Kasou Taishou

Kasou Taishou (欽ちゃん＆香取慎吾の全日本仮装大賞; Kinchan and Katori Shingo's All Japan Costume Grand Prix) is a semi-annual show on NTV in which various amateur groups (or solo artists) perform short skits, which are rated by a panel of judges. Especially in recent years, many of the skits have revolved around clever methods of "faking" cinematic special effects on a live stage. The show is hosted by Kinichi Hagimoto and Shingo Katori. Worldwide, the most famous of these skits, and among the most successful at "fake special effects" was a skit which is widely known as "Matrix ping pong".

Matrix Ping Pong is the name of a popular movie clip from the show showing performers mixing moves in the style of The Matrix with Ping Pong, using kurokos—stagehands in kabuki theatre—to hold the props up, facilitating humorous and otherwise impossible movements. Most of the elements in the performance are set against black, rendering the stagehands invisible at first. In fact, the scene appears to be a normal game of ping pong at first sight, until the incredible feats are performed. This performance, led by team captain Hideki Kajiwara (梶原比出樹), won the competition on March 31, 2003. The movie clip became an internet meme for a while.

The show is also aired internationally in some countries. Hong Kong airs this programme under the name of "全民创意争霸赛" on the with Cantonese dubbing. Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore on the other hand airs it under the name of Masquerade. The Indonesian and Singaporean broadcasts under this title are aired dubbed, on RCTI in Indonesian and MediaCorp okto in English respectively, whereas the Malaysian broadcast on TV3 is aired with Malay subtitles.

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