Here are some clips from the show TV Champion a couple weeks ago, in which several of Japan’s finest special effects make-up artists battled for a chance to challenge the previous champion.

Video 1: Creating bizarre new animals for the zoo

• The first creature is a melon/bear hybrid that supposedly comes from the financially troubled town of Yubari in Hokkaido Prefecture. The horribly-in-debt has turned to this bear creature to as a PR man and they are hoping he can convince people to buy their locally-grown melons.
• The second creature is mantis man. In addition to the standard mantis man features, he has some cool human fingers on his claw!
• There was a third challenger who made a guy with an octopus tentacle coming out of his head, but it was so unimpressive that I didn’t bother including it in the video upload. The make-up artist who made it didn’t make it to the next round.

Video 2: Making old men out of the “chotto chotto” twins

• The guy who made the mantis man goes for a modest but realistic aging effect for Kazuya.
• The guy who made the melon bear goes for a wacky fat and old version of takuya, but it ends up looking like crap. He loses the round.

Video 3: Showdown with the champion to make future humans

• The challenger (the guy who made mantis man) thinks that earth will eventually become a barren landscape in which humans are forced to evolve into metatic-scaled bodies and hair that looks like pachinko balls.
• The defending champion comes up with a future human that lives on an icy earth, has a head that lights up, and can swim like a fish.

The judges declare the challenger’s future human to be superior, and he is crowned the new TV champion! Man, I hope they get some better blue screen special effects for the next show….