Gaki No Tsukai Episode #1080

Episode Number:1080

Episode Title:これってエコじゃね？灼熱の素手地獄！箸なき闘い！！
"Boy this is green isn't it? Red Hot Barehanded hell! Battle without chopsticks!!"

Broadcast Date: Sunday, November 13th 2011

Viewing Links:
http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XMzIyMjU4MjMy.html

Guests:
ライセンス (License, a "combi" featuring:

• 藤原一裕 (Fujiwara Kazuhiro)
• 井本貴史 (Inomoto Takafumi)

中村喜伸 (P中村)(Series producer Nakamura Yoshinobu otherwise known as "P Nakamura")

Important Vocabulary:
灼熱（しゃくねつ）：Red Hot, Scorching
素手（すで）：Bare handed
制限（せいげん）：Restriction, contstraint
華（はな）：Flower, or here BEAUTY.
感(かん）：　Feeling, impression, sense.
威風堂々（いふどうどう）：　With an imposing air. Majestic.
攻める（せめる）：　To attack, to assault.
他局（たきょく）：　Other television stations, channels.
ザッピング： Flipping the channel.
草臥れる(くたびれる）：To wear out.
中華（ちゅうか）： Chinese (food)
姿焼き（すがたやき）：Seafood grilled so as to retain it original form/shape.
レトルト： A sealed plastic pouch containing ready to heat food. From the chemical term "retort."
痩せる（やせる）： To become slim.
海鮮（かいせん）：Seafood
ノー‐ギャラ: No guarantee.
釜揚げうどん（かまあげうどん）：Udon noodles dipped in a hot broth.
究極（きゅうきょく）： Ultimate, extreme.

Episode Summary:

It's the first of its kind: "A battle WITHOUT chopsticks," as Matsumoto says. The rules are (as usual) very simple.

• All food must be eaten without chopsticks within a 90 second time limit.
• The best eater will be determined by the seven other contestants rating each in five areas:

1. マッド感 : Madness
2. スピード感 : Speed
3. フインガーテクニック : Finger Technique
4. スマート感 : Smartness
5. 華 : Beauty

Matsumoto clarifies some of the categories as:
"Madness" : The feeling that the contestant attacks with an imposing, manly thirst.
"Beauty" ("hana") : Not allowing viewers to change the channel, and also a way of measuring (a "report card" for ) how many times it makes you want to view it.
After describing the scoring system, Matsumoto makes mention that Producer Nakamura is joining them today. He's not wearing spandex beneath his wrestling uniform, which Matsumoto says shows his body to have a "worn out look." Producer Nakamura remains serene. He will have the last laugh. Before the first contestant (Tanaka) begins, Matsumoto (quite late, if you ask me) adds an additional rule:

• Contestants can use the finger bowl filled with water.

First Course: 中華丼 （ちゅうかどん）Chinese dish of rice and chopped suey. Tanaka is up for the challenge, and shows great bravado. Endou notices the similarity between this and Tanaka's usual High Tension act. The bravado continues as Tanaka mentions he won't be using the finger bowl full of water in order to heighten his "madness" score. As is soon apparent, his attempt and strategy are not very successful. The scores are quite low, with Hamada even giving him a "dot" (all scores zero).

Second Course: イカの姿焼き（イカのすがたやき）Squid grilled so as to retain its original shape. Fujiwara from License is up for this challenge, and one look at the squid shows it is a formidable challenge indeed. His performance is admirable, however. And his scores are quite high-- EXCEPT from producer Nakamura. "He's so strict!" says Matsumoto. We'll find out why later.

Third Course: コンビニのナポリタン　Convenience store Neapolitan (spaghetti). Endou is up for this challenge, and his handling of the blisteringly hot microwaveable meal is hilarious, but this doesn't spare him from middling scores, however.

Fourth Course: レトルトのハンバーグ Boil-and-Eat prepackaged Hamburger. Sadist Hamada puts on his game-face, and dives in. Is that an actual pot of boiling water he's putting his fingers into? I don't really think so: but his performance is still very funny. He doesn't eat much, though, prompting Endou to remark ,"somehow he's gotten thinner!"

Fifth Course: タンメン　Noodle soup. Inomoto from License is next, and his performance is also impressive, but hardly noteworthy.

Sixth Course: 海鮮パエリア （かいせんパエリア）　Seafood Paeja. Producer Nakamura shows great confidence going in, saying "You won't be entertained," which could not be further from the truth. His performance is so wonderful they present it twice at the end of the episode. "Did you see his face!" howls Matsumoto. "He looked like he just swallowed poison!"

Seventh Course: 釜揚げうどん（かまあげうどん）Udon noodles dipped in a hot broth. Yamasaki is hardly up to his near impossible challenge, eating barely a noodle, and mistaking his soy-sauce for his finger bowl of water. P Nakamura for one finds his performance and excuses laughable.

Eighth Course: 焼きそばUFO：　UFO brand Yakisoba noodles. This choice of food is very "Matsumoto" and he MUST wait three minutes before pouring the hot water before eating. "You can't do it without the sauce," he also says. That doesn't help when he forgets and the sauce falls into the hot water. Matsumoto is embarrassed by his performance, but in closing does introduce the full playback of P Nakamura's attempt, which he describes as the "ultimate in Madness."

Once again, I have to wholeheartedly agree with his assessment.

Episode Analysis: this is a wonderful stand alone episode. Despite the obviously high levels of exaggeration (Matsumoto especially) I was honestly convinced that the regulars were sticking their hands into hot dishes. Certainly, I can honestly say I've never seen a half-hour like it. The levels of discomfort we see are probably at least partially faked, but much as is the case for the British program Top Gear, given the show's energy, humor and originality, I'm willing to forgive a little fakery.