[SPOILERS] Again.....

[dakohosu]

So Shunsuke and Kanno failed the Dragon Glider again; for the third and fourth time respectively.

What’s your take on this?

A part of me feels that Kanno should retire soon. Surely it’s not worth getting injured left right centre for subpar results and he’s failed Stage 1 six times in a row now.

[sasukefinnja]

It's really weird that Shunsuke cleared Dragon Glider when it was introduced first time...but since then he has failed it 3 times after that and he's doing worse every time he's trying that obstacle.

[m4tt3r0x]

Even Kanno cleared the transition the first time

[dakohosu]

Dec 28, 2021 11:27:47 GMT -5 sasukefinnja said:

It's really weird that Shunsuke cleared Dragon Glider when it was introduced first time...but since then he has failed it 3 times after that and he's doing worse every time he's trying that obstacle.

Yeah, especially as this was in 35 when it was a completely new obstacle that they couldn't have trained for. Their performances have been getting worse and worse on it as well.

Nagasaki clears it, then fails the dismount, and then fails the first transition twice.

Kanno nearly cleared it in 35, next doesn't let go of the first bar, and then falls off the first bar twice.

As much as it pains me to say it I think both should probably think about retiring. Shunsuke's head clearly isn't in the game anymore; he was known for his mad consistency up until recently so him being 4 Stage 1 fails in is an indicator that he just doesn't train or care much anymore. Kanno's now six straight fails in which no one has recovered from (it's always been five max) and he keeps getting injured competing; he got injured in 27 (twice), 32, 33, and 38. It's just not worth him continuing to deliver subpar performances at the expense of his physical health. 

[m4tt3r0x]

Kanno got injured in 38?
He physically looked the best he has in years this tournament. I don't think he should retire. He's only 36 too, and he does train a lot.

[dakohosu]

Yeah apparently he re-injured his shoulder when he failed. That backflip into the water did look pretty painful tbf.

It’s less about age and more about his injuries. At this point he’s injured himself in 3 out of his last 6 attempts. Think about that; one 100-something second run, granted pretty difficult, and he’s still dislocated or torn something in half of his recent attempts. And he’s only 36, the older he gets the worse and more chronic his shoulder issue will become.

It doesn’t matter if he trains a lot if he ends up being in hospital for half the time and constantly has to rebuild himself from zero, which he’s done countless times at this point. Half of his YouTube videos are to do with him in the surgery unit in hospital.

So many athletes have retired from less serious and recurring injuries, and far fewer than six bad runs in a row. At the end of the day it’s Kanno’s call and I’d be sad to see him go, but it’s personally even sadder for me to watch him debilitate himself further and further in pursuit of victory.

[m4tt3r0x]

Good point. It's a shame because injuries aside I think he'd regularly match if not outperform guys like Hioki and Sato on Stage 3. He has phenomenal grip strength and he's probably gotten one of the best strength to weight ratios for his weight class.

As for Shunsuke I don't know what's up with him... he purposefully avoids practicing the Dragon Glider so I suspect injury as well. He just skips it at Matsuda's

[subtleagent]

Maybe they are pocketed by it in the same way Yamada was pocketed by the Warped Wall.

[SRW]

They are just in its pocket like how Hioki is forever in the cliffhangers pocket!

[CustomKing57]

What is the point of these two dying stars even competing now if all they're gonna do is just fail at the EXACT SAME spot over and over again. It seems as if they're being forced to continue competing when they don't want to anymore or are being bribed to fail the Dragon Glider on purpose. Also a part of me just feels like they're pretending that they want to do their best to clear Stage 1 but instead just replay their failures from last year because they've had enough. I also wasn’t confident that Shunsuke was gonna clear because he didn’t even train for the Dragon Glider properly (maybe because he was hurt at the time).

[m4tt3r0x]

They're definitely not being forced to complete nor failing on purpose lol. They're former finalists in their 30s just in a rut. They have good reason to still compete

[dakohosu]

I agree seeing Kanno do the Crazy Cliffhanger+Vertical Limit combo in practice was pretty surprising and gave me some hope to say the least. It is a huge shame that Stage 1 seems to be his Achilles heel (if you’ll pardon the pun) but he needs to prioritise training athleticism rather than just Stage 3 or weightlifting if he wants to break through. Again though I stand by what I said; unless he does a Shingo and the shoulder injury just goes away it’s just not worth being in hospital for half of the year. Also, Kanno never struck me as someone who’s taken losing very well; he’s always openly expressed his discontent even when he reached the Final Stage. I’m just worried he’s almost becoming a Katsumi Yamada of the modern era, allowing his mental burden of an ever increasing string of Stage 1 failures to further dampen his performances, resulting in this horrible negative feedback loop. Also I’d LOVE to be proven wrong here but I’ve always seen 4-5 consecutive Stage 1 failures as the maximum point before no return and Kanno’s not cleared since Sasuke 31 now.

Shunsuke I actually don’t know why he hasn’t retired yet. Don’t get me wrong, he was a huge inspiration for me when I was younger and is still clearly very athletic and I’d hate to see him retire, but I don’t know why he continues to compete when he clearly doesn’t care anymore. Like he almost never trains or talks about Sasuke, and has sort of started his own life with his family separate from the Sasuke community. At least with Kanno he still very much cares about doing well whereas Shunsuke just seems to show face unprepared and then fail Stage 1.

And yeah that last comment is just dumb sorry to say. Why would they fail on purpose? No one, even the joke competitors, fail on purpose, so why would two of the biggest names on the show do so? Makes zero sense.

[subtleagent]

Given the Dragon Glider is all they ever fail anymore, it leaves me to wonder how they would do if it wasn't in the tournament. They seem to get to it with a decent amount of time (IMO if you have at least 40 seconds when you get there, you've got a good shot of beating Stage 1) only to fail.

[dakohosu]

Yeah but it’s the only genuinely hard obstacle in the entirety of Stage 1.

If it wasn’t there they’d probably clear; but then we’d end up getting 30-40+ clears unless something equally as hard replaces it.

Besides, even if Shunsuke does clear Stage 1, his relationship with the Spider Walk is, let’s just say rocky.....

[PsychoDelusion]

Dec 29, 2021 12:48:15 GMT -5 dakohosu said:

I agree seeing Kanno do the Crazy Cliffhanger+Vertical Limit combo in practice was pretty surprising and gave me some hope to say the least. It is a huge shame that Stage 1 seems to be his Achilles heel (if you’ll pardon the pun) but he needs to prioritise training athleticism rather than just Stage 3 or weightlifting if he wants to break through. Again though I stand by what I said; unless he does a Shingo and the shoulder injury just goes away it’s just not worth being in hospital for half of the year. Also, Kanno never struck me as someone who’s taken losing very well; he’s always openly expressed his discontent even when he reached the Final Stage. I’m just worried he’s almost becoming a Katsumi Yamada of the modern era, allowing his mental burden of an ever increasing string of Stage 1 failures to further dampen his performances, resulting in this horrible negative feedback loop. Also I’d LOVE to be proven wrong here but I’ve always seen 4-5 consecutive Stage 1 failures as the maximum point before no return and Kanno’s not cleared since Sasuke 31 now.

Shunsuke I actually don’t know why he hasn’t retired yet. Don’t get me wrong, he was a huge inspiration for me when I was younger and is still clearly very athletic and I’d hate to see him retire, but I don’t know why he continues to compete when he clearly doesn’t care anymore. Like he almost never trains or talks about Sasuke, and has sort of started his own life with his family separate from the Sasuke community. At least with Kanno he still very much cares about doing well whereas Shunsuke just seems to show face unprepared and then fail Stage 1.

And yeah that last comment is just dumb sorry to say. Why would they fail on purpose? No one, even the joke competitors, fail on purpose, so why would two of the biggest names on the show do so? Makes zero sense.

Just because someone doesn't live and breathe SASUKE (or at least show that to the outside world), it doesn't mean that they don't care about the competition. Shunsuke has been in this competition longer than 90-95% of the current roster and he clearly has the ability to go far physically. It's just a mental thing in an obstacle where lots of things happen at an insanely fast rate and you get only one chance to succeed.

In terms of Kanno he simply carried way too much momentum causing the bar not to flow smoothly on the rails, thus not giving him the correct angle for a smooth jump. Both still got this but when you get only one tournament per year it's hard to redeem yourself and even harder to get in the right mental state in do or die situations.

[dakohosu]

Dec 29, 2021 15:47:27 GMT -5 PsychoDelusion said:

Just because someone doesn't live and breathe SASUKE (or at least show that to the outside world), it doesn't mean that they don't care about the competition. Shunsuke has been in this competition longer than 90-95% of the current roster and he clearly has the ability to go far physically. It's just a mental thing in an obstacle where lots of things happen at an insanely fast rate and you get only one chance to succeed.

I never said that was a necessary prerequisite for doing well or caring about Sasuke.

But to me at least it's plain and clear that his interest in Sasuke is waning, especially ever since he had his first child. He used to often post about training sessions and hanging out with fellow competitors, whereas he almost never does any of these things anymore. I also remember before Sasuke 38, he mentioned that he hadn't trained for Sasuke specifically in 6 months, and as far as I know, he only went to one training session prior to 39 and that was it. Recently all of his social media posts have been about his family, particularly his kids and his brother, as well as his career as a removals van driver; it's clear that Sasuke just isn't a priority for him anymore, and that's absolutely fine (I am aware that competitors have their own lives and are human beings unlike certain other members of this forum) but it's very obvious.

And the reason I made this post is partially because it was annoying to see him fail again BECAUSE I know he's so physically capable. He's only 34 and is still in great shape so I'm not doubting his ability. It's 100% there but the drive and determination just doesn't seem to be, hence why most of his failures recently have been complete rookie errors that he never would've made in his prime; he's mentally checked out because he doesn't hold clearing Stages 1 and 2 as as pertinent as he once likely did. 

Also I fail to see how him having competed for longer than other competitors is a factor. If anything it's more time to have ridden the wave of hype over competing, unlike the fresher faces who's passion is probably at an all time high in their first few years.

[CustomKing57]

I wasn’t actually saying that they were trying to fail on purpose, it was just an assumption. I’ve given up with these two challengers anyway though because they’ve failed the Dragon Glider multiple times now and I have no more faith in them to clear Stage 1. Shunsuke should either make the decision to retire or come back and do better than ever because it’s just a waste to see him failing in the same position many times, likewise for Kanno although his fails were more personal than mental.

[Sasuke Mania]

Dec 29, 2021 11:17:10 GMT -5 CustomKing57 said:

What is the point of these two dying stars even competing now if all they're gonna do is just fail at the EXACT SAME spot over and over again. It seems as if they're being forced to continue competing when they don't want to anymore or are being bribed to fail the Dragon Glider on purpose. Also a part of me just feels like they're pretending that they want to do their best to clear Stage 1 but instead just replay their failures from last year because they've had enough. I also wasn’t confident that Shunsuke was gonna clear because he didn’t even train for the Dragon Glider properly (maybe because he was hurt at the time).

"Ayo Shunsuke, I'll give you ¥50,000 and *holds back laughter* a fully shown run if you fail the Dragon Glider again. It's all on the table you f***ing los-I mean, my friend"