Which competitors do/don’t you feel bad for?

[tns8597]

Several high-profile competitors have had their downs as well as their ups. Which competitors would you say you’ve felt bad for, as well as those who you don’t feel bad for in spite of them being unlucky/underperforming?

[Ninja Relaxer]

Competitors I feel bad for:

Katsumi Yamada - He wanted kanzenseiha probably more than any other competitor, and he had what it took for a while -- but then he just kept declining and declining. I wish he had had at least one more Stage 4 attempt. He earned it (Pipe Slider mishaps aside).

Hitoshi Kanno - He obviously cares a lot about Sasuke, but multiple injuries have held him back. Unfortunately, his best years are probably behind him now and he might never reach Stage 4 again. He was, at one time, one of Sasuke's most promising competitors and also one of the original New Stars, but people seem to have forgotten that now. So even Kanno's legacy has kind of disappeared.

Rie Komiya - She was one of the most promising Japanese female competitors, and she proved herself on Kunoichi, but she just couldn't beat Stage 1 of Sasuke. I think she had what it took, but for whatever reason, didn't deliver. Too bad.

Makoto Nagano - He's kind of a mix of don't and do. After watching those seasons where he got screwed over by an obstacle mishap, or just narrowly missed the buzzer in Stage 4, I definitely feel sorry for him. I also feel sorry for him because American athletes do @*$% that's far less impressive than what he did, but they're the ones being paid millions of dollars. In a fair world, Nagano would be a bigger celebrity. Of course, I don't know what sort of life Nagano is leading, but I doubt he's living in a multi-million dollar mansion like some far-less talented people.

[tns8597]

Yamada I'm sort of unsure about. I do feel bad for him in the sense that he did get incredibly unlucky in his earlier competitions, which was largely a function of his obsession and self-doubt which caused several of his fails. It did get to a point though that I felt like he was bringing disappointment on himself by continuing to persevere even after years and years of Stage 1 fails; I stopped feeling bad for him because he clearly just failed to listen to reason at that point. Also his selfishness, jealousy, and willingness to cheat sort of dampened any pity I had for him.

Kanno I agree with; Nagano I would've been more inclined to agree with had he not achieved Kanzenseiha, because while I agree he did get screwed over in competitions like 21, he at least did already have the title under his belt so it's not like he was robbed of his legacy if that makes sense.

Others I feel bad for include Shiratori who never got a chance to continue competing due to his injuries, and I felt like he had so much more left in the tank otherwise/so much more to prove. Also quite an obvious one that I don't need to explain: Takeda...

One recent competitor that springs to mind that I don't feel bad for has to be Ryo: I did initially feel bad for him because he came so close to Kanzen in 30, then failed Stage 1 next time around which allowed him to get robbed. He's since developed quite a bitter demeanor which is the main reason I don't feel bad for him; he didn't stand up or clap for Morimoto when he won, he apparently became very cold ever since, and doesn't train so almost deserved his 5 straight Stage 1 failures you could argue. He also doesn't seem to really care that much about Sasuke anyway so it's not like Yamada who's life depended on his results.

[Kane-Not-Kosugi]

I will never feel more sorry for anyone than Takeda. He's really never gonna have made the Final Stage in his career...

[LusitaniaAngel313]

Takeda definitely is up there but Shingo should also be mentioned. He seemed to be in the worst rut as soon as Nagano won. We already knew his shoulder had problems especially when SASUKE 7 is mentioned and how it ended for him. That shoulder truly ruined his chances of being a legit threat to kanzen. It hurts me that he just can't seem to get back to just stage 2 as he keeps losing it to mind games... He's almost only known to be the one to showcase stupid ways to fail. He's failed 38 times to kanzen. The number only continues until SASUKE ends for good.

[ChiBiJKT48]

Feb 18, 2021 3:38:47 GMT -5 LusitaniaAngel313 said:

Takeda definitely is up there but Shingo should also be mentioned. He seemed to be in the worst rut as soon as Nagano won. We already knew his shoulder had problems especially when SASUKE 7 is mentioned and how it ended for him. That shoulder truly ruined his chances of being a legit threat to Kanzen.

Nah, it wasn't the shoulder, it was when he change his shirt to Red (for context, I love Blue).

But in all seriousness, at last he can beat the Trampoline part, so I'm curious about his SASUKE 39 appearance. Lets hope Takeda's Clear *despite it was DQ* fueled him to do better than his rival.

[tns8597]

To be fair, jokes aside, his results did go down the sh***er when he changed his shirt to red. In fact his worst Stage 3 performance with a blue shirt was still better than his best with a red shirt, though we're obvs comparing two different difficulties here.

I think the main reason I felt bad for Shingo was that his injury was causing his body to almost prematurely age in a way; he was barely in his late 20s yet his results were already declining, as shown by his Stage 3 trend, to the point that by the time he'd hit 30 (which are most competitor's golden age), his chances of Kanzen were basically zero. I also felt bad how after 5 tournaments of Stage 1 fails in Shin-Sasuke, he finally made it back to Stage 3 only to injure his shoulder AGAIN right at the start.

I don't really feel bad for him anymore though, mainly because I think he just competes for the fun of it and seems to take everything really light-hearted. He's mainly in it for the community spirit and the enjoyment of training, as well as maintaining his perfect attendance record. Mind you, out of all the All-Stars he was the one who took defeat in the best way; he always smiled everytime he failed.

[sasukefinnja]

Daisuke Nakata. He was a really solid competitor in Sasuke 8-13 but after that motorcycle accident he was never same because that accident left his wrists really crooked. His performances after that accident really hurt me to watch because that pain in his wrists is just too much in those obstacles where good grip is needed.

Also having crooked wrists and painful grip doesn't only be bad thing in Sasuke, it also makes your life outside Sasuke really difficult especially when you're an athlete and acrobat and you have a really physical lifestyle.

[tns8597]

Oh yeah for sure that was an awful accident. It was actually really impressive how despite that he managed to reach Stage 3 in Sasuke 17, and clear Shin-Sasuke's Stage 1 in Sasuke 21; specifically getting through obstacles like the Metal Spin and Half-Pipe Attack which require grip strength to get through. His Salmon Ladder attempt though was really sad as you could tell he was desperately trying and failing to get through the pain, and how that attempt consolidated his retirement from Sasuke as he accepted he could never reach his full potential with his injury.

Mind you, in spite of how horrible the incident was, thank god he didn't sustain any injuries to his lower body, so he could at least continue the sport he was best at; trampolining.

[wrestlingfan55]

Nakata's a definite one. He always brought a lot of fun whenever he competed, so it's a shame he didn't/couldn't do it anymore. His run in 21 was no joke.

I would also say Akiyama, as his deteriorating eyesight hindered his potential. He was so impressive in his prime, and he could have been even better. Strangely enough, he might be the only person who doesn't feel sorry about it.

[tns8597]

While we're here, another 'group' to add to the list of competitors I feel bad for: the numerous competitors who've trained for years on end for Sasuke yet have never actually been given the chance to compete due to failing trials or not being selected through the audition process: like Unlimited Cliffer No. 4 who's clearly insanely strong and frequently posted on YouTube doing things like weighted Vertical Limit and Cliffhanger movements, one arm ledge pull-ups etc., but failed in pretty much every trial except for one (29 I think) where he went out on Stage 1. It's a massive shame given that there are clearly some really talented guys out there who train endlessly for Sasuke yet are complete unknowns by the community due to their lack of presence for one reason or another. Also so many competitors that grew to be among the most prolific like Keitaro and Hioki spent years trying and failing to qualify; even Yuuji failed to qualify for Sasuke 13.

Also, I feel really bad for the other Black Tigers apart from Yoshiyuki and Isa; they're basically like substitutes/standby at this point, and given the aforementioned two's recent successes it doesn't seem like they'll be allowed to compete any time soon unless Yamada's allowed more slots which hasn't been the case since Sasuke 34. Especially Hiroshige who didn't deserve to be sidelined as he was relatively successful, but suffered as collateral damage after Obata got banned for harassing women; I'm honestly surprised he wasn't selected to compete in 37 instead of Isa, given that Isa's performance in 36 was horrendous.

[sasukefinnja]

I hope that some day Hiroshige gets invited back and we could see a new group called:

YAMAMOTO SEDAI!!!

including Yamamoto Yoshiyuki, Yamamoto Hiroshige, Yamamoto Keitaro and Yamamoto Shingo

[PizzaKing57]

Challengers who I feel bad for, let's see:

Toshihiro Takeda - For never once making it to the Final Stage, where he was a firefighter in his prime with his climbing skills from his former job playing to his advantage in that level and could've won if he had ever made it there at all.

Bunpei Shiratori - After Shin-SASUKE emerged, he worked really hard practicing for the Salmon Ladder and it's so bad that his chronical injuries held him back from ever attempting this obstacle.

Kenjiro Ishimaru - His strength was on par with Yamada's for a guy in his 50s and it's so sad that in all of his sixteen attempts, he was never able to break the record for oldest 1st Stage clear.

Keitaro Yamamoto - You obviously know the reason to this one so I'm not going to tell you again and I won't be excited to watch him in 39, as I sadly think he won't reach his target again and is just so disappointing to watch.

Shunsuke Nagasaki - For being digested way too much in this current RISING era, as he is a very nostalgic challenger who has competed since his teenage years and that makes him really fun to watch. I really hope he eventually gets more airtime and full runs at some point, like he did in 32.

Jamie Rahn - After travelling halfway around the world to prove himself, his run sadly ended in just 20 seconds where most of us were expecting him to go really far in the course and I hope he gets a sorry invite which is unlikely.

And who I don't feel bad for:

Katsumi Yamada - With his unhealthy obsession for SASUKE, failing the 1st Stage several consecutive times in a row was deserved in order to teach him a lesson that family is more important than this show, but he just didn't listen and never gave up.

Ryo Matachi - He deserved to fail the 1st Stage countless times expressing a very negative attitude to the show like this, as he should've pushed himself to train harder if he wanted to achieve Kanzenseiha, but instead he just got out of shape.

Kenji Darvish - After his trip to the 3rd Stage in 36 which ended in a short amount of time, he built a replica of some obstacles in that stage to practise hard on and I'm not surprised that he missed his chances by failing the Dragon Glider twice in a row, so that the broadcast could focus on those people who made it further, instead of annoyingly witnessing too much screen-time of this guy reacting to other challenger's fails.

He-who-shall-not-be-named - It's great that he was never able to make it to the Final Stage, match Takeda's record for most 3rd Stage consecutive attempts (which is now set by Jun Sato) by making a silly mistake or receive the penultimate spot of #99.

[wrestlingfan55]

I was in the Training thread reading some old posts, in some STQer threads (remember those?). You had guys like Shinya who'd do amazing things with their upper body, but would never get past Stage 1. It took Ryo, Tomo, Keitaro etc. years to just get past the First Stage despite all of their amazing displays on Cliffhanger replicas. Keita only got to Sasuke once (IIRC) and failed the Jump Hang horrifically.

Well they're the type of competitors I don't necessarily feel sorry for. If you don't train your overall conditioning, then what's the point?

[tns8597]

Mar 21, 2021 9:06:13 GMT -5 wrestlingfan55 said:

I was in the Training thread reading some old posts, in some STQer threads (remember those?). You had guys like Shinya who'd do amazing things with their upper body, but would never get past Stage 1. It took Ryo, Tomo, Keitaro etc. years to just get past the First Stage despite all of their amazing displays on Cliffhanger replicas. Keita only got to Sasuke once (IIRC) and failed the Jump Hang horrifically.

Well they're the type of competitors I don't necessarily feel sorry for. If you don't train your overall conditioning, then what's the point?

Most of the competitors you've listed kind of took the fact that 'Stage 3 is the hardest stage' a bit too literally.


Don't get me wrong, reaching Stage 3 in any era of the show is impressive, but there's a HUGE difference in the pedestal that competitors are put on comparing someone who's made Stage 3 even consistently, to a former Finalist, due to the brutal reputation the former built up through constant refreshes and failures. This reputation that is arguably more intimidating than any other stage (even Stage 4 potentially) led these guys to focus most of their efforts on practicing Stage 3 as they knew it was the most pertinent stage to breaking through, but in doing so ignored a lot of the other aspects of athleticism required to actually reach there in the first place, like agility in Stage 1 and speed in Stage 2.


This culminated in this subgroup of trial qualifiers who everyone wanted to see compete because they were fully aware of their potential, but most never got the chance to shine because despite having insane upper bodies that could carry them through Stage 3 they didn't have the technique, stamina, and/or speed to get through the earlier stages or even qualify in some cases.


I feel like a perfect example of who I'm talking about is Shinya. He got invited to Sasuke 25 because of his insane backyard Cliffhanger course which alone was enough to justify his strength, and then he goes and botches the first obstacle, and does so again in Sasuke 33. He only cleared Stage 1 once out of his eight attempts, and only did so on a massively nerfed course (Sasuke 30) and still yielded the slowest time out of the 27 clears that tournament. His results alone show that he's spent far too long prioritising doing all these crazy tricks on the Cliffhanger etc. yet has ignored attributes speed, agility, and technique that would've positioned him much better for Stage 1. Keitaro and Stage 2 is another example, but we've already discussed this several times so I won't reiterate lol.

[Kane-Not-Kosugi]

Unpopular opinion but I feel bad for Darvish. The guy has continuously shown he's passionate and actually wants to improve upon his skills and he's being held back by 1 obstacle at the moment. He's also getting older, so that's not favorable for him either. I think if he started when he was younger he'd have been a Stage 2 regular at least.

[tns8597]

Mar 21, 2021 16:23:11 GMT -5 Kane-Not-Kosugi said:

Unpopular opinion but I feel bad for Darvish. The guy has continuously shown he's passionate and actually wants to improve upon his skills and he's being held back by 1 obstacle at the moment. He's also getting older, so that's not favorable for him either. I think if he started when he was younger he'd have been a Stage 2 regular at least.

Same tbh despite me being someone who's openly stated that I'm reeeaallly not a Darvish fan. 

From what I understand the Dragon Glider actually malfunctioned during his attempt in 38, in that the bar didn't go all the way to the end of the first track or something. They didn't even show the replay on his Paravi edit which implies they knew what had happened and attempted to cover it up, which is pretty disgraceful.

But yeah, despite the fact that we can all agree he has no shot at Kanzen (his Stage 3 attempt confirmed this), it is a shame that he never built upon his Stage 3 debut despite training and improving his technique and skillset. 

[Kane-Not-Kosugi]

Yeah I'm not like a huge fan of Darvish or whatever also. I just think he gets too much unnecessary hate. "hE gETs tOo mUcH sCreEEnTiMe" okay??? He's not the editor???

And he's capable of clearing Stage 1 (or at least was) so I really don't have a problem with him. I feel as if he made his debut in Shin SASUKE he would've been better acclimated to the course.

[subtleagent]

I would say Kong comes to mind. He very likely would've Kanzened has he not gotten knotted in the safety rope and the show barely acknowledged his success (they were always quick to digest him despite turning in crazy strong performances). And his retirement ceremony was bad, might as well have not given him one with how painfully short it was.

[tns8597]

Mar 30, 2021 15:54:26 GMT -5 subtleagent said:

I would say Kong comes to mind. He very likely would've Kanzened has he not gotten knotted in the safety rope and the show barely acknowledged his success (they were always quick to digest him despite turning in crazy strong performances). And his retirement ceremony was bad, might as well have not given him one with how painfully short it was.

For some reason Inui just seemed to have no regard for any of the successful competitors from the Shin-Sasuke era; Hashimoto, Okuyama, Kong, Lee En-Chih; all got sidelined/digested and some flat out just didn't even get invited to 28 in favour of a bunch of hopeless/joke competitors. A fair few of them retired not long after the start of the RISING era anyway, but Kong persisted despite getting treated like s***. Getting digested in 30 as well as being disqualified due to a broken obstacle, getting his Stage 1 clear completely flat out cut in 31, and then getting the fast forward treatment for pretty much all the remainder of his runs.

I think the issue (if you could call it one) is that similar to Shunsuke, he's kind of an outsider, having been a prolific competitor across several eras and hence not really belonging to any particular group that defined such an era; both competed in the All-Star era but not enough to have been made an All-Star, but then due to their long-standing veteran status (and I'd argue in Kong's case his age as well), they weren't really a good fit for the 'Shin Sedai' either. And knowing Inui, he loves to use 'groups' to market the show: he recognised the success that a single entity like the 'All-Stars' brought to the show, and so is trying desperately to replicate that culture in the form of the Morimoto Sedai (which imo is a massive failure so far) and the Black Tigers. In his eyes, Kong simply wasn't worth the screen time because he wasn't part of any 'wider narrative' that's supposedly much more impactful to document than just a single competitor's escapades.


I think it's a stupid reason given Kong's All-Star level of success and contribution to the show, as well as the fact that the guy has real on-screen presence that's actually worthy of screen time; his badass all-red outfit, demeanour and screams whenever he clears really gave him a such unique standout character, much more so than many of the over-represented competitors like Kawaguchi. And yeah, his final run was just the icing on the cake; his retirement ceremony was the equivalent of giving a beggar a 1p coin (in that it was an insultingly half-arsed effort, but 'it's better than nothing right!?'). Oh well, Inui is Inui at this point....