Viva Viva V6 is an ongoing variety show in Japan featuring all six members of V6 that began in late 2000. To be quite honest, I'm not quite sure what the show was originally supposed to be about. I saw four episodes of VVV6, of which all but one were about food, before the show started their infamously funny Junk Battles. It's a hysterical cooking battle, where pairs of V6 members battle it out to see who can make the most money in a set period of time by selling their own food creations. They spend one day creating food for a specific theme, and another day peddling their wares on the street while "in cognito." For those who really love the segment, you can buy the VVV6 Super Junk Food Book (ISBN4-334-90103-4), which is filled with photos and recipes and the best (or worst, depending) of their disguises. You, too, can learn to make Nagahara-ken's sweet curry~! Or, maybe not.. Junk Battle Round #1 Junk Battle Round #2 Starting in fall 2002, the Junk Battles finally ended and a new segment started up: V6 Jigyoubu, alias V6 Division. V6 Division features the six members of V6 taking on the task of performing different jobs. Their first task was putting on their own circus. Circus The first episodes of VVV6 I saw were the tail end of the Maguro (tuna) Battle to determine the Maguro King. Like the Iron Chef, everyone started out with large hunks of tuna and had to cook one dish within a time limit. Ken and Okada lost to Nagano and Inocchi in the first round, so the second round was Sakamoto vs. Nagano, and Inocchi vs. Go. Sakamoto-leader won his battle thanks to his mother's apple salad, whereas Go won his battle. His victory came as a great surprise to everyone, although no one seemed more shocked by the win than the judge himself. In the final battle, Go and Sakamoto went head-to-head, cooking a three-course tuna meal for the judges. In the end, Sakamoto-leader was declared the Maguro King. In two other episodes of VVV6, we witnessed the miracle accomplishments of Sakamoto and Nagano. Sakamoto is apparently an excellent baseball player, so he was given the challenge to recreate the "miracle throw" from a really old animated baseball series. In the anime, the main character throws a baseball through a small hole in the wall, where it bounces off of a tree, comes back in through the same hole, and is caught again by the sitting hero. It took Sakamoto-kun several hours, and a group of toadies holding the cardboard "tree" at an angle to make it work in the physical world, but he actually did it. Hurray for Sakamoto-kun! For Nagano's miracle accomplishments, he broke several Olympic records. Sure, some may say that he "cheated", but he did it. He threw a javelin (with wings attached), he sprinted 50 meters (down a very very slanted hill), he long jumped (while attached to a hang glider), and in my personal favorite, he swam 50 meters (down a water slide). Only Nagano... Back | Main