Takeshi Kitano makes a comeback with the return of his iconic show, Takeshi’s Castle. Amazon Prime Video has in fact published the trailer for the reboot of the iconic show on the Japanese channel which has forever marked Japanese pop culture, even conquering the western panorama. The trailer comes just under a year after the official announcementand Takeshi’s Castle will be just the first in a series of products aimed at the Japanese audience.
“We are very focused on investing in the best Japanese talent in order to give our Japanese customers the best content. We believe that spotlighting Japanese stories will not only excite Japanese customers, but also audiences around the world,” Erika North, head of Prime Video’s Amazon Original division in Asia Pacific, explained at the time.
The new edition of Takeshi’s Castle will debut on April 21, 2023 on Prime Video, but it is currently unclear whether or not it will follow the same format seen in the original or if there will be any variations. Recall that the program, invented by Takeshi Kitano, saw a group of 100 competitors face a series of elimination rounds, not only challenging each other but also facing Count Takeshi (Kitano) and his subordinates in the end. The one who managed to conquer the Takeshi Castle would win the beauty of 1 million yen.
The format had stratospheric success in Japan in the 80s and 90s, and its influence was such as to also influence other media with products capable of achieving stratospheric success. Two examples as obvious as they are effective Fall Guys, in the videogame fielde Squid Game in television, both recently released by the way and which demonstrate how Kitano has left a certain imprint on pop culture. Going back a bit, however, we find other works inspired by the Takeshi’s Castle format such as, for example, Battle Royale. Here, however, the show was revived with the commentary of Gialappa’s Band and under the name Mai dire Banzai.
Source: Prime Video JP
