Takeshi's Castle is a Japanese comedy game show devised by, and staring, Takeshi Kitano.
If Tani's army is successful in doing this, they have beaten Takeshi, stormed the castle and are awarded one-million yen. A feat that very few people have ever achieved!
Takeshi's Castle has become a cult hit worldwide - with the original series being broadcast around the globe. This popularity lead to its revival in 2022, created for Amazon Prime Video, first released in April 2023.
Versions of the show have also been produced internationally, including in Thailand - visit our Takeshi's Castle Thailand site to discover more - Indonesia, and Saudi Arabia.
Each episode begins with General Tani and his army racing through the castle boundaries, as Takeshi's guards flee ahead of them. Headshots of each of the day's contestants are briefly shown on screen. We then join Count Takeshi at the castle, who is monitoring the invasion with his henchmen. In later episodes, instead of watching the approaching attackers, the Count and his advisor Higashi often find themselves in various comedic situations. We regularly go back to Takeshi throughout the episode to provide comedy interludes.
After passing the final barrier, those who have not been knocked out of the crusade by this point take on Takeshi in one final battle. If the contestants lose, the General retreats to prepare for his next assault. If the contestants win - celebrations!! Takeshi begrudgingly awards the victors their prize.
Special episodes have a twist on the usual format. In special editions of regular episodes, the General gathers armies of contestants based on a certain criteria. Will youth, experience, or the power of love prove to be the crucial ingredient he needs to finally overthrow Takeshi?
There are also special bumper-length episodes; bringing Takeshi's traps and trials to different locations.
• New Year / End of Year: The General travels to different areas of Japan to find contestants. In each region, the locals play three games. The best contestants then head to the castle to play as usual. (Eps 28, 73, 116)
• Teams: Contestants, including well-known personalities, come as a part of various teams and play through this extended episode. (Ep 41)
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• Snow: Just like a regular episode, but set entirely in a Niigata ski resort. (Ep 86)
• Role Reversal: The General is now the owner of the castle. Takeshi has to try to win back his stronghold, either by playing the games himself, with the Emerald Guards, or by commanding a team of monsters to storm the castle for him! (Eps 17, 62)
• International Battle: Tani travels across the world to gather contestants from international remakes of Takeshi's Castle. Winning contestants from Holland's "Way of Life", Taiwan's "Ever Victorious", and the USA's "King of the Mountain" are flown to Japan to join qualifying Japanese contestants and take part in games back at the Castle. (Ep 106)
• Takeshi's Castle Returns!: Just like an End of Year special, but instead of taking the best contestants from each location back to the castle, the General flies them to Taiwan to compete in "Ever Victorious" - the local version of Takeshi's Castle. The winners from here finally travel back to the castle in Japan for a final Show Down. (Ep 130)
• Obstacle Course: The General visits different prefectures and pits local contestants against Takeshi-style obstacle courses. The winners from each area all travel to the castle and take on more extraordinary courses, in an attempt to reach the Ultimate Showdown. (Ep 131)
• 1000 Contestant Attack: The biggest ever army - 1000 contestants - play through games on a Yokohama beach. The winners travel to the castle to play as usual, except this time they're playing for prizes in the final - and not taking part in a Show Down. (Ep 133)
On the 30th March 2022, Amazon Prime Video announced that it would be reviving Takeshi's Castle, for worldwide release on their streaming platform, as a co-production with Tokyo Broadcasting System.
Hayato Tani has returned to reprise his role, alongside a new General - actor Subaru Kimura. There are now also three additional castle-owners (Lord Ueda, Princess Watanabe, and Lord Ichikawa) that the Generals aim to overthrow. Each army attack is directed towards one of the rulers, and split across two episodes. As before, for each attack the Generals send their army of contestants into battle to overcome the games and guards that are there to stop them from reaching the castle for the final battle.
In a difference to the original series, after the first game the contestants are split up into two, or more, groups and sent off on "different paths". Each group takes on a different second challenge.
Those who fail their game aren't out of the battle yet. They have a chance to win their place back in the Generals' army by taking on a Comeback Game. Win this and they get to rejoin their group for the next challenge.
The series began to be rolled out internationally from July 2023, with most countries receiving the full Japanese episodes with subtitles. A handful of countries, including Spain, Germany and the UK added local voice-overs. Comedians Tom Davis and Romesh Ranganathan provide the UK narration.
Takeshi's Castle was brought to the UK by Challenge TV. Each of the original episodes was edited down to 30 minutes for the English audience, keeping only the games, and was voiced-over by comedian Craig Charles. The first episode of this UK reversioning was broadcast on Challenge TV on the 9th November 2002.
Several mistakes were made in the reversioning - especially during the first series - which include winners in the final Show Down being ignored and announced as another loss instead. Craig also states that exactly 100 contestants begin each episode, with a fixed number moving on from the first game, etc. Lots of games were also cut out to make the episodes fit the half-hour time slot. On a few occasions games cut from one episode were put into another to pad out the show. A couple of episodes are made up entirely of previously-cut games.
Takeshi's Castle became one of Challenge's most popular and best-loved shows, and was repeated daily for years. Runs of the series also aired on Trouble and Ftn/Virgin 1.
In 2009 the series underwent a slight makeover. The graphics in the titles were changed, and some colour and brightness issues in series one were fixed. This "new look" launched on the 7th September.
On the 2nd August 2012, Sky Active (Sky Digital's Interactive service) launched an exclusive Takeshi's Castle game. The aim being to hop between Skipping Stones picking up stars, darumas and other bonus items, earning points while avoiding capture by the Boxing Monster.
In 2010, here at Keshi Heads, we launched a campaign with the aim to get Challenge to produce a brand new series of Takeshi's Castle, using previously unseen footage. It was a success! On the 13th December 2012 Challenge officially announced that the new episodes would air in early 2013.
The classic Craig-voiced episodes returned to Challenge after Rebooted ended its run. In stark contrast to the newly produced series, these old episodes entered the weekly top ten rating shows almost instantly upon their return!
Original Series | |||
Type | Amount | Given to... | Given out... |
Main Prize | ¥1,000,000 | The contestant / team that beats Takeshi in the Show Down | Upon a Show Down win |
Fighting Spirit Award | ¥100,000 | The contestants who give their best effort, or are the most amusing | To select contestants every episode |
Special Fighting Spirit Award | ¥100,000 | All contestants in the Show Down | Upon a Show Down draw, or if Tani shoots Takeshi's sensor |
Revival Series | |||
Type | Prize | Given to... | Given out... |
Main Prize | ¥1,000,000 | A contestant that defeats a Ruler in the Show Down | Upon a Show Down win |
Fighting Spirit Award | A free pass to the next game | Contestants who give their best effort, or are the most amusing | To select contestants every episode |
Other prizes were occasionally awarded in special episodes:
Special Prizes | |||
Type | What? | Given to... | Given in... |
Winner's Award | ¥1,000,000 | Fastest man and fastest woman to complete the Ultimate Showdown | Episode 131 |
Final Prizes | Prizes include: ¥1,000,000, holiday, camcorder, Game Boy, bicycle |
Contestants that manage to shoot down the corresponding boxes | Shoot 'N' Loot - Episode 133 |
So, has anyone ever won!? We've compiled a collection of questions that we are frequently asked, and have answered them all below. If you have a question that isn't answered here you can contact us on our forum or via Twitter.
Q: | Were there ever any winners? |
A: | In total, there were seven contestant victories in the Show Down. These contestants won one-million yen for beating Takeshi. In another episode, the General managed to shoot Takeshi's sensor; and one episode was classed as a draw when Takeshi's cart drove off the tarmac and got stuck in the grass. |
Q: | How many people were seriously injured? |
A: | Contrary to how brutal the games seem and how painful the falls look, no one was seriously hurt. There were no broken bones, lost teeth or spuds! |
Q: | Where's Takeshi's Castle filmed? |
A: | TBS's Midoriyama Studios in Yokohama is the home to Takeshi's Castle. Take a look at this map to see the locations of some of the games in the original series; and here's an aerial shot of the studio from 2022, during the recording of the revival series. |
Q: | Where can I watch episodes of Takeshi's Castle? |
A: | The revival series is available worldwide on Amazon Prime Video, and a selection of episodes from the original series are also available to stream on Prime in Japan.
A VHS and two official DVDs sets, containing episodes and clips from the original Japanese series, have been released (DVD Set 1, DVD Set 2). They can occasionally be found on Japanese auction websites. |