Fuun! Takeshi's Castle (2023)

Fuun! Takeshi's Castle (Japanese title: 風雲!たけし城) is an Amazon original series based on the original show first aired in 1986. The show began streaming on Amazon Prime Video since 21st April 2023 and is available to stream in many countries worldwide with more to follow! With more than 240 countries available to stream in the near future, this became the biggest relaunch of the show in history.
==About==
===Amazon Prime Video description===
A big revival beyond the time of 34 years! Numerous popular games such as Skipping Stones and Bridge Ball are revived in scaled up form.
In addition, newly developed terrifying games also appear one after another. This time, Bananaman, who has been entrusted with the defense by the castle lord Beat Takeshi, and the strong castle lord who protects the three branch castles, block the progress of the attacking army. Subaru Kimura is appointed as the new attack captain.
Selected from over 1,300 general applicants, the elite gather to take over the revived "Takeshi's Castle". Can you break through the unreasonable obstacles set by Takeshi's army and conquer the impregnable castle!? ? Muddy! Bishabisha! Sweaty! A barrage of hilarious scenes! The greatest decisive battle in history has finally begun!
===Keshiheads description===
The games in the reboot will be powered up to the largest scale in history, with more unique and diverse content planned with the show filmed at TBS's Midoriyama Studios during summer 2022. Filming lasted between July and August of that year with the set taken down shortly afterwards. 
Lots of courses and games are in the making, some looking similar, some with a brand new twist and some possibly similar to Wipeout in the USA.
A total of more than 300 contestants, selected from more than 1,300 applicants, will attempt to break through the various tricky games. These include contestants from SASUKE (Ninja Warrior), some international contestants and famous entertainers. There are a total of 8 episodes for this reboot, each episode splitting into two parts. An 1 hour preview was shown during the afternoon of Sunday 9th April with exclusive interviews, a look at the new games and much more.
Should a contestant lose a main game, they are allowed to play one of the three comeback games in order to regain their slot giving a second chance to make their way to the castle.
The games are super-sized in the final battle making them tougher than ever before when they defeat Count Takeshi in the final show down.
For international airings, it may be subtitled, dubbed or both depending on the country.
===Timeline===
30th March 2022: Amazon Prime Video (in Japan) along with TBS announced at the press conference that the show will be returning on our screens.
(by) 1st April 2022: A webpage for the reboot was created on TBS's website detailing what to expect from the reboot plus an application form. The webpage is updated on a regular basis.
28th April 2022: TBS has released a contestant recruitment video featuring clips from the original series.
8th May 2022: The application was extended a further month due to popular demand!
26th May 2022: TBS has released a second recruitment video featuring mock-ups of games to be featured on the show although only available to people in Japan. It was later uploaded to Youtube the same month worldwide.
5th June 2022: Applications has closed and no further entries was taken.
25th June 2022: The first behind-the-scenes photo was published online featuring the building of the castle.
3rd July 2022: The same twitter user has uploaded another behind-the-scenes photo featuring some of the games and obstacles featuring the new game Strong Arm, not officially named at the time.
9th and 10th July 2022: More games has been confirmed including the comeback game Ball Cupping, Blueberry Hill and a new look to Slippery Wall.
16th July 2022: Filming has commenced with another confirmed game, Mushroom Trip along with official teaser pics of Skipping Stones and Bridge Ball with possible variations of each game according to the ign article.
late-August 2022: Filming has ended but no further updates was announced.
September 2022: The set was taken down after filming.
27th December 2022: Amazon Prime Video in Japan has announced they will be streaming 20 original episodes from 13th January in preparation for the reboot in Spring. Meanwhile, for a limited time, TBS FREE will be streaming 10 original episodes for a month from 10th February until 12th March.
25th January 2023: A "Meet the Producers" conference was held featuring Hayato Tani and Subaru Kimura with the air date and name finally confirmed! The logo is also revealed along with an additional 3 brand new games (Block Block, From Right, From Left and Strong Arm)
25th February 2023: With 2 months until the release, Google Earth has released a 3D image from Midoriyama Studios from when the show was filmed, this included a few games previously not mentioned and a few added extras. The images were updated in early-2024 so it cannot be viewed to the public anymore.
10th March 2023: The marketing posters has been released with 8 cast members announced.
24th March 2023: The official trailer has been released alongside the press photos during filming of the show, and more information revealed including 3 more confirmed games, Skittles, Slip Way and Knock Knock. The release date is confirmed on that date.
31st March 2023: More cast members has been revealed in another exclusive video featuring a couple of game variations in the background. While in the video, you could see another new game, Slimy Quiz in the background, currently untitled at the time
2nd April 2023: An interview with General Tani is published online via "Maidona News".
7th April 2023: With 2 weeks to go until the launch, an introduction video was released online introducing some of the contestants who appears in the reboot. Tug of War is another confirmed game from the video.
9th April 2023: TBS Japan aired an exclusive 1 hour special previewing the reboot with an exclusive interview with Count Takeshi, a deep-depth look at the new and improved games and much more to get viewers hooked in. See Preview show (2023).
18th April 2023: Another exclusive video was released online with Bananaman introducing the games, both old and new.
20th April 2023: An official press conference was held with contestants crossing Skipping Stones.
21st April 2023: The series became available to watch from this date with Episodes 1-4 released on Amazon Prime Video in Japan. The other countries will not get it until a later date.
27th April 2023: One day before the final 4 episodes was released, another exclusive video was released with a preview of the final battle against Count Takeshi and what to expect in those two episodes.
28th April 2023: Episodes 5-8 is now available to stream on Amazon Prime Video in Japan containing the last 2 battles.
Rest of 2023: Takeshi's Castle can be streamed in most countries outside of Japan on their Prime Video apps with more to come.
==Games==
===Returning games===
*Ball Cupping (comeback game)
*Blueberry Hill
*Bridge Ball
*Honeycomb Maze
*Knock Knock (both single and multiplayer)
*Mushroom Trip
*Show Down (New version)
*Skipping Stones
*Skittles
*Slip Way
*Slippery Wall
*Tug of War (comeback game)
*Wipe Out
===New games===
All these games uses the original Japanese name except one which uses the "Romesh and Tom Take Takeshi's Castle" name.
*Block Block
*From Right, From Left
*Muddy Splash
*Slimy Quiz (comeback game)
*Strong Arm
== Cast members==
All listed in the order of surname.
===Returning cast===
*Takeshi Kitano
*Hayato Tani
===Lords of the Castle===
*Ennosuke Ichikawa
*Shinya Ueda
*Naomi Watanabe
*Kunihiro Matsumura (AI Count)
===New cast===
All of these are confirmed in credits.
*Amemiya
*Bakayoanataha (Hirai "Pharaoh" Hikaru)
*Bananaman (Yuki Himura & Osamu Shitara)
*Cyberjapan Dancers
*DJ Koo
*JP
*Kagaya (Sho Kaga & Soya Kaya)
*Kitsune (Kosei Awaji & Hirotsugu Otsu}
*Kuro-chan (Yasuda Dai Circus)
*Kyohansha
*Manapeco
*Manarutai
*Mogrider (Daisuke Shiba & Tomoshige)
*Naname45' (Ahiyoshi Okayasu, Teruaki Shimoike & Hayato Tsuchiya)
*Nasunakanishi (Akiyuka Nasu & Shigeki Nakanishi)
*Natsu
*Nishikigoi (Masanori Hasegawa & Takashi Watanabe)
*Sanshiro (Shuji Aida & Hironobu Komiya)
*The Touch (Kazuya & Takuya)
*Tokyo Hoteison (Syogo & Takeru)
*Toshi
*wanwannyannyan
*Watari119
*Jun Amaki
*Tom Brown (Michio & Hiroki Hunokawa)
*Jackie Chang
*Koume Dayu
*Hirooki Goto
*Animal Hamaguchi
*Kyoko Hamaguchi 
*Masaru Hamaguchi
*Neko Hiroshi
*Tomoaki Honma
*Nanoka Ito
*Shoji Jo
*Eiko Kano
*Toshiaki Kasuga 
*Kakenukete Keitora (Koshihikari Mochida & Tohru Onojima)
*Subaru Kimura
*Yutaka Kyan
*Ama-Wres Kyodai
*Jushin Thunder Liger
*Togi Makabe
*Naomasa Musaka
*Tenshin Nasukawa
*Motoko Obayashi
*Masayuki Okano
*Yoshito Okubo
*Mr. Shachihoko
*Airi Shimizu
*Taku Suzuki
*Ryusuke Taguchi
*Donguri Takeshi
*Marina Takewaki
*Yoshiaki Umegaki
*Saki Yamato
*Naotaka Yokokawa
*Aika Yokota
*Hollywood Zakoshisyoh
==Episodes==
See Episode Guide (2023)
==Gallery==
See Fuun! Takeshi's Castle (2023)/Gallery
==Videos==
『復活！風雲！たけし城（仮題）』挑戦者大募集！ - Amazonプライムビデオ|Contestant recuitment video
令和版「風雲！たけし城」挑戦者大募集！ - Amazonプライムビデオ|Second recuitment video
【ほぼトークノーカット】「風雲！たけし城」より木村昴、谷隼人ら登壇！Prime Video新年発表会 Meet the Producers 2023|Meet the Producers (January 2023)
『風雲！たけし城』予告編 - プライムビデオ|Official trailer
『風雲！たけし城』バナナマンが城を守るたけし軍を紹介！｜プライムビデオ|Meet the cast
『風雲！たけし城』攻撃隊長・谷隼人＆木村昴による攻撃軍紹介映像｜プライムビデオ|Introduction video
『風雲！たけし城』バナナマンによる新旧ゲームの見どころ紹介！｜プライムビデオ|Introducing the games
『風雲！たけし城』渡辺直美姫がファイナルラウンドの見どころをご紹介！｜プライムビデオ|The final battle preview
【トークノーカット】バナナマン、木村昴、谷隼人、狩野英孝、ハリウッドザコシショウら登場！「風雲！たけし城」ワールドプレミア|World premiere press (April 2023)
==Release dates==
*Japan: 21st April 2023
*Spain: 10th July 2023
*Germany: 4th August 2023
*UK: 30th August 2023 (voiceover by Romesh Ranganathan and Tom Davies as Romesh & Tom), 27th September 2023 (original subbed)
*India: 2nd November 2023 (with Bhuvan Bam), 30th November 2023 (original subbed)
*Thailand: 24th November 2023
*Indonesia: 16th November 2023
*Philippines: 16th November 2023
*Rest of the world: 24th and 25th July 2023 (only original subbed version) 
==Reviews==
As of 30th April 2024 (1 year after it became available), Takeshi's castle has a rating of 2.9 stars on Prime Video (Japan) based on 739 reviews. Of which 31% of the reviews are 5 star and 35% are 1 star.
In the UK, the Romesh & Tom version has a rating of 3.3 stars based on 120 reviews. Of which 45% of the reviews are 5 star and 27% are 1 star. The original subbed version however has a rating of 4.8 stars based on 9 reviews with 76% of them being 5 star and the remaining 24% being 4 star.
Although it also went out in India, they don't provide a star rating there, but it may indicate it might have done much better there.
In general, it received a mixed reaction. While some phrased for the return of Takeshi's Castle, others thought the show as a little boring compared to the original.
==Trivia==
==Links==
*Official TBS website
*The website as it was first announced
*IGN article and first looks
*
*Oricon News article about the show
*Amazon Prime Video update from 27/12/22
*Official announcement from "Meet the Producers"
*Official announcement including the press pics
*More cast members announced
*Interview with General Tani
Category:Takeshi's Castle
Category:Takeshi's Castle (2023)
Category:Amazon Prime Video