Hikari Ota
| Hikari Ota | |
|---|---|
| Born |
May 13, 1965 Kamifukuoka, Saitama, Japan |
| Medium |
Owarai Television |
| Nationality | Japanese |
| Years active | 1988 – Present |
| Genres | Owarai |
Hikari Ōta (太田 光 Ōta Hikari?, born May 13, 1965 in Kamifukuoka, Saitama) is a Japanese television comedian.
He is most famous as one half of the owarai duo Bakushō Mondai along with Yūji Tanaka, where he acts as the boke.
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 comedy 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 Ōta's father was a student), many of them holding some similitude to his often absurdist view of the world.
His opinions almost never synch 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.
In 2010, Ōta published his first fictional literary work, a collection of short stories, "Maboroshi no Tori" (マボロシの鳥 / Legendary Bird) which he followed with a novel "Bunmei No Ko" (文明の子 / Child of Civilisation) in 2012.
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