Shibuya

Aug 09 2002

Where to begin. Smap is an idol group. This means that they are singers, and actors, and comedians, and spokesmen, and whatever else they need to be to promote themselves. The thing is that they’re not particularly good at any of these things; they’re just cute. So these five guys have their own comedy show, their own band, their own drama shows, their own solo projects and such, and they show up advertising stuff and making guest appearances all over the place. Now, they have their own drink. I guess that’s the logical progression for a group that has already saturated pretty much every entertainment medium. I’m particularly fond of Kusanagi-san, who recently released a single with a bunch of Korean in it and went to Korea to sing it in the street to a bunch of confused pedestrians. The drink is kind of reminiscent of classic Japanese energy drinks like Lipovitan D and Oronamin C, which means it’s not particularly tasty, but it’s worth buying just for the psychological value of walking around town thinking to yourself, “Hey! I’m drinkin’ Smap!”.