Hi guys, tired from spending a day at the Otaku Taiki 2009 at Megamall. Small venue + huge crowds = standing room only! I’ll be posting my OtaGonzo report on it sometime tomorrow! For now, enjoy another silly commercial from Japan!

End of the Century Heroes Five Range-i!!

Yesterday I posted about Silent Library, one of Downtown’s more famous skits from Downtown Gaki no Tsukai ya Arahende!! on Youtube. Today, I’d like to post about one of Downtown’s older skits from their other show, Downtown no Gottsu ee Kanji.

Seikimatsu Sentai Gorenjai (End of the Century Heroes Five Range-i) is a parody of Himitsu Sentai Gorenja (Secret Squadron Five Rangers), which as all sentai fans know is the first of the long-running Super Sentai shows by Toei, which includes classics like Choudenshi Bioman and Kyōryū Sentai Zyuranger (which was retooled in the US as Power Rangers). Unlike the rest of the Super Sentai, however, the Gorenjai (as opposed to Gorenja — to avoid copyright infringement) are completely inept at their job. In fact they are so bad at it that their nemesis, Dokuro Kamen (who keeps molesting the owner of the same flat every week), refuses to fight them and gives them pointers on how to clean up their acts. They can’t even get their colors right — in episode one, there are 3 Red Renjai and 2 Yellow Renjai!

I’ve taken the liberty of making a playlist of all 13 English subbed episodes on Youtube and posting it here. Click on the video Look out for Falkor the Luckdragon from Neverending Story to make his appearance as a Gorenjai!

Downtown Gaki no Tsukai ya Arahende !! -- Japanese for Brain Breakage

Let’s step away from the drama of the past few days for a week, and focus on some laughs.

One of my favorite Japanese comedy duos is Downtown, composed of Masatoshi Hamada and Hitoshi Matsumoto, who to my mind is the funniest guy on Japanese TV.

Downtown is the main owarai duo in the long-running show Downtown no Gaki no Tsukai ya Arahende!! which is pretty famous for that ‘Tongue-twister or you get smacked in the balls’ clip that circulated around the net a couple of years back, as featured on Attack of the Show.

My favorite segment of all, though, would have to be the Silent Library segments. The setup is pretty simple — six guys enter a library and draw lots to see who receives a painful, gross, and/or embarrassing punishment, all the while trying to stay as quiet as possible — hence the name. Silent Library clips have been on Youtube for a long time, and most Japanophiles worth their salt have seen the more common clips, like the one featuring Ernesto Hoost from K-1.

(And don’t get me started on the US game show version that recently started showing on MTV. Please.)

Instead, I’m posting an English subbed set of clips, featuring the usual cast. Enjoy!

HARD MODE: Try to stay as quiet as them during the entire segment.

Part 1 of 2

Part 2 of 2

Another weird Japanese commercial, this one featuring Suntory Mugi Cha. This focuses on one of those rare moments that high blood pressure just may save your life and the lives of other people. Er, right.

Here’s another bizarre Japanese commercial, this time for Calbee Consommé-flavored potato chips. As usual, the commercial has nothing to do with the actual product, but who cares about that when you’ve got a freaky-looking golden retriever determined to do anything to cheer up his heartbroken young master?

Hi guys, just resting at home for now. Fortunately my sister sent me a bunch of weird Japanese commercials to cheer me up. Thanks Cha!

This particular commercial seems to be about a real estate company. I think. Mostly I share Anabukin-chan’s shock and awe at the end when I watch this one. It reminds me that Japan is such an awesomely weird place. WOW!