{{nihongo, ''Food Fight'', フードファイト, Fūdo Faito,冠軍大胃王 was a

Japanese television drama , also called , are television programs that are a staple of Japanese television and are broadcast daily. All major TV networks in Japan produce a variety of drama series including romance, comedy, detective stories, horror, jidaigeki, thriller ...

starring

Tsuyoshi Kusanagi is a Japanese actor, singer, television host, and a former member of SMAP, one of the best-selling boy bands in Asia. Early life Kusanagi grew up in Kasukabe, Saitama, Japan. Career Music In 1987, at age 13, Kusanagi auditioned to enter John ...

and

Kyoko Fukada is a very common feminine Japanese given name. Not to be confused with Kiyoko. Possible writings The final syllable "ko" is typically written with the kanji character for child, 子. It is a common suffix to female names in Japan. The first sy ...

. It first aired in Japan from 1 July 2000 to 30 September 2000. Moderately successful, its average rating was 17.5% while its peak rating reached 21.5%.

Cast

* Ihara Mitsuru –

* Tamura Manami –

* Miyazono Saeka –

Rie Miyazawa is a Japanese actress and former teen idol. She is regarded as one of Japan's top actresses, and her accolades include six Japan Academy Film Prizes and three Kinema Junpo Awards Miyazawa began her career as a child model, seeing wide exposure ...

* Miyazono Kyosaku – Shiro Sano * Kisaragi Eiichi – Kakei Toshio * Crow's voice –

Takuya Kimura is a Japanese actor, singer, and radio personality. He is regarded as a Japanese icon after achieving success as an actor. He was also a popular member of SMAP, one of the best-selling boy bands in Asia. A 1996 television drama series, ''Long ...

Characters

*Ihara Mitsuru – a custodian working for a large food producer after growing up in an orphanage who is secretly a champion of a food eating competition. After winning he usually proclaims his stomach is as huge as the size of the universe. *Tamura Manami – a college student who volunteers for an orphanage where Mitsuru was raised *Miyazono Saeka – the wife of Miyazono; she married him solely for money *Miyazono Kyosaku – the head of the large food production company who secretly sponsors the underground "food fight"; the eleventh challenger *Kisaragi Eiichi – the ninth challenger of the "food fight"; after deciding that Mitsuru is a natural-born "food fighter" he analyzes the challengers and gives helpful advice to him *Kyutaro – a talking black bird who is a friend and partner of Mitsuru; voiced by

The challengers

The list runs in a chronological order with the food of each challenger's choice. *Yoneyama Katsuyoshi –

ramen is a Japanese dish, Japanese noodle dish. It consists of served in a broth; common flavors are soy sauce and miso, with typical toppings including , nori (dried seaweed), menma (bamboo shoots), and scallions. Ramen has its roots in Chinese ...

*Gonzales Iwagami – spicy

curry A curry is a dish with a sauce seasoned with spices, mainly associated with South Asian cuisine. In southern India, leaves from the curry tree may be included. There are many varieties of curry. The choice of spices for each dish in tradit ...

*Fujishiro Yukiko – Kakigori *Manaka Hiromi –

Mochi is a Japanese rice cake made of , a short-grain japonica glutinous rice, and sometimes other ingredients such as water, sugar, and cornstarch. The rice is pounded into paste and molded into the desired shape. In Japan, it is traditionally ma ...

*Kagami Shunsuke –

yakitori is a Japanese type of skewered chicken. Its preparation involves skewering the meat with , a type of skewer typically made of steel, bamboo, or similar materials. Afterwards, they are grilled over a charcoal fire. During or after cooking, th ...

*Ihara Satoko –

Croquette A croquette is a deep-fried roll consisting of a thick binder combined with a filling, which is breaded and deep-fried; it is served as a side dish, a snack, or fast food worldwide. The binder is typically a thick béchamel or brown sauce, m ...

*Carlos Okamura –

steak A steak is a thick cut of meat generally sliced across the muscle fibers, sometimes including a bone. It is normally grilled or fried. Steak can be diced, cooked in sauce, such as in steak and kidney pie, or minced and formed into patties, ...

*Kisaragi Eiichi - Hiyashi Chuka/Cold noodles *Sugawara Kentaro –

sushi is a Japanese cuisine, Japanese dish of prepared , usually with some sugar and salt, accompanied by a variety of , such as seafood, often raw, and vegetables. Styles of sushi and its presentation vary widely, but the one key ingredient is " ...

*Miyazono Kyosaku -

Onigiri , also known as , , or rice ball, is a Japanese food made from white rice formed into triangular or cylindrical shapes and often wrapped in ''nori''. Traditionally, an onigiri is filled with pickled ume (''umeboshi''), salted salmon, katsuobu ...

Summary

The president of a large food production company combines gourmet eating and gambling into an underground eating contest, or "Food Fight," in the basement of his company. After growing up in an orphanage, Mitsuru Ihara starts working as a custodian at the large food producer. The pleasant, kind Ihara often visits his former home, pretending to be an important business man, not the blue-collar cleaner that he really is. He also has a bigger secret, which is, he is the reigning champion of the underground eating competition held at the company. In it, two contestants battle to see who can pack away more food within a set time limit. The noble Ihara, with nine consecutive wins, always donates the prize money anonymously to his orphanage, despite the fact that he wins millions. The circumstances surrounding his victories, however, are often surprising and usually unusual, perhaps unrealistic. He also wins by a very small margin, by only 1 point in most cases.

Trivia

* Three former members of

Morning Musume , formerly simply and colloquially referred to as , are a Japanese girl group, holding the second highest overall single sales (of a female group) on the Oricon charts as of February 2012, with the Oricon record of most top ten singles with an ...

(

Natsumi Abe is a Japanese singer and actress, a former member of Morning Musume, and currently a member of Dream Morning Musume. Biography Career She was born in Muroran, Hokkaidō, Japan. On August 13, 2003, she released her first single, "22 Sai no Wat ...

Maki Goto is a Japanese singer, lyricist, and former actress. Born and raised in Edogawa, Tokyo, Goto began her musical career in 1999 when she joined Morning Musume as the only third generation member. Her first single with the group, " Love Machine", t ...

, and

Yuko Nakazawa is a Japanese pop and enka singer, and actress, best known as one of the original members of the all-female J-pop group Morning Musume. She is also a member of Japanese pop group Dream Morning Musume. Biography Yuko Nakazawa was born in Kyo ...

), and singer

Ryuichi Kawamura is a Japanese singer, songwriter, record producer, actor and author. He is best known as lead singer of the rock band Luna Sea since 1989. He started a solo career in 1997, three years before Luna Sea disbanded in 2000. In 2005, Kawamura form ...

made guest appearances on this show as themselves.

Special episode

Hong Kong Battle In the final episode, Mitsuru collapsed at the counter of the beef bowl restaurant ( Matsuya ) that he stopped by after the match with Miyazono (It ended as he had lost his life). He is nowhere to be seen, the beef bowl with miso soup ordered was empty. Retired from the food fighter, He is still alive and became a full-time employee of Miyazono General Foods. At the beginning, he lost his memory and since Mitsuru was found at Matsuya he was called "Matsu-kun" by the boy who hide him. The Battle struggles with memory and appetite loss. His memory returns during the Xiaolongbao confrontation with Liang and he revived as a food fighter. Midnight Express Death Fight As before, he was struggling to win. Kinichi Hagimoto played a powerful enemy boss. Who challenged him with wounds all over his body in a series of battles. Took his quote "My stomach is the universe" and Mitsuru was completely defeated. He collapsed and Mitsuru's sister appeared mysteriously at the end. Leaving some lead to further a sequels. The story remained unfinished and sequel was not produced due to the impact of the an accident that occurred later. The Train vehicle that appeared was 113 series.

Sealed work

This work was a hit, with two special episode being produced even after the broadcast ended. But on January 15th 2002 junior high school students in Aichi Prefecture have bread-eating competition during school lunch and choked death happen on April 24th the same year. Due to this accident the sequel stop without further production. Rebroadcast, VHS, DVD, or Internet distribution, and since then all ceased. It has been virtually a sealed work. In addition, due to the impact of this accident. Similar work from TBS and TV Tokyo. Which were producing fast-eating competition programs at the time, temporarily stopped on the subject. However on the August 23th 2000, The Victor Entertainment original soundtrack work was released. Not everything is treated as the fact that the work itself never existed. Tsuyoshi Kusanagi, who starred in this work. He seems like to use the quote "My stomach is the universe!" Even after the end of this work, he often said this line in the food variety show he appeared in. On June 5th 2022, " ABEMA distributed on 7.2 New Another Window ", Tsuyoshi Kusanagi said in the program that he would not do gluttonous work again.

External links

Food Fight
at J-dorama
フードファイト
Japan wikipedia 2000 Japanese television series debuts 2000 Japanese television series endings Japanese drama television series Nippon TV dramas