Computer animated talking turds and more! Insane (and legendary) Japanese kids show, ‘Ugo Ugo Lhuga’
When I was working in Tokyo in 1994, not unsurprisingly, I had a really hard time adjusting to the abrupt change in time zones. I’d wake up like a pinball machine at 3:00 AM and then I’d stay up. There wasn’t much at all on TV at night in Japan back then–a lot of “learn English” soap operas, basically, and CNN– but each morning at 7:30 AM or so, an absolutely amazing kids show came on Fuji TV that blew my doors off each time I watched it. Not that I had even the slightest idea of what was going on, of course, but it looked so incredible. There were two child actors, a boy (“Ugo Ugo-kun”) and a girl (“Luga Chan”), a French painter, talking tomatoes and oranges, a talking TV set, etc. Curiously there was also a character, Dr. Angrily, who was a talking turd who’d pop out of the toilet bowl and tell viewers it was going to rain (that much I could figure out).
Ugo Ugo Lhuga was a big-budget children’s program that adults liked too, similar to things like Do Not Adjust Your Set, Pee-wee’s Playhouse and Yo Gabba Gabba! Sometimes pop acts like Shonen Knife, Harumi Hosano of Yellow Magic Orchestra, Cornelius, Jamiroquai or Pizzicato Five appeared on the show. It was a mix of live action and frenetic computer animation, most of it done on a Commodore Amiga. I’ve read that the producers of the program developed special joystick controlled methods of getting the primitive CGI animation to “interact” with the live actors. Apparently they cranked this show out daily for a year and a half, the team who produced it must’ve been complete maniacs. Talk about burn out! Yikes!
Ugo Ugo Lhuga was a victim of the economy and Japan’s “lost decade” recession, but was fondly remembered. It wasn’t until 2007 that a DVD box set of Ugo Ugo Lhuga was released in Japan and now you can buy action figures of some of the characters, including the turd.
First watch this. You’ll be instantly pulverized by how utterly insane (and fearless) this show was…
Imagine something like that on TV in America. Kids would laugh like hell at it, but it will never happen.
Here’s a complete episode, taped off the air with commercials. This was only posted on YouTube three days ago:
Pizzicato Five performing “The Night is Still Young,” the theme to the second series of Ugo Ugo Lhuga: