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Wednesday, April 27, 2011

Sasuke Related Updates

Edit: 4/27/11 with the name of the Dog.
Edit: 4/27/11 with information on Sasuke coming to NBC. Updated with new TokyoGraph article in English.
Updated again ... it's not Sasuke coming to NBC.. it's friggin ANW /facepalm and Confirmation that Nagano will NOT be in Venice Beach.

Nagano's got a little wiener! Dog... Going to see if I can find out what the dog's name is! It's cute!
Edit: Dog's name is Lily! ©Makoto Nagano via yodaraji

I didn't realize it's been almost a month since I last posted. There's an update from All-Star Makoto Nagano 長野誠 on the yodaraji radio station website. I've been expecting another radio interview with Nagano for a bit but with the delay of his music CD I wasn't sure if there was going to be one. His last yodaraji interview was this time last year. The interview itself for April, 2011 is very different. The show itself is short with the first part (almost 13 minutes of the total 15 minute broadcast) is about a new type of dessert from a local man from Nobeoka (where the radio station is from and incidentally where Nagano was born and raised). Nagano's part is actually a pre-recorded message where he is wishing Yodaraji a happy 5th year anniversary. This was played all the way at the end of the episode. (His part starts approximately 13:40).

Outside of the wishing the radio station a happy 5th anniversary of being on the air, he covers 3 topics. Sasuke 27, his music CD and the Maguro Festival. He unfortunately doesn't talk about the dog.. /groan.. but I'll find out.. I'll promise I'll try! It's just too cute to ignore! Edit: Got a message back this morning:

It is my dog.
The name is Lily.
私の犬です。
名前は、リリーです。

Anyway, he mentions that his performance at Sasuke has not been great lately so if there is another one, he would like to try his best and hope everyone will support him. Now.. this is different than what's been happening in the USA. As you know by now, ANW3 is scheduled for May, 2011 in the same location (Venice Beach, California). They mention that Sasuke 27 is still not confirmed but they think it's in June, 2011. As far as Nagano is concerned.. there is no Sasuke 27 and as of this message on Sunday.. he STILL has not been contacted about Sasuke 27. In fact.. he found out from me that Sasuke 27 was even being discussed.. and he had no idea about ANW3 so the odds of him being re-invited to appear again as a guest is so far nil... that could change though but as of now.. he hasn't been invited and he doesn't know if Sasuke 27 will even happen. What's depressing though is that he thinks people aren't going to support him because of his 3 successive first stage failures. Little does he know that he is a lot more popular than that! If/when Sasuke 27 happens I'll be sure to have people send him emails of support so he knows he's still worthy of support! :)

I seem to display my clothes in the American preliminary meeting place.
Clothes seem to go to U.S.A. in place of me.
アメリカの予選会場に、私の服を飾るそうです。
わたしの代わりに服がアメリカに行くみたいです。

Edit: Confirmation that Nagano will NOT be in Venice Beach. He was asked to send clothing for the charity auction this weekend instead of him coming to the USA.

It has also been announced that G4 and TBS are collaborating for a disaster relief project that will raise funds to be donated to the Red Cross. From April 29 to May 1, they plan to broadcast “Ninja Warrior Japan Relief,” a 50-hour-plus marathon that will be encouraging donations and running a charity auction.
(From TokyoGraph)

Cover of the Yujou To Tatakaino Kiseki CD
友情と闘いの軌跡 CD

Nagano does goes on to talk about his music CD release (release date is finally May 11, 2011), that it can be downloaded or be bought from Amazon (he thinks, he doesn't really know what it is... yes.. he giggles on his own recorded message.. LOL) . I've been trying to update the page with the options where to buy the music CD. There's Itunes, Amazon for the Westerners and a bunch of other places for those in Southeast Asia. As I find out more I'll update it to that specific page. Would be cool if he sang the song in public.. but he's apparently too shy.. LOL So if you want to hear him sing, please support his release and buy the song when it's released in May!

20th Annual Maguro (Tuna) Festival in Kushikino
第20回串木野まぐろフェスティバル Poster ©Ichikikushikino City

Then he talks about Maguro Festival to be held this weekend in Kagoshima. This was actually the last post I talked about. The 20th Annual Maguro Festival 第20回串木野まぐろフェスティバル will take place the end of this week in Kagoshima Prefecture on Saturday April 30 and Sunday May 1, 2011 in the city of Kushikino. This is a local Tuna event for the port city of Kushikino. It's pretty much a county fair including games for kids, music, food and other activities for the whole family. The past few years the company Nagano works for, Takasui Corp. has participated in the event (since they also use this fishing port) and during that time they had Nagano design and build a Sasuke set where he could demonstrate his skills along with a few of his friends to the local crowd. This year Nagano was able to send me a list of invites going to this year's event in April.
I and Takeda and Yamamoto and Yamada participate this year.
今年は、私と竹田さんと、山本さんと、山田さんが参加します。

At the end of the recorded message, one of the hosts of the show (either Tachan or Miki ) quips that Nagano sure didn't sound very enthusiastic while the other comments that he sounded sleepy... as always. Poor thing, Nagano must have sent the message when he got back from fishing..

Either way this is the only update so far. Next week I hope to update the site with pics and videos of the Maguro Festival as a few people we know are going. If any concrete messages from TBS and/or Monster9 arrive about Sasuke 27 I'll be sure to add that as well.


Edit: As Ube found earlier today there was an official announcement made on the TBS website (TBS is the official broadcaster of Sasuke in Japan). He has since done a post trying to get to the bottom of this announcement and has been collecting all the articles written on it.

The only English article so far was made by Variety and that can be found here and a new one from TokyoGraph here:

U.S. television network NBC is planning to broadcast the popular TBS sports variety program “SASUKE” in a prime time slot this fall. This is said to be the first time that one of the four major U.S. broadcast television networks will air a live-action show from Japan.
..
NBC, in an apparent partnership with G4, will broadcast the 27th “SASUKE” competition as the climax of the third season of “American Ninja Warrior,” which is scheduled to start this August. NBC has not yet announced a date for its broadcast.

From the sounds of it.. Sasuke 26 will be shown on G4 this weekend (sans the Americans as we have been warned) and supposedly there is a Japan Relief marathon that I don't see advertised at all.. typical G4..

ANW3 will be aired in 10 parts in August on G4 it seems.

And Sasuke 27 will be shown on NBC (network television/national free to air here in the USA) sometime in the fall. This is the intriguing part. (Cutting and pasting from another thread) It's unclear what they plan to do on NBC this fall. Not sure if they will air a G4 version of 27 (NW chopped up version omitting the Americans whenever it's tied to ANW), the Sasuke version like Taiwan shows it (with just subtitles and deletion of sponsors with a new opening and closing) or if they plan to do a Viking version the way they did it in ESPN back when they showed Viking (as a friend of mine suggested). If it's a true NBC production they might do a whole different broadcast to suit their needs.. I'm almost afraid to see.. but I'll cast judgment later when I see it.

G4 is a Comcast channel.. but Comcast just BOUGHT NBC.. so now it all makes sense.. Still no idea how the broadcast is going to look like.. for the love of all things holy it better be different than the Ninja Warrior travesty.. but I'm thinking they might Viking/ESPN this which IMO was worse.. Still.. it's a totally different audience and they cannot rely on what happened on G4.. which means.. they can't omit the Americans from Sasuke 27 on NBC even though it's tied to ANW3. So far G4 has been consistent in deleting the Americans from the broadcast if it's tied to ANW.. we'll see what happens this fall.

Edit: Okay.. now it got worse.. it's not Sasuke coming to NBC.. it's friggin' ANW.. Here is the article:

In the third season, the show will head to Japan and touts the biggest prize yet for the show, a $500,000 K-SWISS endorsement deal and marketing campaign. Also, G4 and the Tokyo Broadcasting System will auction off a chance for a fan to compete with the 10 finalists to benefit American Red Cross relief efforts in Japan. Production starts next month.

Wonderful.. now you can BUY your way into Sasuke.. /facepalm


17 comments:

Anonymous said...

Would it be worth emailing him to show support now just to give him a boost so that if and when he is contacted he does not consider retirement because that would be tragic also I think it a complete disgrace he has not been invited yet to be a guest at americian ninja warrior

Arsenette said...

Oh feel free to email him at any time. He loves getting message of support at any time of the year. LOL I sure send him messages here and there for various things like birthdays and anniversaries, etc. etc. The messages themselves have be short since the Takasui mail form only recognizes 250+ characters.. I think it's 250.. it will flag you if it's too long. I use English and they use their translator to figure out what I mean. Then they send it to him wherever he is.

As for ANW.. I figured it was too expensive to do so in such short notice.. then again.. they didn't have the ratings they wanted.. they were still dead last in cable television. I asked him if that has changed and I got an answer but Google is not liking it. I'll post it once I get a better translation but it looks like he's not going.

Rufus said...

It's because of Nagano that I got my life together in terms of physical health and live a much more active lifestyle- no joke! Nagano inspires me so much! Let's BOMBARD HIS INBOX WITH MESSAGES OF SUPPORT!

In other news, I went to Anime Boston this past weekend and am happy to report that someone (a fan) did a panel on Sasuke and it's Legacy. Although I couldn't forgive him for referring to Shunsuke as "Shun-sookie", I have to give him props for spreading the knowledge (homie broke it down from the physics of the obstacles to competitors stats- everything!). A large group of people showed up to so glad to know love for Sasuke is going strong!

Arsenette said...

Oh cool! I saw a post on SMF about it so I'm glad that you liked it despite the mispronunciation LOL

Now I'm reaaally curious about the NBC acquiring Sasuke.

ArtemisFowljr said...

...NBC? Oh boy. This is getting really interesting. Glad to hear something about 27 though - even if I find it weird too that Nagano hasn't heard jack yet. Oh speaking of Nagano - I want that dog!!!

Arsenette said...

Dammit.. it's not Sasuke coming to NBC.. it's friggin' ANW..

Anonymous said...

I will email Nagano soon but do I have to go through the company email can I not just reply to his I only ask because I am using a phone and trying to translate the page is difficult

I am all for helping but a auction is not really fair to the fans perhaps a world wide lottery would of been a better idea

Arsenette said...

Company email is the best hands down. They take your message in any language .. run it through a translator then send it to his phone. Love Nagano but he's not the most tech savvy person in the world.. even by his own admission he's internet illiterate. So yes please use the form on the Takasui page.
http://www.takasui.co.jp/main/sasuke/ouen.html

First section is your name.
Second section is your email address.
Third is your message (must be 200.. something characters so you have to keep the message short. Use simple sentences that won't screw up when the translator hits it).

Once you are ready hit the first button (that's send) the 2nd one is "redo" (it will just delete what you wrote).

Once all that is done it can take as little as 2 hours to a week to get a reply. All depends when the office gets it.. where Nagano is (if he's way out at sea he won't even get a cell phone signal) and how busy he is. Tomorrow he will be setting up for the Maguro Festival which stars on Saturday. If you get a reply let me know :) He's usually pretty cool with replies.

Arsenette said...

I like the worldwide lottery idea you have. Personally what they are doing is giving me a bad taste in my mouth. I think it's disgraceful to use the tragedy of Japan to get yourself on a gameshow. I think they tried to do something but linking the two is just horrid.

Anonymous said...

Have just sent email to Nagano have to say found keeping message short very difficult thought it was short until it would not send then remembered what you said so counted and was about 250 over limit (oops) never mind done now thanks for help on translation

Arsenette said...

You are quite welcome :) Yeah.. the character thing was added earlier this year. I figured it was difficult sometimes to understand long drawn out messages so they had to shorten it. Good luck :)

Anonymous said...

LOOK! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sasuke_(TV_series)#27th_competition

Arsenette said...

and you wonder why sasukepedia was made.. LOL

Unknown said...

Lily looks like my wiener dog Sweety, I think we should have named here "Killer", cause she's psyco, and if she don't know you, she don't like you.

Anonymous said...

iTunes let me download Nagano singing already

Arsenette said...

LOL Rob I know a lot of toy size dogs that have baaaaaad tempers. This one looks docile..

Oh cool UK thanks for checking on that :) I'm sure he appreciates your support! In a couple of days I'll post the full English Lyrics. Not sure if I can post the romanji (helps when karaoke since I can't read kanji). I'll check up on that.

maggie_kos said...

Thank you again for a wonderful job you do...