a month before he first appeared on Terrace House. Google translate puts the name of the show as "Keeping the Chuck of Tokui Yoshimi Down" though I have seen it translated as "Unzipped". There have been seven episodes so far with the most recent in October of 2016. The Pero Pero House sketches were on the 3rd, 4th and 5th episodes and the Handjob Karaoke episodes were on the 6th and 7th.

Pero Pero House is a softcore parody of Terrace House, and it says a lot about Terrace House that the production is perfectly fine with Tokui repeatedly making fun of the incredible length of time it takes for housemates to hook up on the show. The continued presence of Tokui on the panel as a voice of sex-positivity is a strong indication of the show's implicit critique of Japanese dating culture. The show really does seem to wish dating were easier in Japan.

Of course, the downside of Tokui's openness and good cheer is that he does occasionally veer into the objectification of women as does the show in general. Tokui's reaction to Chikako is the clearest example: he almost instantly states at her first appearance that she must be great in bed, and the scenes of her eating a banana are utter catnip to him.

Tokui is our favorite somewhat skeevy and disreputable uncle on the panel. He is given to flights of improvised fan-fiction that never come true. He presents the view-point that consensual sex is a generally a good thing, and he never slut-shames and in fact constantly battles Yamachan's impulses to do so.

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