Super Mario Club (television series)
| Super Mario Club | |
|---|---|
| |
| General information | |
| Format | Variety show |
| Director(s) | Kohei Takai |
| Presenter(s) | Tooru Watanabe Risa Honda Noriko Katō |
| Opening theme | "Eien ni Boys & Girls" "Tomodachi wa Imasu ka?" |
| Closing theme | "Oshaberi Dance wa Ika ga?" "Shigashiteiruno" "Kirei ni Narou yo" "Omoikiri Naite Ii" |
| Composer(s) | Fire-Crackers Sharam Q GALBO Emiri Henmi Noriko Katō |
| Country of origin | Japan |
| Original language | Japanese |
| Production | |
| Producer(s) | Shigeto Ito Koichi Yokota |
| Editor(s) | Masashi Takafuji Junko Shimano |
| Production company | TV Tokyo Maxcom |
| Distributor(s) | Nintendo |
| Runtime | 30 minutes |
| Broadcast | |
| Audio format | Mono broadcast (regular broadcast) Stereo broadcast (Resurrection! Super Mario Club) |
| First aired | October 4, 1990[?] |
| Last aired | September 30, 1993[?] |
| Status | Ended |
| Chronology | |
| Successor | Super Mario Stadium (1993) |
Super Mario Club is a Japanese program which features trivia, tournaments, news, and previews featuring games for the Famicom, Super Famicom, and the Game Boy airing from October 4, 1990 to September 30, 1993.[1] The show revived on Christmas Day 2010 to honor the 25th anniversary of the Super Mario series with games for the Wii and the Nintendo DS.[2]
Segments
The program mainly consists of four segments.
Attack the Princess
Four boys up to middle school age compete in three games to be able to confess their love to a beautiful woman who played the role of a princess (a different one each week; simply referred to as the "princess"). In the final, they compete for points in a Super Famicom game that was released about a month after the program began. One of the princesses later entered the entertainment industry. During attack time, the winner climbs the stairs and hands the princess a treasure, at which point a huge amount of confetti falls, the princess's hair and clothes are adorned with confetti, and the winner and the princess sit together. If the princess says "I'm sorry" and the winner is unable to give the treasure, a staff member sprays them with string and they go down the stairs from the princess's location and return to the host.
Super Mario Battle
This is the successor to Attack the Princess, a quiz segment in which four contestants (children up to middle school age) compete with questions related to video games.
The segment is based on the format of Quiz Grand Prix, which was once broadcast on Fuji TV. Four questions (10 points, 20 points, 30 points, 40 points, total of 16 questions) are asked from four genres (action, RPG, shooting, miscellaneous; later action, shooting, RPG, sports, miscellaneous), and contestants answer by pressing the button first.
If the answer is correct, the contestant will receive points for that question and can choose the next question. If the answer is incorrect, the score will be deducted, and if the contestant answers incorrectly three times, they will be disqualified and have to wear a mask. If no one presses the button before time runs out, a buzzer will sound and the contestants will move on to the next question (in that case, the right to choose the next question will be given to a contestant chosen by the host Watanabe).
Hidden within the panels are Chance Cards (with Mario on them) and Devil Cards (with Bowser on them). When a player draws a Chance Card, that particular question is presented to the player who drew it, and the points earned when the answer is correct are doubled. When a player draws a Devil Card, the points for that question are automatically deducted.
Initially, the game consisted of two parts: a preliminary quiz and a final Super Mario World showdown, but later the winner was decided by the quiz alone. The winner received a Super Nintendo Entertainment System and a game of their choice from a list of games as a prize.
Famicom Special Quiz
This segment is the successor to Super Mario Battle. It is a quiz to determine the challengers who could participate in the game showdown "Attack the Star!" described below, and four pairs of contestants (up to middle school age) compete.
All questions are buzzer-style. However, unlike Super Mario Battle, where one is disqualified if they make a mistake or answer incorrectly three times, each person is only allowed to answer each question once, and making a mistake or getting the answer only means they cannot answer that question. If a player answers correctly, they earn a Mario doll. There are fewer quiz questions than in Super Mario Battle.
The contestant who earns the most Mario dolls will be able to participate in Attack the Star!
Mario Quiz Racing
This segment is the successor to Famicom Special Quiz. It is a quiz based on the then-released Super Mario Kart, in which four pairs (up to middle school age) competed against each other.
As with Famicom Special Quiz, all questions are buzzer questions. However, unlike Super Mario Battle and Famicom Special Quiz, which were limited to video game questions, film and anime/manga questions are also included.
The pair who gets the answer right flips over one of the 16 panels (columns A to D, rows 1 to 4), and the number of lights that appear will light up to indicate the progress of the kart (the first time, Bowser is mixed in, and when he is flipped over, the number will read 0).
The first pair to advance 10 spaces or the most within the time limit wins. Each member of the winning pair receives a game of their choice from the list as a prize.
Top 10 Nationwide Sales
This program introduces the rankings of Famicom games in a particular region. Each week, one or two games are popular in that region, and the program investigates why one of them is so popular.[3]
Postcard responding segment
The title of the segment was Famicom Discussion Room or This Week's Recommended Software, later changing to Famicom News Room.
Participants answer questions about the Famicom by actually operating the device using a postcard.
Six months after the program began, a segment introducing new software began to be broadcast alternately with the above segment.
Star Challenge
A segment where TV hosts play games. They play a monthly task (initially a one-minute course in Super Mario World) and compete against a monthly guest for points. During the first week, no guests were invited, and only the task for that month, guest introductions, and result predictions were made (later discontinued).
Attack the Star!
A gaming competition segment in which the guest of the week competed against the viewer (the winner of Famicom Special Quiz or Mario Quiz Racing). The winner is awarded a Golden Mario statue.
For a time it was broadcast under the title Star Challenge DX.
National Competition: Knockout Tournament
In this program, a Dr. Mario (later Yoshi, Super Mario Kart, Yoshi's Cookie and Super Scope 6) knockout tournament was held every week. Each week, the region, residence, and game room of the challenger were introduced as a profile (like high school baseball, the background music was a parody of "Eikan wa Kimi ni Kagayaku"). After five weeks of winning (changed to three weeks midway through), a player was inducted into the Hall of Fame. In Super Mario Kart, one challenger made a mistake at the start and was forced to retire. At one point, the show was broadcast under a different title, Super Famicom Grand Prix.
It was later revamped and renamed Super Mario Stadium.
Special events
The Super Famicom Modern Three-Point Game was held several times during specials and other events. This game involves competing with a special software containing Super Mario World, F-Zero, and Pilotwings, and participants compete for the highest total score. In the 90-minute special, a national championship was decided, and the national champion was later shown competing against the US champion.
The special edition was only broadcast on October 1992.
Network stations
| Broadcast area | Broadcasting station | Broadcast time |
|---|---|---|
| Kantō region | TV Tokyo | Thursday 6:00 - 6:30 pm |
| Hokkaido | Television Hokkaido | |
| Aichi Prefecture | TV Aichi | |
| Osaka Preferecture | TV Osaka | |
| Okayama Prefecture and Kagawa Prefecture | TV Setouchi | |
| Fukuoka Prefecture | TXN Kyushu | |
| Fukushima Prefecture | Fukushima Central Television | Friday 5:30 - 6:00 pm[4] |
Staff
- Hosts: Tooru Watanabe, Risa Honda ( From the start of the series in October 1990 to March 1993 ), Noriko Katō ( From April 1993 to the final episode)
- Narrator: Ryo Itsuno (first half), Akira Omori (second half)
- Composition: Toru Tsukasa
- Advisors: Katsuhiko Ohno, Mamoru Saeki
- TD: Suda Koji (first half), Ito Teruo (second half)
- Photographer: Hiroki Kasuya (first half), Tadao Iikuni (second half)
- VE: Yutaka Matsuoka (first half), Takashi Suzuki (second half)
- Lighting: Hiroyuki Sasaki (first half), Tomohiro Ogo (second half)
- Voice: Katsuhito Monma (first half), Ryoji Hirano (second half)
- Sound effects: Ryu Hasegawa (first half) (NOISE), Hiroyuki Oba (NOISE)
- Art: Masaru Watanabe
- Set design: Norihiro Hirota
- Title: Keiji Kimura
- TK: Yuiko Kusanagi (first half), Kyoko Arisawa (second half)
- Editor: Masashi Takafuji (4DS) (first half), Junko Shimano (OMNIBUS JAPAN) (second half)
- MA: Mari Shimono (4DS) (first half), Yuji Kaishi (OMNIBUS JAPAN) (second half)
- Interview director
- (First half) Toyuki Motooka, Hidehiro Terasawa
- (Second half) Taro Kimura, Tomiyuki Kuroki
- Direction
- (First half) Kohei Takai, Nobuo Tsunoda
- (Second half) Kohei Takai, Kenji Ogo, Akihiro Takabayashi
- Producers: Shigeto Ito (TV Tokyo)/Toshihiro Maeda (first half) (Maxcom), Teppei Sudo (middle) (Maxcom), Koichi Yokota, Kohei Takai (second half) (Maxcom)
- Technical cooperation: Hamamachi Studio , Japan EJ System (first half), Tower TV (second half)
- Art cooperation: Wood Office
- Produced by: TV Tokyo, Maxcom
Past theme songs
Opening
- Fire-Crackers: "Eien ni Boys & Girls" (This song was once played on TV Hokkaido in the test pattern before the program began broadcasting in 1991)
- Sharam Q: "Tomodachi wa Imasu ka?" (Part of this OP was also shown in the revival program described below)
Ending
- Fire-Crackers: "Oshaberi Dance wa Ika ga?" (At the beginning of the program, the first chorus was played, and footage of the Fire-Crackers singing in costume with a Super Nintendo game playing in the background was used.)
- GALBO: "Shigashiteiruno"
- Emiri Henmi: "Kirei ni Narou yo"
- Noriko Katō "Omoikiri Naite Ii"
Revival
On December 25, 2010, from 4:00 to 5:15 pm, a special program commemorating the 25th anniversary of Super Mario Bros., "Resurrection! Super Mario Club"[5], was broadcast on TV Tokyo for the first time in about 17 years. "Super Mario Club" also celebrated its 20th anniversary since its first broadcast that same year.
The hosts were Toru Watanabe and Noriko Katō, just as they were for the last show, and the recording was done in the same studio as the original.[6] This time, it was also sponsored by Nintendo alone, and featured some of the same hosts who had appeared in the previous Mario School show.
The main segments consisted of the guests competing in games (such as Wii Sports Resort and Mario Kart Wii ) and quizzes, also including video clips of messages from celebrities who had previously appeared on the show.
Cast
- Assistant
- Mariru Harada
- Guests
- Ari to Kirigirisu
- Yui Asaka
- Speedwagon
- Kazushi Sakuraba - Professional wrestler
- NOBUO - Mario Kart master
- Guests appearing on VTR
- Bakushō Mondai - They were once in charge of a location shoot for Super Mario Stadium where they visited people's homes while carrying a giant Super Nintendo controller.
- Othello - Appeared as a guest contestant in 64 Mario Stadium.
- TKO - Appeared as a guest contestant in 64 Mario Stadium.
- Aya Hirano - Voice actress. She was a child actor at the time and played as a student in Mario School.
- Teruyuki Tsuchida - Appeared as a guest contestant in 64 Mario Stadium.
- Asarido - He used to be in charge of the Super Smash Bros. Brawl segment of 64 Mario Stadium. This time he played Super Smash Bros. Brawl.
- Ryota Yamasato ( Nankai Candies ) - Played against Asarido in Super Smash Bros. Brawl.
- Narrator
- Shunzo Miyasaka
Staff
- Composition: Nobuyuki Toyama
- Advisors: Goro Moriki, Ryota Igarashi
- TD: Fumito Kotani
- CAM: Hiroyuki Ikeda
- VE: Takeo Yamamoto
- LD: Noriaki Nagaharu
- Voices: Yuki Shimoda, Yukiko Mitsuyama
- Sound effects: Hiroyuki Ohba
- VTR: Hiroki Sugiyama
- Art: Tokuhiro Hirota
- Edited by: Sori Hisada
- MA: Naoki Hamada
- Hair and makeup: B-Side
- Technical cooperation: Technomax, 4DS, ING
- Cooperation: Nintendo DREAM, Maxcom
- Desk: Tomoko Yoshizaki
- FD: Takashi Hibino, Ryo Tanizawa
- Directors: Tomiyuki Kuroki, Masayuki Nagata, Yoshitaka Osawa
- Directed by: Lee Hun-yeon, Takabayashi Akihiro
- AP: Keiko Kawamura
- Producers: Makiko Iwata (TV Tokyo), Itsuro Inubuse
- Planning: Tatsuro Fujita, Kohei Hime
- Production cooperation: Creative Be
- Produced by: TV Tokyo, Dentsu
Names in other languages
Super Mario Club
| Language | Name | Meaning | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Japanese | スーパーマリオクラブ[7] Sūpā Mario Kurabu |
Super Mario Club |
Resurrection! Super Mario Club
| Language | Name | Meaning | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Japanese | 復活！スーパーマリオクラブ[5] Fukkatsu! Sūpā Mario Kurabu |
Resurrection! Super Mario Club |
Trivia
- Following the death of show host Toru Watanabe on November 28, 2022, many people on Twitter expressed nostalgia for the show and mourned Watanabe. Nintendo, which sponsored the show, also paid tribute to him, saying, "Toru Watanabe... conveyed the appeal of games with his characteristic humor," and "The smiles he spread to viewers are precious memories for us and others."[8]
References
- ^ [1]
- ^ 復活！スーパーマリオクラブ 20101225 | Fukkatsu! Super Mario Club
- ^ For example, in Adachi Ward, Tokyo, Takeshi's Sengoku Fuunji was featured because it is an area associated with Takeshi Kitano. Also, in Ichikawa City, Chiba Prefecture, Satomi Hakkenden was featured because it is an area associated with the Satomi clan (incidentally, Satomi Park is located in the city).
- ^ Fukushima Minpo (Fukushima Minpo Company), March 19, 1993 morning edition, TV listings (abridged version of the Fukushima Minpo March 1993 issue).
- ^ a b Title for "Resurrection! Super Mario Club"
- ^ Kazuya Sato (December 13, 2010). 「復活！スーパーマリオクラブ」収録を実施--渡辺徹さんと加藤紀子さんに収録の感想や当時の思い出を聞く. The Asahi Shimbun. Retrieved December 26, 2010.
- ^ Title card
- ^ 渡辺徹さん死去で『スーパーマリオクラブ』懐かしむ声 任天堂も追悼「私たちも含めて大切な思い出」 - BuzzFeed（December 2, 2022). Retrieved December 7, 2022.
