Should Shunsuke retire?

[dakohosu]

I made a similar post about Kanno a while ago because I feel like both of these guys are in the same boat but for very different reasons. I previously said that Kanno should consider retiring due to how his performances have been terrible for the last 5-6 years and is also taking a massive toll on his personal life due to causing him constant injuries that land him in hospital like twice a year.

But the other elephant in the room is Shunsuke, but for polar opposite reasons. Kanno still very much cares about Sasuke but is debilitating his body doing so, however Shunsuke is still incredibly athletically capable yet just doesn’t seem to give a s*** anymore. I actually wonder why the guy still competes.

It’s clear that unlike Kanno his decline in performance has been due to a lack of involvement with training or the community, given that he went downhill ever since he started a family and from his social media has prioritised his family and career over everything else; he almost never posts about Sasuke anymore and went to only one training session prior to Sasuke 39. His lack of training is very clear given that he’s shown how consistent he can be when he puts his mind to it, only failing Stage 1 twice in his first 11 attempts, and now having failed Stage 1 in his last four consecutive attempts. I’m not saying there’s anything wrong with him prioritising other things, in fact I think more competitors should stop letting Sasuke define their personalities and confidence. I just don’t get why Shunsuke still competes given that it almost seems at odds with his priorities; like surely it’s not a good look for his management company and his reputation for him to show up and just flub really early, even if he does get about 3 seconds of screen time per tournament these days.

I also don’t think it’s a Ryo situation where he’ll supposedly ‘regain’ his passion for the show. Contrary to popular belief Ryo never really stopped caring as he’d still attend loads of training sessions and engage with the community, he was just in a mental rut which contributed to his streak of early fails. He did train loads he just let his negative mindset cloud his judgment on the course. Shunsuke literally doesn’t train at all; he even said prior to Sasuke 38 that he hadn’t trained the Cliffhanger in 6 months, and he seems to care less even now. If it were up to me I’d retire with my head high up knowing that in the grand scheme of things I’ve had a really good career and wouldn’t want to dampen that; after all people remember you from your last impression (hence why many automatically associate Yamada with his string of Stage 1 fails, or Drew with his dastardly antics). But that’s just my opinion.

Let me know your thoughts.

[subtleagent]

I think he's only there for fun like Shingo and Yamada are these days. My guess is he still wants to hang out with the community, so SASUKE is his best chance for that. It's entirely possible messing up the Spider Walk in 34 and overthinking it so much in 35 might've made him think he WAS putting too much energy into SASUKE and has decided to step back from it. Obvs his life is also prioritized over a game show, but I wouldn't be surprised if that was a contributing factor. Perhaps also his Dragon Glider fail in 36 caused him to overthink that one too.

My ridiculous theory is he's failing on purpose to piss off his management so they'll dump him and he can get more coverage when they're gone, but that's just silly and why would that even be true anyway? But when Kyan Yutaka of all competitors is doing better than you (on dry surface no less) then there's reason to suspect something's up. LOL

[m4tt3r0x]

Shunsuke isn't part of the golden boys anymore, guys like Yusuke, Tada, and Yoshiyuki. If we're being real he has no shot at being a finalist in his current state, and perhaps a very slim shot even if he was dedicated, similar to Sato Jun. If he thought he had a legitimate and at least a moderately facile chance at succeeding at an elite level I think he'd be gunning to do so, and/or another explanation is he just doesn't care as much about Sasuke anymore. Seems to be a similar sentiment shared with his most common cohort of him, Tomo, and Kanno.

He doesn't train a very dedicated amount like even Yuuji does who is like a decade older. Should he retire because he's not Stage 4 material? I think that's a no because he seems to be among the pool of competitors content with reaching Stage 3 as a (highly respectable) goal, like Darvish, Suzuki Yusuke, and Isa. Should he retire because he's bombing on Stage 1 year after year, and it tarnishes his reputation? Eh, I used to think that way when I was younger and was jaded about the All Stars deteriorating after M9's bankruptcy, but I think differently now. If someone has the humility to not save face then I find that commendable. I don't believe failing when you're older takes away from your reputation when you used to succeed at all, leaving his legacy unchanged. I imagine he believes he trains an adequate amount for what he's going for, and that he doesn't want to give up a rare opportunity to annually compete on such a great show even if he isn't amazing.

Unlike Hioki, who is very similar athleticism wise currently, I don't think Shunsuke cares that much. The only reason I would expect him to retire is if it actually affects his work or his connection to his talent agency.

[sasukewarrior333]

Look dude no offense but Darvish has been mentioned literally once in this thread, he's not remotely relevant to this conversation. I'm not a massive fan of him but he isn't even that bad.

As for the question asked, I think like Kanno it ultimately comes down to the man himself. If he still enjoys being there then he should stay but if he finds it a drag then he should retire. He's had a respectable career with multiple good performances. Also while I don't think he's determined for Total Victory as he used to be, from his reactions on the sidelines you can tell he hasn't lost any supportiveness so I feel like he's still here for a reason, even if that reason is solely the community.

[dakohosu]

I suppose these are all fair comments (except for the Darvish one, obviously. Please, don't derail this thread, it's technically against the rules of SMF....).

Obviously I think the community is a huge contributing factor as to why someone would still want to compete even if they're not at the top of their game, but even here I feel like Shunsuke doesn't engage anymore. In the past year he's basically never gone to any meet-ups except for the one right before Sasuke 39.

I'd also respectfully disagree with someone's track record not being tarnished if they end it with a decline. Nagano's the obvious exception as he defined an entire decade of Sasuke, but Shunsuke has kind of become a meme in the community, like he seemed to be the target of a lot of mockery on YouTube like people posting the digest fail theme as 'Shunsuke's theme' (which to be fair was pretty funny but yeah....). Many seem to often forget how much of a badass he was especially in his teens.

Eh, I don't know. I'm not saying he should retire, more that I just feel as though his attitude to the show is almost at odds with him still competing if that makes sense. Kanno at least makes sense because he clearly still cares about Sasuke, though out of the two if I was Kanno I would probably retire, purely because the guy has repeatedly landed himself in hospital for a recurring shoulder injury, half the instances of which were conceived in competition or during Sasuke training. Dude just needs to know when to call it quits before he permanently fucks himself.

[sasukewarrior333]

I mean I personally feel that there shouldn't be any shame in not doing as well as you used to, everyone has their prime and sometimes people just lose their passion. That's what I was trying to get across, that I don't think there should be any shame to it.

[subtleagent]

At this point in time I could see him considering retirement after say 40 (age, not tournament), but I doubt he will retire anytime soon. As painful as it is to watch him piss his 30s away when he was so consistent in his teens and 20s.

[m4tt3r0x]

It never fails to get a laugh out of me each time I remember that video of Shunsuke's theme being the digest theme

[darthvaderlim]

Mar 14, 2022 14:57:15 GMT -5 PeterPittaBread said:

Darvish clown must retire why he still competes he is obsessed with SASUKE and is the worst ever

To quote Michael Jordan: "Stop it, get some help".

[darthvaderlim]

To me, I'm hoping for maybe one last Stage One clear and probably Stage Two. But if he fails the Dragon Glider in 40 again, then he might either break his five Stage One fail streak, like Akiyama, Shingo, and Ryo, or become another Yamada. Who knows, maybe he could pull off a Yuuji in 34, where he threatens to retire if he fails Stage One again, but clears instead.

[subtleagent]

Unless he somehow regains interest in training as much as he used to I sadly don't see that happening.

[dakohosu]

It's really hard to say given that the Dragon Glider is the only really hard obstacle in the entirety of Stage 1 at this point.

Reaching the Dragon Glider isn't really a reflection of how likely a competitor is to clear Stage 1, given that even guys like Yamada and Honma got that far. That said, we know he has the capability to get past it given that he did so in Sasuke 35 (in its debut no less) unlike Kanno who's failed it four times consecutively without clearing it, but clearly his lack of practice has rendered completion of the obstacle way harder for him. I think he COULD clear if he got past it given that he's got good lower body strength and hence the Tackle+WW combo wouldn't be a huge issue for him, but if he continues not to train then the DG will just continuously thwart his efforts.

I think he could potentially reach Stage 3 if he does make it past there, but that's a huge maybe given that he's also had his fair share of troubles with Stage 2, which again was owed to his dip in interest which is way more prominent now than it was in Sasuke 34-35. And even if he does reach Stage 3, he's failed the Flying Bar three times now if you count Sasuke Indonesia, which is now the first obstacle of so I just feel it'd be another excuse for the YouTube mob to make fun of him, lol.

[PsychoDelusion]

If he wants to compete and he's having fun there's literally 0 reason to think about retirement. He's more marketable than 95% of any potential replacements, he really has no legacy or expectations to carry in his shoulders like Yuuji or Nagano and he's still very young.

[dakohosu]

Mar 15, 2022 11:29:27 GMT -5 PsychoDelusion said:

If he wants to compete and he's having fun there's literally 0 reason to think about retirement. He's more marketable than 95% of any potential replacements, he really has no legacy or expectations to carry in his shoulders like Yuuji or Nagano and he's still very young.

TBS would disagree with that second statement. Every single one of his last 11 runs (ever since he came back from hiatus) has been at least partially digested except for 35, and 7 of them have been completely digested or cut lol.

[PsychoDelusion]

Mar 15, 2022 11:33:42 GMT -5 dakohosu said:

Mar 15, 2022 11:29:27 GMT -5 PsychoDelusion said:

If he wants to compete and he's having fun there's literally 0 reason to think about retirement. He's more marketable than 95% of any potential replacements, he really has no legacy or expectations to carry in his shoulders like Yuuji or Nagano and he's still very young.

TBS would disagree with that second statement. Every single one of his last 11 runs (ever since he came back from hiatus) has been at least partially digested except for 35, and 7 of them have been completely digested or cut lol.

TBS has always been questionable with their digests, especially in the first few tournaments of the RISING era. Shunsuke's slump coincided with the moment they started fixing this issue. Tada has been the hottest competitor in recent tournaments but he's still getting digested frequently so I wouldn't read too much into it. If he gets a solid performance he'll immediately be back on the radar.

[dakohosu]

Mar 15, 2022 12:07:41 GMT -5 PsychoDelusion said:

Mar 15, 2022 11:33:42 GMT -5 dakohosu said:

TBS would disagree with that second statement. Every single one of his last 11 runs (ever since he came back from hiatus) has been at least partially digested except for 35, and 7 of them have been completely digested or cut lol.

TBS has always been questionable with their digests, especially in the first few tournaments of the RISING era. Shunsuke's slump coincided with the moment they started fixing this issue. Tada has been the hottest competitor in recent tournaments but he's still getting digested frequently so I wouldn't read too much into it. If he gets a solid performance he'll immediately be back on the radar.

Dw I was joking. It's a known fact that Shunsuke's been digested due to his management company not having good relationships with TBS; like the guy was one of the most hyped competitors back in the day effectively being Nagano's second-in-command for a while, and then when he comes back after 6 years he gets digested straight away despite clearing. It was such an oddball move given how he was almost considered an All-Star before his hiatus, so I can definitely believe the management comp thing. It's insanely petty of TBS but yeah.

There's always a reason behind the digesting of certain competitors, some more obvious than others; Jun Sato got digested due to TBS not wanting to promote parkour as it's a dangerous sport, Drew got digested due to them preferring to focus on domestic competitors, Shunsuke got digested for the above reason. Others are less obvious like Shinji getting cut and Tada.

As for why Tada gets digested, I suspect that maybe he prefers to be more under the radar, which is also why he wants lower numbers. There's definitely a reason given that no one's had such poor treatment relative to their success in years, just not exactly sure what that reason is.

[subtleagent]

I think Shinji was too much of a wildcard for TBS's liking and Tada isn't the most screenworthy in TBS's eyes so he's expendable to them.