Last One Standing

I have been waiting for this when it came across my recommendation list.

The standup comedians in this series are very well known in Japan already, either they have been in the industry for a long time, or those who just won M-1 Grand Prix recently.

While some of the jokes are very Japanese based, so it may not be funny for other people, this would be the same for all comedy, but for those who are used to the Japanese comedy would find non-stop laughter.

The story comes in 8 parts, with comedians eliminated in every episodes until the very end. In one way, this is like a competition of who is the best comedian, through a Netflix series.

I am a fans of Shôtarô Mamiya and in 2019 he was in a drama called "The Kings of Laughter" so it was nice to see him in a comedy show that involves other comedian.

I was surprised to see Masahiro Higashide, whom, although is a great actor, is not highly sorted in Japan at the moment due to his behaviour. So it would be also interesting to see how this would have an impact on the ratings in Japan.

All in all, an excellent series and I couldn't stop laughing. Awesome if you needed some relaxing time.

The system: a dramedy wherein everything suddenly stops and comedians have to say funny things about a certain topic.

What's wrong with it: 1) the dramedy isn't funny enough. 2) they've spent way too much money on the scenarios, which comedy fans don't care about. And not enough money on getting good comedians, and editing. 3) not enough good jokes. Either most of the comedians are bad at it, or Japanese is a hard language to make jokes in, or the translators are letting the joke not land, or these jokes are targeted toward a dumber crowd, either way most of it isn't funny. 4) since most of it isn't funny, they should pay to have the comedians do triple the amount of jokes and have an editor to choose 1/3 of them that are the best. 5) the joke topics are too broad, like "say something sad" or "say something honestly", which makes comedians be able to say anything they want. It's not a real challenge. 6) the lead seems to be also a producer on the show, and isn't that funny, but never gets eliminated. Also you can tell other comedians laugh harder at his jokes even though he's not that funny.

Might be funny to those familiar with the cast and Japanese comedy in general.

To those of us who aren't it's just a load of in jokes accompanied by banal commentary and subtitles too quick to read. My Japanese partner who has been away from Japan for 20 years found it pretty hit and miss.

There is much funnier Japanese comedy out there for those outside of the Japanese loop. I found Documental funny, but this... Not so much.

I waited in anticipation for the release day and it did not disappoint. I haven't laughed so hard and loud in a very long time. I really needed some decent comedy in my life. Thank you for delivering Japan and Netflix. The episodes were so amazing and funny that I binged watched them in one night. Please bring out more seasons.

From a new fan in New Zealand.

I laughed really hard at some of the stories and the drama aspect was way more than what I expected. Truly a marvelous creation and can't wait to see if there is a season 2!