On December 21st, the comedy duo "Takuro" was crowned the 21st champion of the "M-1 Grand Prix 2025" (ABC TV/TV Asahi), a contest to determine the best manzai comedian in Japan. On the same day, they appeared on TV Asahi's "Udo Times" and revealed the origin of their duo's name.
When asked about the origin of the name by Caster Yumiko Arimoto, the straight man Kimura Band explained, "We're big fans of Takuya Kimura, so we got the 'Taku' from him. Akagi (the boke) is a fan of Ichiro, so we got the 'rou' from him."
Takuro (Yoshimoto Kogyo) was formed in 2016 by the comedy duo of comedian Yutaka Akagi and straight man Kimura Band. They came second in the 8th YTV Manzai Newcomer Awards in 2019 and the 54th NHK Kamigata Manzai Contest in 2024. This was their first time reaching the finals of the M-1 Grand Prix, marking a remarkable achievement.
In the M-1 Grand Prix, they passed the first round in second place (861 points), and in the final round, they received 8 out of 9 votes from the judges, becoming the "best manzai comedian in Japan."
