Sasuke (Ninja Warrior) is a Japanese sports entertainment television special that airs on the Tokyo Broadcasting System (TBS) between Japanese television drama seasons, and consists of a competition in which 100 competitors attempt to complete four obstacle course stages of increasing difficulty.
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ninja_Warrior
Finished Sasuke last week and I have to say it was one of the most addicting things on earth. It may not grab you in right away, but in the long run it's worse than drugs. The point is that many of the requlars will return in future tournaments so it's easy to find favourite competitors.
The first stage is more entertainment oriented, with some crazy competitors (the japanese Bruce Lee, The octopus granny, the world's toughest transvestite etc.) but only about 10 competitors advance to level 2. I usually find myself following stage 3 standing in from of TV, too excited to sit down. But the first stage can be very exciting, too. You know this guy has trained for five years or even longer, and the tournament is only held twice a year, is he gonna fail on first stage or will he reach the final stage (it's not rare that everyone fails during the first 3 stages)?
I know this has been aired at least in the US and UK (and Finland) so maybe some of you have seen this? The UK version is a disgrace, though. The british commentator should be shot in the head and left for rats. The bastard even dubs over everyone who’s been interviewed. The US version (which thanfully aired in FI) is okay. The commentator only speaks between the performances, rest of the time it's the original japanese commentator and everybody gets to keep their own voices.
Favourite competitors? Bunpei Shiratori is pretty impossible not to like. I also liked the fireman from Gifu (not the 3% man, the other one)... And of course I immediately fell in love with Yuko Mizuno, who looks much better live/in action than in any pics I've found of her.
Youtube clips. Good clips are hard to find because most of the videos are UK filth, but these are from the US version. Spoiler warning applies to each (especially the last, which in the beginning shows what happened to earlier competitors. You can avoid those additional spoilers by skipping the first 60 seconds)
Katsumi Yamada on 1st stage (prob 17th competetion): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xb7TS5-Gxtg
Octopus on 1st stage (can’t remember which competetion, but not a huge spoiler): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nttua5w3h3A
Koji Yamada tries the 3rd stage (prob 16th competition): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lJmCem8qbTE
