Season 19 Overview

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: ?