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INSANITYVILLE — It's no secret that the Japanese have a penchant for pushing the oddity meter with their television game shows.
With game names such as "Deadly Conveyor Belt of Terror" and "Human Tetris" (and many more), you know you're in for something on the scale from weird to actually dangerous.
Enter the show "Sekai No Hatte Madde Itte Q," roughly translated as "Let's go to the end of the world," from the Nippon Television Network Corporation. As far as I can tell, the show consists of odd physical challenges made for entertainment purposes. There are no feats of strength or cleverness here.
One of these bizarre physical challenges is putting a human in a plexiglass "predator box" and letting a large grizzly bear try to crack it open.
Predator Shield Demo for Japanese TV from Randy Miller on Vimeo.
A 4-year-old video showing the challenge has recently resurfaced, so you can see the insanity for yourself.
In the video, the woman trapped inside the box screams as a bear named Dakota rolls the box like a dice. Even amid the mayhem, the woman holds a video camera aimed directly at the bear the entire time.
It's not safe, it's not smart and I would never encourage anyone try it, but I can't deny that it has some entertainment value — even if it's twisted entertainment value.
The TV show started in 2007 and is still running new episodes. If you have access to Japanese TV and wish to watch the next episode, it airs July 26 on the Nippon Television Network.