Sasuke 25 - Spoilerific Review - Part 11

SASUKE 25!!

PART ELEVEN

(PART ONE) (PART TWO) (PART THREE) (PART FOUR) (PART FIVE) (PART SIX) (PART SEVEN) (PART EIGHT) (PART NINE) (PART TEN)

Sasuke spoilerific review ;) Warning.. incoming blog of Sasuke 25.. if you don’t want to know.. you have been warned :D For a preview of this event.. Please see SASUKE 25 NAVI 1 hour review of Sasuke 25 with fluff pieces of all the major players in the upcoming Sasuke!). Oh.. and as Ube says: If you are from the G4 Forums, DON'T POST THIS THERE. They expect everyone to stick their head in the sand and pretend it doesn't exist..

UBE'S Sorta-LIVE-BLOG FOR SASUKE 25 IS HERE!

Massive thanks to Ube for his help on the names in English and Japanese of all the competitors!! Thanks to scnoi and Sasukepedia and the SASUKE データサイト (Data site) for the kanji.

Welcome ya'll to the 2nd Stage! WHOOT!! GET IT ON!

Here we go! New 1st obstacle - Slider Drop スライダードロップ

Basically modified the Slider Jump... (without landing on the cargo net..)

You run along the track on top with a bar while the track itself has one big drop in the middle of the run.

As evidenced here (daytime testing.. most likely the day before) what can happen if you are not straight when you get to the drop.

Upgrade to the Salmon Ladder.. by doing TWO of them.. this is called the Double Salmon Ladder ダブルサーモンラダー

Double Salmon Ladder ダブルサーモンラダー starts on one side..

Then you have to turn around and then swing and land with the bar on the other side.

The top part remains the same.. the 3rd obstacle and mounting is identical to Sasuke 24 - the Unstable Bridge アンステーブルブリッジ

4th obstacle is back but slightly modified (thank God..) the track is little longer and the rope apparently is shorter. Personally I wish it the track was longer still.. but at least it's longer than 24.. which I thought was a disaster. Balance Tank バランスタンク

5th obstacle remains the same - Metal Spin メタルスピン

Followed by the final obstacle Wall Lifting ウォールリフティング

We start off by going through the preparations of all 11 people that survived the first stage. Here we have All-Star Toshihiro Takeda 竹田敏浩 stretching.

.. wait.. am I seeing.. what I'm seeing.. holy crap.. THEY ARE SHOWING THE 100 NAMES!! IN ORDER.. WITH FRIGGIN' PREFECTURE.. wow.. that.. is a first.. (THANK YOU TBS!!!!!!!!!)

Btw.. with that list.. we know 80 people have been shown and 20 results are the only ones we have to figure out.. some we can by the commercials (like Kawaguchi's.. but I digress)

All-Star Shingo Yamamoto 山本進悟 being interviewed (and yes I'll include the whole list as we go through this)

Shingo with a perfectly dry hat :p Whoot.. new era.. new rules baby!

All-Star Toshihiro Takeda 竹田敏浩

TBS of course reminding them they are the last 2 All-Stars standing today

Brian Orosco ブライアン・オロスコ

Levi Meeuwenberg リーヴァイ・ミューエンバーグ

Levi excited to try out the new changes

One of the 5 finalists from Sasuke 24 (all of which made it back to the 2nd stage btw) Taiwan's Lee En Chi リー・エンチ

Koji Hashimoto 橋本亘司

Yoshiyuki Okuyama 奥山義行

Kenji Takahashi 高橋賢次

Btw you can tell from the list.. Names in Red were the ones that passed to Stage 2

Yoshiyuki Okuyama 奥山義行

I want to comb out that ridiculous bang that woman has.. omg.. it so not suits her... only works in Anime because it's supposed to be ridiculous...

Yuuji Urushihara 漆原裕治

Yuuji looking like he's passing a kidney stone...

Basically asking him what part is freaking him out the most...

And he's worried still of the Unstable Bridge that took him out in Sasuke 23.

Foreground is the 1st Stage. Top left is the Final Tower. Middle in white is the 3rd Stage. And we are in the top Right of the picture in gold. The 2nd stage.

Kenji and Okuyama looking on

.. who the heck is that on the left? Then Lee and Brian

Levi doing his best impression of a Ninja Warrior.. must be cold...

Kanno, Yuuji, Koji and Kenji (Yuuji combo breakin' with his name) LOL Kanno standing out like a sore thumb repping the blue Descente Jacket while everyone else is in black.

Shingo and Takeda talking about something on the course that is bugging them. I also see Takeda is all special with his blue jacket too!

Announcer pwning them all with a Limited Edition Silver Descente Jacket ahahhahahah
Ryūsuke Itō 伊藤 隆佑 - (he's the only announcer that has actually competed in Sasuke)

Oh how I love thee.. The TBS Suckitude Chart™ all ready to go :) Bring it on...
In order, Jun, Kongo, Levi, Okuyama, Koji, Brian, Takeda, Lee, Kanno, Shingo and Yuuji

Jun Sato 佐藤惇 is here representing the Prefecture of Tokyo 東京

Up next is the Poster Child for all the under 21 G4 rejects who can't get on Sasuke because Ninja Warrior doesn't allow anyone under 21 in ANW.. Btw.. he's 18 and this is his 4th trip.. and his 3rd time in the 2nd stage.

Jun Sato 佐藤惇 is one of those kids who's into that newfangled sport called Free Running フリーランニング

Jun has been here twice.. both loses on the Salmon Ladder.

So since he doesn't have obstacles at home he trains on trees.

Dammit .. he does have something.. or is that support for a scaffolding? Oh well.

I swear he's on something because he's so dang mellow.. if he asks for munchies then we know..

He's our first guinea pig.. let's see how he does on the first obstacle

So far okay on the Slider Drop

Landing safely.. hmm.. they got double mats at the bottom.

Here we go.. he couldn't do a single salmon ladder twice.. let's see if he can do a double..

Going up nicely so far

Turned around and jump across just fine!

Made it to the top okay!

Wow having all sorts of issues with the Unstable Bridge!

Missing his grip almost as soon as he gets on.. he's lucky that the first plank is supported by 4 chains..

He's.. "walking" across.. that's.. not good.. that will not do for the 2nd portion which is only supported by 2 chains on either end..

he swings like 5 times on this thing...

will he jump? he's not really gaining much momentum..

Okay here we go (wow look at the time.. he lost an obscene amount of time just on this one obstacle)

.. doesn't matter.. he doesn't catch it correctly on the other side as I feared..

And the crowd reacts..

LOL I see Ryo has a Descente Jacket now too!

Kenji is all .. stunned..

And goes back to making sure his hands are all sticky and gooey

Jun just stunned at this point..

For a second there I thought he had it..

But then it just collapsed in his hands

Jun Sato 佐藤惇 - Death by Unstable Bridge

Now to figure out where to train for that...

Kenji going up the steps to the start of the 2nd Stage

It's rare we see this section in full detail

Kenji is one of the 5 finalists from Sasuke 24

Takahashi family! Son Tomu, Wife Yuri, Daughter Ain and of course Kenji

Apparently Tomu did something.. because Mom bops him over the head.. LOL

Kenji thinks it's hysterical!

btw.. his daughter Ain..

can totally kick your a$$

so can his son too!

Kenji's Cliffhanger rigging at home. See the other one on the other side to the right?

Reacting to the thunderous support

He's got quite the fanclub of Ninja Midgets!

Btw.. commercial break.. TBS reminding you what is kicking it's a$$ in the ratings right now.. I'll write about that after I'm done Sasuke..

Monster 9 ACTUALLY put out an ap that people OUTSIDE THE USA can purchase.. could you believe it? If you have an Iphone.. you can download a Sasuke game. Everyone else in Japan gets a heck of a lot more.. but I digress...

TBS Suckitude Chart™ - X gets the square..

"KONG EXPRESS"!! Kenji Takahashi 高橋賢次 - Representing Saitama 埼玉県 Prefecture

Powering his way through the Slider Drop

Doing everything he can to keep it straight in the process

Safe landing

Zero problems with the first half of the double Salmon ladder as he turns around

and jumps safely to the other side

Up the rest of the salmon ladder with no issues as he transfers

Masterfully going through the Unstable bridge

Jumps over the gap with no issues

Streetching to the other side...

Swings back..

almost...

Swings harder..

and makes it to the other side just fine.

Now to the Balance Tank

Btw.. ya'll.. he's never EVER failed the 2nd stage once he's gotten there... just so you know..

Clear on the Balance Tank

Onwards to the Metal Spin

No problems on the metal spin.. (LOOK AT THE TIME!!!!!!!!!)

Plowing through the walls ..

2nd wall..

Final wall.. barely lifts it but he gets through it

GEEEZ he annihilated this..

Kenji Takahashi 高橋賢次 - 2nd Stage Clear!

And Kongo Screams in triumph

And the Takahashi clan has kittens

LOL we've got a mosh pit!

It's always fun seeing the Takahashi clan lose their marbles :)

HEEEEEEELLZ Yeah!

Kenji is our first clear of the night!

And the arms of tiny midgets await their Kongo!

This is just too cute :)

LOL the kids are all covered by his jacket while they all high five each other

And practically tackle Kenji down to the ground.. LOL

Levi hopes to follow in Kenji's footsteps

TBS reminding you of his last 2nd stage (since he hasn't been here since Sasuke 23 back in September)

He cleared the Unstable Bridge

And wall lifting to secure his 2nd time in the 3rd stage (both losses to the Shin-Cliffhanger)

TBS Suckitude Chart™ - we are tied as Circle gets the Square!

Yep.. they are sticking with America #1 (since I think TBS figured out that Mr. America is a weight lifting competition that we know Levi cannot be confused with.. LOL)
Levi Meeuwenberg リーヴァイ・ミューエンバーグ Representing Amerika アメリカ

Lee and Brian cheering on

LOL he's so tall he barely has to jump on this thing to catch it

Kinda wild on the top there

And.. Yep.. Commercials don't lie.. (sorry TBS had been running this a lot today so the shock is all gone)

But of course since this is real time for him.. he's shocked out of his friggin' mind

He showed absolutely no control up top.. just kinda glinding along

It got to the middle section where there's the drop down and since he was completely crooked at that point the bar had no place to land on

And down he went bar and all

Lee already seeing it

And Brian doing the spin around again

Everyone is in shock

Kenji, Takeda and Shingo (sliver of Akiyama on the right) all watching

The collective.. "aaaaahhh..."

I have no idea what Shingo was saying

But I can't help looking at the smirks

Especially from these two

Kanno is outright smiling LOL

Meanwhile the wtf face of the tournament.. Levi looking up at the track going "wait a minute.."

Levi saving the Sasuke diver (yes they have them..) from having to fish out metal from the bottom of the lake...

TBS going really slow on this to show where he went wrong

He showed almost no control from the beginning relying on the track from the top

And by the time he got to the middle.. it was all over

And he went straight down

I don't think he lacked the strength or anything..

Just.. I don't know wtf.. he just didn't .. do anything.. other than helicopter his feet

Here's the drop down..

And the bar had nowhere to go

That's one annoyed face.. LOL Hey.. she gets a white jacket.. wtf.. how many colors does this thing have?

Levi: Yeah yeah.. I was surprised..

Levi: I mean I didn't know ..

Levi: I thought it was built in such a way that it didn't..

Levi: But.. whatever.. I mean it happens.. it's just that..

Actually that explains a lot. He thought it would keep him on there so he really didn't extend any major effort to stay straight. I guess similar to the Slider JUMP where it's all straight.. Lord knows he does almost nothing to stay straight on that. But this one.. he just didn't realize that the track drops abruptly absolutely breaking whatever "rail" effect that would have happened. Granted that one video we saw all day (the course fail during the day) definitely happened the day before and he missed it. Otherwise I'm sure he wouldn't have just casually floated across the obstacle without straightening out had he seen someone fail in that fashion.

PART TWELVE