International Minor Cult
It wasn't until the broadcaster decided to rerun the series from November 2005 on their satellite channels that the program, and especially the Zuiikin Gals started to attract international attention. One of the clips uploaded on YouTube has been viewed more than a half-million times (as of October 2006). The show is often shown on popular American TV program The Soup during Souper Fantastic Ultra Wish Time!. And recently, one segment was weird enough to land a spot in the What Were They Thinking? segment of Anderson Cooper 360, a nightly news show on CNN. The clip of I Have A Bad Case Of Diarrhea was featured on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno in a feature called "Worst Workout Video Of All Time". Prior to commercial break, members in The Tonight Show Band recite the exercise and chants of the Zuiikin' Gals. "Take Anything You Want" was featured on Rude Tube, broadcast on Channel 4 in England.
In their native country, the Zuiikin Gals are still anonymous. The Zuiikin Gals are Maiko Miyazawa (宮沢麻衣子), Reiko Saito (斎藤レイ子) and Takako Inayoshi (稻吉貴子), whose names are displayed at the beginning of each exercise. Inayoshi is still active in the entertainment business as an actress.
Read more about this topic: Zuiikin' English
Famous quotes containing the words minor and/or cult:
“If, for instance, they have heard something from the postman, they attribute it to “a semi-official statement”; if they have fallen into conversation with a stranger at a bar, they can conscientiously describe him as “a source that has hitherto proved unimpeachable.” It is only when the journalist is reporting a whim of his own, and one to which he attaches minor importance, that he defines it as the opinion of “well-informed circles.””
—Evelyn Waugh (1903–1966)
“By Modernism I mean the positive rejection of the past and the blind belief in the process of change, in novelty for its own sake, in the idea that progress through time equates with cultural progress; in the cult of individuality, originality and self-expression.”
—Dan Cruickshank (b. 1949)