Hikari Ota

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Hikari Ōta

Hikari Ōta (太田光, Ōta Hikari^?), born May 13, 1965, in Kamifukuoka, Saitama, Japan, is a comedian and is currently one of the most recognized faces on prime-time Japanese television. He is most famous as one half of the owarai duo Bakushō Mondai along with Yūji Tanaka, where he acts as the boke. He was a student at Nihon University's School of Fine Arts and later withdrew, though he was officially marked as a drop out as he forgot to complete and submit a withdrawal form at the time.

[edit] Unique character

Ōta is known for his strained, long-winded speeches, though it is perhaps his profound and sometimes dangerous comments that make him a staple of modern Japanese entertainment, and reflect his rather remarkable personality. As a boke, one is generally expected to fulfill a more ignorant comedic role, but Ōta's boke has him frequently overstepping classical boundaries into new and often controversial territories, often prompting Tanaka (as the tsukkomi) to bring him back down to reality. Ōta is a bibliophile—reportedly reading over 100 books a year—and some of his favorite authors include Kurt Vonnegut, John Irving, J. D. Salinger, and Osamu Dazai (of whom Ota's father was a student), many of them holding some similitude to his often absurdist view of the world. His wife, Mitsuyo Ōta, is the president of the entertainment agency he is employed by, Titan Inc.

His opinion almost never synchs with Tanaka's, that is to say, he often avoids agreeing with Tanaka by intentionally taking the opposing side simply out of spite, making their boke/tsukkomi relationship much more lively, and perhaps realistic. He is an active essayist and has published a number of collections.

[edit] Now showing

Ōta has recently found a niche for his relatively extremist and sometimes ridiculous world views as the main speaker in the Nippon TV show, Hikari Ōta's If I Were Prime Minister... Secretary Tanaka, where he acts as the Japanese Prime Minister and addresses various social problems with his own style of radical solutions. The guests of the show often include high-profile members of the Japanese Diet and famous Japanese of various backgrounds.

Ōta also voiced Sid in the Japanese dubbed version of computer-animated film Ice Age and Ice Age 2.