Hagimoto went on a six-month "recharge" hiatus from all his regular programs starting in March 1985. He stated that he didn't have the confidence to maintain the popularity of his "100% Otoko" level, also commenting that he was tired of the ad lib style programs that were becoming popular at the time. He reportedly never liked ad-lib, often begging partner Sakagami backstage to stick to the script. However, in regards to requests from NTV director Takao Saito to follow the script he commented that "performers have pride as performers", and was known to ad-lib on stage at times.