Saturday 2 June 2012

Subbed Shabekuri Episodes Links and Random Rambling

Hey everyone. No this is not a new subbed video post sorry lol.

From time to time people post links on this site about already subbed Shabekuri 007 episodes. I was hoping that I could get you guys to let me know of all of the ones that you know about, so that
1. People who don't know about them could watch too
2. So that I don't end up subbing it as well
3. So I can make a more comprehensive list of subbed Shabekuri episodes.

I'm really happy about how popular it has started to become, and it seems that more people become fans once they give it a chance to watch. It's good to know that Japanese (verbal) humour also gets across to people of different nationalities, and not just crazy "Jack Ass" style visual humour.

I think that's the main reason why I started subbing actually. I really wanted people to understand that Japanese comedians can actually "say" funny things rather than having to resort to whacking each other in the balls with some strange contraption. The past few times I've gone to Japan, I stayed at some hostels where many other "foreigners" stay for cheap accommodation. Since it's just a budget lodge, there's only one TV in a common room, and at night a group of them might gather around it to watch.........English dvd's. Sure, it's because they don't understand Japanese, and so there's no point for them to watch TV, since its boring for them. Fair enough, sort of, although I'd prefer them to have some curiosity for the culture that they're visiting and just watch some Japanese TV even if they don't understand it.

It's just that one of the highlights for me of going to Japan had always been being able to watch Japanese TV and yet my hopes were always foiled by people watching movies like Avatar and.....some Lindsay Lohan movie lol. At times I'd be able to get to the TV first and turn on a funny Japanese show, but end up just laughing by myself and enduring lame and annoying comments made by the "foreigners" because they couldn't understand what was going on. They'd quickly get tired of watching stupid Japanese people making noise and then say "Hey let's watch some shit movie" to the rest of the people watching, to which they inevitably reply "Yeah!" as I slink of somewhere in disappointment.

I suppose it's also because a lot of the people there aren't really that interested in Japan in the first place. They just go there for a holiday because they're mildly curious about the place, rather than actually wanting to know about the culture and people, which is fair enough. Not everyone likes Japan as much as I would like them to.

Even so, some people that do like Japan, or have stayed in Japan for still don't like Japanese TV anyway. In that case that's just the difference in taste and expectations for what they want to see on TV. I would have to agree that most of stuff on Japanese TV is non-informative and depending on the way you think, can be just a waste of time. One thing I do wish they had more of are documentaries.....

Nevertheless, it doesn't really make Western TV much better, if any better at all. What, with all of the shitty American reality shows, crime shows and cheesy as sit-coms. Seriously, why are there so many crime shows? Surely you only need one CSI or one Law and Order and a Miami, New York, California and Hawaii or whatever version? Do people really like it that much? They don't even give you a good mystery to think about. And then there are about 10 more different crime series' to choose from anyway.

Also, the sitcoms, like the one with the geeks..........I can't remember its name, and rubbish like "How I Met Your Mother" and "Three and Half Men" ( or was it two?)  I can't remember that either..... Well, that's how little interest I have in them. From watching some of these shows, the main differences in Japanese and English (well American) comedy, is that America seems to be obsessed with "come backs" or snappy little comments to put others down. Some times they can be funny, but these shows are full of them, with 95% being very lame anyway, making it boring extremely quickly. I also can never come to like any of the characters, as they just seem like selfish assholes.

That doesn't mean Japanese comedy is much better though. It can be overly slap-stick and cliche. There are also things called "gags" which can be extremely lame and as far from funny as you could possibly get. The worst thing is that there are some comedians that base their act solely on "gags". It's not really surprising that these people disappear after a year, or never reach TV to start with. Horiuchi Ken is a gag comedian who is an exception to this. I'm sure you know how random and notoriously unfunny he can be after watching Shabekuri. (Although he can be hilarious too. It's kinda "hit and miss").

Anyway, I went off topic a bit and wrote more than I was expecting....lol
Hmm....well I hope you find this somewhat interesting to read nonetheless.

See ya!



33 comments:

  1. you make a good point on both ends. there are outstanding shows in both countries but they definitely are the exception.

    yeah, a lot of humor and entertainment is based on culture and context, but once you peel back that layer it all boils down to the same things. you can count on something unexpected happening as being funny regardless of where you are in the world (i.e. your last shabekuri sub when arita actually guesses right) and the most entertaining things to watch often are done with care and some craft.

    thanks for subbing godzillaradio and showing so many people another side of the world and another culture and how laughter can bring a lot of misconceptions about foreign countries down. hope you're well and hope its as fun to sub as it is to watch!

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    1. Yeah I agree. There are things that just make everybody (well most laugh), regardless of what language it is in. That's also what I wanted to see by subbing some Japanese shows into English. I'm glad to say that it worked. Thanks for your comment and support! I'll be continuing to sub for the foreseeable future.

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  2. keep up the good work, i'm one of the anonymous poster who sometimes find subbed episode of shabekuri 007 and post it here in chatongo, you make me discover this show and it's the minimum i can do for the other fans :)

    thanks again for everything =))

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    1. Haha thanks, if you could keep doing that then it'd be very much appreciated.

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  3. I'd be always be grateful for your subbed videos and for getting me hooked on Shabekuri/Arita <3 :D I might scratch my head at some of the jokes/gags but somehow it makes me laugh anyway. (of course your side notes help a lot too):D Subbing is a tedious process but you still manage to share more videos, so thank you for your hard work (*´▽`*)

    One Japanese drama that I think full of on going gags/funny reference and all over awesome comedic timing and great cast chemistry is Trick series xD I wish subber would take this one up instead of just subbing idol related dramas.

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    1. Oh is that about psychics or something? I haven't seen it but it seems somewhat interesting. Psychic powers and telekinesis etc are always fun topics.

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    2. It's a mystery/comedy drama leads by unlikely duo, a physics professor and a magician. I absolutely love TRICK! The humour might not be to everyone’s taste though cause a lot of the humour does rely on Japanese pop-culture and wordplay, so I can imagine it can be hard to understand at times. Yet despite the language barrier, it's still remains a fantastic series to me due to great chemistry and acting by Abe, Yamada and Yabe Kenzo (I dont know his real name, he'll always be my Yabe Kenzo (‘∀’●)♡ )

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  4. I love shabekuri thank you for subbing them...became a fan when I first watched the one with Ken Watanabe XD

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    1. Haha that's my first ever Shabekuri I did. Glad you liked it.

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  5. Hello!

    First of all, thank you GodzillaRadio for all your dedicated work. Your subs are great, but what I like the most is, that you give explanations to the various items, people and cultural/custom references found within the videos. Plus the similar blog posts about a certain topic are also informative.

    I did not watch any of the Shabekuri episodes (yet - will later), but I enjoyed Nazotoki Battle Tore the most and the rare Cocorico - Miracle Type Skits were funny as well.


    Since you mentioned in this post, that you like Japanese TV so much, maybe I can recommend you something, that would make you certainly happy, as a thank you for your work (and unless you don't know it already).
    It's a programm called "KeyHole TV". (Just type it into google, it's the first result)
    It lets you watch Japanese TV channels in real time (them Japanese people see it only a few seconds sooner), it contains (among many others - and radio signals)channels as TV Asahi, Nihon TV, Fuji TV, NHK, TBS... (sometimes even WOWOW for a few hours)
    and all this for free!
    (Well, ok - it can be a bit laggy, especially if you set a higher screen resolution, but it's absolutely worth it)
    Hope you can enjoy it. :)
    And of course anyone else who read this post and got the programm.

    Best wishes
    BigMan

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    1. It got flagged as spam for some reason haha.

      Yeah, I think the explanations are quite necessary a lot of the time, so I'm glad everyone also appreciates the information from them. Hopefully you remember it for other videos that don't explain it so you can understand what they're talking about on the spot.

      I'll be trying to do more Nazotoki and Cocorico skits although there are so many other shows I also want to do that it might take a while before I get around to it. Especially the Nazotoki one because it takes a while to do...

      Hmmm I've heard of KeyHole TV but never tried it out. Thanks for the suggestion!

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    2. Now that I've read it again for a number of times, it really sounds a bit like spam. XD
      Although, that wasn't my intention, honestly.

      I thought Nazotoki was difficult to translate right because of all the quizes, but the thing I liked about it the most were the challenging game settings.
      Actually, it reminded me a little bit about the show "Takeshi's Castle", which I used to watch more than 10 years ago. I guess that was one of the first elements that got me interested in all things Japanese.
      But even if various game shows are popular in Japan, it's hard to come by some which have English subs.
      Therefore, thank you once more for Nazotoki.

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  6. I find the main difference between American comedy and Japanese comedy is that American comedy is manufactured whilst Japanese comedy is natural.

    For example the majority of US shows are sit-coms where the characters, settings, dialogue and jokes are all scripted and acted out. They even use 'laugh tracks' (pre-recorded laughter).

    The majority of Japanese shows on the other hand are variety shows which are unscripted and place comedians in a situation where they will react naturally to the circumstances. The fun is seeing how a certain person will react to a certain situation.

    Everything is subjective but personally I can't sit through an entire episode of 2 1/2 men or Big Bang Theory, it is incredibly boring and I can predict what is going to happen.. occasionally these kind of shows might give me a throat laugh but nothing like the doubled-over belly laughs you get from shows like Gaki no Tsukai or London Hearts.

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    1. Yeah~ the laughing tracks is another thing that often gets brought up as a reason why people don't like Japanese tv. Yes, a lot more Japanese shows have them but, as you said, so do American shows. Even shows that are popular and supposedly "funnier" according to some people. And I totally agree with the sitcoms being boring. A friend gave me the first 2 or 3 seasons of Big Bang but I stopped watching after two episodes or so....And I'm glad Charlie Sheen went crazy because there won;t be anymore 2and half men lol.

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  7. I can't understand either why people visiting another country would not want to experience more of the country their at. I often see foreign people in Hong Kong eating McDonalds... its really a WTH moment since I love trying the countries' more authentic food because really sometimes its a one in a life time chance.

    One thing I kinda find stupid in some Japanese programs is that they have some famous celebrities there just to watch some video clips and they have a lil box in the top corner showing their reactions xD Most recent one I remember is Maki Horikita in the show watching animal clips that I think were from youtube.

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    1. YES! I totally agree about the food. You see people actually complaining that they can't find some crappy Western food there. (-_-)....I mean, out of all of the options that you could choose from, why would you get stuff you can get at home? lol

      Well, maybe some people don't know what to expect to be able to get in restaurants or know what to order. But then again, that shouldn't be a problem in Japan because many shops have realistic plastic models of their food in window displays at the entrance....

      And yeah...not sure about the reaction boxes. The idol guest appearances where they don't do anything are just to fish for fan girls and fan boys I suppose lol. Comedians actually don't really like having guests like that because they have to make sure not to offend them (well some of them anyway), which gives them a hard time making jokes and stuff lol

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  8. Hmmm, where did my previous comment go?

    Actually - I was wondering about that corner box reaction camera too, which Aoi mentioned.
    Is there a name for that? (since there is a name for so many things in Japan that aren't named in other parts of the world)

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    1. I don't really know if there's a name for it but Japanese people like seeing reactions. Like there are some comedians that pride themselves in their "reaction comedy" such as Degawa Tetsuro, although what he does is more extreme than just showing his face while he watches animal videos on youtube lol. It's more along these lines...

      http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-c1Ic5cyvaC4/Tf1wJGbSA6I/AAAAAAAAAIs/7ssKV84kbCs/s1600/enn0909261328013-p1.jpg

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    2. I see, maybe it's something along the lines of what Matsumoto Hitoshi once said in a documentary - "Japanese people can only laugh about things which they can relate to..."
      and because of that there is a kind of double-relation for the regular citizen, since he/she might think "Oh, that famous person likes it too - we may have a similar taste."
      Thus, the next time this citizen sees the famous person on TV, his/her attention will be automatically assigned to the show.
      (And this is how some of the regular viewers are born, - I don't know how this is exactly named - a good marketing psychology from the media?)

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  9. You could just go to Jusco and watch Sumo wrestling with the oyaji's. They always looked at me funny though haha

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    1. Hahaha Jusco. I wasn't aware that the oyajis even went there to watch sumo. Sounds like a better alternative to watching Avatar though lol

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  10. Thanks to you, Shabekuri 007 is now my favorite variety/talk show period... I always appreciate the updates and consistently check daily for any new postings... I even have my Google Alerts set for "Shabekuri 007 english subs." I stumbled upon the blog by chance, and have been thankful ever since. Your notes grant more insight on the Japanese culture than just watching the show, hoping that you will pick up on a joke or two. Hopefully more postings are coming soon. *wishful thinking* I have found that Daily Motion has a few that you have and some that you haven't featured in your blog. Also http://www.d-addicts.com/forum/ has episode, but very few subs... I've begun to watch them in Japanese only, hoping I can catch a few words with my limited Japanese... But thanks for all that you do, and keep it up... You made a fan outta me...

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  11. I really don't watch TV a whole lot (except for sports) since these sitcoms really never interest me (although I have friends who watch them). I'm starting to become a bigger fan of Japanese TV shows like Shabekuri 007 because of the way MCs and the other co-hosts can make something humorous with references to a celebrity or an event. I mostly try to watch these shows when they're subbed so I can really understand what's going on. However, my one exception to this would be "Onedari Muscat SP!" (which I hope you can find time to sub an episode). Sure I can't really tell what's going on through the talking but if they throw something else in the mix, then I might have a better idea. Also, it's not everyday where an idol group composed of mid-20s AV and gravure idols embarrassing or insulting each other.

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    1. Yeah I generally don't watch TV either. They don't have many (or any) shows like Japan do in the West. Even when they do, or copy the idea it just gets totally wrecked.

      Hmmm, I'll see what I can do about Ebisu Muscats. I remember someone else suggesting I do that quite some time ago as well. And yeah, only in Japan could you have a show hosted by porn stars lol

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  12. http://vimeo.com/31781862 Shabekuri 007 tohoshinki 1/3
    http://vimeo.com/31784246 Shabekuri 007 tohoshinki 2/3
    http://vimeo.com/31788621 Shabekuri 007 tohoshinki 3/3

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  13. Hello~!

    I discovered your blog recently (because I found a episode of Tore where two Morning Musume members appeared lol) but I love it already! since I really like Japanese comedy, even though there are thing I don't understand it is funny to watch their reactions and their laugh is contagious! thank you so much for your hard work! <3

    I remember this episode was subbed already: Shabekuri 007 - Morning Musume & OGs (2009.12.21) http://www.hello-online.org/index.php?app=xbt&CODE=details&torrent=25195

    I'll watch the episodes you subbed! (and sorry for my english, I can read it but can't write it very well -w-)

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  14. I recently got back from a two week trip to Japan where I met my boyfriend's family for the first time. I have to admit I'm not fluent in Japanese but I still insisted on watching various Japanese shows, understanding perhaps 50% of it but picking up on new words and never heard before expressions.

    I do wish that people travelling to a foreign country would give that country's culture a chance instead of watching something that has already been watched before. That includes entertainment as well as culinary escapades etc.

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    1. That's good! I very much agree with you. What bugs me more is when they complain about something from their country (like pizza) not being as good there. Or even that the people don't speak English lol. I mean, what the heck do they expect, seriously?

      Anyway, I hope you had fun there and got along with your boyfriend's family!

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  15. I've become a fan of Shabekuri after finding your subbed videos! I love their humour! Thank you so much for taking up these projects! Please continue to sub more shabekuri videos! :)

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  16. Are there any other shows similar to Shabekuri 007?

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    1. Umm...Arashi ni Shiyagare?
      I think the director is the same, the setting is pretty much the same.

      Only difference is that it's the idol group Arashi rather than a bunch of middle aged comedians.

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