Takeshi's Castle (2023)

Funny and entertaining if you don't expect too much of it

I have watched re-runs of the original Takeshi's Castle and liked it for the different challenging games and that everyone who participated looked like they enjoyed it. People should know better than to look for any depth or sophisticated content here but it's certainly not trash TV, like the previous reviewer claimed it to be. Everyone who expects Takeshi's castle to be anything else than a typical game show and hates it, shouldn't blame the show but themselves when they watch it.

The whole point of the show is that one party defends the castle while the other tries to conquer it and the participants of the show have to successfully complete different games in order to get to the finale battle which needs to be won in order to take over the castle.
I was delighted to see that they brought in new games as well as revived old games from the original.
What I truly disliked about this remake though was that they levelled up the games in difficulty. For example the pond with skipping stones that was already hard to begin with, because it's impossible to know which stones are actually safe and which are loose and will cause you to sink, was increased in length so it's really hard to get over it. Especially for shorter participants it became impossible to cover the distance between some stones as it was increased too much. It's completely unfair to let any child play this game, but they did and of course it disheartened those children. This isn't the only game that was increased in difficulty, pretty much every game was harder than in the original. For some games they added new rules, one rule gave the castle defenders pretty much a 100% guarantee for win and that was absolutely nonsense as it defies the purpose of the show in my opinion. The final battle (a different version of the original final) was really unfair as well.

Personally I enjoy game shows, but in my opinion there was no need to make the games of this show any harder than they already were. In this remake it got to the point of being impossible and that took away from the entertaining factor.
My absolute favorite participant was Chiitan (a fairy otter mascot) as it's the perfect example that the main focus of this show is to have fun.
If you're looking for nothing else than a short and light entertainment and don't get frustrated that games are (too) hard you will be able to enjoy Takeshi's Castle.

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Trash TV at its worst

OK y'all, let's cut to the chase, shall we?
This show is trash. And I mean it, real trash. Utter trash. I'd say "pure trash" but "pure" ain't the kind of adjective one can in all fairness use to describe this, sorry.
I know there are millions of people who'll disagree, what can I say, good for them, but in my review I can only share *my* opinion, so bear with it. If you adored the original show and think that Kitano Takeshi's a freaking genious, by all means, watch this, you're gonna love it.
But if you, instead, always considered the original 80's show a disgrace only useful to those "gaijin" who *love* to diss Japan day in and day out ('cause, hey, "them Japs are all weirdos" as this show "showed") and if you think that the only real weirdo is Kitano (hey, I dunno him personally, he might be the best guy in the world....but in my book, if you look like you're demented, speak like you're demented, behave like you're demented and produce stuff that seems like it's been written by someone who's demented, well...chances are you might be demented, sorry)...well, in that case steer clear of this and watch something less trashy. "Sasuke", for example.

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