Asian Beauty Appreciation

Water Boys began as a Japanese movie back in 2001. It was the story of some geeky male students who joined a synchro team. That’s a short way of saying synchronized swimming. It proved so popular in Japan that it was packaged and delivered as a TV series which ran for two seasons in 2003 and 2004. Finally, a TV Summer Special was aired in 2005. It was broadcast over two nights each with each segment running about 90 minutes.

Admittedly, synchronized swimming is still in the Summer Olympics but aside from that you don’t hear much about it these days. It is sort of like ballet and swimming combined. Meaning that I could have a look at it with girls doing the swimming, but watching guys do this – I think not.

At least not for me. But I can see how Japanese girls might like watching a wholesome story that showed off a lot of guys in brief racing swimsuits.

So why I am doing an article about this? Well, I learned that buxom gravure idol Nonami Takizawa had a speaking role in this TV Special with appearances on both nights.

For sure this was no walk-on with Nonamin cast as an extra. She had a credible role and was involved with one of the original three guys who began as the entire synchro team before it got backing and expanded to 24..

But sadly, the producers cast her in a role completely different than what you would have expected. Remember, this was 2005 and Takizawa’s career as a gravure idol had just begun in 2004 with Venus, Pure, Se-jo!, and an I-One release called Mitsumete. None of these sold all that well, and are still available from cdjapan. Her first big selling title, Majeur was released on July 25th, 2005,  and cdjapan says this title is out of print. She hadn’t quite reached the rank of major star in the Gravure Idol world when Water Boys was broadcast nearly a month later on August 19th and 20th, 2005.

Yu Kashii as Kyoko Hanamura

Manami Konishi as Kyoko Uehara

Ayana Sakai as Reina Kakihara

Well we all know where Nonamin is today. But she didn’t get there based on her appearance in the Water Boys Summer Special. In fact, I am sad to say, that Takizawa as Buritani, was not the NT you know and love today. To begin with, they had her in a big wig and huge eye glasses.

Her role is most easily described with three words: Frumpy, Dumpy, and Lumpy. Never would I have assumed that these words could be in the same sentence as Nonami Takizawa. What’s more – the thought that terms like these could be used to describe her (then) is unthinkable. In fact, I almost didn’t recognize her when she first appeared on screen.

But it is true. She plays a character who has been obsessed with this one boy since kindergarden. At that time she had given this boy a nice chocolate. He wrote her a thank you note stating that if she gave him another piece of chocolate, he would marry her when they grew up. After more than a dozen years had passed, she still carries this letter around with her.

Nonami Takizawa as Michiru Buritani

Okay, let’s present the evidence. Yes, this is Nonami Takizawa as Buritani.

We can give her credit for taking the role, and covering up her assets most of the time. And it is especially rewarding to know that these days she’s adored by millions of men.

This TV Summer special did have some nice looking women in the cast. You can see Manami Konishi, Ayana Sakai, and Yu Kashii in images from this show above. All of these actresses have moved on to successful careers in Japanese television and movies.

I think her agent wanted her to break into TV dramas but simply selected a role that didn’t showcase her attributes. Possibly that error  (by her agent) has allowed Nonami Takizawa to reach the heights in the gravure field, while her acting career remains on hold for now. Hopefully some producer will take note of her.

If you die-hard Nonamin fans want a look at this you can find it in the completed Jdramas section at the Silent Regrets website. Aside from the extended synchro swimming scenes – the competition, the training, etc – it’s really not so bad.