Just In...The Latest Kasou Taisho Results

Kasou Taisho - a semi-annual competition with skits that frequently involve Bunraku-style puppetry- aired in Japan Wednesday night.

The latest Kasou Taisho special aired in Japan tonight which, in Japan, is already yesterday (it's like they live permanently in the future!). Click "Read More" to see some of the best entries:



This was the winning entry, a cartoony Manzai comedy routine.



I like this one too. Apparently, it's the boy's father playing soccer ball (this is also the only entry my limited Japanese allows me to actually understand).



How to get a doughnut without waiting in line.



Little kids recreate a conveyor belt sushi restaurant.

Via Japan Probe.

Japanese Jelly Commercial

This commercial is another interesting (odd?) use of puppetry from Japan.

Badly performed puppets starring in a commercial for zero calorie gelatin in Japan (I have no idea).

Via Japan Probe.

Japanese Commercial with Bunraku Puppets

Bunraku puppets are used to sell bug killer in Japan.

When trying to invent ways to sell bug killer I'm not sure that Bunraku puppets would be the first thing to jump in to my head. Then again, I don't live in Japan.

"Sour" Hand Shadow Video

Yet another cool puppet video from the land of the rising sun.

I seem to be discovering a lot of Japanese stuff lately for no reason other than Japan is a really, really creative place. The latest is this video for a Japanese band called Sour. The music doesn't do much for me, but it's a very creative use of hand shadows.

Link via Engrish Brog.

Neko Rahmen

Neko Rahmen Taisho is a feature film based on a popular Japanese comic/animation property.

Neko Rahmen is a popular Japanese anime series and manga about a cat named Taishou who runs a ramen shop. It's being adapted in to a Japanese feature film with Taishou being realized as a puppet. If you check out the trailer for Neko Rahmen Taisho you'll see that it looks kind of stupid, but also kind of awesome.

I want to see this.

Bunraku-Style Mario

Super Mario gets the Kasou Taisho treatment.

OK, this is pretty awesome. I'm not entirely sure, but I assume this is from a recent Kasou Taisho (see previous post).

Best of 2008: Kasou Taisho

A Bunraku aquarium is performed on Japan's Kasou Taisho.

Something that really seemed to really catch on in a big way on the web this past year was Kasou Taisho (see earlier post), a sort of semi-annual costume contest on Japanese TV that features amateur groups and solo artists performing short skits which frequently utilize Bunraku-style puppetry. Kasou Taisho is actually a fairly old show (it first aired back in 1979), but didn't really become well known outside Japan until a clip of its now-famous "Matrix Ping-Pong" sketch became a hit viral video on the web a few years ago.

To get an idea of just how creative some of the performances on Kasou Taisho are, check out this montage of 79 grand prix winning sketches from the show's 30 year history (one of my personal favourites is Chameleon, a runner-up in one of the most recent competitions).

Kasou Taisho seems to be slowly, but surely growing in popularity and has a dedicated cult following around the world. It has provided the inspiration for a Japanese Pepsi commercial as well as the Scissor Sisters' music video for She's My Man. Clips from the show also appear in the Pet Shop Boys' Flamboyant music video. An adaptation called It's Showtime airs on TV in Singapore and I've heard rumours that a North American adaptation is being developed.

Monday Morning Inspiration: Kihachirō Kawamoto

Legendary Japanese animator Kihachirō Kawamoto has been making stop motion films for over 50 years.

Kihachirō Kawamoto (link goes to his official site, in Japanese) is a Japanese animator, renowned internationally for his work in stop motion animation. As a boy he was inspired by the work of the acclaimed Czech stop motion filmmaker Jiří Trnka and later trained under him, as well as Japanese stop motion pioneer Tadahito Mochinaga. Many of Kawamoto's films - including his most recent, 2005's Book of the Dead - seem strongly influenced by Bunraku puppetry and Japanese Noh theatre.

You can read an interview with him here and see find some of his work on YouTube.

Scissor Sister Inspiration (or is it the other way around?)

The puppet-loving Scissor Sisters' video for She's My Man draws inspiration from Kasou Taisho.

The Scissor Sisters are well-known for incorporating large-scale puppetry in to their act (see previous post), but I couldn't help noticing that their music video for She's My Man looks an awful lot like this video that I first saw last spring. Truthfully, I don't know which video inspired the other, but given the reputation of avant garde Japanese filmmaker Nagi Noda I'm inclined to assume that The Scissor Sisters went there first.

Either way, the Sisters' video obviously drew inspiration from the Kuroko/Bunraku-style acts that are popular on Kasou Taisho and it's great to see this particular style of puppetry catching on and influencing the work of artists outside Japan.

January 2008 Kasou Taishou Competition

A boy makes friends with a stick figure in a sketch from the most recent Kasou Taishou competition in Japan.

I've mentioned the Japanese TV show Kasou Taisho before (see previous post), a semi-annual competition on NTV in Japan that features amateur groups and solo artists performing short skits, often using Bunraku-style puppetry. I've spent some time researching the show (not the easiest thing to do when you don't read Japanese or have access to NTV broadcasts) and found out that it began as a sort of costume competition. Competitors started adding performances to show off their costumes in action and the show has slowly become more and more about performance and creativity, with the Bunraku-style skits being especially popular.

The January 2008 Kasou Taisho special aired recently in Japan and featured a number of impressive acts, including a one-woman Snow White act, some Olympic Highlights and a sketch about a boy becoming friends with a stick figure and an enka act that won a technical prize ("enka" is a type of sad Japanese love song). You can see more videos from past competitions on the official Kasou Taishou web site.

If anyone out there has more info about Kasou Taisho please write me at puppetvision {at} gmail dot com and I'll be happy to post it here. I'm also on the lookout for information about It's Showtime, an adaptation of Kasou Taisho in Singapore if anyone knows anything about that.

Video links via Japan Probe.

11/01/08 Update: I added a link to a video of a winning entry from the most recent competition.

Monday Morning Inspiration: Kobotaro

The wonderful puppets of Kobotaro are examples of great Japanese design.

I'm a big fan of Japanese design as well as Japanese puppetry and for awhile now I've really dug the puppets of Kobotaro (link goes to a Japanese language site) because I think they are an excellent example of both. Take a look at their work and see if you agree.

In Conversation with a Bunraku Master

A Bunraku master discusses his craft on YouTube.

YouTube has a video of a discussion with a Bunraku Master (or Omozukai) about how traditional Bunraku puppets are built and performed. Even though Bunraku is a very old form of puppetry, the mechanisms used to control Bunraku puppets are incredibly sophisticated and not all that different from the latest state of the art puppet animatronics and mechanisms. As the Omozukai points out in the video, it's difficult to improve on two hundred years of craftsmanship.

Cross-posted from PuppetBuilding.com.

Animatronic Panda Violence Sweeps Japan

Animatronic Panda Bears perform a beat-down on a hapless offender of their dignity.

If you were to believe a series of viral videos on YouTube from Japan's Buildup Co. (among other things, they rent out animatronic Panda suits) you'd think there was an outbreak of Panda related-violence sweeping the Far East. From Panda snipers to nightstick-wielding Panda gangs and of course the classic Kung-Fu Panda the message seems clear...never, ever p**s off a Panda Bear.

Links via Pink Tentacle.

Pepsi, Bunraku Style

No, that's not a digital effect you're seeing in the picture above, just some good old fashioned Bunraku-style puppetry from Japan.

Recently I wrote about Kasou Taisho, a crazy-fun Japanese TV show where amateur groups of black-clad performers compete for prizes by staging skits and routines using Bunraku puppetry techniques. The show is extremely popular in Japan and I can't help but think that it probably inspired this Pepsi ad featuring a Bunraku-style performance that would be right at home on Kasou Taishou. Watch it and see for yourself!

More Crazy Bunraku-Style Fun From Japan

A Bunraku aquarium is performed on Japan's Kasou Taishou.

That great Bunraku-style skeleton dance I linked to earlier this week is from Kasou Taisho, the same biannual Japanese TV show that the famous "Matrix Ping Pong" sketch originated on. I've only seen clips of Kasou Taisho, but as far as I can tell it's built around amateur groups of black-clad performers competing for prizes by staging skits and routines using large-scale puppetry. Think of it as a Japanese Bunraku version of American Idol.

One of my favourite skits is called the Card Duel. You can find it and many other popular routines from the show on the Kasou Taisho website, but Internet Explorer is required to view the videos properly. If you don't have IE don't worry, just search YouTube for "Kasou Taisho".

Bunraku-style Skeleton Puppet Dance

A Bunraku-style skeleton dance, as perform by Japanese pop group Morning Musume.

Morning Musume (don't you just love the names of J-Pop groups?) performs some cool-looking Bunraku-style puppetry on Japanese TV. Just watch, I think you'll like it.

Awesome Japanese Pop Cover Songs with Puppets

Puppets do their best Queen cover on Japan's Hotch Potch Station.

Here's a video of someone singing Queen in Japanese with puppets. This is from a Japanese TV series on NHK World called Hotch Potch Station, a kid's show with a lot of humour that's aimed squarely at adults. They've also done similar videos with songs by Michael Jackson and Earth, Wind and Fire.

Don't let the grainy picture or Japanese put you off, these clips are awesome in any language.

X-Bomber / Star Fleet

X-Bomber (known as Star Fleet in the UK and some other countries) is a Japanese T.V. series from the early `80s created by manga legend Go Nagai. The show is kind of an east-meets-west cultural mash-up of Thunderbird and anime. The series was advertised as being filmed in "Sūpāmariorama" - a Japanese version of Gerry Anderson's Supermarionation process - but used rod puppets in place of marionettes.

I've only seen clips of it and never a complete episode, but the series seems to follow the conventions of most tokusatsu and features a group of characters who drive different vechicles that merge together to form a giant robot. Try to imagine Voltron or Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, but with rod puppets and you'll get the idea.

Only twenty-six episodes were produced, but the show still enjoys a really strong following to this day. If you want to learn more about the show you can visit this X-Bomber fan site and check out a clip on YouTube that contains lots of puppet/robot action fun.