Cruel, thrilling, fun (Takeshi's Castle)

Member Name: aylawarner

Product:	Takeshi's Castle
Date:	30/06/09 (55 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: So so funny

Disadvantages: Not made anymore :-(

Takeshi's Castle is a Japanese game show where over 100 contestants battle it out in a challenging obstacle course. The story of the show is based around Takeshi Kitano (a Japanese actor) who owns a castle and challenges people to try to make it to the end. If contestants manage to get through the many difficult rounds they then face Takeshi's guards in the final round, Show Down, where they have to shoot the guards' paper shields with water pistols. If they manage to do this (which is very rare) they would then have managed to take over the castle and would win a million Yen.

~ Challenges ~
Throughout the game show's airing, there were literally hundreds of challenges created, some being used only once or twice and some being regulars used in almost every show. Most of the challenges involve the contestants falling into water or mud if they fail and many have some very painful outcomes. The show was originally created to be like a live action Super Mario game so many of the challenges are similar to these sorts of video games.

Bridge Ball - contestants must cross a rope bridge whilst henchmen fire volleyballs at them trying to knock them off.

Honeycomb Maze - contestants make their way through a maze of hexagon shaped rooms and must find the correct exit before being caught by a henchmen or falling out of the wrong door into a pool of water.

Knock Knock - a row of four walls each with two doors all covered with paper - one door on each wall has just the paper to run through whereas the other is just a wooden door behind the paper. Contestants have to run full-tilt at one of the two doors hoping that they'll go through the paper one otherwise they'll bang straight into the wooden door. On the other side of the paper door though there is still a mud pit for them to fall into.

Rice Bowl Down Hill - sitting in a giant bowl, contestants have to try to stay inside the bowl whilst hurtling down a wet slide.

Show of Hands - contestants are dressed up as giant hands and have to answer maths questions by running to and falling face first onto the correct numbered card on the floor.

Skipping Stones - stepping stones are placed in the water and contestants have to jump across to the other side. However, not all the stepping stones are secured and so some sink when jumped on leaving the contestants to either fall in the water or onto another stepping stone, giving this round the nickname of 'The Ultimate Shin Shredder' in the UK.

As you can see from this short list of some of the most popular challenges, they are all very silly and funny rounds and some of them can be very painful if a contestant fails, and many of them do. These silly challenges, along with the humour of the contestants getting hurt in some very comical ways, makes this one of the best game shows ever made and Takeshi's Castle is known as somewhat of a cult television hit around the world.

The UK version is commentated by Craig Charles who lets the viewers know what is going on (even though this is fairly obvious) in a very sarcastic and comical manner. The Japanese contestants always provide much humour as they are always so serious and focused on getting through each challenge and many of them often have a little shout before a round (probably something along the lines of 'come on!') which is always particularly amusing.

Takeshi's Castle was aired from 1986 to 1989 so any episodes now shown on TV are very old and they've probably all been seen a hundred times. However, this doesn't make the show any less interesting or comical. It is similar to It's a Knockout or today's Total Wipeout but neither of these are anywhere near as entertaining to watch, despite being much more modern.

I think the game show is only shown on Sky now which we don't have, but whenever we visit a family member who has Sky we always end up watching this if it's on. The show is pure quality entertainment, providing many many laughs, and it is surely one of the best game shows ever made.

Summary: The best game show - please watch this!