Kamisen Taiketsu Coming Century Competitions This isn't any one segment, but instead the name of a series of competitions between members of Coming Century that have occurred off and on. I've only seen three competitions so far, all of which are listed here. Breeder Taiketsu (Breeder Competition): Part 1 In 2001, Ken-kun was in a the drama Neverland with Johnny's Jr. star Imai Tsubasa. Therefore, it seemed like a great time to have a competition. Ken-kun teamed with Tsubasa-kun to form the Neverland Team, while Okada-kun teamed with Go-kun to form the Gakkou e Ikou Team for the Breeder Competition, or in other words, a dog competition. Each person was randomly assigned a dog, and they had to compete against the other team in frisbee catching and obstacle course competitions. Ken-kun got an adorable little beagle, while Okada-kun got a pretty dog named Gin. Tsubasa-kun was the really winner with a gorgeous dog named Shou who was so intelligent, that it picked up its own leash when you called it to you. And then there was Go-kun, who ended up with a 10-year old mutt named Dori. Dori's claim to fame was that if you pretended to shoot her, she'd keel over and play dead. She was either the most intelligent, or most idiotic dog known to man. She never listened to what Go-kun said, choosing to sprint away at inopportune times so that she could lie down a rest for a bit. He spent half of his time chasing after Dori as she ran away. However, when practicing for the obstacle course, Dori demonstrated that perhaps she was smarter than she let on. Go-kun left her at one end of a soft tunnel, then ran around the other other end, lay down, and began calling Dori through the tunnel. Instead of running INTO the tunnel, Dori trotted AROUND to Go-kun's end and also stuck her head in. She kept looking back and forth between Go-kun and the tunnel... you could almost hear her asking, "What're you looking at that's so interesting?" Meanwhile, Okada-kun was having different problems trying to get Gin used to running through the tunnel: when Gin saw Okada-kun's face at the end of the tunnel, he visually jumped and leapt away. He then proceeded to carefully creep along the outside towards the other end of the tunnel, jumping every time Okada-kun stuck his head out to check on Gin's progress. What a fun game~! ...too bad that's not what they were supposed to be doing. Meanwhile, both Shou and Ken's beagle sailed through both parts of the competition in practice. The Gakkou e Ikou Team was screwed. When it came time for the competitions, Shou was the natural choice for the Neverland Team and the frisbee catch. Sure enough, the frisbee flew and Shou made a perfect catch. Okada-kun threw a frisbee for the Gakkou e Ikou Team's only hope, Gin. Gin watched blandly as Okada-kun threw his heart out, before lying down. For the second part, Ken-kun and his dog competed against Go-kun and Dori. Dori did, well, better than one might expect, but Ken-kun still creamed Go-kun. So the Neverland Team won by a huge margin, and the Gakkou e Ikou Team had to take their punishment. Go-kun put a giant pad on one arm, and they let a trained attack dog maul his arm for a while. Scary~! Go-kun quickly left his padded arm behind and ran like the wind. Good boy. Breeder Taiketsu (Breeder Competition): Part 2 Since the Gakkou e Ikou Team lost the first Breeder Taiketsu, Okada-kun and Go-kun came back to compete for the title of who was the worst with dogs. First thing they did was head to a trainer's house to pick out their dog for the competition. Okada-kun spotted a pretty dog named Meg and chose her. Go-kun also looked all over the place, when suddenly he stopped and stared at a certain dog. "Aren't you..." He pretended to shoot the dog, and she immediately keeled over and played dead. "Dori~! It's Dori~!" Despite the fact that Go-kun and Dori did horribly last time, they teamed up once more to try again. This time, the competition was a simple obstacle course. The dogs jumped over four hurdles, then jumped onto a pad which triggered the release for a ball. The dog then had to pick the ball up and cross the finish line. Okada-kun and Meg figured out the jumping part pretty easily, but it took a little more work to make Meg pick up the ball and carry it across the finish line. Go-kun and Dori managed to get the jumping down, but Dori had absolutely no interest in the ball whatsoever. It was probably a compliment that Dori thought Go-kun was far more interesting than the ball, but it didn't help them out in competition. When it came time to do the real thing, it seemed that Okada-kun and Meg would win easily. Meg jumped over the hurdles, picked up the ball, and dashed towards the finish line... and then stopped literally inches before she crossed it. "Why are you stopping!?" Okada-kun asked as Meg turned around and began running in the other direction. Eventually, Okada-kun managed to convince Meg to cross the finish line for a time of about 39 seconds. Go-kun and Dori were up next. Dori jumped over the hurdles no problem, and with Go-kun's help, stepped on the pad to release the ball. Then, to everyone's completely surprise, Dori picked up the ball in her mouth and began sprinting for the finish line... before veering sharply to lie down on her favorite mound. There was no moving Dori once she lay down, so Go-kun lost. So close~! His punishment was to dress up like a dog and accept commands from Okada-kun to "better understand a dog's feelings". Poor Go-kun... Shin Tabemono Shiritori (NEW Food Word Chain) "Shiritori" is a game where one person says a word, and the next person has to say a word that starts with the last letter of the previous word. So if one person says "apple", the next person says "eggplant". It's a little bit different in Japanese, since words are constructed out of syllables, not letters, which can consist of a vowel ('u'), consonant-vowel ('ku'), or 'n'. So if one person says "tako" (ta-ko), the next person can say "konnyaku" (ko-n-nya-ku). "Tabemono Shiritori" is a game that I'd only seen once or twice on Gakkou e Ikou! before it was revived here. At the start of the game, two teams of two people are given a starting syllable and an ending syllable. They must then think of a series of foods that begins with the starting syllable, and ends with the ending syllable. For example, if they were trying to get from 'ya' to 'go', they could think of "yakiniku" (ya-ki-ni-ku = roast meat), "kuri" (ku-ri = chestnuts), and then "ringo" (ri-n-go = apple). However, two things make this more of a challenge. First, the syllables are much more difficult, needing about 10 items to get from the starting to ending syllables. Second, the teams are plopped onto a busy market filled with small restaurants, food stands, and grocers. And instead of just THINKING of the foods on the shiritori, they have to EAT all of the foods on the shiritori. That means getting things in the smallest portions possible, trying to work in drinks and light foods (sake is a popular choice, while french bread could be your downfall), and avoiding words like "shouyu" (soy sauce) at all costs. For this challenge, Okada-kun was paired with Osakan comedienne Yamada Hanako, while Go-kun was paired with Ueno Miku. And since this was the revived, NEW version of the game, there was a little twist to it: not only were the two teams given a beginning and ending syllable, they were also given a middle syllable that they had to pass through along the way. Both Go-kun and Okada-kun were INCREDIBLY displeased that the game was revived, but got into it as it went on. They both tried to figure out how to work in their favorite foods (such as the high-priced delicacy "uni" or "sea urchin") while eating as little as possible. Go-kun and Miku ended up eating a lot of pork, since that was Miku's favorite, even though Go-kun wasn't too crazy about it. He was more than happy to let Miku eat more than her fair share. Okada-kun and Hanako had a good time since they're both from Osaka, so Okada-kun was able to speak the Osakan dialect of Kansai-ben the entire time. They managed to work in sake, which Hanako chugged merrily, but paid for it later when they had to eat a loaf of French bread. After each team had eaten their way through the shiritori, they still had to race to the finish line. Go-kun and Miku won by a nose. As punishment, Okada-kun and Hanako had to eat some of the durian fruit, a food which is infamous for the fact that its meat smells to high heaven. Ew... Back | TV Index