[JAPAN] Fight~ Ippatsu! TOKIO’s Yamaguchi picked as the 15th “Ripovitan D” Character

According to Sanspo.com, it was announced on the 29th of this month that TOKIO’s Yamaguchi Tatsuya (35) has been picked as the 15th CM character for the vitamin drink Ripovitan D (Taisho Drugs).

Yamaguchi states that it was his wish to one day be in the commercials ever since he saw them when they first came out and he shook hands with his partner for the commercial, Kane Kosugi (32). This year marks the 30th anniversary of the commercial’s catch phrase, “Fight~ Ippatsu!” and Yamaguchi commented, “I’m genuinely happy to be able to be in a commercial that has such a history,” and smiled. This is the first time that a Johnnys Jimusho talent is appearing in the commercial.

The commercials are famous for not using CG despite the various strenuous tasks and scenarios the characters are put in. The filming for this particular commercial was done earlier in March in Oahu and took 8 days. Yamaguchi had to do kiteboarding for the first time in his life for the commercial and said, “I rode waves 20-30 times and my arms still hurt. It was quite hard. In the scene where I’m supposed to fall off my bike, I fell quite hard and broke the lens of the camera.”

When asked who he’d like to be partnered up with in this commercial if it were another TOKIO member, Yamaguchi said, “Leader (Joushima Shigeru). He doesn’t have much energy (so he’d like him to drink the vitamin drink),” and sent him a possible costarring request. The commercial will start airing on April 1st.

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