Season 18

After Nagano's victory in season 17, we expected the course to be a lot harder this time around. In fact they exceeded our expectations, and came up with the toughest Ninja Warrior course we've yet seen.

All but a few obstacles were completely new, and only two were unmodified from previous seasons. The new obstacles ranged from insanely difficult (Jumping Spider, Salmon Ladder) to a few that were a bit dull (Bungee Bridge, Net Bridge). Overall the effect was to make the course much more challenging.

Of course I don't know the producers' minds, but from watching the show's history they seem to prefer about 10-12 people to complete stage 1, about half that to get through stage 2, and none to one completing stage 3. The success rate seems low this time, and I wonder if they will adjust the course in future seasons to be less crazy. On the other hand, in the "behind the scenes" show on G4 they interviewed the show's creator, who said that his intent was to design a stage 1 that everyone would fail. So maybe they want it this way.

Most of my favorites were there: Aoki the model-maker, Kuramochi Minoru aka Mr. Octopus, Kenjiro Ishimaru the actor, and of course the all-stars. Absent (from the G4 footage if not from the competition) were Kota Honma the teenager, Hiroyuki Asaoka aka Sasuke Sensei the teacher, and Kasuhiko Akiyama, the first champion. I wonder if Akiyama has finally given up on Ninja Warrior. I kind of hope he has retired: He's already been the best, so in a sense there's noplace for him to go but down. It makes me sad to see him keep going out in stage 1. I feel the same way about Yamada (Mr. Sasuke). Sometimes I have to fast-forward Yamada's run because it's just too painful too watch. From the way they describe him on the show, it seems like it would be better for his life & mental health to forget about Ninja Warrior. Yamada didn't make it to stage 2 this time, but considering how hard the course was he did extremely well. Better than most of the all-stars, now that I think about it.

I'm a little unclear on how they define "All Stars." We had assumed that the All Stars were any competitor who had completed stage 3. But this time, they made several references to Shunsuke Nagasaki as a "would be all star" who was "giving the all stars a run for their money," that kind of thing. And Nagasaki has made it to stage 4, which by our definition would have made him an all star. So our understanding must be wrong. In any case, the All Stars were all there (excepting Akiyama). Of them I think only Nagano and Takeda finished stage 1.

The shallow:
Bunpei Shiratori still favors the teeny tiny shorts, but they seem to be bike shorts now, a bit more stylish than the shiny little track shorts from previous seasons. And the "Worst Hair of the Season" award for once does not go to Nagano. This time the honor goes to Kenji Takahashi, whose close-cropped hair with a curved design shaved into it resembled a basketball. (Nagano's hair, while still poofy, was not that bad this time. Blowing my theory that the badness of his hair is directly proportional to his success on Sasuke and general fame.)

The stats:
Stage 1: 8 obstacles, 130 seconds, 6 cleared
Stage 2: 6 obstacles, 95 seconds, 3 cleared
Stage 3: 8 obstacles, untimed, 0 cleared
Stage 4: ?

New obstacle. The competitor hangs from a rope attached to a zip line, swings over the water, and drops from the rope to land on a small padded platform floating in the water.

Many competitors slid off the platform and into the water. Some misjudged the landing and missed the platform entirely. The fellow going in head-first in this photo is actor Kenjiro Ishimaru, one of my favorite competitors. I hope he does better next season.

New obstacle. Competitors hang from a log-shaped object which is suspended over the water and slides down a inclined track. The competitor wraps their arms and legs around the log, which has circular depressions in the sides to help them hold on. Two steps in the track add shocks which knocked many competitors loose.

The Log Grip replaces the Log Roll, and appears to use the same track. Also like the Log Roll, it's a tough early obstacle that seems designed to weed out the comedy/novelty contestants.

New obstacle. Competitors use a pole to swing across the water from one platform to another. While swinging across, the top of the pole must be maneuvered from left to right through a maze.

The Pole Maze is similar to a less challenging obstacle that appeared in Stage 3 in a couple of early seasons.  In that version, they had to pole vault over the water, but there was no maze to move the pole through.

It took us awhile to understand what was going on with the top of the pole & why the competitors were getting hung up in the middle. We didn't figure it out until they showed an overhead shot of the obstacle.
 

New obstacle. Contestants use a trampoline to jump up, and brace their hands and feet in a narrow gap between two walls. They must then "spider walk" along the walls to the platform on the other side. This obstacle combines the Jump Hang (stage 1) and Spider Walk (stage 2) of previous seasons.

The Jump Hang was previously one of the toughest obstacles in stage 1. As a more difficult version, the Jumping Spider is, well, really difficult. It's hard to tell sometimes from the editing, but it appeared that the majority of Stage 1 competitors went out on this obstacle.

New obstacle. Contestants cross a bridge made of bungee cords strapped together. At the far end of the bridge, the bungee cord steps get narrower and the gaps get wider.

Compared to the rest of Stage 1, this obstacle seems rather simple. It's also a bit boring to watch. Contestants run out onto the bridge, fall down, and then crawl the rest of the way across. I predict it will be replaced with something more exciting next season.

Modified obstacle. This is the Warped Wall, a foot taller and with a large overhang at the top. Contestants run up the wall, grab a rope hanging from the top, and climb over.

The added height makes the wall more of a challenge, but the overhang and rope mean they can only climb up in one tiny place. So most of the obstacle is wasted space. I didn't like the Curved Wall in previous seasons for the same reason.

New obstacle. Competitors slide down a metal chute. At the end of the chute they must catch a rope suspended over the water. They then swing to a rope net and climb under the net.

They must build up a lot of momentum in the chute, as they appear to be moving too fast to catch the rope with the hands. The trick seems to be catching the rope under the arms, and gripping it between the chest and the arms. Another indicator of how fast they're moving: for competitors who fail to catch the rope, there's a net over the water to break their fall.

Modified obstacle. The show called this a new obstacle, but it counts as "modified" in my book. Contestants swing across the water on a rope, land on a rope netting and climb up to the final platform. This is almost the same as the Rope Climb in previous seasons, just a rope netting at the end instead of climbing a single rope. Another difference is that the buzzer isn't right above the climb anymore. Now it's five meters back, adding a few seconds to the time.

I'm not sure yet whether this is harder or easier than the Rope Climb. So few people got this far that it's hard to tell.

New obstacle. Contestants slide down an incline on what looks like a skateboard. At the bottom of the incline they jump off the skateboard, grab a rope and swing across the water to a floating platform.

A similar obstacle appeared in Stage 2 of Women of Ninja Warrior (Kunoichi), with some differences. In Kunoichi the contestants jumped straight from the slide to the platform, without the rope swing. Also, the platform in Kunoichi was stationery rather than floating.

New obstacle. Contestants climb a "ladder" by hanging from a pipe suspended on small supports and jumping up, catching the pipe on a series of higher supports. The distance to the top supports is significantly higher than the rest, making the last jump particularly difficult.

Granted we haven't yet seen everything, but in the course we have seen this is one of the two toughest obstacles. Of the 6 competitors who finished stage 1, half were taken out by the Salmon Ladder. Due to the extreme demands on upper body strength, and the time required to do it, the Salmon Ladder seems to belong more in Stage 3. We'll see if they remove or modify this one in future seasons.

New obstacle. After completing the Salmon Ladder, contestants jump over the top of the ladder. The pipe they used to climb the ladder now slides down an incline. At the bottom they let go of the pipe and jump to a floating platform.

This is kind of like the Pipe Slider except they don't have to hop forward since it's on an incline. When they let go of the pipe, every time it fell into the water and sank. I wonder if they have extra pipes, or if some poor production assistant has to dive in and fish it out?

New obstacle. Not much to this one: competitors climb across a rope net. Like the Wall Climb in previous versions of Stage 2, the Net Bridge seems intended to slow competitors down rather than to eliminate anyone.

The 13th obstacle this season, and the first one that's unchanged from previous seasons. Competitors jump and grab a metal chain, which spins in a circular motion across the water. The chain appears to stretch, causing many competitors to lose their grip.

This was the hardest obstacle in Stage 2 before; no surprise it's the one they kept.

New obstacle. Competitors carry a weighted bar across the shoulders, and walk along a narrow foot path. This one looks relatively easy unless the competitor fails to balance the bar properly across the shoulders.

At first glance we hoped the two boxes hanging from the bar would contain small flame jets which would light up while the competitor was carrying them. But alas, it's just barbell weights.

Like the Metal Spin, this obstacle is the same as in previous seasons. Competitors hang from two rings and slide along bars with bends and dips. The only difference is that now the Arm Rings goes straight into the next obstacle, with no opportunity to rest.

The Arm Bike was a feature of early seasons, but hasn't been seen on Ninja Warrior in years. Competitors cross the water using a pedaling mechanism with their arms.


This obstacle seems designed to tire the competitors out before the grueling obstacles ahead. The competitors tend to make pedaling motions with their dangling legs, which I confess looks a bit comical to me.

New obstacle. Competitors cross the water by hanging from a series of four curtains. This is similar to the Curtain Cling of previous seasons.

Modified obstacle. Competitors cross the water on a 1-inch ledge, hanging by their fingertips.

This already-difficult obstacle is much tougher now. The middle section is on an incline, and the gap between the second and third section is so wide that all three Stage 3 competitors went out at that place. Shunsuke Nagasaki and Kenji Takahashi fell; Makoto Nagano successfully reached across, but accidently rested one hand on the top of the structure and was disqualified.

Since no competitors made it past the Cliff Hanger, we didn't get to see the remaining obstacles in Stage 3. The icons show the Jumping Bars and the Bridge of Destiny, and then two icons I didn't recognize. Have they gotten rid of the dreaded Pipe Slider?

No one reached Stage 4, so we didn't get to see the ascent up Midoriyama. We can assume that after Nagano won in season 17, the climb up the tower must be quite a bit harder now.