朝日放送テレビ | M-1グランプリ2023×日食なつこ「ログマロープ」 | 2024
I Don't Want to Stay Who I Am for One More Second / The Asahi Broadcasting Corporation "M-1 Grand Prix 2023 × Natsuko Nisshoku 'Logma Rope'"
There are manzai comedians who stake their whole lives on four minutes. Playing over the promotional video for M-1 Grand Prix 2023 is Natsuko Nisshoku's "Logma Rope." She couldn't write a song for six months, and this track was born at the end of what felt like hell.
The problem
Every year, M-1 makes an original four-minute video. In 2023, a record 8,540 teams entered. The production team went looking for a song that could push forward the comedians who struggle and suffer yet still believe in their own brand of comedy as they polish their material. What they landed on was this song, released in 2017.
The insight
Natsuko Nisshoku herself has said she wrote this song while clinging to music through what was "the second most hellish environment" of her life. The lyric about not wanting to stay who you are for even one more second comes from the same place as the intensity of comedians who put everything into four minutes. She's also said that both comedy and music come down to the same question: can you shake the person standing right in front of you.
The idea
The video runs exactly four minutes, the same length as an M-1 routine. It shows the act-crafting process and the bare faces of the comedians heading into the finals — Westland, Danshi Blanko, Long Coat Daddy, Sayaka, Mogu Rider, Shinku Jessica, Shishigashira, and Reiwa Roman — all set to Natsuko Nisshoku's piano and voice. It's a video that plays out exactly as she described it: "even cornered at the edge of a cliff, still seeing the possibility of a comeback."
What happened
It premiered on M-1's official YouTube channel on 12/19/2023. "Natsuko Nisshoku," "Logma Rope," and "M-1 Grand Prix 2023" all trended on Twitter. The following year, it won Gold in the Film category at the ACC TOKYO CREATIVITY AWARDS. The advertiser was The Asahi Broadcasting Corporation, the agency was Dentsu, and it was produced by Think.
Afterthought
Can you pour this much intensity into something made purely to push someone else forward? I never imagined that someone who wrote a song after staring into hell, and comedians who bet their lives on four minutes, could overlap so beautifully. "Please stir something up. The audience. Your rivals. And above all, your own heart." That line is the part that stayed with me the most.
