Astro Nerd Boy's Blog...

Hello ANB,

I tried to reply to your blog but your authentication image produces a HTTP-404 so I can't possibly post there. (Takeshi's castle ran in German TV 1999-2001 in dubbed form, and I loved it.)

Gah! It's working now (the image comes from blogspot). If it still doesn't work for you, I can turn it off for a short time just for you (that's the only thing that can stop spambots).

My posting here above already contains what I wanted to tell you.

Just to inform you, I still don't see an image whose information I could type into the form; I found the image's URL only by letting Firefox list all media files in the page, and copy/pasted the URL into a separate browser window (which then showed the HTTP-404).

That's weird. What browser are you using (and version)? I didn't read anything about them blocking overseas IP's from posting, so the image still should show up. I wonder why its not. I could turn it off, but I'm concerned about spambots hitting it hard.

Oh. Thanks for reading it BTW. ^_^ Was the German version domesticated at all?

As for domestication, Wikipedia only says "a dubbed version was aired in Germany". Apparently all 120 episodes were aired; I read the description of all games in Wikipedia and remember most of these myself.

My web browser is Mozilla Firefox 2.0. Don't bother about this one instance, I can contact you here when necessary. ;-)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9OCRuRLUzfU is a link to some YouTube video of a German airing of Takeshi's Castle (8 min, explaining typical types of games plus some "highlights parade"); "commentary" would be a more accurate description than "dubbing").

Apparently the original airings in Japan were about 45 minutes where the German variant was just 25 minutes per episode.

From what I can tell, it seems that every country that has licensed the title for airing has modified it in some way or other. I know in Great Britain, Craig Charles of "Red Dwarf" fame did the voice over.

Still, as I stated in the blog entry, I really wish I could get the uncut, unedited, undomesticated version of the show. I'm surprised that with the international popularity of the series, it apparently was never released on DVD in Japan.

The ed2k network has episode 27 of Takeshi's Castle in "uncut" form (japanese only, 47:20 min). But Japanese file sharing networks such as "Share" might be a more suitable source for that kind of stuff.

The interesting thing about Kitano Takeshi is how he ran this comedy show while at the same time acting/producing vastly violent and depressing Yakuza movies...

Cool. I'll most certainly have to search for that. I know that episode 93 was released uncut as an extra on the hideous "MXC" season 1 DVD set. I wonder if I can do Kanji/Kana searches on eMule.

I just watched two episodes with the German commentary and one with the British commentary - and wow were they different. It's like two shows having nothing to do with each other.

The British commentary obviously doesn't know a word of Japanese. He comments the show as if it were a real sports competitions but ridicules the competitors and inserts tons of slow-motion replays of candidates failing their tasks. Not a single name of the defending team was ever mentioned, not a single one of the funny scenes between Kitano Takeshi and Sonemana Higashi was ever shown. You just aren't told what the whole show is about.

The German commentary obviously has a translation for the whole show. He introduces each and every defender (down to explaining their other TV appearances and stuff!), and almost half of the show deals with the Takeshi/Higashi scenes which are the most funny parts of the whole show. The games are only shown as to repost some of the most spectacular failures, you don't even learn all the technical rules for the games (as for which percentage of the candidates is permitted to proceed etc).

I am so thankful for having watched a mostly original version of Takeshi's castle. The British version would have bored me.

The Japanese (raw) version of Takeshi's Castle and the German one are very much alike, only that the Japanese version contains interviews with some candidates immediately after their failure, and the ending credits list the names and ages of all competitors.

And yes, eMule can handle Kanji/Kana search for quite a while now (since it supports Unicode input for the query widget).