More Crazy Bunraku-Style Fun From Japan

A Bunraku aquarium is performed on Japan’s Kasou Taishou.

That great Bunraku-style skeleton dance I linked to earlier this week is from Kasou Taisho, the same biannual Japanese TV show that the famous “Matrix Ping Pong” sketch originated on. I’ve only seen clips of Kasou Taisho, but as far as I can tell it’s built around amateur groups of black-clad performers competing for prizes by staging skits and routines using large-scale puppetry. Think of it as a Japanese Bunraku version of American Idol.

One of my favourite skits is called the Card Duel. You can find it and many other popular routines from the show on the Kasou Taisho website, but Internet Explorer is required to view the videos properly. If you don’t have IE don’t worry, just search YouTube for “Kasou Taisho”.