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Post by ArbuthnotBlob on Apr 13, 2020 9:43:36 GMT -5
I think 23 is my all-time favourite, but I actually voted for 36 - Yuuji and Ryo having massive comebacks, Tada getting through, and that first live new-years final? Brilliant stuff.
I also really enjoyed 37, but I don't know that it could be called the best.
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Post by ArbuthnotBlob on Apr 8, 2020 9:43:00 GMT -5
It would be off-brand of me to say anything other than Shingo's theme (Chicken Run - The Chickens are Revolting) given it was how I found SASUKE in the first place. However, there are many, many SASUKE themes I love - Nagano, Takeda, Hioki's 25 theme, Asa, Morimoto (Main and S3), Tomohiro, Final Stage Approach, UCCH Clear theme, all the Kanzenseiha themes.... So many (unlicensed ) tracks, so little time!
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Post by ArbuthnotBlob on Jan 6, 2020 17:52:45 GMT -5
Ultimately I can't say because I only came on board SASUKE properly during 31 - I am not and have never been part of any kind of old guard and have no real concept of what the community was like during the M9 era.
So the fact that people like me are finding the newer tournaments and coming on board? I'd say that means the fandom isn't dying - mutating, sure, but I wouldn't say it's dying. And maybe we're losing people faster than we're gaining them but this has never been the most accessible interest on the planet - hey, wanna watch 5 hours of unsubbed Japanese TV about people falling off obstacles - it's a hard sell, I've only sold it fully to one person in about 5 years. And the more easily accessible, short-form content appears on the internet the more niche this will become.
The show itself, however? Being outside of Japan, it's hard for us to know, but my pessimistic take on the situation is that this New Years Event position SASUKE is in now could be something of a last gasp. The standard ratings were slumping so it's now in a slot where it's typical to pull small percentages - as was just pointed out in the thread on the ratings for 37 this is not necessarily bad - but it doesn't have any real potential for growth. And therein lies the problem - we can grow new hardcore fans and new competitors from those fans, but the likelihood of growing a larger casual audience is probably decreasing.
Put bluntly, SASUKE is old hat - it's been running almost non-stop for 23 years and the absolute core idea of the show has basically not changed in that entire time. It would be like if Gladiators had run constantly from the 1990s in the UK. Personally I'm hoping the show will hang in for a while yet, and maybe the new time slot will allow it to do so, maybe even have something of a revival - but we're probably looking at the writing being on the wall, again.
But for now, it isn't, and frankly there is nothing we can do to influence its health, being outside of Japan as the vast majority of us are. I didn't actually vote on the poll - as I said I don't feel I have the historical context to answer that question and my perspective on the show itself flip-flops all over the place. In the end we should enjoy it while it is still here to enjoy!
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Post by ArbuthnotBlob on Sept 24, 2019 19:23:39 GMT -5
Morimoto was a contestant in 22 He was? I knew he competed in his mid-teens around SASUKE 19, but I thought he went on pause after that until SASUKE 29. I'd have to look it up and check, but knowing me, I probably forgot he had more appearances
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Post by ArbuthnotBlob on Sept 24, 2019 16:08:32 GMT -5
I was flicking through the Rambling Rican blog for Sasuke 22, and... that's Morimoto and both his parents in the spectator stands, isn't it?! (Image attachment seems to have disappeared from the forums, so about 1/3 of the way down, after the Wakky segment) Here
I don't know how the rules for spectating worked back then, but if he needed an invite, I wonder who +1'd him?
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Post by ArbuthnotBlob on Aug 18, 2019 12:52:40 GMT -5
Richard Williams passed away on Friday night - he was an incredible 2D animator, animation director on Who Framed Rodger Rabbit, writer of the Animator's Survival Kit (which is the absolute final word on 2D animation principles) and director of the technically unsurpassed white elephant of animation which was The Thief and The Cobbler:
It was the strangest thing, until I saw the news it never really occurred to me that he would actually, die. It seemed he would just keep animating forever - he was still working on his most recent project until the end and that was after a career that spanned over 50 years and hundreds upon hundreds of commercials, never mind shorts and films.
He approached those hundreds of jobs with a frankly unsurpassed level of craftsmanship and technical ability and while it should be our ambition, I don't know that we'll ever quite see his like in a single animator again.
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Post by ArbuthnotBlob on Jun 1, 2019 16:39:29 GMT -5
Yes Tim! Aside from Paul Allen, he was my favourite competitor, so I'm glad he made it. Nice to see the Gladiator and Inception music in the soundtrack for this week too!
Would have to say I found the presentation of the third and final stages almost completely lacking in any drama though. They really miss the walk-up shots from Sasuke in giving the events some gravitas. I don't think the indoor lighting helps much though.
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Post by ArbuthnotBlob on May 26, 2019 9:08:17 GMT -5
I mean, it's all fine and good trashing MT Midoriyama, but Sasuke 27's Final Stage had 40 seconds on a smaller rope climb, so unless you're willing to disregard Yuuji's Total Victory, it isn't really fair to do the same if NWUK ends up getting a champion next week. Is the hardest? No, but it still ain't easy by any shot. Also, there were only 19 athletes in Stage 1 because one guy literally just didn't show up on the day. Crazy I know. It did? I honestly didn't know that. I would've thought for sure the UK one was shorter, isn't it only 22m or something because of the necessity of the indoor setting? I have a tendency to forget about 27's final stage - when I think rope climb I automatically go to Sasuke 1-4, which had a shorter time limit. EDIT: so my memory is just terrible? Sasuke 1-4 was only 15m and 27 was 20m, apparently (going off the wiki, which is a little dodgy) so the UK version is taller than both? I retract my vitriol! With the general strength of the competitor pool I still expect a win, but apparently the length and time limit are nowhere near as wimpy as I first thought....
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Post by ArbuthnotBlob on May 25, 2019 17:01:14 GMT -5
Between this and the ridiculous final stage time limit its brutally obvious that production wanted a champion this season. I just hope it's not that showboater with the bird tattoo. Personally I'd like to see the Northern Irish guy make the final (whoever came up with 'Belfast Bullet' did NOT study their contemporary NI history dear lord) but it's basically a certainty that whoever makes it is a winner. Their rope climb would have to be absolutely terrible otherwise. Got to love that one Two Steps from Hell track they keep playing which is clearly the only licensed music that's been paid for too While this episode wasn't very interesting, worst obstacle has to go to that swinging log thing from the semi's with the locking mechanism. Such a momentum killer, even if it did cause a lot of the eliminations. One thing I was suuuper happy to see was the downwards counting timer! I mean, it needed to be 3 minutes as opposed to 5, but it's still all steps in the right direction! Looking forward to the final, even if 'stage 3' is going to be far more interesting than any actual rope climb runs.
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Post by ArbuthnotBlob on Apr 23, 2019 14:57:02 GMT -5
Akbar's visited Inui while in Japan - presumably on other business.
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Post by ArbuthnotBlob on Apr 20, 2019 14:22:38 GMT -5
Second episode was decent, they definitely fixed the audio balance this time around.
Ended up watching some clips of Sasuke 36 afterwards, and I feel like introducing the Rolling Hill would cause murder and mayhem on the UK course - no-one would have the balance for it! It would tie-in nicely with the more slapstick tone they like to set for the heats though.
I'm really hoping the no-timer heats this time around segue into a Sasuke-style 'down' timer next season, but I'm not holding my breath. It would rob them of the showboating and the entertaining mid-to-late stage fails, which they show a lot of.
I'm actually enjoying watching NWUK this year, which is definitely a change from the last time I saw any full episodes (admittedly that was back in Season 1).
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Post by ArbuthnotBlob on Apr 14, 2019 11:41:16 GMT -5
Only caught the tail-end of the broadcast - I didn't know a new season was here!
It seems there new rules which remove the counting-upwards timer, which is nice. Now we just need a timer which counts down!
Was it just me, or were the cut-away shots to competitors' friends/family etc. really loud compared to everything else? Hopefully they balance the audio a little better in future episodes.
Also, looking at that results list, what happened to Dion Trigg?? Wouldn't have expected him to come off the first obstacle...
Sounds like the new series might actually be interesting, I'll have to try and catch the rest of the episodes from the beginning.
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Post by ArbuthnotBlob on Mar 9, 2019 16:47:59 GMT -5
I don't think it's the absolute most dangerous, but TIE Fighter has managed to have a pretty high injury rate, hasn't it? Perry stuck his foot through it and bust his leg, and it's injured at least 1 other competitor too, I think.
The SASUKE 29 variant of the backstream was also pretty dangerous, given how high the water jets were turned up. They may have it manned with lifeguards but that doesn't automatically make it safe.
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Post by ArbuthnotBlob on Feb 15, 2019 19:58:38 GMT -5
Hmmm, competing in a tournament just to enable me to experience a particular point in time, I'd pick 17, 23 or 36. To actually have any kind of shot at not failing instantly, perhaps SASUKE 3? I could just say 1, but I'm so very bad at rock climbing walls I'd never get out of the First Stage! By the time I worked out where I wanted to put my feet, that final obstacle would just have rotated me back to the bottom of the wall again
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Post by ArbuthnotBlob on Feb 10, 2019 7:11:29 GMT -5
I'd be pretty low down the pack, so perhaps #16 or #36? Two numbers burned in my brain from too many years playing Pokemon
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Post by ArbuthnotBlob on Feb 3, 2019 10:01:35 GMT -5
Speaking of Sato, I got a terrible shock recently! I've accidentally gotten pretty into Super Sentai and Tokusatsu shows in general, through a 2009/2010 show called Tomica Hero Rescue Fire (it provided at least 4 soundtracks for Sasuke 25, including Hioki's first theme).
Halfway through, a new supporting character was introduced, and I didn't think much of him until the opening and ending songs changed 5 episodes later. The second ED was a dance-themed thing with all the characters, and for some reason this supporting archaeologist character was front and centre in a lot of the shots, grinning cheesily, posing about... the truth dawned on me very suddenly, and then I yelled something to the effect of "HE'S $%^&&**&* HIROMICHI SATO???" and swore to never watch the second ED again.
(I don't mind Sato in general, but the sort of, smarmy entertainer side of him fills me with an urge to throw things)
So yeah, asides from hosting Banzuke-related shows he took a brief turn as a Tokusatsu actor. I think it was the only show of that type he did, but English-language info on Sato is pretty thin on the ground, to the extent that Sasukepedia is actually the biggest single article on him I can find...
EDIT: I also forgot, I currently have Mr Combo Breaker as my forum moniker so I need to get shot of him ASAP!
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Post by ArbuthnotBlob on Jan 25, 2019 17:07:42 GMT -5
I think the old GBA Sasuke games might actually move better than this, that animation is pretty clunky. You would potentially fail if you submitted that for a Uni assignment, never mind a job. But that's just low-budget productions, no time or money for any polish - which is just frustrating for everyone.
Speaking of the old Sasuke games, all I can think of now is Jessie Graff getting in a tiff with them for clearly using her likeness ala Kane Kosugi's big exit after Sasuke 8!
(I am joking)
Was she the only ANW star who got dopplegangered here? I'm not familiar enough with the ANW pantheon to say if there were others (asides from the presenters).
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Post by ArbuthnotBlob on Sept 16, 2018 6:46:44 GMT -5
Is Body Prop a strength drainer? Because if so it's definitely a contender.
Otherwise, I agree that the Tackle has to be up there, it completely changed the dynamics of the First Stage.
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Post by ArbuthnotBlob on Jun 6, 2018 5:09:50 GMT -5
So after Jessie was able to rest on the sidewinder by supporting herself with her legs, at the end of this training video some of the Japanese competitors give it a try!
Skip to around 11:30 for their attempts.
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Post by ArbuthnotBlob on May 31, 2018 4:47:56 GMT -5
Matsuda, the absolute madman, has done it again!
I'm impressed, this looks quite good.
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