User:DrPavelheer/Dero!

Misshitsu Nazotoki Variety Dasshutsu Game DERO! (密室謎解きバラエティー 脱出ゲームDERO!), often abbreviated DERO!, was a Japanese game show produced by Nippon TV from 2010 to 2011. The show placed celebrity participants in supposedly life-threatening situations, and required the contestants to solve puzzles and answer quiz questions in order to escape.

Gameplay
Participants must make their way through 3 stages, each of which is a different life-threatening situation (e.g. a slowly descending ceiling, or a room filling up with sand). In order to successfully pass the stage, the participants must correctly answer quiz questions or solve puzzles which are presented to them. If the participants do not correctly answer within a certain time period, they are "killed" by whatever threat they are facing.

The stages are presented and explained to the contestants by comedian Ryota Yamazato (山里亮太). Yamazato never appears directly in front of the players - rather, he exclusively appears on a TV screen. He uses CGI to hide his face; most of the time, he uses a paper bag over his head with the word "Administrator" (管理人) printed on it.

Beam Room (棒の間)
Six participants are blindfolded and led into a room which is empty except for three plungers, which are wrapped together with a ribbon. Shortly after the blindfolds are removed, three narrow beams begin to extend from one of the walls, up to a length of 180 cm. Once the beams have reached their full length, the floor begins to open up, revealing a CGI-generated bottomless pit underneath. Participants must grab a plunger and jump onto a beam (2 participants per beam) before the floor disappears under them.

Yamazato appears on the screen to banter with the participants and explain the rules. The participants are, one at a time, asked a quiz question. Until the participant answers the question correctly, their beam (referred to as a "beam of life" (命の棒) will slowly retract into the wall. When the beam fully retracts into the wall, the participant no longer has anything to stand on, and they fall into the bottomless pit. The participants can use the plungers they were originally given in order to support themselves against the wall when the beam gets too short to stand on.

In order to successfully complete the stage, the participants must correctly answer a total of 9-10 questions. The group is given a total of 2 passes, which allow participants to skip questions they are unable to answer, but don't count as a correct answer.

In the Battle Royale episodes, three people from each team participate at the same time. There are four beams; two team members are on the outside poles, and the team leaders are on the center poles. Each team is given a single pass. The goal is to be the last team remaining; that team gets points for each surviving team member.

The questions are presented in a series of rounds. Each round consists of a single question type, asked to each of the participants from left to right. The rounds mostly occur in the same order each episode, with a few exceptions.

Kanji Illustration
Participants are shown a picture of an easily identifiable object or concept, with different components of the picture replaced with the kanji that describe them. The participants must correctly identify the object shown in the picture.

Trick Art
Participants are shown a picture of patterns that are based on an original image, with that original image hiding somewhere within the picture. This takes two forms: in one, the silhouette of the original image is reflected and rotated several times to create a kaleidoscopic pattern, and the participants must identify what the image is. In the other, an image with an existing pattern is set against a backdrop consisting mostly of that pattern, and the participants must find and identify the original image. As time progresses, the image rotates to an orientation that makes it easier to identify the original image.

Celebrity Faces in Four Pieces (有名人顔4分割)
Two celebrity faces are divided into four pieces, then overlaid on top of each other such that the upper-left and bottom-right quadrants come from one celebrity, and the upper-right and bottom-left quadrants come from the other. As time progresses, the quadrant boundaries start to shift around, so that different parts of the faces become more or less visible over time. The players correctly must identify the two celebrities.

Block Word
A two-character word in katakana is rendered in block art and viewed at a low angle from the front. The participants must guess what the word is when viewed from above. To further obfuscate the word, some blocks have different heights, making it difficult to see the entirety of each character. As time goes on, the camera pans from left to right, and slowly starts to move upwards in order to help participants figure out the answer.

This round occurs twice; the second time uses 3-character words. Occasionally, the first round will use 3-character words as well.

Celebrity Name Pieces (有名人名前分割)
Each character of a celebrity name (typically 4 characters long) is split into 4 pieces and scrambled (with each piece staying in its character's position). The participants are shown this scrambled name, and must correctly identify the name of the celebrity. As time goes on, some of the characters will unscramble themselves, making it easier to identify the name.

Bomb Room (爆弾の間)
Three participants are blindfolded and made to crawl into tubes, each of which is large enough to hold a single person. The participants are able to communicate with each other by using a headset. Each participant has a device in front of them which contains three capsules; the participants' devices are said to be connected to a bomb. In order to successfully escape, the participants must defuse the bomb by answering three quiz questions.

For each question, a capsule will rise out of the device. Opening the capsule reveals a single colored wire; each participant has a differently colored wire (either red, blue, or yellow). The participants are then shown a question with three multiple-choice answers, each corresponding to a color. The participant with the wire corresponding to the correct answer must cut that wire in order to successfully answer the question. If a participant cuts an incorrect wire, a buzzer sounds and their tube becomes filled with fog. They are said to have failed to escape, and can no longer participate in the rest of the stage. The other participants must still correctly answer the question.

If one participant remains, their capsules will contain two differently-colored wires in order to make solving the questions non-trivial.