The Kings of Laughter (2019)

Uplifting story about talented and dedicated people

This is a story about two young men overcoming difficulties on their way learning to work as a team and do manzai.
Manzai is a traditional style of Japanese comedy. Two people act out a funny talk in front of the audience. One of them - a boke - say strange things and the latter - a tsukkomi - makes fun of him. Before starting this drama you should also know that manzai is associated with Osaka where people speak the Kansai dialect.
The journey of our two main characters influences people around them and vice versa - supporting characters teach our two leads important life lessons. Overall, the plot is very well-knit. I greatly enjoyed the acting, too. Especially
Mamiya Shotaro, he's so playful and expressive!
This drama is so nice I wish more people knew about it. Sometimes I felt this drama was a little bit slow but as I continued watching I didn't regret starting it. I loved it so give it a try! You can watch it with English subtitles on dramacool. Hope this review was of any use to you ฅ'ω'ฅ

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If you, like me, love comedy, and even more so *Japanese* comedy (owarai), for its peculiar flavor and its many facets (manzai, konto, oogiri, etc. etc.), then you too might find this "Beshari Gurashi" aka "The Kings of Laughter" particularly interesting.
A word to the wise, though: don't expect this series to be only comedy, there's quite a bit of drama mixed in there (definitely more than I expected, in all fairness - more on that in a jiff), as we could sum this up a glance behind the scene of the geinin/owarai world.
The cast did a pretty good job indeed, the "packaging" / production value and the music are also of quite high quality levels, and the script is very well written, portraying the harsh reality of the comedians' (geinin) lives, and the sweat and tears hidden behind those laughs. I would've honestly given this an even higher grade, weren't it for the fact that I personally found one of the dramatic moments, well...waaay too dramatic - it was honestly like a punch in the stomach!!! >_______<
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SPOILER AHEAD
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(I'm referring to the ending of the fifth episode)

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