A carnival-style booth game usually found at festivals in Japan, called kingyo-sukui in Japanese. It consists of a large tank of goldfish and a number of scooping "nets" made of thin paper or fragile gauze. The player tries to catch a goldfish before the "net" breaks or falls apart from the soaking it receives. If they succeed, they get to keep the goldfish. If not, that'll be another 500 yen (about $4.39 USD) to try again. This and other maddeningly-difficult (if not outright rigged) carnival games are referred to as kodomo-damashi, or "cheating the kids", for obvious reasons. To avoid tears and accusations, operators will often give single goldfish as a consolation prize after multiple unsuccessful attempts.
There's also a similar game involving "fishing" for yo-yos floating in a tank of water, using a paper string; the yo-yo must be removed from the tank before the string breaks. Another variant has the player fishing for baby turtles instead of goldfish. The American equivalent is where you use a ping pong ball and try to get into the fish's bowl to get the fish.
Not related to the Goldfish Poop Gang.
Examples:
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Anime & Manga
- The goldfish game can be seen in the Festival Episodes of the following series:
- Azumanga Daioh - Before they go to the festival, Tomo says she'll catch them all and release them to the sea.note At the festival, the turtle variant is considered by Osaka and Chiyo.
- Elfen Lied
- My-HiME
- Maison Ikkoku (manga only)
- Love Hina
- Cheeky Angel
- Lucky Star - Kagami overfeeds the goldfish, and it grows to an unusual size. During flower-viewing, she happens to be facing a goldfish-scooping booth while considering putting him on a diet, leading Konata to wonder if she's planning on replacing him.
- Kashimashi: Girl Meets Girl
- At least two versions of Tenchi Muyo!.
- Sailor Moon
- Played for for laughs when Minako (who is helping at the stall) deliberately weakens the nets after being mistaken for older than she actually is by the children who visit the stall.
- Mahoraba
- Hand Maid May
- Generator Gawl: Gawl and the magician-generator compete by catching an insane number of goldfish before continuing on with their battle.
- Great Teacher Onizuka: And when Noboru expresses sympathy for the goldfish (as they obviously don't live very long compared to pet store fish), this wins major points in the eyes of his Tsun Dere Love Interest Anko.
- Zatch Bell!
- Den-noh Coil
- Haruhi Suzumiya: Especially shown because it was "a rare request from Mikuru", in Haruhi's own words.
- Haruhi Suzumiya
- Haruhi Suzumiya
- Haruhi Suzumiya... you get the idea. There's a reason that particular arc is called "ENDLESS Eight".
- Nyoron Churuya-san
- Rosario + Vampire
- Tenchi Muyo!. They actually had two booths, though the creatures in Ryoko's booth were most definitely not goldfish.
- Kingdom Hearts II - The party attend a festival in Twilight Town after waking up from their year-long sleep; Goofy is shown at one of these booths with a broken net, asking for another go.
- Slam Dunk: Sakuragi tries (and repeatedly fails) to catch a Rukawa-faced goldfish in episode 95.
- The Festival Episode of Sgt. Frog involves a climactic showdown between Natsumi and Keroro in the turtle-fishing game. Keroro threatens to send Natsumi to a space festival's Earthling-scooping game if she loses.
- Similarly, the Festival Episode of Strawberry Marshmallow has one of these. The goldfish are actually shown in later episodes of the anime, remarked upon as getting bigger.
- Miu is scarily good at this game, but she believes in catch-and-release, so the money spent on it was purely for the experience of doing so.
- Happens in Nyoron Churuya-san. She fails, nyoro~n...
- In Pani Poni Dash!, Rokugou attempts to keep a diary about a goldfish caught during a festival, to replace the died-in-one-day coloured chick she had previously attempted to keep a diary on. Rei comments that she should find something that lives longer.
- In the second episode of My Bride is a Mermaid Nagasumi plays several festival games rigged by San's Yakuza father, who'd like nothing better than for Natsume to suffer an "accident". This leads to Nagasumi playing a goldfish game containing a Great White Shark. Which he then suplexes when it attacks him.
- Imouto wa Shishunki: While playing the game, Manaka gets quite a few fish and attributes it to her scoop not breaking because she is still a virgin.
- The game itself is not directly seen in Knight Hunters, but flashbacks to Fujimiya Ran's Start of Darkness show him and his little sister Aya attending a festival, and include a shot (poignant or Anvilicious depending on your perspective) of a goldfish caught in such a game flopping helplessly on the ground after Aya-chan is run down by a car.
- In Yotsuba&!, during the town fireworks festival, Yotsuba Koiwai goes both goldfish scooping and yo-yo fishing, the latter successfully with Jumbo's coaching. When she's offered a consolation fish after the former, her response is "Don't pity me!"
- Natsume and the fox-kid play this in an episode of Natsume's Book of Friends.
- In Naruto, the titular character is visiting a festival and, frustrated by his inability to catch them, decides to apply some ninja magic. The proprietor grabs his hands and points at a 'no jutsu allowed' sign.
- In the Full Metal Panic! Overload! manga, Kaname and Sousuke attend a festival and try their hands at the game. Kaname's efforts are completely fruitless, but when Sousuke's turn comes, he drops a grenade into the tank: "The shockwave from the explosion stuns the fish. That's an efficient method of fishing." We're talking about a man who detonated his school's entry hall with a plastic explosive because his shoe locker may have been opened. If he didn't respond to everyday situations with gratuitous overkill, it wouldn't be Sousuke.
- In the sixth movie of One Piece, the main characters participate in one as their first challenge in order to stay on a resort island. Of course, it comes with some sort of catch - in this case, their opponent owns the goldfish, the goldfish is the size of a whale, and the tiny paper nets that they are equipped with aren't required to be used. They win anyhow.
- Ranma ½:
- This game makes a cameo during Mousse's return. Mousse, armed with water balloons filled with Junsenkyo water, chases Ranma through a festival, intent on splashing him with water from the Spring of Drowned Duck. When Ranma is forced to hurdle over a goldfish-catching game in order to escape, he quickly pulls some kids out of the line of fire — though that doesn't stop Mousse from turning the stand into a duck-catching game...
- At another point, Akane tries unsuccesfully to get a fish for a crying child. Then Ranma (stuck as a girl at the time) realizes that this is the same principle on learning a technique she's trying to master and succeeds in catching all of the fish. The enraged owner makes her scoop piranhas with her bare hands if she wanted to keep them all. She succeeds.
- In the 5th Haruhi Suzumiya novel, Mikuru suggests doing this for the O-Bon festival. She doesn't catch any goldfish, but Haruhi gives her one.
- In the Kimagure Orange Road OVA I was a Cat I was a Fish Kyosuke has his mind shifted into a goldfish and attempts to get caught by his two love interests, Hilarity Ensues.
- In Potemayo's Festival Episode, Potemayo uses part of her allowance to go yo-yo fishing and succeeds. Then, given that she's only about a foot tall, she proceeds to get the crap beaten out of her by her own yo-yo.
- Damekko Doubutsu's Festival Episode shows us just what happens when you let Catgirls run one of these.
- In the festival chapter of Kenichi: The Mightiest Disciple, Honoka manages to scoop a yo-yo, but is not so successful with goldfish and enviously watches Chikage successfully scooping them.
- In Ouran High School Host Club, Haruhi and Mei [Haruhi's dad's coworker's daughter] are playing the goldfish game, when Kasanoda steps in to chide them for hogging the scoops, as part of the Host Club's plan for getting Mei and her father closer together.
- In the Pokémon the Series: Diamond and Pearl episode "Historical Mystery Tour!", Team Rocket runs a Goldeen version (with giant scoopers) of these during the Twinleaf Festival. It's not rigged (despite accusations), and James proves himself to be a bonafide master at it. An oddly sane subplot, considering the rest of the episode.
- In Hidamari Sketch, a booth operator calls on them to try it, but Yuno turns him down, as once, the fish she caught at a booth died the next day. She had named it Toyama Kin-chan.
- Place to Place takes it to another level. Sakaki actually lifts the fishes into the air, and he spins them. Io on the other hand the fishes willingly jump into his bowl.
- In Kill Me Baby Yasuna attempts (and fails miserably) to catch one, after Sonya tells her she's just bad she prometly tells her to do it... which Sonya of course promptly does, catching a fish in the first try.
- In Tokyo Ghoul, Kaneki and his gang spend some time playing the goldfish game during a Festival omake. After Hinami expresses disappointment at how difficult the game is, Tsukiyama steps in to win the game for them.
- In Assassination Classroom, Isogai plays the goldfish game during a local summer festival, and (probably thanks to his assassination training) manages to catch a plastic bag full of goldfish. He cooks those fish as meal later on.
- The boys in You and Me wonder the morality of the game when they note it potentially dangerous for the fish due to the quality of the nets. They end up catching several fish when they bug the shop-owner to give them better nets.
- In Monster Musume, Kihimito takes Manako to a festival as his second "date" with her, because it means she can wear a mask in public to help her not feel self-conscious. While there, she tries a number of festival games, including goldfish-scooping. Her incredibly powerful eyesight means that she's so good at all of them that the stall owners have to beg her to stop to avoid being cleaned out.
- During the fireworks festival in The Quintessential Quintuplets, Yotsuba catches several full bags of these for Fuutarou's little sister Raiha. Naturally the little girl is very happy about it.
- In Episode 25 of Star★Twinkle Pretty Cure, Hikaru and Yuni play the goldfish game at the festival. Yuni is rather embarrassed that she failed to catch a fish despite her background as a phantom thief.
- In episode 8 of Aharen-san wa Hakarenai, while the cast attends their local summer festival, Matsuboshi Raido and Reina Aharen play the goldfish game. Unfortunately, they were unsuccessful at catching a fish.
Fan Fiction
- In Dirty Sympathy Trucy convinces Apollo to try to win a bear for her from one when they visit the Obon Festival. Apollo tries recruiting Klavier into helping him, but he doesn't know how to do it either so he decides to fund it.
- In Pokémon Reset Bloodlines, during the Indigo League Misty plays a Luvdisc one, managing to catch two at once. Ash's Pokédex insists that she catches a Shiny one that's in the tank, but she refuses.
- In the Ranma ½ fanfic Ranma Restart: Bid for Freedom, Akane and Ranma try their luck at one. Akane fails to catch a goldfish, while Ranma has better success.
Video Games
- In Dragalia Lost, the five star wyrmprint "Indelible Summer" has Cleo play this, even having it as the picture on the first level of the card. The story in the wyrmprint has her unable to catch one yet her unknown companion (most likely Euden) is easily able to catch seven.
- In the second Naruto Xbox 360 game, this is one of the minigames available at the festival. Naruto has to play this game to win the water balloons required for his training.
- One seasonal special event in Final Fantasy XI includes a goldfish scooping minigame.
- At the Cyrum Bazaar in Grandia II.
- Momotaro Matsuri has a goldfish scooping bonus game.
- Bravely Second has a goldfish-scooping game in Hartschild during Hartsfest season. Altair and Vega also partook in one during their days together; the memory for this corresponds with Ba'al iv: Goldie.
- Ensemble Stars!: during the summer festival in Quarrel fest, Souma sees Kanata manning one of these stands, and notices that every time he has to give away a goldfish he reacts like a parent whose child has been taken away. Kanata loves fish, you see.
Visual Novels
- Mentioned across different routes in Amnesia: Memories, though the only route where actually doing it is an option is in Kent's.
- Occurs during the festival in Kana: Little Sister.
- This is a recurring mini-game in the Tokimeki Memorial series, occurring during the Summer Festival.
Web Original
- Goldfish in plastic bags were part of a Japanese item set on Gaia Online.
- Similarly, they can be spotted around as solo items in poupéegirl.
Real Life
- There is a goldfish scooping competition held each August in Yamatokoriyama City, Nara, with contestants from all around Japan.
