Jun Sato's Stage 1 Runs (32 ~ 35)

[subtleagent]

Well no wonder they digested him. His 34 run just proved that 34's stage 1 had a near 50 second margin of error. Though I was kind of surprised to see him stumble while climbing the Tackle in 33, I don't think anyone's ever done that. 

[m4tt3r0x]

Was thinking about making a thread on this as well. For those who don't know, it was rumored during 33 that Sato did a handstand on the rails after his run, flipped off the camera, pointed to his manhood using a V shape with his hands, and was cursing as well. Well either he did all of that save the handstand after he went down the pole, or it was fabricated lol. I think it happened on the ground after his run though.

[subtleagent]

Somehow I feel like that was made up. I did hear somewhere on this forum, but I don't remember where that he didn't like Drew (which given what we know about Drew now, I defo don't blame him), but IDK if that info's 100% accurate.

[tns8597]

I’ve heard Asa didn’t like Drew because of the ASEAN Open cup fiasco but never Sato and Drew. I’ve always seen them talking on the sidelines, likely because of their similar backgrounds (parkour) and the fact that Sato’s one of the only competitors on Sasuke who speaks English.

I did get the impression that they had some sort of friendly rivalry in terms of who could put down the fastest time on Stages 1 and 2, given that it always seemed to be quite close between them.

And yeah agreed his run in 34 is a testament to how lenient the time limit was. He literally spent 20 seconds before the Fish Bone and wasn’t going particularly quickly throughout the rest of his run either, yet still cleared with like 26 seconds left. It just seemed as though unless you were Yamada-level slow or you got caught up on the Warped Wall, you had a massive margin of error in terms of time.

[subtleagent]

Me: I'm okay with digested runs.

Also me: Digested runs now shown in full?! Gimme!

IDK about Asa not liking Drew, I do remember him being upset that he lost to Drew when he slipped on the Spider Walk of all places, but as far as dislike I don't recall that. I think he was motivated to better his performances after that or something. I recall hearing the Shin Sedai idolized him before his true nature was revealed. Sato I'm told was aggressive (or at the very least came off as such) to him on the sidelines and given what we know about Drew and how Sato seems to have mellowed out in recent years it's easy to assume Drew did something (or many things) to piss him off and Sato expressed his disdain for him more openly than the rest. But IDK, I wasn't there.

[tns8597]

Weird.

Sato seemed on the surface one of the most chill guys, defo no Ryo who I’ve heard is really cold and standoffish to people he doesn’t know etc. I have heard he is a tad cocky though, which sort of makes sense given the post-run showboating.

[m4tt3r0x]

I don't know where people heard this thing about Sato not liking Drew, but Sato seemed to not like much of anyone back then so it doesn't matter much anyway. Drew actually seemed to get along with all of the Japanese competitors on the sidelines on camera, including both Sato and Asa who were both quite similar to him.

Anyway putting aside the gossip, Sato's rolls off of the Warped Wall were quite neat to watch. He would have been a good choice for USA vs The World. Currently I think him, Yamamoto Yoshiyuki, Yusuke, and a fourth person would be a great team. Not sure how many people are on the teams for that anymore though.

[tns8597]

^Tada could be that fourth person.

[subtleagent]

I would guess Sato was just more open about who he liked or disliked in general and maybe everyone else getting along with Drew was the reason he was so isolated. Sometimes that can happen.

USA vs. The World never had a consistent format LOL, but yeah that team could work. Isa and Araki could be a fifth and sixth (depending on how many). I would say Yuuji, but considering last time he went international he mentally choked I'm not so sure. Maybe he can do it now (and tbf it has been almost a decade), but I'm still hesitant to say if he can or can't.

[Ninja Relaxer]

May 22, 2021 18:43:51 GMT -5 m4tt3r0x said:

For those who don't know, it was rumored during 33 that Sato did a handstand on the rails after his run, flipped off the camera, pointed to his manhood using a V shape with his hands, and was cursing as well.

Actually, this was Mr. Octopus. He beat Stage 1 in Sasuke 26, but his showboating was so offensive (he actually slapped the producer on the a**) that they made him re-run the stage. 

I have video of the incident, but the world isn't ready to see it yet.

[SasukeBanzukeNo1 (Moon12)]

I'm sort of glad that they showed his full first stage runs from 32-34, since they were digested from the actual broadcasts. We never really got to see him take on obstacles such as the Orugōru in 32, as well as the Double Pendulum, Tarzan Rope (to Platform), and the Lumberjack Climb (unless you count him just completing the obstacle and hitting the buzzer) from all three of those tournaments.

At this point I expect them to show his full second stage runs from 32-35 (with 32-24 from that stage being digested as well), as well as 36-38 (36 and 37 were digested)--but only if they decide to upload his first stage runs from 36-38 too.

[Ninja Relaxer]

Wow, he really is a lot cockier than I imagined. He comes across as a completely different person in his full runs.

[tns8597]

He definitely started to mellow out from Sasuke 35 onwards and hang out with other competitors, and that's also when his runs started to get shown more in full, coincidence I think not. TBS probably didn't want to show one of their most promising competitors and potential mascots at the time behaving the way he did after he cleared especially in 33. Initially, I figured he only got digested a lot because him clearing Stages 1 and 2 started to become a foregone conclusion so there was no added benefit of showing his run in full, but I suppose this makes a lot more sense.

Also, where did people get the notion that Sato didn't like other competitors? I get that he didn't really seem to hang out with the usual crowd until Sasuke 35-36 but I figured that was because he was just sticking with his parkour crowd. I also saw him talking to Drew a fair bit on the sidelines of a few competitions so not sure about him not liking Drew either. Or he could've just been being nice?

[subtleagent]

I just figured that given what we know about both of them. It's probably not the best idea to jump to conclusion, but I wouldn't be surprised if it turned out they hated each other. I mean Akiyama and Yamada hated each other for quite some time before Nagano smoothed all that out and they talked quite a bit on the sidelines on camera before that from what I recall.

[tns8597]

What do you mean by ‘what we know about both of them’ (about Sato specifically, Drew we obvs know lol)? If anything I thought they would’ve built more of a rappor as Sato’s one of the only English speaking competitors and they both have the same background in parkour.

And about Yamada and Akiyama, we know why that happened. Yamada and Akiyama faced each other off on Quick Muscle, and Yamada claimed Akiyama cheated just so he could win (not at all a Yamada thing to do right?). It also wouldn’t surprise me if Yamada (whether intentionally or not) openly expressed his disdain for Akiyama supposedly robbing him of Kanzenseiha.

[subtleagent]

Well yeah I was referring to Drew mostly. We know he was an a** to production, but he generally seemed to be on good terms with the competitors. IDK it's just I got that vibe that Sato didn't like him, but then again Drew was a rabbit hole, while Sato was cocky in his first few return appearances. So again, it's more just my prediction. They seemed to have a bit of a rivalry too (albeit more aggressive than Drew's rivalry with Asa).

No what happened was Yamada and Akiyama tied, but M9 didn't have a legit tie-breaker so Yamada declared himself the winner pointing out that Akiyama committed two penalties during the match and M9 just rolled with it. Yamada didn't technically cheat, but he did take advantage of M9's lack of planning in that regard.

[tns8597]

What did Drew actually do to earn that reputation (referring to him being an a** to production, not the obvious elephant in the room as of recent)?

I know about the whole Crazy Cliffhanger fiasco in 31 but I’ve not heard any other specifics?

[subtleagent]

As far as SASUKE I don't have any other stories, but there are a few in ANW where he was generally kind of a camera hog and rude behind the scenes. I guess it's not advisable to go by what other people say without proof, but it does undeniably line up with what we know now.

[zoran]

Second best stage 1 competitor behind Takeda imo.

[tns8597]

I'd argue he's even better than Takeda.

Takeda's 'only' had 8 straight Stage 1 clears compared to Sato's 10, and almost all of Sato's clears were on harder Stage 1s than Takeda's (except for maybe Sasuke 18 as the entire course was new). Sato's also only failed Stage 1 once, whereas Takeda even in his prime had his fair share of Stage 1 fails in his early career and during Shin-Sasuke (not counting his recent track record as the man is well into his 40s now).

Sato seemingly has this almost invincibility to failing Stage 1 regardless of obstacles or condition and always doing so with the fastest times, whereas with Takeda you always felt like there was some possibility he could fail, exacerbated by his various mishaps like his Jumping Spider slip in 22. Though not sure if that'll change given his recent injury.