The disturbing tale of the twisted reality show ‘Susunu! Denpa Shōnen’
Reality TV has grown progressively weirder as the medium continually scrapes the bottom of the barrel to find new formats in order to remain relevant. However, not even a nude Keith Chegwin or the continued omnipotence of the Kardashian clan can hold a candle to Susunu! Denpa Shōnen, the most disturbed of them all.
Essentially exploitation being filmed and marketed to a mass audience – who responded in kind by driving it towards huge viewing figures – each iteration of the series would place its participants in an unforgiving situation to see how long they would last, with people left enraptured by the events that unfolded.
The Desert Escape edition saw two comedians dumped on a remote island with no supplies and no indication of where exactly in the world they were, and the only way they’d be able to return to normal life was if they managed to build a raft and sail it to Tokyo. It took them four months to accomplish, after which they were given a pedalo shaped like a swan and instructed to travel from India to Indonesia once they’d reached Tokyo.
Denpa Shōnen’s Vertical Africa-Europe Continental Hitchhike required a journey from South Africa to Norway, while Denpa Shōnen’s Pennant Race confined contestants to a room with a television that would only show their favourite team’s baseball matches. If they won, they’d earn a meal, but if the team lost, they’d go hungry, and the electricity would be shut off to leave them in complete darkness.
An international edition offered near-impossible and borderline offensive challenges to willing players, extending to telling foreign leaders that they hated them to their face, which managed to succeed when it came to Nelson Mandela and Jimmy Carter. Unsurprisingly, though, any attempts to shave the beard from Fidel Castro’s face were unsuccessful.
The most infamous by far was the ordeal of Tomoaki Hamatsu, a comedian dubbed ‘Nasubi’. Even though his isolation began airing before The Truman Show released, it’s hard not to draw parallels between his extended – and unwitting – stint in the spotlight, and Jim Carrey’s classic satirical dramedy.
Challenged to stay alone and unclothed in a cramped apartment away from the outside world with only magazines for company, Nasubi’s task would be complete when he’d managed to win the cumulative total of a million Yen from applying to sweepstake promotions, which would also be the only supplies he’d be provided with throughout.
The producers misinformed Nasubi and told him that his self-recordings would be edited and shown to the world eventually, but they were instead broadcast to an average audience of 17 million per week at the peak of Susunu! Denpa Shōnen‘s popularity.
Oblivious to the fact he was being mercilessly mocked and ridiculed as daily life was laid bare for the world to see, he reached his goal after 335 days in voluntary captivity. Instead of being allowed to resume his daily life, Nasubi was instead blindfolded, effectively kidnapped and moved to South Korea, where he’d need to repeat his sweepstake routine until he’d won enough money to afford a flight back to Japan.
When that took him only weeks to achieve, the goalposts were moved, and he needed first-class tickets. Upon his return to Japan, he was blindfolded yet again and moved to another location, except this time the walls around him collapsed to reveal a live audience cheering on his success.
In the aftermath, Nasubi struggled with mental and physical health issues caused by his seclusion, in addition to reported difficulties reintegrating into society, maintaining conversations with other people, and rapidly overheating in regular clothes, having spent close to a year-and-a-half in nothing but his underwear.
According to The Daily Beast, the doors to his various abodes were unlocked, and he was free to leave at any point, but Nasubi stuck it out based on his determination to emerge victorious. And yet, the fact that he never once considered it is a damning indictment of not just reality TV but a collective cultural obsession with attaining fame and celebrity at any cost.
