A Bitter-sweet Moment (Spoilers)

[m4tt3r0x]

Takeda and Nagano's embrace after Takeda's clear brought a feeling I haven't experienced watching Sasuke too strongly in a long time. I think it's obvious that a bond as strong as the all stars will never be out done, but who nowadays shows the same comraderie and zeal for this competition?

I have to be honest, it's the celebrities. I don't know if many will agree with me, but Kyan and Darvish, ABC-Z and Johnny, Mori and his wife, they all have a sense of passion for Sasuke that I don't see in any of the other vets anymore, sadly (Besides Asa, Morimoto, and maybe a couple others).

However, there is an underlying factor here: camera time. It's very clear that the celebs are the main focus for most of Stage 1, and this takes away from the Shin Sedai and Friends, and as much as I'm actually ok with it... it's become plainly obvious Sasuke can't, or Inui doesn't think that Sasuke can, survive on a group of ordinary men to run the show like the good old days... instead it's left in the hands of actors and boy band members.

Whether Yuuji losing motivation to train is because of less focus on the classic competitors themselves, or the lack of substance in some of the relationships between Yuuji and the others is why Inui focuses on celebrities... I don't think it really matters. Sasuke is definitely different now. Granted the 2nd and 3rd stages are vet heavy, I think some could argue a bit of discontinuty is present between the first two thirds and the latter third of the show (I actually do think 33 handled the editing of competitors fairly alright, though).

Takeda and Nagano's embrace was a throwback to the past, but it's not something I think we'll be regularly seeing too much in the future at this rate, or at least to as close of an extent.

Thoughts?

Side Note: I know some of this isn't news at all, but I think it's still a pertinent and constantly self-updating subject to think about.

[SRW]

Nagano and Takedas bond is a thing of beauty. Ironically the all stars Morimoto Asa are the guys I care about most and all coincidently share the most passion for the show. I'm big fan of Ryo too but his head out the game atm.

Nagano is still my hero and hearing him on commentary was like silk to my ear lobes. The fact he still came down from the booth to support his fellow all stars and pep talk Morimoto was a thing of beauty!

[arsenette]

I like the title of the thread because it is to me. VERY Bittersweet. I know it still exists in the current show but it's not as prevalent as it was before. That's why I keep saying this show is dying and why it's painful to watch. I do like some of the celebs (I adore Mori and Tomoko (his wife)) as they are genuinely awesome. I think it's because Mori has always had a special place in his heart for Sasuke being a vet competitor even himself. Darvish has really gotten into it. The others not so much but it's nice that they "show up". That's a lot more than I can say for some of the Shin Sedai (I'm looking at you Ryo). The Sasuke spirit (the one I remember) is really strong so if someone tries for the right reasons they will get hooked. Those there to try for fame are the ones that are glutting the show right now and that kills the enjoyment for me. People like Takeda and Nagano became best friends through this show and it really does show outwardly. They have a bond that doesn't exist anywhere else in the show. They aren't there to win it all (well.. Takeda maybe.. LOL) but to have fun and try to reach beyond their capabilities. Nagano genuinely loves seeing people put in the effort and so seeing him act this way with Takeda is not at all surprising. Sadly it's rare these days and sadly the show forgets that THIS is what we want to see.

[Badalight]

I think the celebs we have right now are pretty good. They are reocurring and they seem to train for the show to some extent. It's not like the shin era where we'd get a one time appearance from some guy and then they'd spend 80% of stage 1 focusing on them.

I do agree on the disconnect between stage 1 and the rest though. Almost feels like a different show. We spent so much time with the celebs that ate in on stage 1, and then in stage 2 it's like "who are these people?" Obviously we know them, but had we been new to the show I'd lose a lot of motivation going into stage 2 and 3 because all of the time they spent on the celebrities didn't give us a chance to learn about the other competitors.