Creative Sketches on Japanese TV [Masquerade]

by 29 Comments

In my years on the internet, one Japanese TV show has popped up over and over again in GIFs, videos, and excited discussions. Even though the people who post about this show usually speak no Japanese and don’t know the name of it, this particular TV show seems to break through language barriers to amaze people around the world.

The show? 欽ちゃん＆香取慎吾の全日本仮装大賞, also known as Masquerade in English.

The show’s premise is familiar: teams of people compete to wow judges and audiences alike with their talent. What makes Masquerade different from America’s Got Talent (other than Nick Cannon and a Snapple™ sponsorship) is its focus on incredibly creative sketches full of clever visual tricks.

These sketches take place anywhere from under the sea to a skydiving plane flying high above the ground. Not to be clichéd, but the only limit to these sketches seems to be the contestants’ imagination.

Fortunately for those of us who can’t catch Masquerade on Japanese TV, the show has an official YouTube channel full of some of its coolest, most imaginative sketches. You might even recognize some of them!

Many of the sketches are done with stagehands that blend into the background, very much in the Japanese tradition of kuroko (黒子), the stagehands dressed in all-black in traditional Japanese theater.

While many of the sketches are incredibly impressive, some of them can just be plain bizarre:

From the imaginative sketches to towering meter that fills up after every performance, Masquerade has a plethora of endearing qualities that make it clear why the show has spent decades on the air.

For more, check out Masquerade’s official YouTube channel!

Wallpapers

Want the excitement of Masquerade as your desktop background? Our incredible illustrator Aya has you covered!

Wallpaper (1280×800)
Wallpaper (2560×1440)

  • DAVIDPD

    Japan’s Got Talent should be a thing.

  • Rygar

    OMG, my childhood memories

  • Henro

    This is seriously the only good thing on Japanese TV. Not only that, it is the BEST thing on Japanese TV!

  • Lauren

    you obviously don’t know much about japanese tv let alone japanese. i
    don’t like ignorant comments like this. I hate any ocmments that say X IS THE BEST EVER when the person clearly doesn’t know shit. i bet you never even heard of
    maji uta.

  • Lauren

    for konto shows check out RED THEATER and PIKARU NO TEIRI ( I recommend shiratori and bibari and rui! there’s probably clips on youtube)

  • orangedude

    That is so amazing! Talk about teamwork and imagination!

  • 古戸ヱリカ

    X IS THE BEST EVER!

  • Admiral Awesome

    psh, looks like another ignorant that doesn’t know anything about what they’re talking about………

    everyone knows zero is the best.

  • legendofleo

    Awesome, I’d seen the ping pong one before but never knew which show it was from.

  • Hannah

    I love Red Theater!!

  • Momo

    This show was up for my local TV like, 10 years ago. The only thing I watch on my Sundays back then. Great memories!

  • Henro

    Oh, well, gee, since you know so much about Japanese TV, please tell me what was on last night, and give me rankings and ratings of how good it was. Ignorant? Please.

    I tell you what: you’re right. Kenmin Show is another good show on Japanese TV. Ever heard of it? No? Ok. Before After is a good show, too. Heard of that one? Nope? Ok. Another Sky is ok, do you know that one? No? Ok. I also like to watch the G20 show, that’s a fun one. Heard of it? They have a funny little segment where a goofy celebrity dates foreigners. No? Itte Q? Nope? Never heard of that?

    Yes, I clearly “don’t know shit.” Let me tell you something: you are the WORST kind of otaku – I bet you’ve never even been to Japan, and think that Japanese culture can be quantified and put into top ten lists. You hate “ignorant comments” like mine? Funny, because I’ve grown really tired of getting arrogant comments from otaku like you who think watching a few anime makes them an authority on what Japan is and is not. Come live here a few years, then maybe we’ll talk.

    So, please, don’t come to me with this weak crap that I don’t know Japanese or Japanese TV. I live in Japan. If I’m not watching TV, my kids are. I know full well what is on TV. If you want to call me out for hyperbole (there ARE a few good shows on J-TV), fine. But actually make a real point. Don’t just come to me with your self-righteous otaku BS.

  • Henro

    Oh, and sorry for trying to be positive. This is a really amazing and wonderful show, and it highlights the insane heights of creativity, quirkiness and charm that Japanese people are capable of. By contrasting this show’s greatness to the utter garbage that 90% of Japanese TV is, I meant to highlight the wonder and joy that this show brings to me, and the faith in the Japanese as a people it restores in me. If you’ve never ridden a Japanese train during commuting rush hour, or watched your child practice sports late into the night, coming home well after a child in your home country would already be at home, eating dinner with his family – when you see some of the hardships and joylessness of daily Japanese life, you turn around and see this show and think…”Wow.”

    In fact, the first time I saw this show, I was on the 88 Temple pilgrimage. I had spent nearly a week driving from temple to temple in my tiny kei car with nothing but a book of maps to guide my way. I had gotten lost countless times and lost my temper each time. I finally made it to temple 88 and asked where the sacred mountain (Koya-San) was, and they said, “Um…it’s not on Shikoku. You have to take the ferry to Wakayama.” I was on a tight schedule, and it kind of crushed my heart in a way that…just…I felt very Buddhist after that. Like, “Oh. My goal is unattainable. I will carry on, then.”

    I drove back to Naruto, an area I knew well, and made my way to temple no. 2, which I had been to a few times, where they had lodgings for pilgrims (not free, it’s like a hotel). I walked into the temple and asked shyly, “Do you have a room?” and they kindly led me to the dining hall, fed me, and the priest offered me a pamphlet in English and said, in broken English, “Prayer, tomorrow in the morning, 5 oclock.” I usually prefer for people to speak Japanese to me rather than broken English, but his kindness and sincerity really touched me. I ate, went to the temple’s main hall to think (I don’t meditate) and began hallucinating voices coming from the temple, I was so worn out.

    I went back to my hotel room, turned on the TV and this show was on. I laughed harder than I’d ever laughed at anything I’d seen in my life. From that moment on, I didn’t get lost, nor did I lose my temper on my pilgrimage. This show was a kind of…religious experience for me, as it just came at the right moment and calmed me and brought me a kind of joy I hadn’t known for a long, long time.

    As a matter of fact, on my way to a temple deep in the mountains, I got hit by a truck carrying logs from the mountainside. It knocked the bumper off my car and spun me around a few times. I was unhurt, and the car still drove, and just…I was so…calm at that point that I shrugged my shoulders, got back in my car, and finished my pilgrimage with a totaled car. The cops eventually stopped me and asked WTF was wrong with me. I showed them my temple book, and told them, “My car got hit, but the driver ran off, and I really need to finish this pilgrimage.” They shrugged, told me to go to the cops in my home town later, and let me go. (The pilgrimage is a big deal around here, and people will do you favors if you’re on it; apparently that extends to cops and clearly illegal driving.)

    So, there, Lauren. Happy? That is the full story of how I came to watch and love this show. God, I’m so ignorant, I bet I don’t even watch Japanese TV. I hate comments like mine.

  • Hiragana Mama

    This show brings back a lot of memories!! Great show for kids to watch too.

  • ZA다ルﻣ

    um…wow.

    i’m almost glad that this conversation was initiated. because without it, i would’ve never heard this great story of yours. i’ve never heard of the pilgrimage before…

    and your “very Buddhist” feeling reminded me of my own feelings in my last kung fu tournament, in which, following the sort of spirit of Genki Sudo, (or at least that’s what i tell myself it is), I attained victory after getting last place.

    I love sparring, but I’ve never done particularly well in a tournament–and it’s not because I don’t have the ability, it’s because I don’t have the mentality of hurting people. I always end up taking second to someone (and this is in a division with 3 or 4 people). It’s kinda strange, when I know someone better, I trust them enough to hurt them more…anyways, I lost my first match (only after double-overtime! it was a great match). I was sorry with the loss, but it was a GREAT spar, I hadn’t felt anything like it in a long time. I was happy with that, I told myself. The experience was great, I don’t care what the judges thought about it: that elegant conversation of attack and defense…

    The next match was the match for third place, and I was fighting another member of my kung fu club. he was new, and he kept saying stuff like, “these tournament rules are all weird” (which they were, especially because he had other martial arts experience), and he hadn’t won anything in any competition he entered that day. He seemed kind of bummed. I knew how much he liked to spar…

    I entered in the same tournament the previous year, and coming from taekwondo, I was really curious how I would do against kung fu dudes. I was exhausted, and my cardio/endurance was (and still is) rather horrible. Like I said, the rules are strange…I got last place. In a beginners’ division. With a taekwondo black belt. I felt destroyed…And I didn’t show it, but I was a sore loser. After seeing Genki Sudo’s fights (WE ARE ALL ONE), some of his interviews, I learned that even when you step in the ring, in that one-on-one, when there’s one winner and one loser–there are things that are even more important than winning.

    Inspired by this, I told myself that morning (or maybe even weeks before that) that this “very Buddhist”-type feeling was the one I always wanted, the one where whatever happens happens, and where even if I lost the match, I could still take full pleasure in my own victory.

    So the third-place match…I didn’t lose the match on purpose. I could’ve been more aggressive, especially because he was smaller than me, but that’s not usually my style anyways. But whenever I watch the footage, I think, “Why did I lose?” I still think I did better than him (so do all my friends)…but my intentions at the time were to put up a good fight, and if he wins–whatever, that would make him happy. I already had my victory of the day with my double-overtime match. I really wouldn’t have taken much value in a trophy or medal or bragging rights anyways, that kind of stuff doesn’t mean much to me. I took the loss–which was really a victory–and carried on.

    yeah, so my story is rather pathetic compared to your cool awesome thing.

    and that’s so interesting how much this show means to you–i would’ve never thought such a show could do such a thing. and that image of cops shrugging off a totaled car–hilarious!

    anyways, thanks for sharing that–that was awesome~~

  • Henro

    “yeah, so my story is rather pathetic compared to your cool awesome thing.”

    No, it’s not, and this is exactly what I meant by calling Lauren out for being the worst kind of otaku – Japan is not a game you win or lose at by knowing more or being cooler. I’ve never been to a tournament of any kind, let alone a kung fu one, and I’d dare say that your experience trumps mine in terms of coolness. I don’t give a damn what Maji Uta is, because knowing Maji Uta is in no way essential, or prerequisite to understanding Japan – there is no such thing as a “starter anime.”

    Your story is pretty damn awesome, and a HUGE step forward in maturity.

    Anyway, the skit I saw at the temple was this one:
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YKHVZnUICUA

    Temple 2 was just a nexus of great stuff happening for me. For example, at Temple 3 that same day, I had arrived after the book-stamp office had closed. A woman stuck her head out the door and said, “Book stamp? Wait a sec. Gimme that.” She went inside and, though already off the clock, stamped my book for me (the stamp includes calligraphy, so it wasn’t just a ten-second thing; it took some effort). Everything about that day kind of coalesced into one big awesome moment.

    As for the pilgrimage, it’s really popular, and worth looking into. Doing it by car is a beautiful experience, but you WILL learn, the hard way, about Japan’s confusing and absurd road systems.

  • http://kennydude.me/ Joe Simpson

    I thought this was called Kaisou Tashiou (or something similar)

  • ZA다ルﻣ

    bwaha! *this* day just keeps getting better…

    that’s so cool! i love hearing about those awesome random little things people do…i just read in my own sacred book that the money best spent is money spent on your parents, your relatives, the orphans, the poor and needy, and–last but not least–the traveler! i think i see the wisdom in it. for the traveler, the small acts of kindness are never forgotten. when i’m traveling, time just seems to slow down, and i can step back and appreciate all those little things that i took for granted.

    when you’re traveling, the bumps in the road rock you harder than at home, and you feel the slopes of even the smallest hills. that’s when the warm smile and helping hand are more touching than ever…

    if all goes according to plan, i’ll have four years of medical school ahead of me before i can leave this hole i’ve called home all my life. soon, i too will be a traveler. i’ll see japan one day. and if i don’t succeed in seeing all that i set out to see…well, then for all the victories–the apparent ones and the hidden ones, too–I’ll carry on with a smile on my face. ^_^

    ps–眼鏡-blasting chest missile was great!

  • Jerfareza Daviano

    Wow! Such memories, I always watched it when they aired it in my local tv station back in Jakarta.. They dubbed the voices though (something that I hate nowadays), but it still gave me a lot fun.

    Imagination is really the only limit in that show!

  • http://www.feitclub.com feitclub

    My biggest question: where does the name Masquerade come from? It’s not used anywhere in Japan, and that “official” YouTube page is covered in Chinese, not Japanese. Is Masquerade a licensed Asian edition of the show?

  • http://www.feitclub.com feitclub

    Unfortunately, タレント is the reason Japanese TV sucks.

  • Henro88

    Feitclub is 100% correct. “Talents” dominate Japanese TV. Instead of having normal people on game shows in Japan, they have celebrities. What’s the point in watching a bunch of famous people compete for a 1,000,000 yen prize when you already know how rich they are? Give me Jeopardy any day over a celebrity quiz show.

    And, as for Japan’s Got Talent, that’s pretty much what this show is. It’s one of the few shows on Japanese TV where there are no celebrities competing for the prize. Some celebrities do compete on the show, but I’ve never seen one win, as their entries are usually pathetic. Most of the people on this show are children and their parents, and it really can be a wonderful show to watch.

    Oh! There’s also a show whose name I do not know that is basically a scouting show – a panel of professionals judge a talent show and, at the end, offer jobs to the people they like. It’s actually really cool to watch, but even that show often gets taken over by celebrities – they often have the same person on repeatedly, until that person becomes a celebrity in their own right.

  • http://www.tofugu.com/ Hashi

    I believe that “Masquerade” is the licensed Asian edition, since I’ve seen it go by that name in other parts of Asia. Although I can see translators pairing down the original Japanese name to just 仮装 and using that

  • walker

    as a self-described otaku, i’d just like to mention that i have never heard of maji uta. but i love these masquerade clips. they do, indeed, show some of the quirkiness and ingenuity that makes japan such a fascinating, enjoyable country for me. i also enjoyed some of the late night clip shows that i caught on my last visit, not the celebrity ones, more the “cool stuff we’ve noticed this week,” like cats that balance oranges on their heads. or an amazing little feature about a mud wasp hunter, whose technique involved tying a paper marker onto a single wasp (mid flight!) in a field and following it home to the nest. i’ve heard those wasps are dangerous.

    but i really, really love neon genesis evangelion.

    (ducks for cover.)

  • http://riechanster.blogspot.com Riechan

    okay, this is AWESOME!!!

  • http://riechanster.blogspot.com Riechan

    Yes that’s one of the things I find a little ‘weird’ on Japanese television shows or variety shows. That famous people win money or presents! I mean, why? When I saw that the first time I found it very peculiar. When famous people here in Belgium join shows they win money, but always for charity and not for themselves. Do they think that normal people wouldn’t attract ratings?

  • Yuume

    Not totally sure this is from the same show, but it’s from a show similar to this show :D

    It’s one of my favorites! Sorry it’s low quality, but definitely give it a watch! It’s titled, ‘Why Is My Girlfriend Mad?’

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gbXpQ69U6uA

  • EspadaKiller

    One of the best Japanese shows that I have ever watched. Was up for my local TV program 10 over years ago, and it’s awesome!

  • piichan

    We had a localized version of this :) My mom used to love it and went on to watching the japanese shows in youtube when she was still alive.