Variety shows have been forging open collaborations with commercial enterprises for some time now, but never as blatantly as TV Tokyo's two-hour special "Sennyu! Mitchaku 24 Jikan Kuizu" ("Infiltrate! Intense 24-hour Quiz"; Mon., 8 p.m.).
A large video crew and a team of celebrities, mostly female, descend on a shopping mall (281 stores!) that recently opened near the Shonan beach region of Kanagawa Prefecture. The team basically sets up a quiz-variety show that followed the goings-on in the mall during the 24 hours prior to the grand opening. Yuko Mizuno, Mayumi Ono and other TV personalities report on the employees' last-minute preparations and carry out an "information endurance quiz" about the things they've learned in the process.
Based on a popular comic, the drama special "Ranma ½" (Nihon TV, Fri., 7 p.m.) is described as a "martial-arts love comedy," but it's actually a lot more.
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