This TV special has long interviews with B'z, a secret live of It's Showtime!! at Roppongi Hills (a really excellent one!), nice clips from every year of B'z career, and a fantastic performance of Yasei no ENERGY on top of the tallest skyscraper in Japan. But the part we're focusing on here is messages to B'z from Top Athletes!

They got this Australian national treasure on a program about a Japanese national treasure.

Sydney	Hotel

"Um, to everyone in B'z -- Congratulations on being able to make it this far and being such a successful act in Japan." [I'm writing down exactly what he said in English. Apparently woefully left to figure it out on his own, he pronounces it Beezee! ]

"Um, I guess you know I've had the opportunity to enjoy your music like everyone else has in Japan has. And uh, I hope maybe when I'm in Japan I have the opportunity to see you in concert or see you perform live. I think I'd really enjoy that."

"So, congratulations!" Even though some TV Asahi exec probably made Thorpedo do this: "Here, say something nice about B'z and further endear yourself to people" he sounds quite sincere and happy...he should definitely go see them live!

You might recognize Kitajima-san on the left, who just scored 2 gold medals in Athens and is prominently featured in Japanese news right now. Kitajima-san holds B'z music in high regard! Many of these swimmers do...and ultra soul is such a fantastic motivational song. Ok, I am quoting the following from a Time Asia article: His strokes were at least four centimeters shorter than those of his nearest competitor, but when Kosuke Kitajima churned the Athens pool in a frenzied quest for gold in the 100-m breaststroke race last week, Japan's finest swimmer wasn't about to let a few centimeters of European torso or American leg stop him. Tagging the end of the pool in a speedy display somewhat slowed by brisk winds, the 1.78-m Kitajima raised his arms in a banzai cheer and threw back his head as a strange wail swirled through the stadium and skittered across the surface of the pool. Delivered in a high-pitched tone perhaps best detected by dogs, the shrieks were the unmistakable call of the teenage Japanese girl. "Ko-chan, congratulations," the girls screamed in unison, waving little rising-sun flags in precise formation. "Little Ko, we love you."

"My impression of the new song...it has, you know, a little bit of neo-punk undertune to it...and you know, and it also has kind of a dance feel about it." The superman of mizu is talking about Yasei no ENERGY.

"So um, you know, I'm impressed with it. It sounded good and I actually enjoyed it." Actually...haha. And before you accuse me of bias, let me say it was TV Asahi who hauled Ian out for 2 separate interviews about B'z and made him listen to Yasei. I think all in all, he did a fair job...and looked enormously good-natured the entire time. I wish he had gotten to listen to something other than Yasei though. Yasei is good, but it's not on our list of Essential Listening for beginners, is it? Warning: Superfluous information about Ian Thorpe follows: "Unlike many sports figures who are monosyllabic, the camera warms to Thorpe: he is smart, cultured and has an instinct for saying the right thing. Though he is at the centre of a media scrum he rises above it, at once perfect and human."

(In all fairness, I have to warn you that B'z NP regular B2, whose opinion I respect, thinks I'm crazy. He also hates the nickname the Thorpedo. However, I still think IT is one pretty cool guy.)

Don't know who Ian Thorpe is? Not wildly impressed that he's here talking about your favorite band?

Well, he is hailed as one of the greatest swimmers ever (freestyle is his specialty) and is adored by many, and not only for his lethal skills in the water. This 6"4' star has inspired a lot of enthusiastic praise, so far as I can tell.

He has rock star appeal:

"Earlier, Spanish girls wept and squealed and draped themselves over the fence of the warm-down pool, throwing gifts at Thorpe, who was said to be deeply embarrassed by the attention. And in the early hours of last Thursday morning, 12 million Japanese viewers tuned in to TV Asahi to watch him swim the semi-final of the 100-metres freestyle."

"The watershed came two years ago, when an 18-year-old Thorpe was the face of the last world championships in the Japanese city of Fukuoka. Flaskas remembers racing through the car park beneath the team hotel, 'girls everywhere'. It was madness. A similar comic chase unfolded last year on the Great Wall of China, when a television crew materialised from above."

He has cosmopolitan flair:

"Thorpe's exposure in Japan has coincided with a stunning emergence of world-class Japanese swimmers. In April, Thorpe trained with Kosuke Kitajima, the breaststroker who broke two world records last week.

'He has a Western, non-Japanese look, but the way he behaves is very modest, very Asian I think. He reminds me of a very traditional Japanese value, which is modesty, effort, without telling anyone he is making effort, explains Yumiko Nakagawa, the station's chief international officer who brokered the deal with Thorpe.

Says Thorpe: 'I think a combination of East and West is the best thing. I think from a lot of different cultures we can gain a lot. It's quite naive not to look at alternatives and just presume that what we've always done is the best thing.'

"When he stepped out of the pool one night last week, he gave three interviews, still dripping wet: one in English, one in Japanese and one in fluent French."

Apparently he is very gracious, is nice to everyone, and everyone loves him. From the Chinese kids his charity helps to grandmas wanting him to autograph underwear. Yeah yeah, B2.

Articles:
The Magnetic Mr. Thorpe (All quotes above ripped out from here)

The basic Thorpedo rundown

This article sadly reminds me of me writing about B'z. Maybe Koshi should have started a line of hotpants back when he wore them.
He sells underwear, too

And if you want more, I will blow another chunk out of my dignity and recommend this site, which I hit during Olympics fever, ok?:
Thorpey (I think they've temporarily crashed due to the influx of Olympic visitors ~ anyways, visit later, it has tons of articles etc).

And of course, IT also has a photogenic smile and...but I warn you not to scroll down if you object to bronzed Apol--I mean, if you object to him. I hope I can be forgiven for putting this non-B'z picture here, even though it really throws my resolution to focus on writing for this site in my face. Anyway, there are just some things about Mr. Thorpe that vaguely remind me of the B'z style, not least of which are superhero talent in his field, intelligence, and an aura of niceness. Am I crazy or is this not true? *ducks tomatoes*

Ok I feel bad. Let me add a couple of B'z (my itsumademo #1, of course!) pics (all the screencaps for their Roppongi performance will be placed elsewhere).

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