The king returns to his castle.
For many people, the phrase “Japanese game show” immediately brings up images of people competing in insane physical challenges, leaping across platforms and dodging projectiles like they’ve been sucked into a Super Mario game. We can thank Takeshi Kitano, a.k.a. Beat Takeshi, for that.
Takeshi’s Castle, the TV program hosted by Takeshi that debuted in 1986, wasn’t the only action-variety show of the day, but it was the biggest and boldest, producing unforgettable scenes like this which whittled down a field of roughly 100 contestants competing to win that week’s prize money.
The series went off the air in 1990, but now the 75-year-old Takeshi is set to return to his castle and restart the series, under the working title Fukkatsu! Fuun! Takeshi-jo, or “Return of Takeshi’s Castle.” As part of the revival, the series will be moving from original broadcaster TBS to Amazon’s Prime Video service.
The producers are promising even more outrageous events and challenges, with scenes that will live up to the lofty legacy of the original series in terms of laugher and excitement. They’ve also announced that Return of Takeshi’s Castle will stream worldwide. That’s a major difference from the original series, which really only gained widespread notoriety in English-speaking regions long after the series had wrapped up in Japan, making this many overseas’ fans fist opportunity to experience the unique entertainment of Takeshi’s Castle in real-time with Japanese audiences.
▼ The move from broadcast TV to streaming also means you’ll be able to replay the inevitable catastrophic failures as many times as you want.
Return of Takeshi’s Castle is scheduled to start streaming sometime in 2023.
Source, top image: Press release
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