The judges for the new comedy award race "Double Impact: Manzai & Conte Two-Sword Style No. 1 Decisive Battle 2025" (Nippon TV/Yomiuri TV, July 21, 7pm) to decide the best in both manzai and comedy sketches have been announced, and it has been revealed that five comedians, including Chihara Jr., will be in charge. There will be no public voting, and the first champion will be decided through a strict judging process by the five judges.
"Double Impact" was organized by Nippon Television and Yomiuri Television as a competition to determine the true "two-sword comedian" by judging both manzai and comedy sketches. A total of 2,875 groups entered this inaugural competition. Seven groups advanced to the finals: "Long Coat Daddy," "Stamina Pan," "Cellulite Spa," "Nanamagari," "Nippon no Shachou," "Kamomentaru," and "Cotton." They perform two acts, one manzai and one comedy sketch, and the winner is decided by the total points.
The format of the finals is that all finalists will perform two acts, one manzai and one comedy skit (time limit 4 minutes), in the 1st Impact (1st round) and the 2nd Impact (2nd round). They will choose whether to perform a manzai or a comedy skit first in the 1st Impact, and in the 2nd Impact they will perform their acts in order of lowest score in the 1st Impact. There is no final battle, and the five judges will each be assigned 100 points (maximum 500 points), and the winner will be determined by the total score of the two acts (maximum 1000 points).
In addition to Junior, the judges will be Tsuyoshi from the Nakagawa Family, Goto Teruki from Football Hour, Hanawa Nobuyuki from Knights, and Tanaka Takushi from Ungirls.
◇Chihara Junior
This is the thing I'm most looking forward to this summer. I'm really looking forward to seeing seven really funny comedy duos and skits.
◇Tsuyoshi Nakagawa
I am a bit nervous as this is my first time as a judge in this competition, but I am looking forward to enjoying the luxurious time I will be able to watch a total of 14 comedy routines, including stand-up comedy, skits, and more. I hope that this competition will help the contestants to achieve even greater heights.
◇Terumoto Goto
I think it will be hard to judge because there are so many great comedians and comedy sketch artists, but I hope to enjoy it. The first champion of each competition is remembered for generations, so I will be judging carefully.
◇Nobuyuki Hanawa
When I was aiming to become a comedian, I wanted to do both manzai and sketches. However, I was unable to achieve results in sketches, so I became a manzai comedian. I have more respect than most for entertaining comedians in both genres. I will be strict in my manzai performances, and admiring in my sketches. I'm looking forward to it.
◇Takuji Tanaka
This is a competition to decide the best comedian who can do both skits and manzai, so I have the impression that it is the most difficult competition so far for comedians to produce high quality. Recently, there are many young comedians who do both skits and manzai from when they first started out, and the participants have a wide range of acting experience, so it will be difficult for me as a judge, but I will do my best! I am looking forward to seeing the material on the day.
