Taiiku Kai TV

Official Japanese Name: 炎の体育会TV. Official English Name: Taiiku Kai TV

Honoo-no Taiiku-kai TV, often referred to as Taiiku Kai in short, is an ongoing Sports Variety program broadcast on TBS. The program began airing in 2011 and has been running since. Production of the series was assisted by SASUKE and Kinniku Banzuke producer Masato Inui from 2011 until sometime in 2014.

Taiiku Kai originated as a spinoff of Kinniku Banzuke from 2000-2002. These specials featured athletes from Japanese talent agency Johnny's taking on the events from Kinniku Banzuke.

A single episode appeared in 2005, before it returned as a permanent TBS in program in 2011. It served as a spiritual successor to Kinniku Banzuke, containing dozens of the same events and often featuring flashbacks to the original series.

Johnny's Kinniku Banzuke: Taiiku Kai TV (2000 - 2002)
Original Name: ジャニーズ筋肉番付！炎の体育会No.1 決定戦 (Johnny's Kinniku Banzuke! Hono no Taiiku Kai No.1 Keittesen) Taiiku Kai originated in 2000 as a spinoff of Kinniku Banzuke. The format was based around different teams of Johnny's challenging each other in a variety of events taken from the main Banzuke broadcasts.

2000 featured: Sponge Bridge, Beach Flags, 9 Hoops, Kick Target, Struck Out and Spray Hitter.

2001 featured: Sponge Bridge, Beach Flags, 9 Hoops, Kick Target, Struck Out, and a Relay Showdown.

2002 featured: Beach Flags, 9 Hoops, PK Battle, Struck Out and a Relay Showdown.

Taiiku Kai TV: Athens Special (2005)


Original Name: 炎の体育会TV: アテネ美女総出演 (Hono no Taiiku Kai TV: Bijo sō shutsuen, translation Taiiku Kai TV: Performance Women of the Athen's Olympics). Broadcast time: January 3rd, 2005 at 22:00.

This special moved away from Johnny's and established a format of Celebrities against local Athletes. The special featured appearances from a variety of Japanese Olympic competitors from the 2004 Olympics: softball players Yukiko Ueno and Emi Inui (Bronze Medals), football player Naoko Kawakami and Emi Yamamoto, freestyle wrestlers Yoshida Saori (Gold Medal, 55kg division) and Kaori Icho (Gold Medal, 63kg division). Additionally, American sprinter Marion Jones appeared.

The special was hosted by comedy duo Ameagari (Tōru Hotohara, Hiroyuki Miyasako) and Gokuraku Tombo (Kôji Katô, Keiichi Yamamoto). Ameagari would notably return as lead hosts in the 2011 series.

Reboot & Weekly Serialization (2011 - September 2012)
In 2011, Taiiku Kai TV returned using a similar format to the 2005 Special. Events were almost exclusively duels, where professional female athletes were invited onto the show to take on a challenger. Challengers fell into the pool of: Celebrities, TBS Staff, and other female athletes.

Transition to Specials Format, Bunka Kei (October 2012 - 2016)
After 4 seasons of weekly, 1 hour broadcasts, Taiiku Kai shifted format onto an irregular schedule of longer episodes. Episodes broadcast once every 1-6 weeks, although in most cases it was 2 or 3 weeks between episodes. Unlike the weekly run, episodes ran for 2-4 hours each.

The show began experimenting with events that differed greatly from the original concept. 9 Panel events such as Struck Out, Service Ace and Kick Target were revived from Kinniku Banzuke. New events reminiscent of the 2000s such as Million Spoon, Arm Rings and Long Battle were introduced. A new format of Masked Events was briefly introduced where players from both the public as well as celebrities would duel pro athletes similar to the earlier episodes, with the pro athletes remaining anonymous until after the event concluded. A new focus on mental games and hobbies was introduced via a short-lived spinoff called Bunka-Kei TV, which had competitions in board games, math, LEGO and cooking. Magic tricks were brought into the show with an event called Psychological Card Battle.

Introduction of Current Formats (2017 - 2021)
The shows current format was realized in 2017 with several new formats being introduced into the show. The Masked Events from 2013 were brought back as a staple in the main line-up. The show re-invented the format of duels by formatting them more as tournaments, with a pilot in December 2016 and promotion to a regular event the next month. In tournaments, a team of pro female athletes takes on a team of TBS Staff and celebrities in a series of 3-5 challenges, where winning the majority of initial challenges as well as the final challenges results in the team being awarded a prize (usually a meet and greet with someone they look up to).

2017 also saw the regular adoption of the 100 seconds format. Following a pilot in October 2016, 100 seconds challenges became a staple to the show beginning in March 2017. 100 second challenges are a reinvention of 9 Panels. Rather than the original format of hitting 9 panels with 12 balls, the new format saw competitors having unlimited balls to hit anywhere from 9-30 panels within 100 seconds.

Rebranding and Topping Challenges (2021 - Present)
In 2021, the show moved towards rebranding itself. As part of the process, it received a new logo, new hosts (Fuwa-chan, TIMON D (Yuta Maeda, Hiroyuki Takagishi) and Reina Sumi. As part of the new feel, Taiiku Kai changed the format of it's tournament events. In the new format, a small group (1-3 individuals) takes on a set of challenges where the win condition for each stage is an expensive or luxurious food ingredient. At the end of the event, the challengers get to eat a plate with the ingredients won.