"The color of your sweater remains under my coat."

There aren’t many comedy trios. I have this theory about the complexity of relationships in works of entertainment. If you only have two characters, you have one relationship to work out (at a basic level). Three characters, four relationships – one between each pair as well as a group dynamic. It rapidly expands from there. So a trio has to be careful that they don’t try to recreate the traditional two-man manzai dynamic because they won’t have the same level of intimacy, precision, and timing. Instead, though, if they have the time for a longer sketch, they can do more elaborate scenarios, actual plots – which can be its own payoff.

Two mini-comedies from Tokyo 03:

(If there aren’t English subtitles, click on the triangle in the lower right corner and then on CC.)