Overview
"High Noon," broadcast on June 11, 1992, on the TV anthology series *Tales of the Unusual* (Yonimo Kimyona Monogatari), starring Koji Tamaki.
Alongside "Zundoko Beroncho," it is considered one of the most popular comedy episodes in the history of the show. On a sweltering summer afternoon, a man visits a rundown diner. Looking like an ordinary office worker, he orders one meal after another, showing no signs of stopping. With its unique worldview and striking impact, the episode sparked a massive reaction after it aired.
It is adapted from a gag manga episode titled "The Greatest Live Broadcast in History" by Hisashi Eguchi, originally featured in *Susume!! Pirates*.
High Noon Plot
It is a sultry, languid summer afternoon as the temperature steadily rises. The setting is an ordinary, unremarkable working-class diner near a train station shopping district. Regular customers eat quietly in the stifling heat of the restaurant, where the air conditioning is broken. A live broadcast of a high school baseball game plays on the radio. It is a quiet afternoon.
Into this diner casually walks a man dressed like an office worker. He quietly takes a seat and orders a chicken and egg bowl (oyakodon). After silently finishing the dish with a blank expression, he orders a pork cutlet bowl (katsudon). The afternoon is still peaceful.
However, after the man devours the katsudon and orders an egg bowl (tamagodon), a murmur begins to ripple through the quiet afternoon. When he orders his fourth dish, a stamina beef bowl, the owner's wife asks him in a half-disbelieving voice, "Mister, can you really eat all that?" (In the 2015 remake: "Mister, can you really eat all that?").
Yet, the man remains completely unfazed by the commotion, continuing to order dish after dish and finishing everything served to him. The surrounding regular customers gradually begin to fixate on the bizarre appetite of this man who suddenly appeared in their dreary, everyday routine. Meanwhile, the owner and his wife watch the man's behavior from the kitchen.
They realize something… The man is ordering every single item on the menu, pasted on the wall, in exact order from top to bottom. The man silently shovels the served food into his mouth before ordering the next, while the owner and wife quietly cook and slide the dishes in front of him. A quiet and breathless challenge has begun.
Before long, the scene becomes the talk of the entire shopping district, and onlookers begin gathering at the diner one after another.
More than three hours have passed since the first dish, the oyakodon. As the man is silently eating his 19th dish, fried rice (chahan in the 2015 version), his expression suddenly freezes. The onlookers watch with bated breath…
It seems he has choked on his food. When one of the onlookers realizes the situation and hands him a glass of water, the man downs it in one go without a word, maintains his blank expression, and begins reaching for the food once again.
When he devours the final menu item, a curry and rice, a cheer goes up from the crowd. The man has finally succeeded in finishing all 20 items on the menu.
Even the previously tight-lipped owner walks over to the man, beams, and bows his head, saying, "Mister, I've never been happier than this. Thank you." It is all over… Just as everyone is lost in deep emotion, the man turns his eyes back toward the menu.
Then, out of nowhere, he says, "Oyakodon… Oyakodon, please."
Everyone present is struck speechless. Only the live radio broadcast announcing extra innings of the high school baseball game echoes through the diner.
An ordinary, unremarkable shopping district in front of the station. The languid summer afternoon approaches the evening hours, but the harsh sunlight beats down relentlessly, with no end in sight.
Remake
In a 2015 popularity poll for *Tales of the Unusual*, the episode ranked 27th.
It was remade and broadcast on November 21 of the same year, starring Akiko Wada in her first appearance on the show.
It marked the first time in the program's history that a female actor played the male protagonist.