Sasuke 32 Official Announcement!
「SASUKE2016」開催決定!出場者募集!!!
Today we finally got the announcement we were waiting for. Back in an early episode of the Unofficial Nico Nico Show we found out that Sasuke 32 was confirmed. Today we get the official announcement on the TBS website that it will happen in 2016 and they are now taking applications! In fact it is in the title! The official application is out in Japan (in Japanese). Director Masato Inui 乾雅人 is returning to direct another
tournament. Sasuke 32's airing is officially slated for "Summer" SASUKE 2016夏
(similar to last year).
TBS created a page for Sasuke 32nd Annual Meeting
on their Sasuke Rising website and updated the Sasuke TBS Facebook (after almost a year asleep LOL) along with their official Twitter. There was quite a bit of confusion when
"Sasuke Rising" title first came out for Sasuke 28-29. I only note this because there's a lot of new people during this cycle (new from watching ANW and with the UK getting "Rising" soon) and there will be some confusion. To help explain it
further though for those who are still confused, in the past we only had "Sasuke" at the title all the
way up to Sasuke 27. After the bankruptcy of Monster 9
however, the title changed to "Rising" delineating when the tournament
was under full TBS control over a year and a half later. I like to think of it as BM9 and AM9
(Before Monster 9 and "After" Monster 9). They now have removed "Rising" from a lot of the text online (note the official title photo just above this paragraph) and also at the taping of the tournament itself. They have also changed both their Twitter and Facebook (removing Rising and substituting with TBS) but they still have it on the main TBS site URL since that page has been reused yearly to keep everyone updated. I doubt that will ever change since people have that page bookmarked. That said, all the text on everything else is back to just the yearly text and numbers just like in the past. Whoot!
Sasuke 30 Tokyo Auditions with Director Inui (Standing on left) ©Kikaku
Along with the official Application is the announcement of Sasuke Auditions. Sasuke 28 auditions were held in 2 different cities in the country (Sasuke 30 auditions
and Sasuke 31 was the same). Seems for budgetary reasons they are doing that again for
Sasuke 32. The cities are set for Tokyo and Osaka (same as before).
Also same as last time, they are projected to take place sometime during the month of
April (seems by the application it will be late April).
Deadline for applications is April 8! And as a final note, it is unknown at this time how international competitors will be handled (if at all). If I find more concrete information on the subject I'll post. No further information from Sasuke World Cup has been announced either. However, if you live and work in Japan, that option to enter auditions is still open (which is a relief). All the information should be in the application. In the meantime, efforts for me to return to Japan to actually cover the event (better than last time I promise) will be underway in the next month or so.
DEADLINE: APRIL 8, 2016 - 23:59 JST
Deadline for applications is April 8! And as a final note, it is unknown at this time how international competitors will be handled (if at all). If I find more concrete information on the subject I'll post. No further information from Sasuke World Cup has been announced either. However, if you live and work in Japan, that option to enter auditions is still open (which is a relief). All the information should be in the application. In the meantime, efforts for me to return to Japan to actually cover the event (better than last time I promise) will be underway in the next month or so.
6 comments:
Glad to hear the official announcement! BTW, any idea yet if Nagano will be back? Because I remember reading your Sasuke 31 blog and saying that he was noncommittal. It must have been so awesome to get to see it live and seeing Yusuke achieve kanzenseiha! It's one thing to talk about it, it's another to actually experience it, and you got to do that! To say I envy you would be an understatement!
Nagano is the million dollar question! I hope he is but he mentioned that he won't make a decision until the Spring. Keep fingers crossed!
And as for seeing it live.. I was LUCKY and blessed that everyone here helped me get to Japan. And yes everyone sent messages going "grats and omg I'm jealous". I'm still hoping to return for 32. Keeping fingers crossed that lightning strikes twice..
I really hope Nagano decides to compete, but if he does, I think 32 should be his last. At the end of the day, he just isn't getting younger and that, along with the smoking, will inevitably cause even more decline. Also, he just doesn't seem to enjoy it as much as he used to, and has basically been carrying the show for forever, so if he wants to quit, he should. Leave Shingo and Takeda to continue the All-Star Legacy, and leave the door open for him in case he ever feels up to coming back like Bunpei.
Your fascination with his smoking in particular is funny. He's not the only one that smokes.. the vast majority of them do. Not just the All-Stars. Heck.. Takeda smokes more than all of them combined.. Just leave smoking out of the equation. I'm not condoning it (far from it I don't smoke and don't want others to do so) but I'm not going to point it out either. It's their choice to do it and ruin their bodies. Also, in Sasuke almost EVERYONE smokes so it doesn't matter. Stop singling out Nagano.
I'm not one to force anyone to retire. I want them to compete until it's not fun anymore. Nagano is long past that point and hasn't enjoyed being on the show for a number of years. I know he can do better but he has to want it. Right now he doesn't. I selfishly want him to return for at least one more show. If he ever wants to come back the door should be open. He hasn't damaged his image like Yamada. I'm sure the show would welcome Nagano back if he ever changed his mind. That said, if he is not having fun.. he should be allowed to retire.
Noticed the chat above and I wondered if I could give my take on this :p
Nagano is probably the best 40+ competitor SASUKE has seen but we haven't really seen his potential. In SASUKE 29 he was injured, in SASUKE 30 he was robbed from a possible Stage 3 appearance and in SASUKE 31 he didn't even train as much as he should. Here's the fun part though. Without proper training, a 43 year old guy reach the Soritatsu Kabe, a place he eventually timed out while other guys who timed out there as well (Urushihara, Matachi and Nagasaki) spent tons of training hours (Deep in my heart I really believe they train a lot throughout the year. Also I'll drop this even though it's not worth of importance but when Nagano completed the Jump Hang, he was even ahead of Drew in terms of time. I don't believe he can achieve Kanzenseiha again for god's sake but if he trains for 1 tournament as much as he has to, I believe that it's guaranteed that we'll see him in Stage 3 and from there..who knows?
I can't wait for Sasuke 32! It's gonna be awesome! Yeah I agree that if Nagano doesn't enjoy competing anymore, then if he wants to retire, then I would respect that. Heck I'd still respect the decision to retire regardless, as it's his choice and no one else's. Hopefully the new comedians (Yamamoto and Takeda) won't fail the first obstacle of stage one again, because both could've avoided that had they DONE what Nagano and some of the other competitors did and just take the more cautious approach. For Yamamoto, it isn't the same as it was back in the 1990s, the Rolling Hill (whatever the first obstacle of stage one in Sasuke 31 was called) was designed differently than the Barrel Climb and Rapid Descent from the first 4 tournaments, so to try and rush the jump on the second half isn't recommended. For Takeda, did he really think he was gonna fare any better than Yamamoto? He paused before attempting the jump, and he didn't even get close, he pretty much slammed onto the mat while hitting the water, but oh well.
Yeah the last tournament was really cool to watch, as Asa, Takahashi, Drew Drechsel, and several others made it to stage 3, and Morimoto completed the entire 4 stage tournament.
I really hope Li Yen Zhi returns to compete, and I hope the same for Okuyama, Hashimoto, and Wakky, but we'll have to wait and see. I realize Okuyama hurt his ankle in Sasuke 29 on the Cross Slider in stage 2, but only time will tell if he ever returns or not.
Can't wait for Sasuke 32, and for Nagano's decision on competing in the upcoming tournament.
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