Okay, so back in 2011 somebody in Japan decided it was time to make a hilarious parody of fantasy role-playing computer games and Dragon Quest in particular. Thus was born Yūsha Yoshihiko, or ‘The Hero Yoshihiko’ — a weird little TV show that actually produced three full seasons. I’ve managed to find just season one with English subtitles, and since my Japanese is limited to ordering food and naming brutal martial arts techniques out of ju-jutsu… I’m gonna just review the one series. That being, of course the first: The Hero Yoshihiko and the Demon King’s Castle.

Now… look. This isn’t a work of genius. In fact, it’s dumber than an elevator full of Flat Earthers on a three-day valium binge. But — well, dammit. The Japanese do this deadpan humour thing sometimes, and… no, wait. If you’ve ever played those dopey Japanese computer role-playing games… no, uhhh… look, it’s more fun than it has a right to be, okay?

It kicks off in tiny Coboy (if the subtitles I got are to be believed) Village. There’s a plague, and hero-elect Teruhiko went adventuring to find a cure, only he didn’t come back so now the village is trying to select their new hero. There’s a stone that has to be yanked out of a chunk of rock, but it’s pretty clear none of the villagers really wants to succeed… except possibly young Yoshihiko (Takayuki Yamada), likely the son of Teruhiko and even more likely the village idiot. Over the protests of his sister Hisa (Azusa Okamoto) who doesn’t want him to leave the village, Yoshihiko pulls out the sword, puts on a weird purple toga+hat ensemble, and swears not to return until he’s dealt with this plague.

In short order, the wandering Yoshihiko acquires a coterie of equally weird and clueless buddies: Danjo , the middle-aged bandit is all prepared to kill Yoshihiko, but has to finish telling him some kind of story first and thus winds up following Yoshihiko after the hero strides off in pursuit of Destiny in mid-story. Danjo is followed up by Murasaki (Haruka Kinami), a young woman warrior out to avenge the killing of her father by knifing pretty much anyone on the roads who looks vaguely like they might have had something to do with the murder..She too is convinced to kill Yoshihiko later — though she does make a couple stabs at it in the meantime. The final party member is Melub (subtitles again: no way that’s a Japanese name, but what are you gonna do?) the Mage (Muro Tsuyoshi), who has maybe the most embarrassing haircut of all time and whose magic is limited to temporarily changing his target’s nose into the nose of a pig… once per day.

With the party pulled together, in the best tradition of cheap, generic computer RPGs the Mysterious Mentor with the Grand Quest can’t be far off and sure enough, who should appear in the clouds but the Buddha himself, played with comedic flair by Jiro Sato? Buddha announces that the real problem isn’t the plague, but the Demon King who unleashed it — and before the party can deal with the villain, they’ll have to go on a bunch of side quests to gather vital magic items that will ensure the Demon King’s defeat.

Upon this rickety framework, writer/director Yuichi Fukuda hangs a wild mess of sight-gags, recurring jokes, swipes at all manner of quirks of Japanese society, and most especially an endless supply of japes at the expense of the Japanese fantasy computer game genre. Some of them hit. Some of them miss… but Fukuda and the others are smart enough to lean into the zero-budget lunacy of the whole thing, with the end result being that The Hero Yoshihiko and the Demon King’s Castle is relentlessly, cheerfully amusing if you have a sufficiently resilient sense of the ridiculous.

Personally, I enjoyed the monsters made (badly) out of papier mache painted in bright colours with acrylic poster-paints. That deadpan thing I mentioned before: watching the four idiotic adventurers approach these kindergarten-level lumps of kiddy-craft with completely straight faces is a delight.

And then there’s the farcical sub-plots. The influence of the legendary Monty Python team has clearly reached Japan, to be whole-heartedly embraced by Fukuda. A vicious bandit demonstrates his sadistic villainy by fiendishly licking the blade of his dagger, only to remember too late that it has been envenomed. Another bandit can’t fight the party because his loud and overbearing wife wants him to come home and give her a proper shagging. Still another bandit fails to attack the party because his henchmen clock out at five pm on the dot, and he can’t afford to pay them overtime.

The recurring appearances of Jiro Sato’s Buddha are particularly fun. He plays the deity with a degree of self-absorption, distraction and irritation, more intent on grandstanding than on actually guiding the heroes on their world-saving quest — a broad and knowing wink to gamers who have had more than enough of Mysterious Mentors dribbling out essential plot cues and insisting on lunatic side quests.

Yoshihiko himself carries the show, though the rest of the ensemble hit their notes more than well enough. The Hero’s dim-witted determination to Do Right At All Cost, and his willingness to obey even the most idiotically contrived and trivial instructions of his vapid tutelary deity shine like a beacon of imbecility, dragging the crew and the viewers forward through all manner of lunatic disasters.

Favourite episode? Probably the one where Yoshihiko is temporarily forced to become a Teen Idol, complete with singing and dancing and fan-girls. Or… actually, I don’t know. I really liked the episode where he was searching somebody’s house by doggedly smashing every ceramic pot in the place. (Looking at you Link!) Oh, and the episode where the team falls victim to the Demon King’s lifestyle of convenience and fast food…

Eh. Look — if you’ve got a soft spot for Monty Python and you’ve played a few Japanese computer RPG (the Zelda series would do!) you may well find this series enjoyable. But honestly, it’s dumb fun and it’s all the more fun for leaning hard into its own dumbness, so don’t be expecting champagne cinema, all right?

Now, if you’ll excuse me I have to find subtitles for series two (The Key Of The Evil Spirit, 2012) and some kind of a source for series three (The Seven Chosen Ones, 2016). I’m feeling the lack of the True Heroic Spirit in my life now that I’m done with the first series.

My advice? Cue it up and watch it while you’re on the treadmill or the stationary bike. Exercise is a whole lot more fun when you’re watching po-faced idiots get wiped out by papier-mache blobs.