Recent videos on Sasuke's Channel Youtube

[vaughan]

Have you all noticed that the Sasuke YouTube channel has been uploading every Sasuke tournament in condensed 15 minute videos. They seem to be uploading a tournament every couple days and from the video titles, it seems their intention is to go all the way up to Sasuke 39.

Do any of you reckon this is a potential countdown to a Sasuke 40 announcement?

Also what do all of you think of the videos? Obviously a lot is cut out in these videos but I've found it quite fun to watch these tournaments casually in my spare time. I've also enjoyed being able to finally see some of the earlier tournaments in a HD quality.

[subtleagent]

It's more than likely a countdown, though it does back up the notion that the TBS YouTube channel has run out of ideas. I mean what will happen next year when they cycle through the rehashed content again. Maybe next they'll upload some random competitors failing... oh wait they already did that too.

I reckon the cut runs uploaded were to compensate for what they possibly had to cut before the tournament was released, but I do legit also think they're just scraping the bottom of the barrel at this point.

[dakohosu]

Honestly my first thought, when I saw them post the highlights from Sasuke 1, was "I really hope they're not going to do this for every tournament", but I'm hardly surprised. They ran out of material to showcase 4-5 months ago, it's pretty much all just been replays of runs from old tournaments with the odd Sasuke 40-related post, but they're few and far between. If they actually showed some exclusive footage then fair enough, but from what I've heard they likely don't have access to any additional footage beyond the broadcast for any tournament before 28. I personally couldn't really care less, as I've seen every tournament in full in good quality, so it's really nothing groundbreaking.

I do understand however from the perspective of the average Japanese viewer that this might be appealing. Majority of current fans haven't seen/don't have access to any of the older tournaments, so for them it's a good reminder of the history of the show leading up to the 40th tournament/25th anniversary, and allows them to watch some unseen (to them at least) footage. I still think showing highlights from EVERY ONE of the last 39 tournaments is massively excessive but as subtleagent mentioned they literally have nothing else at this point to show, and they need to keep the level of hype and excitement relatively high, so not posting isn't really an option for them. Overall, I get why they're doing what they're doing, it just doesn't appeal to people like us, as we're in the massive minority.

I doubt they'll do this kind of thing for every tournament, given that this is clearly to celebrate the rare occasion of being both an anniversary in terms of years and tournament numbers. I mean they can't continue just recycling the same material every few months before viewers start picking up on said patterns and lose interest.

On another note, the rate at which they're showing each tournament is likely an indicator of when the tournament is likely to air, given that I presume they're going to be churning out these highlights such that they'll recap 39 right before 40 airs. They've posted about the first 7 tournaments over the last 2 weeks. That roughly works out to the next 32 tournaments being shown across the next 9 weeks, which works out roughly to a mid-to-late December air date. Can't say I didn't suspect they'd wait until the end of the year to air the tournament, but oh well.

[subtleagent]

I think my theory for why guys like Shunsuke, Kanno, Araki, and Tada getting so much spotlight despite ending up on the cutting room floor so much is because they want to make it up to the viewers who did want to see them. Remember SASUKE 30 went WAY over the 4 hour limit initially and they had to cut out massive chunks just to stay under that limit and clearly they weren't satisfied with the edit hence why the extended edit showing Shingo, Yuuji, Shinya in Stage 1 and Shunsuke, and D***'s full Stage 3 runs came to be. They knew no one was satisfied with it.

So I figure since guys like Shunsuke and Kanno as well as the Morimoto Sedai (as much as some might disagree with me) have no real value to the ratings as they either fail the same obstacle or blend together personality-wise are usually the first to be chopped out. It would also explain why Araki got so much focus in 39 on the sidelines despite being erased completely. Whilst guys like Hioki, Matsuda, and Kawaguchi clearly have more value (to TBS at least) for what they've contributed to the show so they're probably never going to be digested or cut again. Not saying I necessarily agree with this method, but this is just what I think. My ideal method would be reducing celebrity filler and making Stage 1 harder to weed out the weaker competitors, but I think that one's been said enough even if it did negatively contribute to the last two tournaments.

[Messup434]

What?? I think it’s been really cool, I mean it’s at least a new spin on promoting the show and yeah it’s clearly just because this is a special tournament number-wise. I think they’re pretty good, wish they’d feature some of the one-offs obstacles, but that’s nitpicking.

I think it’s pretty clearly a countdown to Sasuke 40 itself seeing the pace they are going at.

[dakohosu]

Oct 11, 2022 7:44:15 GMT -5 Messup434 said:

What?? I think it’s been really cool, I mean it’s at least a new spin on promoting the show and yeah it’s clearly just because this is a special tournament number-wise. I think they’re pretty good, wish they’d feature some of the one-offs obstacles, but that’s nitpicking.

I think it’s pretty clearly a countdown to Sasuke 40 itself seeing the pace they are going at.

Each to their own, but I think the main gripe is that for hardcore fans who’ve seen every tournament in full, it just doesn’t add anything to what we’ve seen already, besides slightly better quality. However I do admit this is a very selfish point of view. I can see why they’re doing it to please the majority of fans who likely haven’t seen a lot of said footage and may need a recap on past tournaments.

[nekomi3]

Well I don't mind spending 15 minutes or so to rewatch the old tournaments again while waiting for Sasuke 2022. I can't wait to see the highlights of season 28 to 30 because I didn't know much of those.

[dakohosu]

Oct 11, 2022 9:15:37 GMT -5 nekomi3 said:

Well I don't mind spending 15 minutes or so to rewatch the old tournaments again while waiting for Sasuke 2022. I can't wait to see the highlights of season 28 to 30 because I didn't know much of those.

You’re not missing much, at least in terms of 28 and 29. 30 is better.

[Messup434]

Oct 11, 2022 8:51:58 GMT -5 dakohosu said:

Oct 11, 2022 7:44:15 GMT -5 Messup434 said:

What?? I think it’s been really cool, I mean it’s at least a new spin on promoting the show and yeah it’s clearly just because this is a special tournament number-wise. I think they’re pretty good, wish they’d feature some of the one-offs obstacles, but that’s nitpicking.

I think it’s pretty clearly a countdown to Sasuke 40 itself seeing the pace they are going at.

Each to their own, but I think the main gripe is that for hardcore fans who’ve seen every tournament in full, it just doesn’t add anything to what we’ve seen already, besides slightly better quality. However I do admit this is a very selfish point of view. I can see why they’re doing it to please the majority of fans who likely haven’t seen a lot of said footage and may need a recap on past tournaments.

Oh yeah, I get you there.  I'm a longtime fan, but for whatever reason I've never really been able to see the older ones in full (just occasionally the G4 edits when they air them), so this is a lot of new (or at least very unfamiliar as it's been years) stuff for me.  I honestly wish they'd be longer, but I get that the whole point is to be quick.  But if I'd seen all the tournaments in full and stuff I would probably feel like you do.

I have noticed they're getting lazier with the highlights in the past couple edits and just showing a few full runs that clear and not really featuring the fail montages and stuff.  Still enjoying it though.

I also think it's interesting that they uploaded a clip of Jessie on the Sidewinder today.  I'm glad, just surprised as I always thought they didn't like foreigners competing.

[dakohosu]

Oct 11, 2022 14:47:42 GMT -5 Messup434 said:

Oct 11, 2022 8:51:58 GMT -5 dakohosu said:

Each to their own, but I think the main gripe is that for hardcore fans who’ve seen every tournament in full, it just doesn’t add anything to what we’ve seen already, besides slightly better quality. However I do admit this is a very selfish point of view. I can see why they’re doing it to please the majority of fans who likely haven’t seen a lot of said footage and may need a recap on past tournaments.

Oh yeah, I get you there.  I'm a longtime fan, but for whatever reason I've never really been able to see the older ones in full (just occasionally the G4 edits when they air them), so this is a lot of new (or at least very unfamiliar as it's been years) stuff for me.  I honestly wish they'd be longer, but I get that the whole point is to be quick.  But if I'd seen all the tournaments in full and stuff I would probably feel like you do.

I have noticed they're getting lazier with the highlights in the past couple edits and just showing a few full runs that clear and not really featuring the fail montages and stuff.  Still enjoying it though.

I also think it's interesting that they uploaded a clip of Jessie on the Sidewinder today.  I'm glad, just surprised as I always thought they didn't like foreigners competing.

Not surprised. It's a hell of a lot of work to condense 39 three to five-hour long tournaments each into 15 minute highlights, in a couple of months, also bear in mind that only Shingo and Yamada are still competing from the first few tournaments, so they're undeniably going to capitalise almost solely on their runs to appeal to the newer fans, who likely don't even know who most of the other Stage 3 competitors in that day were.

Watching the highlights for 6 and 7, I am genuinely surprised that they just skipped over Kane Kosugi's runs as though he was just another competitor, not as though he's, you know, a huge national celebrity or anything like that. Like no introduction or anything. Must be some kind of politics at play. I wonder how they're going to edit Sasuke 8 given that his performance literally carried that entire tournament. 

Also, on the Jessie thing, don't get me wrong, they're still very anti-foreigner at heart (a la Sasuke 32), but they'll selectively capitalise on certain runs if they know it'll appeal to fans, in spite of their opinions. Seeing any female competitor reach Stage 3 is definitely post-worthy.