Season 19

I thought they'd make Season 19 a little easier than last time, and I was completely wrong. This time only two people cleared Stage 1. And both of them went out at the Salmon Bridge, the second obstacle of Stage 2.

I have to admit, for me this was not the best of seasons. It's just less entertaining this way, to not even get to see over half the obstacles. My favorite seasons are when at least one competitor gets to the last obstacle. If someone actually completes Stage 3 and gets to attempt the final rope climb, that's the cherry on top. Then again, it's not exactly unexpected that the course would be this much harder after Nagano's win. I seem to recall season 5 being pretty brutal as well.

G4 sent two contest winners to compete in this season, both of whom went out on the Jumping Spider. They both seemed capable in the practice videos G4 showed. Bad luck for them that the course had been completely redesigned. If they had competed in season 17, they might have cleared Stage 1.

Because of their participation G4 aired a "behind the scenes" special with a few interesting tidbits, such as an interview with the creator of Ninja Warrior. Who said that he recruits foreign athletes to give Sasuke an international flair. I had wondered how all those Olympic medal winners ended up competing on a Japanese game show. 

G4 also took the contest winners to Bunpei Shiratori's practice course, and to "Muscle Park," a theme park based on Sasuke, and had Toshihiro Takeda and Makoto Nagano visit them the night before. During that visit Takeda explained the back-slapping thing: apparently it helps Nagano relax before competing. Takeda did the back-slap on the blonde G4 guy, and forgot to put the towel on his back, leaving a huge red hand print between his shoulder blades.

Speaking of Nagano, the Japanese narrator has been crushing on Nagano for years, and now after the win the Nagano-love has gone totally over the top. The narrator described Nagano as a "man's man" and waxed poetic on his "golden skin." Of course, I don't speak Japanese so I don't know what he actually said. But the subtitles make him sound like G. Gordon Liddy admiring George W. Bush's package.

Many of my favorites were missing this time. Katsumi Yamada was shown on the sidelines once, but his run wasn't shown at all, even in fast-forward. Kenjiro Ishimaru wasn't shown at all. Nor was Kasuhiko Akiyama, although I read an interview with him in which he said he had officially retired. Also, I learned from the G4 "behind the scenes" special that Ayako Miyake, the Queen of Kunoichi, competed this time. She's such a superstar on Kunoichi that I'm surprised they wouldn't show her run on Sasuke.

There was a percussion band on the sidelines in Stage 1, drumming to encourage people on their run. Since they have a good spot in front and wear a uniform of sorts, I'm guessing they were brought in by the show, not just fans who decided to bring their drums.

The shallow:
Bunpei Shiratori's tiny track shorts are back! At least they aren't shiny. They said he was a track star in college & I guess that must be why he likes the tiny shorts so much. The biggest clothing disaster was Misuro Okitani, who tried to remove his uniform to compete, and got his pants caught on his sneakers. The poor guy decided to attempt the course with his pants still around his ankles, with the predictable result of falling in on his first step.

Worst hair of the season:
No one stood out this time. Except the comedians, and their hair is so uniformly terrible they don't count.

Maybe it sounded better in Japanese:


The stats:
Stage 1: 115 seconds, 8 obstacles, 2 completed
Stage 2: 80 seconds, 6 obstacles, 0 completed
Stage 3: ?
Stage 4: ?

Did they decide the Rope Glider was too hard, or too easy? Either way the Sextuple Step is back. Competitors jump from side to side on five steps, then jump forward to a sixth.


The two Americans from the G4 contest both said they found this obstacle easy, although many competitors have trouble with the forward jump.

The Log Grip returns in the same form as last season. Competitors hang from a log-shaped cylinder that slides down a track with two drops.

Competitors swing across the water on a pole which must be maneuvered through a maze. The Pole Maze is the same as last season, except they removed the fake vines from the structure, making it easier to see what's going on.

Minoru Kuramochi, the bar owner called Tako Tencho or Mr. Octopus, made it all the way to the Pole Maze, but got hung up when he did not have the momentum to swing across. The clock ran out while he tried to get back to the platform. Eventually he climbed up to the very top of the pole and was able to jump down without falling in the water.

Competitors 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.

Both of the American competitors sponsored by G4 went out on this obstacle, along with most competitors this season. One competitor, Yoshihiro Minami, fell and somehow managed to jump backward onto the trampoline, do a somersault and land safely on the platform. He then tried again and cleared the Jumping Spider, although unfortunately did not complete stage 1.

New obstacle. Competitors run up the side of a curved wall, grab a rope, swing out over the water and land on a very small platform.

I predicted they would replace the Bungee Bridge with something more exciting, and they did. The Halfpipe Attack seems based on the Curved Wall from previous seasons, except (surprise!) more difficult. Few competitors made it past the Jumping Spider, and many of those went out here.

I wasn't crazy about the Curved Wall because most of the structure was wasted: there was this big curved wall, and everyone ignored it and just ran up the edge. They seem to have resolved that problem with this redesigned obstacle. I do feel compelled to point out that the curved wall in Halfpipe Attack is not actually a half-pipe.

Returning obstacle. I guess they decided the Great Wall wasn't so great after all. The Warped Wall seems exactly the same as in previous seasons, except the red stripe up the middle, in keeping with the new stage 1 color scheme, and the fact that competitors now enter the obstacle in the middle, not at the end. This seems like it shouldn't matter, but it might cause competitors to start running at the low point, thus not building up enough momentum to get over the top.

The Warped Wall used to take out a lot of competitors, but now the course is so hard that few even got to this point.

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.

Contestants swing across the water on a rope, land on a rope netting and climb up to the final platform.

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.

Because no one got further than the Salmon Ladder, we didn't get to see the last 4 obstacles of stage 2. In the episode intro they showed the Metal Spin, and two others I didn't recognize. One of the two new ones looked like the Wall Lift of past seasons. It will be interesting to find out what the new obstacles are. That is, if anyone ever gets past the Salmon Ladder again.

No one completed stage 2 this time, so we didn't get to see any of stage 3. They did show a quick shot of one new obstacle in the episode intro. It looks like a staircase that goes up and then down. If this were Women of Ninja Warrior (Kunoichi) I'd guess the steps wobble back and forth, requiring competitors to balance as they climb. For men's Ninja Warrior, I don't know ... maybe they have to hang from the steps?

We still haven't seen the redesigned Midoriyama. I'm sure it will be quite a bit harder, just as the two-part climb was harder than the straight rope climb after Akiyama won in season 4.