Sasuke Related News

All-Star Makoto Nagano 長野誠 laughing at the demise of an ANW4 competitor ©Las Vegas Sun

After the excitement of the 2 minute Trailer for Sasuke Rising (officially airing 2 weeks from now!) we have more Sasuke viewing news!  This Sunday in Japan we have the airing of a half hour special commemorating Nagano's trip to the USA to see American Ninja Warrior (ANW4).  The program is called "SASUKE海外進出" or "Sasuke Overseas".  According to the TBS Schedule for the 16th it is THIS Sunday, December 16, 2012.  It is a half hour program.

SASUKE海外進出

Sasuke Overseas
Sunday, December 16, 2012
16:00 JST (4:00 PM local time in Japan)

Station: TBS (Japan)

2:00 AM (Eastern Standard Time) (SUNDAY Morning)
11:00 PM (Pacific Standard Time) (SATURDAY Night)

Additional Time Conversion

All-Star Makoto Nagano 長野誠 and ANW4 Announcer Matt Iseman in Las Vegas for the taping of American Ninja Warrior ©Matt Iseman
(... they are holding a sign saying hello to me! LOL)

According to the writeup for the show on Yahoo, it is indeed a half hour show about Nagano's trip to the United States to see American Ninja Warrior 4. Given that it is only half an hour I'm assuming it's going to concentrate on Nagano's trip specifically.  We'll see once it airs. Depending on the content I'll decide if I'll do a full blog post on it or just give highlights.

Sasuke All Stars Makoto Nagano 長野誠, (Mr. Sasuke) Katsumi Yamada 山田勝己, Shingo Yamamoto 山本進悟 and Kazuhiko Akiyama 秋山和彦

Another program coming up is the highly anticipated Sasuke Rising and any events tied to that.  It seems that they indeed created a special for the All-Stars (taped Sunday, December 9) that will air sometime during the Special and/or the tournament.  (Edit: Official) date for December 22, 2012. Also, duration of that special is 1 hour.

Sasuke Rising Navi (Preview Show)
Sasuke Rising 直前ナビ（仮）
Saturday, December 22, 2012
16:00 JST (4:00 PM local time in Japan)

Station: TBS (Japan)

2:00 AM (Eastern Standard Time) (SATURDAY Morning)
11:00 PM (Pacific Standard Time) (FRIDAY Night)

Additional Time Conversion

Top Row: STQ'er Kazuma Asa 朝一眞, Sasuke 23 Finalist Hitoshi Kanno 菅野仁志, Sasuke 27 Finalist Ryo Matachi (Cliffer #2) 又地諒, Leader of the New Stars Yuuji Urushihara 漆原裕治 (or for me (Cliffer #3) the 2 time and defending Champion (Sasuke 24 and 27)
Front Row: Sasuke All Stars  Kazuhiko Akiyama 秋山和彦, Shingo Yamamoto 山本進悟, Makoto Nagano 長野誠 and (Mr. Sasuke) Katsumi Yamada 山田勝己

As I mentioned numerous times, the new tournament is now officially called "Sasuke Rising" (but for all of us it's Sasuke 28 by chronological order).  This is the last tournament for the Sasuke All-Stars.  5 of the 6 Sasuke All-stars were scheduled to compete (Bunpei Shiratori being the only one not competing). So given all of this.. The above picture freaked everyone out (the boards just lit on fire).  Why? Because of what it could possibly mean for the future stars of Sasuke now that the All-stars are being retired.  Of note is one person far back left row.  Asa in particular.  I for one am happy but for those who are not familiar with him he was re-introduced to us in Sasuke 27.  IF this is indeed the future lineup of Sasuke Stars this makes me very happy.  I'm hoping more are in that group but for now I'm happy with the current inclusions.  The Future seems very bright!

Ryo Matachi 又地諒, Yuuji Urushihara 漆原裕治,  Kazuhiko Akiyama 秋山和彦, Makoto Nagano 長野誠, Hitoshi Kanno 菅野仁志 and (Mr. Sasuke) Katsumi Yamada 山田勝己

Edit:  Thanks to TBS updating so quickly the times for Navi and Sasuke Overseas. In addition they put the list of all 100 competitors participating in Sasuke Rising!  That's never happened before! I'm so excited! I'm VERY Excited!  Btw.. they look GREAT in Suits!  Friggin' awesome photo!