...or, at least, there was some strange coincidental downturn in readers coinciding with yesterday's post, for no reason readily apparent other than the content therein.
See what happens when I try to please you people?
Anyway, I have thus decided to meander back towards the less-typical subject matter of which I am so fond, and from now on only post movies when I feel like it.
...it is absolutely irrelevant that I did, in fact, feel like posting about a movie last time. You're missing the point here.
Ahem.
(Really, guys, this blog should get a lot more interesting after... say... August 13th. My life will, anyway.)
Moving onwards and forwards, as that truly is the only way to go.
Quiz Parade!! Hexagon II (don't ask about the title, because while I'm sure there is some reasoning behind it, I definitely have no clue as to what it is) has the honor of being pretty much my favorite Japanese game show period. (Remember, SMAPxSMAP is a variety show, and thus is not competing in the same category. Though, admittedly, anything with Kimutaku has a rather unfair advantage and should probably be pulled from any competition for the sake of fairness...)
Sometimes I think I shouldn't be allowed to use parentheses.
Anyway, as you may have guessed from the title and my brief description, Hexagon (the abbreviation most often used, at least in my experience) is a game show of sorts, but, as per usual in Japan, does not star the average Joe (or average Daisuke, rather), but instead talents and celebrities who are either (a) looking for work (b) making the TV circuit or (c) Hexagon regulars kept around for their idiocy.
Oh, yes, didn't I mention? This show can be rather cruel.
See, it begins by ranking all the contestants in terms of how well they did on the pre-show test, splitting them into teams (somewhat) fairly by placing the three top scorers as the head of three separate teams, and then continuing on in that fashion. Thus, the three lowest scorers are also distributed evenly.
And when I say lowest, I mean lowest. The game is something of a competition of intelligence, but often employing the, shall we say, slower contestants' lack of intelligence for the purpose of entertainment.
They're very good sports about it, really.
An example of this would be one of my favorite games, the name of which is アナウンスクイズ (Announce Quiz). The game itself is actually quite simple: the lowest scoring member of a team reads questions to the rest of his or her teammates, and they have to answer as many as they can in a set amount of time.
Except, of course, there's a catch.
There are no 振り仮名 (furigana, kana beside or above kanji to indicate pronunciation) helpers for vital parts of the question, and more often than not the moron reading has no clue how to pronounce them. Personally, I think it's even more hilarious when the furigana-less portion in question is English, though I may be a bit biased there.
For the rest of the team, of course, the trick is answering the questions with half of them misread, misunderstood, or completely missing. (That was an excellent bit of alliteration there if I do say so myself.) Good teammates will listen to what the moron (sorry, that's basically what they are for the purpose of this show) is saying, extrapolate what kanji can mistakenly be read that way, and then plug all their options into the rest of the question to see what fits. And then they have to try and answer.
It's fun times, guys. Really.
クイズパレード！！ヘキサゴンII(080423)
Unfortunately, Youtube is not being very helpful today, so I have to resort to other video sites for footage today. As such, I cannot present you with select items, but instead must beg your forgiveness and ask you to fast-forward to the correct time frame on your own.
Just think of it as a quick and simply brain exercise, eh?
Er... as for the advertisements... well. I can only do so much.
Anyway, fast-forward to the 7 minute mark for some Announce Quiz goodness. Don't if you'd like to see the beginning of the show, which involves the host, Shunsuke, doing a comedy bit of sorts with the players, and the separating of the contestants into the three teams.
I apologize to all of you non-Japanese speakers out there, as this post won't really do much for you. But hey, who knows, the desperate desire to understand just what's going on in the above video clip may be the catalyst that thrusts you into the wild and crazy world of Japanese language learning once and for all!
...or you might just give today's post up for a bad job and move on with your life. Oh, well, you win some you lose some.
However, if you do understand Japanese (even a little bit, because quiz shows like this are great study tools, believe you me; Hexagon is where I first learned 羞恥心 [shuuchishin, shame], after all!) and find yourself bored to tears some Wednesday night (at least, I hope it's still on Wednesday nights...), why not try flipping it over to Fuji Television and see what's what?
If nothing else, just to see people making fools of themselves. Oh yes, I realize what a powerful hold schadenfreude has on us all. It's why this sort of show does so well.
...also, I like it when I know Japanese things that Japanese people don't. Sure, it's a cheap ego boost, but an ego boost nevertheless!
This is Edo, signing off quite proud of herself for not turning this into some sort of homage to Tsuruno.
...oops.
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