Bakuhou the Friday: The Truth of Yukiko Okada and the Case of the Missing Materials

Bakuhou: The Friday was a variety show that ran from 2011 to 2021 on TBS that had a focus on mysteries and celebrities from the Showa era. A lot of episodes were of the "Where are they now?" kind of fare.

This episode, broadcast on 2nd December 2016, focuses on Yukiko Okada, specifically the events revolving around her suicide and an investigation into a small mystery surrounding how some materials about her apparently went missing. There's lots of interesting material here, such as exclusive interviews with former Sun Music director Tokio Fukuda and Yukiko's friend Kumi Tanaka.

I will say, however, that this can be painful to watch. The sensationalisic and over-dramatic editing is grating and makes it hard to take this seriously. This show contains all the worst elements of modern variety shows, and it's so over-the-top you have no choice but to laugh. Please don't let the massive build up to the '100 pieces of lost Yukiko Okada materials' trick you into getting your hopes too high!

Personally speaking, this is quite an important documentary for me. This used to float around on Youtube back in the day, and watching it in 2018 with my imperfect Japanese left a great impression on me and was one of the reasons I became so interested in Yukiko. After it disappeared off Youtube, I was certain I would never find it again until a kind Discord user pointed me in the right direction. I hope you all get some enjoyment out of this very silly variety show.