Takeshi's Castle: The Japanese Game Show That Became a Global Cult Hit
Takeshi's Castle, a Japanese game show that aired from 1986 to 1990 on TBS, featured comedian Takeshi Kitano as a count whose castle contestants tried to storm through painful physical challenges. It became a cult hit worldwide, inspiring a genre of physical game shows. A reboot launched on Amazon Prime Video in 2023, with Subaru Kimura joining Hayato Tani.
The show became a cult television hit around the world. It was highly influential in global popular culture, inspiring a genre of game shows involving physical challenges and painful entertainment, as well as other media.
- sunaookami
I only know the German version from RTL2 which had funny commentary dubbed over it with made-up names and stuff. Curious, did the dubs in other countries do the same? Were there languages with the original commentary translated?
- alexpotato
I was involved in pro paintball for several years and at the start of every one of their matches, one of the pro teams would chant:
"DON'T. GET. ELIMINATED."
- jttnr
Back in the early 2000s, I always had a good laugh whenever I was flipping through TV channels and stumbled upon Takeshi's Castle.
- rdtsc
“Right you are, Ken!”
(From MXC, based on footage from Takeshi’s Castle)
Still remember that phrase from years ago.
- grimgrin
You can watch some English subtitled rips here:
https://archive.org/details/takeshis-castle-with-english-sub...
The other archive link shared here, it's to another set of rips that appear to lack subtitles.