dt
Watanabe Mika
Posts: 62
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Post by dt on Aug 31, 2022 13:21:14 GMT -5
If the 1st Sasuke had multiple winners, how do you think it would have changed the early years of the show? I know initially it was just a one time thing so I’ve always been curious if the view of the show and it’s future would have been different if multiple people won right off the bat.
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Post by dakohosu on Aug 31, 2022 14:31:47 GMT -5
I think the show would've still had a future. Don't forget that Japanese shows ending with no winner or no one having beaten a course was a fairly common thing, unlike Western shows where the whole grandeur of a successful end to a tournament is almost a pre-requisite for commercial success (hence why ANW started giving $100k to anyone who went the furthest even if they didn't win). I mean look at Takeshi's Castle, hell even some Kinniku Banzuke events where some events ended with no winner/no one completing the course. Compare this to Total Wipeout where you could fail as many times as you liked and your success depended purely on how fast you beat the course; it would've been more exciting if you weren't allowed to fail at all, but they didn't want the risk of there being no winner.
Anyway, I'm digressing. The point is that if competitors had won on Sasuke 1, then while in Western cultures this would've been a good outcome (and would've potentially been sufficiently satisfactory to leave it as a one-time special), it probably would've signified a failure on behalf of the producers not making the course hard enough rather than a 'success', because I'm sure they intended for no one to win (hence why they made Sasuke 2 through 4 harder every tounament in spite of there being no winner until 4). It would've just made the producers more motivated to make the following tournament even harder, such that no one wins in subsequent tournaments which would obviously earn Sasuke the whole 'world's hardest obstacle course' namesake which was what made it so popular.
The only thing I really question is how whoever won Sasuke 1 would've been treated or viewed upon today, especially if there were indeed multiple winners, which obviously implies that the course is 'too easy' (I mean look at Kunoichi 8 lol). Would they just be discarded for winning on the literally easiest version of the course? Especially if one of them was Omori, who obviously had a pretty steep decline after Sasuke 3, and had he won in Sasuke 1, probably would've declined earlier given that they would've buffed the course more significantly for Sasuke 2. I mean Akiyama's win is often considered a fluke or is discarded especially compared to the other three champions, and Sasuke 4's course was a lot harder than Sasuke 1.
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Post by Messup434 on Aug 31, 2022 16:07:29 GMT -5
It’s interesting to imagine. I think it might have sped up the climb in difficulty as they would’ve gone hard for Sasuke 2 to make sure no one won it as well. But it’d probably affect the next five or so tournaments and then generally return to the difficulty trends we had around Sasuke 7 or 8. The courses would probably all be different than what they’ve been in terms of lineup, but I doubt the difference would be huge now (and Sasuke 18/28 kind of reset it anyway).
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Eclipse
Satō Jun
Retired Staff
Posts: 737
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Post by Eclipse on Aug 31, 2022 16:11:59 GMT -5
It would be hard to say honestly. SASUKE was always intended as a 1 off, and only continued due to popularity and the perceived challenge. If there was multiple winners immediately, that may have cut into both of those and caused it to end early.
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dt
Watanabe Mika
Posts: 62
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Post by dt on Aug 31, 2022 22:35:19 GMT -5
It would be hard to say honestly. SASUKE was always intended as a 1 off, and only continued due to popularity and the perceived challenge. If there was multiple winners immediately, that may have cut into both of those and caused it to end early. That’s what I have been curious about. I would like to think that dakohosu is correct that it would have just been a slight difference. But I have always wondered how much not having a winner affected the enigma of the whole thing. Like, if people won in every tournament, especially multiple people, then Sasuke just wouldn’t seem like that big of a deal. To me at least
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