The duo met each other as the first class of students at the
Yoshimoto NSC Tokyo and promptly formed the unit in 1995. As of 2019, Shinagawa Shoji is the only remaining comedy duo with both members from the 1st generation class of NSC Tokyo. Initially, the duo decided to name their unit
Orange Juice, but decided upon
Shingawa Shoji after being unable to come up with a creative name. Shinagawa Shoji appeared multiple times on various comedy focused variety shows in the late 90s, but did not achieve recognition until 2000, when they appeared on the variety show
Warai no Jikan (わらいのじかん) hosted by industry veterans
Hitoshi Matsumoto (
Downtown) and
Koji Imada. Additionally, around that time, they flourished as the
hypeman before studio recordings for shows such as
Hey! Hey! Hey! Music Champ and
London Hearts. From 2001, the group repeatedly entered
M-1 Grand Prix every year, but were unable to make the finals until 2005. By that time, they had gained traction in the industry as regulars on television. Although they placed 4th in the finals, their performance was well received and highly praised by some of the judges such as
Shinsuke Shimada. Starting in 2006, Shinagawa and Shoji had major conflicts with each other, which almost resulted in the disbandment of the duo. As Shinagawa increased his involvement in other entertainment activities such as novel publication and film directing, the relationship between them worsened to the point of a fist fight during a recording of
Mecha-Mecha Iketeru!, when the duo went on to advertise for Shinagawa's film. Although the duo did not break up and their relations bettered in later years, both Shinagawa and Shoji became more involved in their personal careers rather than as a duo. With a lot more separate appearances on various television programs. Currently, the duo appears together sometimes. In 2018, the duo became
MCs of their own show (Mirai-kei Idol TV on
Tokyo MX) for the first time in 15 years, but the majority of their work is still solo. == Media ==