#manzai

[muppet-facts]

Muppet Fact #1588

Pierre and Arthur are part of a manzai comedy duo.

Source:

Sesame Street (セサミストリート). 2004-2007.

[urkotheuppercase]

MANZAI TOSS BOYS!!

eh i dunno exactly where did i find this, but i do remember seeing this somewhere in the game (also, please correct me if the Japanese text is wrong, i tried my best to translate it as it is, but it's a Japanese pun, so i can't really do a lot about it ;v;)

also, Aka-Chan's here recording, hi Aka-Chan :D

[pixeljade]

Would you consider yourself more of a boke or a tsukkomi?

boke

tsukkomi

Voting ended onSep 30, 2025

(If you dont know, these are the terms used in Manzai comedy to refer to the funny man (boke) and straight man (tsukkomi). If you've watched ANY comedy anime, you can probably pinpoint some level of manzai influence in it. The boke is usually the one acting foolish, while the tsukkomi is relatively "serious", and the comedy comes a lot from their back-and-forth. An example would be in Nichijou, Yuuko usually plays a boke, and Mio usually plays a tsukkomi.)

[jujutsuaiko-ka]

any entertainment you enjoy living in Japan?

Hm... well, I had fun at amusement parks, ate a bunch in maid cafes, tried my luck in gachas...

Oh, and I tried getting into Rakugo. Mostly because Kiyo-kun is into that.

𝕊𝕠𝕞𝕖 𝕤𝕒𝕚𝕕 𝕨𝕖'𝕣𝕖 𝕝𝕚𝕜𝕖 𝕒 𝕞𝕒𝕟𝕫𝕒𝕚 𝕕𝕦𝕠. 𝕋𝕙𝕠𝕦𝕘𝕙 𝕪𝕠𝕦 𝕓𝕖𝕙𝕒𝕧𝕖 𝕝𝕚𝕜𝕖 𝕓𝕠𝕥𝕙 𝕣𝕠𝕝𝕖𝕤 𝕚𝕟 𝕚𝕥.

I'm a solo manzai duo?!

[alexandriaisburning]

032: Tetris the Grand Master, or how Street Fighter and Japanese comedy changed Tetris forever

CANON FIRE is made possible by the generous contributions of readers like you. Support more writing like this on Patreon. Thank you!

When you think of Tetris you probably think of Game Boy Tetris, the NES World Championship, or maybe even Tetris DS. What you probably don't think of is Street Fighter, or Japanese comedy. But that's exactly the lineage that led to the creation of Tetris the Grand Master. 

TGM is now known for its ludicrous speeds and intense difficulty, but despite its reputation, it's also the origin of several features that would make Tetris easier to play, and a crucial step in the development of modern tetris. 

Let's rewind a bit. Before we talk TGM, we need to talk SEGA. While Nintendo's Tetris games hold the mindshare in here, SEGA's arcade Tetris set the standard in Japan. Key to this was the introduction of Lock Delay, a mechanic which gives you a few moments to continue moving the pieces after they've hit the stack (1). SEGA Tetris can feel stiff and archaic to people familiar with modern games, but additions like this made it the definitive game for a generation of Japanese arcade players. 

That was definitely the case for Ichiro Mihara, the now vice president of Arika, and producer on the Street Fighter EX series. Arika itself was founded Akira Nishitani--designer of Final Fight and Street Fighter 2--and Akira Yasuda, aka Akiman--key artist on several Capcom projects. 

This fighting game lineage definitely made it into Tetris the Grand Master, which initially began life as a competitive game intended to be a collaboration with manzai comedy duo Downtown. As part of Downtown no Gottsu Ee Kanji, a Japanese variety show starring the duo, they'd run a segment where they'd challenge guests to compete in a game of Tetris. Inspired by this, Mihara felt he could create a more competitively focused Tetris, and his team began work on a new title. (2)

Described as having a "Parappa style aesthetic" with 2D anime style characters in a 3D environment, the game featured high speed play and items you could use to interfere with your opponent. Seeing the difficulty in differentiating the game from similar titles, they pitched a collaboration to Downtown, but they received feedback from them that adding too much might complicate the simplicity that made Tetris work so well. 

Unfortunately, complications with the show's sponsor led to the end of the show, and the project was shelved soon after. Months later Mihara would return to the project, overwhelmed with desire to continue making a Tetris game. 

Mihara's aim was to surpass SEGA Tetris, which he saw as the current peak of the game. The focus on speed and precision remained from it's incarnation as a competitive game, but several additions made it more palatable for beginners as well. Thanks to feedback from one of the Arika office ladies, Tetris the Grand Master implemented a new Wall Kick system. Previously, if rotating near a wall would cause a piece to collide with it, rotation would be blocked, as if the wall had physically interfered with it. With the new rotation system, the piece could now "kick" off the wall, and be moved a unit over to make rotation possible. This also had the side effect of making advanced techniques like T-Spins easier to perform (3).

Wall Kicks, alongside the Initial Rotation System (allowing you to rotate pieces before they enter the play field), and the Temporary Landing System (aka the ghost piece, which shows a preview of where your piece will land), led to more intuitive play for beginners, and raised the skill ceiling for technical play.

Many of these features would be integrated into future titles, such as Capcom's own Disney themed versus title--Magical Tetris Challenge--which credits Arika for the use of the ghost piece. The Tetris Company integrated TGM's ideas into the Tetris Guidelines, a "minimum spec sheet" for licensed Tetris titles, allowing players to easily move between various iterations of the game. Nearly every Tetris since 2001 has used the guideline, making TGM a major contributor to the shape of Tetris over the last two decades.

Ironically, it seems that those same guidelines may have been what kept the series from wider exposure. Tetris the Absolute: The Grand Master 2, often considered the peak of the series, had several deviations from the standard, including the Sonic Drop, which behaves similar to Hard Drop, allowing you to drop them instantly to the stack, but move them for a moment before they lock into place. Combined with a locking soft drop, thus enabled techniques like the Zangi-move, where you drop a piece to the the bottom then slide and lock it into place, but doing a circular motion, not unlike the motion for doing Zangief's command grab in Street Fighter.

By the time the sequel came out--Tetris the Grand Master 3: Terror Instinct--it was required to add a guideline compliant mode, and by Tetris the Grand Master ACE, the only game in the series made for a home console (4), the systems that made the series unique had been pushed more and more towards coming in line with the design of Guideline Tetris.

It's been speculated that the Tetris Company's reluctance to deviate from the guideline has kept the series from being re-released. Meanwhile, TGM has been developing a cult following internationally, gaining popularity among the Tetris community and building a larger awareness through demonstrations at events like Games Done Quick. 

It took until 2022, nearly 25 years after its original release, for Tetris the Grand Master finally received an official port (5) through the Arcade Archives series. That was followed up this year with a port of Tetris the Absolute, finally making these cult classics widely available. The reasons why it’s now possible remain unclear, but perhaps Arika’s work on Tetris 99, and the relaxing of the Tetris Guidelines for Tetris Effect’s competitive modes helped move the needle in showing there was space for alternative Tetris experiences. 

Whatever the reason, two major parts of Tetris history are finally available to a larger audience. Each is overflowing with technical nuances that I could never do justice, giving them a long term appeal that continues to this day. That's all before you get to the versus mode, which contains its own unique competitive ruleset. At the same time, their grading system gives you a tangible measure of improvement, and even casually remains an excellent way to strive towards improvement at Tetris. 

As someone who developed a fighting game mindset from Puyo Puyo Tetris, it's easy to see the spirit of fighting games flowing through it. That strange magic that compels you to strive towards greater mastery, to show off your skills, it's all there. The Grand Master is a name that speaks to great ambition, but given its legacy, it's more than earned it. 

Tetris the Grand Master and Tetris the Absolute Plus: The Grand Master 2 are currently available on Switch and PS4 through the Arcade Archives series. An arcade ROM to PSX conversion also exists for the first game.

---

Stack, the formal name for the collection of pieces already locked down.

This story comes from an interview series previously hosted on Arika's Japanese site. An archive of it is available here.

A T-Spin occurs when you rotate a T piece into a spot where it's locked on three sides, often used to clear a line.

TGM ACE was published on the Xbox 360, but only in Japan.

The game recieved an unofficial conversion to the Playstation, and obviously was available via arcade emulation.

[melaniagir8]

Inktober 2023, giorno 14 – Kyurem/Castle

[mysticlibraryhushbats]

ドナテロとミケランジェロで「ピザ」描いてみた【TMNT】

ドナテロとミケランジェロで「ピザ」描いてみた【TMNT】 [エンターテイメント] この漫才に出会った時に、この2人しか考えられませんでした。◇素晴らしき本家様◇ラバーガール Offic...

Mikey and Donnie order pizza! Cowabunga Time ensues! English translation below!

The video creator saw a comedy skit that remined them of Mikey and Donnie and decided to draw it. Video creator is zuwai on NicoNicoDouga. Manzai skit (audio) by ラバーガール. For those not familiar, manzai is a type of Japanese stand-up skit comedy performed by a duo where one plays the role of tsukkomi (the straight man) and boke (the funny guy). the humor mostly comes from puns, misunderstanding, visual gags, and random absurdity. In this case, Donnie is the tsukkomi, and Mikey is the boke of course.

English translation below by me. The translation is based on the video creator’s subtitles, not the audio, as they adapted the scene to reflect the turtles and their situation. Enjoy!

Mikey: Huh?

Huh?

What??

That’s weird

Donnie: What’s up with you?

Mikey: I’m hungry.

Donnie: What was all that? That’s not how people react to being hungry.

Mikey: Ahh, I’m starving! I haven’t eaten anything since last night.

Donnie: Why not?

Mikey: Because I had a health check up this morning…

         (Arrow points to Donnie “conducted the medical examination”)

...and I wasn’t allowed to eat anything after 10p.m. last night. I went to the check up this morning and when it was finished, I just had some soba in the kitchen…

Donnie: So, you did eat! Even though you said you didn’t eat anything.

Mikey: No, the soba was this really fancy soba so the portion size was super tiny. It doesn’t count!

Donnie: But it was a lie when you said that you didn’t eat anything.

Mikey: Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Okay, so it was a lie, but it really was a tiny amount of soba and not enough at all! I had no choice but to have some tempura and inari sushi, too.

Donnie: Unbelievable! You ate an normal lunch.

Mikey: But now I’m seriously starving. You gotta believe me!

Donnie: I wasn’t really doubting you…but, yeah, you’re probably a little hungry. Should we go out for a bite to eat?

Mikey: Ugh, but I’m too lazy to go out for food. How about pizza here at home?

Donnie: Pizza’s good!

Mikey: Cool! Making pizza is a pain in the ass, so let’s get delivery!

Donnie: That was the idea from the start. 

Aw yeah, pizza! Shall we order?

Mikey: Whoop, pizza! Whoop whoop!!!

Donnie: You seem pretty stoked.

Mikey: You give it a try!

Donnie: Give what a try?

Mikey: The ‘whoop’ thing. Go on, give it a try!

Donnie: Whoop, pizza! Whoop, whoop!

Mikey: That sucked. Go all out!

Donnie: Huh..?

Whoop, pizza! Whoop, whoooooop!

Mikey: Not bad, not bad.

Donnie: Pizza! Whoop, whoop!

Mikey: More energy! Put your back into it!!!

Donnie: PIZZA! WHOOP, WHOOOOP!!

Mikey: Oh no, I can’t have you out whoop me!

                        (Cowabunga Time!) *yelling together about pizza*

Donnie: That was long and tiring.

Mikey: The thought of pizza’s got you pumped, right?

Donnie: Yelling ‘whoop whoop’ has got me pumped, but I guess I’m excited for pizza, too.

Mikey: Dude, I can’t wait! I hope it comes soon.

Donnie: It won’t. We haven’t even ordered it yet!

Mikey: I guess it won’t.

Donnie: It absolutely won’t, so let’s order!

Mikey: Hmm…What kind of pizza will I get? Teriyaki chicken sounds good…or mascarpone with loads of cheese…or a luxurious seafood pizza with Italian basil sauce…or the limited freshly picked four-cheese pizza with Genovese sauce…

Donnie: Have you memorized the entire menu!? Amazing!

Mikey: Well, I always read the menu when we’re riding in the Battle Shell.

Donnie: Whoa, you’re really into this.

Mikey: So, wha’cha gonna have? Oh, I know! I bet it’s the freshly picked four-cheese pizza, isn’t it?

Donnie: What on earth is that pizza? It piqued my curiosity when you mentioned it. “Freshly picked four-cheese”? How the shell does one pick cheese?

Mikey: Huh?! Oh yeah. What the shell?! Forget about that one. What will we get?

Donnie: Hold up? Don’t you have a flyer or something?

Mikey: I sure do! Here.

Donnie: You just walk around with it! Gross. 

Ew, it’s warm too.

Hmm, what shall we get? Which one, which one.

Mikey: First things first, how many should we order?

Donnie: There’re only two of us, so one large pizza should be fine, right?

Mikey: What!? There’s no way that’s enough. I told you, I didn’t eat anything today.

Donnie: You ate a lot.

Pricewise, one large pizza is fine.

Mikey: Nuh-uh, I said one isn’t enough.

Wait, now that I think about it, I have a feeling I have a buy-one-get-one-free coupon somewhere…

Donnie: Now we’re talking!

Mikey: Now where did I put it…

Got it! Got it! Here it is.

Donnie: That’s a coupon for a dry cleaner. Hand in a shirt for dry cleaning and you get a second for free.

Mikey: Oh, you’re right.

What’s that supposed to mean?

If you get one shirt cleaned, you can get one free pizza??

Donnie: No. It means the coupon has nothing to do with pizza!

Mikey: Oh, nothing to do with pizza, you say…

Donnie: But if you look at the flyer, it says if you buy two pizzas you get the second one half price.

Mikey: Really!? Alright! So then, if you order the first one, I can buy the second one for half price?

Donnie: We’ll split the bill between us.

Mikey: Oh right, yeah. Go halves.

Donnie: So, if that’s the case, then we can get two pizzas.

Mikey: Got’cha.

Donnie: Hmm…what to get?

Mikey: Half and half might be good, too!

You’re taking too long.

Donnie: Hey!

Mikey: I’ll decide, okay!?

Donnie: Fine, you pick.

Mikey: Okay. In the end, simple is best. Two large margarita pizzas!

Donnie: That’s a waste!

Since we’re going to the trouble of ordering two large pizzas, we should add something different, like teriyaki chicken.

Mikey: Okay then. The first pizza, half-teriyaki chicken and half-margarita. Right, okay. And the second, a margarita pizza.

Donnie: What are you talking about!? If we do that, 3/4 of the pizzas will be margarita!

Mikey: Well, excuse me.

Donnie: I’m just asking you to think about balance!

Mikey: Fine. One half-teriyaki chicken and half-margarita pizza, and one half-seafood and half-margarita pizza.

Donnie: Then, just get one margarita pizza!!

Mikey: Quit bugging me! What do you want!? One full margarita. Done.

Donnie: I’m not saying that!

Mikey: You’re not?!

Donnie: No, but whatever, just get it.

Mikey: Perfect! That’s settled!

I can’t wait! I hope it comes soon!

Donnie: You know, it won’t come if we don’t place the order.

Mikey: Oh yeah! Let’s see, one of these…

Donnie: Yeah!

Mikey: and one of these!

Donnie: Yeah!

Mikey: Click confirm order and…boom.

Yay! I can’t wait!!

                                                  (Ding dong ♫)

Mikey: It’s here!!!

Donnie: There’s no way!

Mikey: Why?

Donnie: That’s way too fast.

Mikey: I’m telling you, it is! Hurry, set the table.

Donnie: You really can’t wait, can you…

Mikey: Ta-da! The pizzas have arrived.

Donnie: Wha…? So quickly!? It arrives 5 seconds after clicking confirm order??

Mikey: Well actually, I knew you’d be home today and I thought we’d be hungry around this time, so I ordered pizza for lunch today in advance.

Donnie: WHAT?! What do you mean you ordered pizza in advance?! What about the pizzas we just ordered?

Mikey: The pizzas we just ordered should be here in about thirty minutes.

Donnie: We don’t need them!! We have these ones!

Mikey: I was thinking the same thing, but every time I said I hope the pizza comes soon, you told me to hurry up and order.

Donnie: Ah! That was because I didn’t know these pizzas were coming!!

Mikey: Dude, don’t worry about it. We’ll eat these pizzas and the ones coming.

Donnie: Four large pizzas between two people!? We couldn’t possibly eat them.

Mikey: Chill dude, it’s all good. I’ll eat half and then you eat the remaining half.

Donnie: Are you crazy!? I said we can’t eat all that. Cancel the ones we just ordered. We might make it in time if we hurry.

Mikey: …

Uh-oh! No can do. See here. This picture tells you what stage your pizza is at right now, and ours is already in the oven and on its way here by scooter while it’s cooking.

Donnie: On its way here while cooking!? You’re kidding! The scooter rack has an oven attached! That’s one amazing pizzeria.

Mikey: Awesome, right?

Donnie: Totally.

Mikey: We’d better make a start before these get cold. The other pizzas will be here soon, too. Eat! Eat!

Donnie: What a waste of money!

Mikey: And…voila! Two large margarita pizzas!

Donnie: Not two whole margaritas!!!

[puyopreservation]

Update: 14 Jun 2021

(Links in the pinned post.)

I added some Puyo Puyo Quest Arcade Manzais to the archive.

Now I’m not gonna tell you where I put it in the Archive (even if it’s not that hidden) because I’d rather you watch them on YouTube. They’re mainly there in case that YouTube channel goes POOF someday.

Playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLCgBvLU2lZgTLyunQ_D8nGsy2pd-c4vjh

Translators? You may wanna have a look at these if you don’t already~ (I can’t garantee if this all of them...)

(I think there are some duplicates there.)

Formally taking a break from PPPP instead of just worrying about not doing barely anything without saying so.

Self-explanatory. Plus it’s summer, or at least hot, that heat drives me crazy because my room is very heat absorbent. Which sucks. Do you want sweat drops on pages that I should scan? I doubt it.

When I get back to PPPP I hope I’m just as passionate about this project when I started. On the chance of saying too much: I am visiting a doctor, and those visits do motivate me and make me more passionate about things.

Regardless. I’ll see you sooner or later.