Number placements that I found strange

[shunsukenumber98]

Here are a list of number placements through sasuke that I found odd to say the least: 

Yamada at 99 for 14-16 
Hiromichi Sato at 99 in 19 
Paul Anthony Terek at 98 in 19 and 22 
Nakata at 96 in 17 
90-95 place for 28 
Asa at 2998 in sasuke 30 (should have been Kanno imo) 
Yamada at 2934 in sasuke 30 
shingo and takeda at 99 and 98 respectively in 32, and what was weirder was both of them were digested 
shunsuke at 98 in 33 
Suzuki at 94 in 35 
Sam Kendricks at 95 in 37 
Other rando at 95 in 39 (forgot his name) 
Rando at 92 in sasuke 40 (forgot his name also, and he was also digested in the middle of some pretty big names) 

What do you all think was the rationale behind these odd number placements? 

[dakohosu]

Aug 4, 2024 9:14:29 GMT -5 shunsukenumber98 said:

Here are a list of number placements through sasuke that I found odd to say the least: 

Yamada at 99 for 14-16 
Hiromichi Sato at 99 in 19 
Paul Anthony Terek at 98 in 19 and 22 
Nakata at 96 in 17 
90-95 place for 28 
Asa at 2998 in sasuke 30 (should have been Kanno imo) 
Yamada at 2934 in sasuke 30 
shingo and takeda at 99 and 98 respectively in 32, and what was weirder was both of them were digested 
shunsuke at 98 in 33 
Suzuki at 94 in 35 
Sam Kendricks at 95 in 37 
Other rando at 95 in 39 (forgot his name) 
Rando at 92 in sasuke 40 (forgot his name also, and he was also digested in the middle of some pretty big names) 

What do you all think was the rationale behind these odd number placements? 

I can explain some of these.

Yamada at 99 for 14-16 makes sense because he was the face of the show and was arguably the most popular competitor at the time due to being Mr SASUKE. Even if he was declining, his relevance to the show warranted putting him that high.

Hiromichi Sato at 99 I agree was a bit far fetched given that he did fail Stage 1 in 18, I would've put him low 90s and Nagasaki at 99 after his last two runs, but don't forget he's a celebrity and was coming off of the back of all his VIKING performances pretty recently at the time.

Terek got 98 because of his performances on Pro Sportsman No 1, this is also why competitors like Wakky and Miyazaki got very high numbers at the time as well.

Re Nakata at 96, 17's numbers in general were a bit of a mess; I suspect this was due to the number of prevalent competitors who didn't attend (Kongu, foreigners, Kobayashis, Iketani etc.) so they probably tried to spread the stronger competitors out a bit more to avoid no clears until the 90s. But there were a bunch of oddities like Bunpei at #81 despite going the farthest in 16, Takeda at #91, #93-95 being randos, #97 being vacant/no-show, etc. I also don't know why Yamada got #100 because that wasn't the first time he threatened retirement, not by a long way. 

28's numbers were generally odd. I got the All-Stars being at 96-100 due to it supposedly being their retirement but why they shoe horned randos in the 90s and put the Shin Sedai in the 80s I have no idea. Supposedly Yuuji got #88 due to it being a lucky number in Japan or some jazz, but a bunch of All-Cuts that late is never ideal.

Asa got 98 because he was arguably both more marketable and seen as having possibly higher potential than Kanno due to his incredibly fast times. Kanno was frequently digested while Asa got a lot more screentime due to his personality.

Yamada ran at 2934 as it was directly after his Black Tigers, which is also why he wore #33 in Sasuke 33.

Shingo and Takeda ran right before Nagano in 32 to celebrate his retirement.

Shunsuke probably got 98 in 33 because he did the best out of any Japanese competitor in 32 with the exception of Jun, but then also had a much more prominent prior track record with 6 Stage 3s and a Final to his name. I also feel like they were compensating for the fact that he arguably unfairly was consistently in the 80s even when he was performing well. 

Suzuki at 94 in 35 made sense as it was the lowest number out of anyone who made Stage 3 in 34 barring Hioki and Obata who typically got lower numbers anyway.

The last three are because they were athletes. 

On that last point, the numbers that make the least sense to me are examples like 19 and 22 where they shove a bunch of athletes into the majority of the top spots which turns what should be the most nail-biting part of Stage 1 into a bunch of All-Cuts or digests. Even now, there's regularly at least one rando athlete in the last 10 runs. Especially in 40, we had the four champions, All-Stars, Finalists from the RISING era, Kane Kosugi, and then just shoe horn Ikuma Horishima in there lol.

[zoran]

Aug 4, 2024 11:14:42 GMT -5 dakohosu said:

Aug 4, 2024 9:14:29 GMT -5 shunsukenumber98 said:

Here are a list of number placements through sasuke that I found odd to say the least: 

Yamada at 99 for 14-16 
Hiromichi Sato at 99 in 19 
Paul Anthony Terek at 98 in 19 and 22 
Nakata at 96 in 17 
90-95 place for 28 
Asa at 2998 in sasuke 30 (should have been Kanno imo) 
Yamada at 2934 in sasuke 30 
shingo and takeda at 99 and 98 respectively in 32, and what was weirder was both of them were digested 
shunsuke at 98 in 33 
Suzuki at 94 in 35 
Sam Kendricks at 95 in 37 
Other rando at 95 in 39 (forgot his name) 
Rando at 92 in sasuke 40 (forgot his name also, and he was also digested in the middle of some pretty big names) 

What do you all think was the rationale behind these odd number placements? 

I can explain some of these.

Yamada at 99 for 14-16 makes sense because he was the face of the show and was arguably the most popular competitor at the time due to being Mr SASUKE. Even if he was declining, his relevance to the show warranted putting him that high.

Hiromichi Sato at 99 I agree was a bit far fetched given that he did fail Stage 1 in 18, I would've put him low 90s and Nagasaki at 99 after his last two runs, but don't forget he's a celebrity and was coming off of the back of all his VIKING performances pretty recently at the time.

Terek got 98 because of his performances on Pro Sportsman No 1, this is also why competitors like Wakky and Miyazaki got very high numbers at the time as well.

Re Nakata at 96, 17's numbers in general were a bit of a mess; I suspect this was due to the number of prevalent competitors who didn't attend (Kongu, foreigners, Kobayashis, Iketani etc.) so they probably tried to spread the stronger competitors out a bit more to avoid no clears until the 90s. But there were a bunch of oddities like Bunpei at #81 despite going the farthest in 16, Takeda at #91, #93-95 being randos, #97 being vacant/no-show, etc. I also don't know why Yamada got #100 because that wasn't the first time he threatened retirement, not by a long way. 

28's numbers were generally odd. I got the All-Stars being at 96-100 due to it supposedly being their retirement but why they shoe horned randos in the 90s and put the Shin Sedai in the 80s I have no idea. Supposedly Yuuji got #88 due to it being a lucky number in Japan or some jazz, but a bunch of All-Cuts that late is never ideal.

Asa got 98 because he was arguably both more marketable and seen as having possibly higher potential than Kanno due to his incredibly fast times. Kanno was frequently digested while Asa got a lot more screentime due to his personality.

Yamada ran at 2934 as it was directly after his Black Tigers, which is also why he wore #33 in Sasuke 33.

Shingo and Takeda ran right before Nagano in 32 to celebrate his retirement.

Shunsuke probably got 98 in 33 because he did the best out of any Japanese competitor in 32 with the exception of Jun, but then also had a much more prominent prior track record with 6 Stage 3s and a Final to his name. I also feel like they were compensating for the fact that he arguably unfairly was consistently in the 80s even when he was performing well. 

Suzuki at 94 in 35 made sense as it was the lowest number out of anyone who made Stage 3 in 34 barring Hioki and Obata who typically got lower numbers anyway.

The last three are because they were athletes. 

On that last point, the numbers that make the least sense to me are examples like 19 and 22 where they shove a bunch of athletes into the majority of the top spots which turns what should be the most nail-biting part of Stage 1 into a bunch of All-Cuts or digests. Even now, there's regularly at least one rando athlete in the last 10 runs. Especially in 40, we had the four champions, All-Stars, Finalists from the RISING era, Kane Kosugi, and then just shoe horn Ikuma Horishima in there lol.

Yamada only threatened retirement after 7 and in 17 it seemed completely genuine after 3 fails in a row, it would have disrespectful to give him lower than 100 given his contributions to the shows success and ratings and he arguably atleast in the top 5 competitors at the time. 

[xelA197]

I add more ones:

Asaoka at #3 in 4
Takeda at #71 in 8
Nakata at #40 in 10
Nagano at #96 in 18 (He should have wore #100, with the other 99 competitors running for their numbers. Him at #96 is pretty anticlimactic)
Shingo at #36 in 29
Tsukada at #11 in 32
Sato at #72 in 40 (after getting costantly numbers in the #90s, unlike Tada)

[Cosmic Castaway]

Kanno at #1 in S27

[dakohosu]

Aug 5, 2024 12:46:17 GMT -5 xelA197 said:

I add more ones:

Asaoka at #3 in 4
Takeda at #71 in 8
Nakata at #40 in 10
Nagano at #96 in 18 (He should have wore #100, with the other 99 competitors running for their numbers. Him at #96 is pretty anticlimactic)
Shingo at #36 in 29
Tsukada at #11 in 32
Sato at #72 in 40 (after getting costantly numbers in the #90s, unlike Tada)

I can explain some of these as well.

Asaoka always got really low numbers throughout his career, he was the first "Hioki" if you will, but him getting #3 in 4 was just due to the numbering system not being fully established yet. There were loads of other examples of this like Ken Hasegawa getting #10 in 3, Hikaru Tanaka getting #84 in 3, Shingo getting #13 in 3, etc. The only exceptions were Omori and Akiyama because the former made the Final three times in a row/was a celeb and the latter because of his Quick Muscle record.

Takeda getting #71 in 8 was weird, my only explanation is that he underperformed in 7 while not being fully established at that point, and 8 had this weird thing of putting a lot of significant competitors at numbers beginning with a "1". Hiromitsu Takahashi at #11, Ijima at #21, Hibari at #31, Superman wore #51, Iketani wore #61, Shoei at #81, Kane at #91. Nagano wore #41 but this was surely a coincidence given that it was his second ever run. #71 is also a weird number in that a lot of prominent competitors have worn it; Akiyama, Shingo, Yamada, Masaaki Kobayashi, and so forth.

Re 18, Nagano actually chose a number in the 50s-60s but the producers figured it would be really dumb to have the recent champion run that low, so they swapped him out with someone else and gave him #96. I think they realised that format didn't work though, with the randos at #99-100 and Nagano being the FIRST runner on Stage 3. This is why for 25 which also had a lottery, they kept #98-100 for the three champions.

Shingo possibly got #36 in 29 because he apparently wanted to be considered a regular competitor which is also why he ran the trials for that tournament. I think he wasn't satisfied with his performance in 28 and was also aware that Inui wanted to retire the All-Stars prior, so compensated for that by still competing but not under the All-Star treatment. Funny given that he got #92 in the next two tournaments, and often runs alongside Yamada and Nagano in the top spots now. How times change. It was odd seeing him at #36 while Takeda got #95, I will say that.

Sato getting #72 was because they grouped the entire Morimoto Sedai bar Yusuke (who was obviously getting #4000) together, with Tada, Araki, and Keitaro being #73-75. Also consider that the #90s were absolutely stacked with arguably better deserving competitors like Kane, the champions, former Finalists, etc. while the #80s had the women and more celebrities. They were also trying to spread out the stronger competitors more. I think Tada at #73 was more odd because he got #95 after his first Final, then #91 in 39 where he was the best performer, then gets dropped to #73 lol. But yeah, the minute I saw #72-77 in 40 I KNEW it was going to be a mass digest.

The others I can't explain.

Re the other comment about Kanno at #1 in 27, they also spread out the competitors that tournament. Basically #96-100 were the three best performers from 26 (Okuyama, Lee Campbell), then the two competing champions. Anyone who didn't make Stage 3 and/or wasn't a celebrity got put in the lower numbers. Hashimoto got #20, Kongu got #15, Tajima at #29, Morikami at #6 despite almost clearing Stage 1 in 26, etc. In a normal season of Sasuke this would actually work to avoid too many pace-breaking celebrity/comedian runs in a row, but 27 just turned it into a mish mash of showing a bunch of clears in one go, then a load of fails, completely out of the actual running order. Like showing all of the Double Salmon Ladder and Metal Spin fails in a single sequence. 

[ChiBiJKT48]

Can add few details here.

Yamada was given #100 in SASUKE 17 not due to retiring. That's myth. He indeed announce retirement but it was in SASUKE 16. He was given #100 because he become basically a promotor of a SASUKE video game released in 2006 (I believe a Navi or Recaps of SASUKE 17 popped somewhen on YouTube showing him having meet and greet with fans regarding the game *he was happy doing it to the point he felt dumb not competing in SASUKE if he was gonna promote a video game regarding SASUKE*).

Sato achieved #99 not only due to his Celebrity status: He is the current (and sadly until now still is due to no future tournaments) Champion of VIKING at that time!

Takeda ALLEGEDLY asked an All-Stars treatment, hence his #95 compared to Yamamoto's #36 (he also didn't do Trials as well which kinda supports this theory).

Nakata at SASUKE 10 is probably Hioki treatment. Which I guess is half because producers thought he can have burden of first clear, half because producers thought he not gonna get far in Third Stage (which he did).

Also regarding his SASUKE 17 numbering, beside what Dakohosu typed, the producers also did have in the past give him #90s when he was healthy prior to his motorcycle accident, so putting him in #90s won't really cause debate if the numbering went normal as intended. He was given #95 in SASUKE 11 and #94 in SASUKE 12, at that time the best number given not to an All-Stars/a returning Finalist(s) (Shiratori yet to become an All-Stars/a Finalist in both tournaments and Jovtchev, a former Finalist, is taking #99 in SASUKE 12).

[xelA197]

Aug 4, 2024 9:14:29 GMT -5 shunsukenumber98 said:

Sam Kendricks at 95 in 37 

He just won a silver medal at the Olympics lol 

[Anonymous]

I missed it when I first saw 19 on G4, but I figured Terek should have been number 99 in the 19th tournament based off his strong debut (much like how Jovtchev wore 99 in 12 because of what he did in 8 and Levi wearing 99 in 21 based off what he did in 20).

[katoshiho]

They put Fujimitsu on the poster, just because he didn't perform well, he get All cut?
That probably because the bad weather. They should give Fujimitsu a second chance, if there's no rain, how would he do.
He is not Seiya, he definitely can do better.
PS he ran really really fast in run for money tousouchuu (and this tv show have movie, too.)
He is in my corp now. Other two members, is Yorogo and Jamie.
They must clear Rolling Hill or else never compete in future.

[azn]

I get that this was done possibly to spread the field, but perhaps putting Yamada Koji at #1 was a bit too extreme?

[subtleagent]

He was an unknown outside of the monkey bar trials (where he didn't make the cut). Clearing with #1 was a lucky chance.

[ChiBiJKT48]

Aug 9, 2024 11:33:18 GMT -5 azn said:

I get that this was done possibly to spread the field, but perhaps putting Yamada Koji at #1 was a bit too extreme?

More lucky placement. It was his debut tournament, no one knows him at this point beside those who did Monkey Bars together with him.

[YourResidentKojiFan]

Aug 9, 2024 11:33:18 GMT -5 azn said:

I get that this was done possibly to spread the field, but perhaps putting Yamada Koji at #1 was a bit too extreme?

Yeah, I think I'm pretty qualified to assess this. My thoughts have always been that it was a reasonable placement by the producers that just happened to turn into a deep S3 run. I know I always tend to go analytics, but let's look at the #1s throughout the entire Golden Era to see why Kōji's placement isn't actually all that strange.

5 - Kouhei Teranishi. Nothing too much here, though it's worth noting that Kongu was #2 and we know how good he would become.

6 - Go Konishi. According to his profile, he was recently the best college football player in Japan.

7 - Norihito Eda. Cleared in 4, also an athlete.

8 - Shinichi Ebine. I'll admit arm wrestling isn't exactly the best for SASUKE, let's move on.

9 - Takeshi Hattori. See Ebine.

10 - Yasutada Noguchi. Decent run albeit slow, but still had athletic credentials.

11 - Yoshiyuki Tamaki. Legit clear potential as he showed in the 13 Trials, and a pretty regular guy as he was a student/lifesaver at the time.

13 - Naomichi Marufuji. See 8 and 9, but still not a bad run.

14 - Unknown, accoding to the book he was an American football player.

15 - Satoru Toyoshima. Bodybuilder, this is the one I will straight up say the producers probably just wanted a comedic fail to start things off.

16 - Keita Shimanaka. Yes, another arm wrestler, I don't know what M9's obsession with arm wrestlers at #1 was.

17 - Ryūkō Tamakai. Another decent run and a military member.

So, realistically, I think they just decided to almost always, with 15 being the exception, put #1 as a decently athletic looking guy (or an arm wrestler apparently) that seemed based on first glance like they could clear. I don't think Kōji's placement was anything special, he just happened to be the only #1 that could actually do very well.

[dakohosu]

I'd also add Iketani to this list.

Mainly because across every single one of his first 12 tournaments, he wore only a combination of three numbers; #61, #81, and #90.

It somewhat makes sense because they always have a small interlude after the first 60 and 80 runs, so putting someone significant at the start of the next section is rational. But why they picked Iketani specifically and why he ONLY got those numbers despite his performances was a bit odd. He still got #61 in 11 after coming in second place in Sasuke 10, yet got #90 in his first ever tournament, etc. Then when he starts underperforming in the Shin-Sasuke era, gets numbers like #93 and #97. Then we had a bunch of other celebrities competing who never got the same treatment.

The only competitors to have the same distinction of 12 consecutive tournaments wearing less than three numbers are Nagano and Yusuke, who wore either #99 or #100 from Sasuke 19-30, and #100 or #91 for Yusuke from Sasuke 30-41 (I don't consider mentioning Yusuke getting #100 in 41 as a spoiler lol). But those are completely justified given their dominative performances in those respective eras.

[Kowai Yume]

Aug 9, 2024 11:33:18 GMT -5 azn said:

I get that this was done possibly to spread the field, but perhaps putting Yamada Koji at #1 was a bit too extreme?

My theory is that the producers wanted to show the new obstacles on the first half of stage 1 and wanted someone who would do well but not too well. If you notice during the first sets for tournaments, the first 10 runners are usually strong but not too strong to clear stage 1 so they can build some suspense. Then Koji happened and broke that plan. Made for good TV, though.

[Anonymous]

And now I wonder the story behind Kanno being number 1 in SASUKE 27.

[ChiBiJKT48]

Already given above. To spread the strong competitors.

[YourResidentKojiFan]

On the topic of #1s... Akiyama in 20. Like, why?

[darthvaderlim]

Aug 10, 2024 23:17:00 GMT -5 YourResidentKojiFan said:

On the topic of #1s... Akiyama in 20. Like, why?

I think it's because it was an anniversary tournament and they wanted to start with the first former champion and end with Nagano, the recent champion at that time