Most Americans are pretty oblivious to most Japanese TV shows, but if there’s one thing they know about, it’s the game shows.
Japanese game shows, with their bizarre, quirky premises have long been the subject of American curiosity and amusement, all the way back to the old 90s Saturday Night Live cast and beyond.
A Japanese game show even ran on American TV for a while . . . kind of. Most Extreme Elimination Challenge took old footage of a Japanese game show (Takeshi’s Castle) and redubbed it, combining America’s love of both Japanese game shows and stupid, nonsensical dubs.
Japanese game shows have even spawned American copycats, like ABC’s Wipeout. The similarities between Wipeout and Japanese game shows were so striking that Japanese companies actually sued ABC. Eventually the case was settled out of court, but it doesn’t shake the feeling that ABC might have lifted an idea or two from the Japanese.
But regardless of what’s going on in America, the Japanese always seem ahead of the curve, innovating and coming up with novel ways of making people do wacky things for money on television.
One of the coolest is 謎解きバトルＴＯＲＥ宝探しアドベンチャー, or “Puzzle Battle Treasure Hunting Adventure.” It used to be known as 密室謎解きバラエティ脱出ゲームＤＥＲＯ or “Secret Room Puzzle Escape Game,” but was retooled last year. (They’re kind of awkward names to translate . . .)
So what’s TORE all about?
A lot of survival adventure. If you grew up in the 90s, think the same kind of adventure feel of Legends of the Hidden Temple, but with adults and in Egypt.
Take a look at an episode of DERO:
And TORE:
There is, of course, a lot more where that came from, but finding other episodes might be an adventure in itself.