Who quit too early + who should’ve quit a long time ago?

[tns8597]

The title is what it says; I'm making this post purely because I think both apply to quite a few competitors.

Too early:
- Koji Hashimoto
- Naoya Tajima
- Hiroyuki Asaoka
- Hamm brothers
- Kosugi brothers
- Koji Yamada
- Ragivaru Anastase
- David Campbell

All of the above were Third Stage regulars who could've easily made it back to equivalent successes or even the Final Stage. Particularly Hashimoto, Kane, and Campbell I think were big shots at achieving Total Victory in the eras they competed in respectively; it's just a shame that they quit too early. David I know was due to the ANW finals taking place in Vegas as opposed to Japan after Sasuke 27.

Honorable mentions go to Okuyama and Asa who I didn't include because they were injured so it's probably best they stopped competing; also other competitors like Kongu who were on their way out anyway due to age and a relative decline in performance.

Who should've quit a long time ago:
- Katsumi Yamada: I think this is the most obvious one, don't think I need to explain why
- Naoki Iketani: since the Rising era started his performances have massively sucked.
- Akiyama: should've probably retired a long while before he did due to his eye sight, maybe after SASUKE 20.

Honorable mentions go to Shingo and Takeda who are both out of their depth performance-wise, but they're still legends in their own regard so I'm glad they're still competing. The same can't really be said for Yamada......

[darthvaderlim]

Where does Lee En-Chi fit into?
Levi, I think he defintely quit too early
Shinya Kishimoto, not sure
Kane Kosugi, pretty obvious
Shane Kosugi, same as Kane
Travis Allen Schroeder, he said he will return in his Sasuke 5 interview, but never did
Ken Hasegawa, quit too early despite never failing the first two stages
Kosuke Yamaguchi, another contender for quiting too early
Not sure about Jordan Jovtchev, Shinji Kobayashi, Masaaki Kobayashi, Omori Akira, and Nakayama Kinnikun
Daisuke Nakata, similar to Okuyama

[ChiBiJKT48]

I think Lee En-Chih didn't fall to either category, because it was TBS forcing him out *saying he was too old, when in fact, in his last appearance, he still make it to Third Stage*.

Basically everyone mentioned above me. Although, I like to add Honma Kota to Quit Too Early category.

[tns8597]

Ah I forgot about Ken Hasegawa. To be honest there were a lot of competitors who did well from Sasuke 1-4 who just quit way too soon, like Tatsuya Yamamoto and the guy who made the Final in Sasuke 3 in his only appearance. Whether they would’ve done well on the redesigned course is a different story as that was a mega step up.

In response to your not sure category....

Kishimoto: maybe, but he was a one trick pony anyway and really couldn’t make it past Stage 1 to save his life
Jordan Jovtchev: no purely because he struggled on Shin-Sasuke
Shinji Kobayashi: no, again because he competed in Shin-Sasuke 4 times and failed Stage 1 every time.
Masaaki: maybe, he was pretty consistent in his earlier tournaments and could’ve defo made it back to Stage 3 in 17
Omori: no because he clearly couldn’t cope with the difficulty spike from the redesigned course. Also even if he had cleared Stage 1 he would’ve likely gone out early in Stage 3 as he never struck me as someone who had the best upper body strength. I was actually tempted to put him in the ‘who should’ve quit earlier’ category if anything.

And yeah I would say Lee but again that’s due to politics so that can’t really be helped. He’s another one of those guys who’s ‘ageless’ as he competed in international competitions when he was 41-42 and still did really well. They got that other Taiwanese guy competing instead but he’s always sucked and has been cut every time.

[tns8597]

Also I should point out that Kishimoto also retired due to an injury apparently. Not sure what it was. Either way he failed the first obstacle on his last attempt anyway so probs a good time to bow out lol

[GlobalNinjaFan]

I definitely mourn the competitors that "retired" due to TV politics... moreso than the ones that retired voluntarily.

Anastase, Lee En Chi, the "gag" competitors, half the Americans, Kane... all of them were gone before their time on the show. They could've done SO much more, but a variety of factors conspired to just no-longer give them a shot.

[tns8597]

Not entirely sure I believe that Anastase was banned from Sasuke for competing on KuroOvi, given that Kongu also competed on that show and returned in 34 and 35.