Gilgamesh Night

Gilgamesh Night was broadcast by TV Tokyo early Sunday mornings from around 1:15 a.m. to 2:10 a.m. from October 1991 to March 1998. Despite the late night time slot, at its peak Gilgamesh achieved ratings exceeding 9%, higher than most of TV Tokyo's prime time shows of the time. The show is perhaps best known for launching the TV careers of former adult video actresses Ai Iijima and Reiko Hayama as well as gravure idols Fumie Hosokawa, Kei Mizutani and Tamao Satou.

The show had a wide range of segments usually on a sexy theme with a lot of humour. In 'Yashoku Banzai,' comedian Ijiri Okada and AV actress Hitomi Yuuki would cook with Yuuki dressed only in an apron. Sometimes they would have treasure hunts where a whole slew of AV actresses would all be in aprons running around the studio. Jeff Furukawa ran a corner where he would demonstrate shiatsu techniques on one of the actresses. Sometimes the actresses would visit hot springs, aesthetic salons or cabarets. There were at least two in-house idol groups, the Sexy Mates and Girigiri Girls, who would sing and dance. Fashion shows, photo-shoots, strip games or musical chairs were other common segments. There were 'bath room cinema' reviews of both Hollywood blockbusters and Original Videos that the actresses themselves appeared in.

It should perhaps be noted that many of the female announcers (eg. Senna Matsuda, Akira Kiuchi) and idol groups never appeared nude, and there were limits on the participation of AV actresses even at the show's height. Gilgamesh was a lightning rod for controversy though, and it was this that eventually led to its cancellation and the swing away from adult content on network TV.

Gilgamesh was replaced by a program called Artemish Night, but it wasn't as popular.

In 2012-3, BS Japan revived the show as Gilgamesh Light, also starring Ijiri Okada.

this was essentially the best(or at least longest running) of the numerous late night japanese 'variety' shows in which two guys behaved in a very much cliched and salacious manner whilst engaging in trivial and contrived conversations and situations with semi-naked female 2nd division (talento/idoru) celebrities...

my personal viewing experience was around mid 1996-mid 1997 when living in tokyo (as a foreigner) and being at home alone on a wednesday (thursday?) night with nothing better to do at 11pm; which is probably the only justifiable reason for watching.

highlight of the programme (IMHO) was the movie reviews which used to conducted by from a bath by two (possibly rotating but currently un-recallable) young (partially and strategically) foam covered girls; who wouldn't hesitate to jump up and down at opportune moments, in mid critical review, therefore 'coincidentally' exposing their breasts/nipples to the viewers...

have absolutely no idea if the series is still running; although despite the recent cultural(economic) shifts of the last 5-10 years i would probably expect it still is.