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Japanese TV shows have been the inspiration for plenty of crazy and wild programs that have appeared on U.S. television, such as American Ninja Warrior and Most Extreme Elimination Challenge. You can definitely see the influence Japanese TV has played upon Wipeout even if it’s only “10 percent”, according to the series creator.

With so many programs mimicking the classic “crazy” Japanese game show, creative minds have to keep evolving and innovating in order to stay ahead of the crowd. Just how crazy can a Japanese television show get? The show Riddles at the Ends of the Earth! might have crossed the line between crazy TV and seriously dangerous insanity.

Known as Sekai No Hatemade Itte Q! in Japan, this long-running variety program sends their correspondents to far off places in order to recreate or experience something incredible. Segments can range from learning a unique skill to recreating silly YouTube videos. It’s an entertaining little program that shows Japanese viewers what is out there in the world.

Well, the whole world is watching right now as a video of one of the show’s regularly featured correspondents is going viral.

This short clip seems to be some promo or B-roll footage for Itte Q! that shows entertainer Ayako Imoto in a predator shield box screaming her lungs out as a giant grizzly bear pushes the box around trying to get inside. The spot is only about 15 seconds long, but it shows the real terror Imoto is feeling as the fearsome grizzly turns the box over on its side. A consummate professional, Imoto dutifully screams in terror but continually holds the handheld camera up in order to grab footage from inside the box.

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Wait a second…why is she holding a camera? Shouldn’t there be a GoPro strapped to her? In fact the video that is going viral right now comes from four years ago, back when GoPros weren’t as popular. This footage comes from a popular segment called “Rare Animal Hunter Imoto World Tour” which aired on June 5, 2011. In that two-hour “eco special,” correspondents from the show traveled around the world to find some of the best wildlife and ecosystems it had to offer. Imoto went touring around the U.S. and Canada with a stop at the Mendenhall Glacier and an intimate date with a grizzly bear. In this particular segment with the bear, they were testing a theory of how to make a bear leave: screaming really loudly at it.

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The most surprising thing isn’t the bear, it’s that the video is going viral four years later. The reaction from abroad seems to be mostly astonishment and disbelief that this was happening on Japanese TV.

“What a shocking video.”
“That’s so crazy!”
“He can’t hear you shrieking!”
“It’s not so much a protective box, but a lunch box.”

The video was uploaded by large animal handler Randy Miller and titled “Predator Shield Demo for Japanese TV”, but most English news sources are reporting this video as evidence of a new game show which puts contestants in the plastic box and films the hilarity that ensues. Here at RocketNews24 we dig down deep and bring you all the facts and the riddle of this video doesn’t run to the ends of the Earth, it’s just another crazy segment on a Japanese TV variety program.

Images: Vimeo/Randy Miller
[ Read in Japanese ]