Batang 80s: Takeshi’s Castle with Anjo and Smokey

Posted By Alex on Mar 9, 2007 | 2 comments

“Ike!!!”

Being the Batang 80s that I am I remember all of naughty boys were convinced General Tani was screaming “Tite!” (“penis” in Tagalog). Well, only for me to find out more than a decade later that it means “Go!” But kids and anatomy would always be a laugh fest. Kilikili (armpit) always solicited a laugh from us tots. Simple laughs and joys probably.

Anyway, forget the reality game shows. I’d rather try out Takeshi’s Castle instead.

Image credit: TBS

Quite honestly, that was my first exposure to Japanese eccentricity. Seeing a wimpy-looking dude wrestle a hulking Sumo wrestler was way beyond my comprehension. And I really wanted to wear that padded ball suit and roll down a la human pinball. Or ride that spinning shitake mushroom. Now that’d have been fun! (For a list of them challenges, here’s a Wikipedia list.)

I remember asking for my dad one of those water guns. But the Super Soaker was way beyond our budget back them. Magtimba at tabo na lang daw ako. Tsk. What a heatbreaker.

Now, I also remember a few episodes were left undubbed by IBC 13 before they switched to a “new” format bringing in Anjo Illana and Smokey Manaloto in the roles of Takeshi-sama and sidekick Ishikura, respectively. And I honestly thought their “Ohohohohohohoho” laugh quite funny. Now, I won’t be a purist bastard and claim that I hated Tagalog-dubs. Anjo and Smokey were a big part on why I understood parts of the show. I was a kid without any knowledge of Nihonggo. Given the chance, I’d still take the Anjo-Smokey bits.

Oh yeah, and I guess it exposed me to First-Third World differences too. It really had me wondering “Why the heck didn’t we have such landscaped settings for game shows?” I was a kid and I figured Bulagaan stints sucked. You just can’t beat man-made lakes and cool water guns with lame pie-on-your-face routines.

Anyway, I hear they’ve done a variation with Joey de Leon somewhere there and they’re airing Takeshi’s Castle episodes again on GMA7.

I can’t find a YouTube clip without a some stupid commentary or voice-overs. So we’ll just have to make do with this one: