There’s something fascinating about looking art that you don’t understand. The strangeness, the stretching of what’s possible within a medium, the chutzpah the artist had to break so far from convention. 

I suppose it’s that invigorating, inspiring, mind-melting feeling that makes me appreciate Nobuhiko Obayashi’s 1977 movie House or the black comedy The Dark Backward from Adam Rikfin, and why I’ve been so interested in Hyper Misao’s HYPE shows.

It’s been hours since I sat at the laptop and watched Misao’s third of these shows for Tokyo Joshi Pro-Wrestling, HYPE! 3, and I’m not sure what I watched. It felt as much like TJPW’s resident superhero filming one of her fever dreams as it did anything to do with pro wrestling. 

Misao has ventured far from tradition with each of these events. The first one in 2023 was autobiographical to a point, Misao laying out her personal history in the form of a drama playing out in a wrestling ring. But she sure didn’t stick to reality. We saw police involvement, brainwashing, and time travel play key roles in the story that unfolded. 

The next year, Misao returned with HYPE 2, a show that leaned heavy on wackiness. Anything featuring both a magical mask and an evil metal band is going to be memorable.  

This time out, Hyper Misao’s produce show had the least amount of actual wrestling of any of them. It began with several TJPW roster members sitting on the floor talking. A floating swirl appears as they converse. 

We soon see Misao strapped to a chair with green tape. A masked figure knocks her out and drags her out of the room. Yuki Aino tries to save her and bumps heads with MIsao in the process leading to them having some sort of mind connection or did they switch bodies a la Freaky Friday?

I’m not sure even if I spoke fluent Japanese I’d fully understand what was happening.

Obviously, the language barrier keeps me at a distance to the narrative, but I still enjoyed the absurdity of it all, sucked in as Misao trotted some new unexpected element after another. Aino eating a slice of white bread while entering the ring. Footage of luchadors flexing. A dance number. 

A laugh track (or live studio audience?) adds a curious element to all of it. It feels like we’re watching an episode of some bizarre sitcom, thrust into the middle of the season with no context. 

It’s a good ways into HYPE! 3 before we get any sort of physical action when a group of TJPWers in glittery silver dresses playing aliens tangle with Shoko Nakajima. The Biggest Kaiju goes full Will Smith in Independence Day and starts kicking alien butt. She attacks an alien (who looks a lot like Uta Takami) with a flying ax handle and knocks off her antennae. 

It all feels like a low-budget play, some postmodern drama that’s well above my head. 

The closest thing to a traditional wrestling match is the concluding showdown between Yuki Aino and Hyper Misao. Damn, I wish I knew what the heck led to this impassioned fight, but Duolingo hasn’t covered any of this stuff. 

Misao twists Aino’s arm; Aino knocks back a flying Misao with an elbow strike. Characters from earlier in the show, including Rika Tatsumi looking sharp in a scientist outfit, pop in as the bout goes on. The two women push past the chaos and wrestle to a draw. 

They erupt with emotions after, crying intensely.  

As for me, I don’t know exactly what I was feeling after the show closed. HYPE! 3 only so briefly gave me anything familiar to chew on. I spent most of the runtime as confused as I was absorbed. 

This is the kind of thing I can’t place on my match of the year list or give some traditional rating to. It’s far more of an experiment, an exploration than it was the standard series of wrestling stories. 

Even though I remain at such a distance from HYPE’s intended meaning, I enjoyed being taking on a wild voyage by our captain, Hyper Misao. At no point could I have predicted what would happen next. Bread. Aliens. Black-and-white footage of a boardwalk. I was lost in an avant-garde variety show, contently adrift. 

Misao’s produce show isn’t going to have mass appeal. It’s a deconstruction of tradition. It’s niche.

I certainly felt awe and curiosity as HYPE! 3 played out, but respect remained the strongest feeling, the admiration of Misao to have the balls to put this out. She has a vision and she charges toward it, shoulders forward, fingers on the handlebars.