Non-celebrity competitors you were never fond of

[dakohosu]

Which non-celebrity competitors, if any, did you take a disliking to or weren’t particularly fond of, and why? I say non-celebrity just because otherwise everyone’s going to just say Darvish and Hiromichi Sato for hogging screen time, you know how it is.

[zoran]

Okuyama,nothing personal against him as a competitor or as a person just not a fan of his stoic nature and his persistent humourless face and I don't like how he basically put the all stars to shame regarding the age-skill trend.

[subtleagent]

Kazuma Asa, his spastic nature really got on my nerves and TBS would give him herds of screentime for it at the expense of more interesting runs like Nagasaki or Shinya. Even Takeda, Shingo, and Yuuji weren't immune to getting digested just to see more of him.

[dakohosu]

I actually rate Okuyama as one of my favourite competitors for those very reasons. His stoic nature yet almost unmatched consistency at such a high level at his age positioned him as the ultimate underdog/silent assassin of the era, and I'm a big fan of dark horses as far as Sasuke goes. I also kinda liked how he managed to do so well where the All-Stars couldn't clear Stage 1 for s*** at the same age. Different strokes for different folks though, I was never an All-Star devotee as much as I like them.

Yeah agreed about Asa, he was a really passionate character but sometimes the screaming and other antics got a bit unbearable, especially as his performances were really nothing special.

Ones I'd add for me would be Kawaguchi and Kanno. Kawaguchi is fairly obvious; the guy gets far too much screen time and is massively overrated as well as his story of being a delinquent teenager turned business owner getting really, really old. He also doesn't really have a particularly screenworthy personality unlike Hioki who's screen time is more justified due to him being quite quirky and a lovable family man. Kanno because he always struck me as the Yamada of the Shin era. I felt like he only wanted to win for external validation and he didn't take losing particularly well; he was also massively vain constantly showcasing his muscles and doing stuff like kissing them after clearing, which I thought was a bit much. It's still a massive shame how much he's declined due to his injuries nonetheless.

[subtleagent]

In both Kanno and Kawaguchi's cases their Final Stage attempts were pathetic and they were often marketed as Yuuji and Morimoto's number twos respectively when there were other competitors who outperformed them like Hashimoto, Okuyama, Kong, and Lee for Yuuji, and Drew, Sato, Tada, and even Yuuji for Morimoto. Both of them did make the Vertical Limit (Kanno in 31, Kawaguchi in 35), but neither of them had very good attempts on it and were later outperformed by many others in future tournaments while they themselves enter a notable decline. The biggest reason why I found them overhyped.

[dakohosu]

I wouldn't say Kanno was necessarily overrated. Apart from his early runs (where the screen time was arguably justified as he came out of nowhere and did second-best twice in a row) he was mostly fast-forwarded and sidelined. Him and Asa basically had the same track records from Sasuke 28-31 yet Kanno maybe got a fifth of the screen time compared to Asa, likely because his cold demeanour was supposedly less screen worthy than Asa's shouting and screaming. He was also given numbers like #96-97 which I think was defo more fitting than Kawaguchi constantly getting #99; being in the category of one of the strongest competitors but no real threat to clearing Stage 3/Kanzen, which I think is applicable to both competitors.

Kawaguchi by comparison had a fairly similar trajectory of performances to Kanno (Final Stage followed by a solid but nothing special set of Stage 3 performances) but was constantly branded as Mr. 99 when other competitors constantly surpassed his performances. People bang on about his Sasuke 35 performance but they forget that he was an inch hair away from failing Stage 2 and was also surpassed by 4-5 attempts in the following tournament. And compared to Kanno the guy gets waaaaay more screen time, and it doesn't seem like they're covering anything new. It's always Per-Adra and the fact that he was a rebel in his youth; it's getting really boring to watch the same fluff pieces over and over.

My reasons for not being particularly fond of either are different: Kawaguchi for being overrated, Kanno for being overly self-obsessed.

[Cosmic Castaway]

In the period where you know who wasn't busted, i used to hate Asa for openly showinģ jealousy at his skills. But now í guess he wás right alĺ along.

[dakohosu]

^not really. Just because Drew got convicted didn’t give Asa the right to be standoffish towards him because he lost in a few matchups to him; wasn’t the best or most sportsman-like way to take defeat.

[Ninja Relaxer]

I thought Asa admired Drew. Didn't he say as much in an interview?

Anyway, oddly enough, I was not fond of Morimoto when he first started gaining prominence. He seemed like an unlikely contender to me -- he was basically completely off my radar, even after his impressive run in Sasuke 29, which I considered a fluke -- so when he achieved kanzenseiha, I felt like it had come out of nowhere and was undeserved. I was actually disappointed, because I felt that his kanzenseiha cheapened the accomplishments of the other grand champions. Also, I was hoping that other competitors (ones I liked more) would get there first.

Now I like Morimoto, and he's one of my favorite competitors.

[subtleagent]

I think it was Asa was ashamed about losing to Drew in ASEAN so he started getting competitive towards him. It wasn't like Jun Sato who seemed to not like Drew (which IDK if that's actually true so take that with a grain of salt), Asa didn't seem standoffish to me in the same way Sato did (then again Sato seemed really standoffish in general before 35, which is likely why he got digested so much before then).

[salt]

Is Yamada too obvious of an answer? I respect what he did for the show and his abilities as a competitor, but he’s probably the last person I’d want to actually meet. The meltdowns, the fake retirements, the beefs he has with everyone, putting SASUKE before supporting his family... Yikes.

[dakohosu]

Ngl I actually forgot about Yamada so I guess he’s not too obvious....

Mind you when I first got into Sasuke (around 2010) he was sort of on his way out in terms of that desperate delusional mentality, so I guess I never experienced his dislikable side first-hand like watching him cry or try to cheat on a live broadcast.

I do really like the coach/mentor personality he’s become more recently though. He’s focussing his energy on coaching the next generation of competitors to achieve what he never could rather than on his own dying dream; I’m not surprised he’s a good coach, the amount of energy he wasted on his own obsessions would be enough to coach an entire city let alone a few protégés.

[PeterPittaBread]

Matsuda

Never cleared stage 1, competed too late at 42, is getting old and don't accept DMs. People love him too much and give him popularity just coz he built obstacles in his yard.

[PsychoDelusion]

In all honesty I've never really found myself going "Gosh I don't like this competitor". Only person to get that from me was Morimoto but it was purely because of the production overpromoting him and the course in general favoring pocket Hercules guys like him. In general I dislike any competitor who doesn't make an honest effort. There are only 100 people who get to enjoy this experience every year. If you're there just to fall in the first step or not even get there just to get laughs or because you didn't bother to train, then you've wasted your time, the chance of someone who actually cares to do decently and if you made it on broadcast our time.

[subtleagent]

Morimoto I can forgive cause he's kind of earned it. I get what you mean regarding joke competitors, but then again considering a good chunk of them are celebs, the show would kind of die without them.

[dakohosu]

I actually agree with Daisuke Matsuda; I find the hype surrounding him really unwarranted given that there's really nothing unique or special about him. He's often called the modern Bunpei because he built a course in his backyard, but so does everyone at this point in the show? I also think it's a massive stretch given that he's a mediocre competitor compared to Bunpei being the second strongest competitor for a long time. The guy's never cleared Stage 1 which probably makes him the least deserving non-celebrity of the screen time they get; Hioki and Tomo at least somewhat earned it due to their past performances.

Morimoto I do think is a bit of a goody-two-shoes at times and definitely doesn't have anywhere near the personality or charisma of Nagano or Yuuji, but let's be honest, if anyone deserves the hype and screen time on the show it's Yusuke. He's a four-time finalist and reigning two-time champion, and absolute MILES ahead of the rest of the field. At this point, he is the face of the show and if he stopped competing the ratings would definitely take a huge hit as he's basically driven 90% of the progression in terms of results over the last few years.

So yeah, I'm kind of okay with the hype Morimoto gets....

[CustomGaming57]

I’m really annoyed that Matsuda is being overly promoted on the official SASUKE YouTube channel given that he has indeed never cleared Stage 1, but like Kawaguchi gets way too much hype like an All-Star and I even favour Hioki more than him because his performances have always been greater with him mostly reaching the 3rd Stage, which is somewhere that Matsuda will very likely never reach.

This guy isn’t even that famous within the SASUKE community, but still gets to talk to so many famous celebrities participating in the tournament which is even more reason for me to not to want to support any of them, especially since I find it surprising that I’ve seen hardly any of them talking to the biggest legends such as Nagano and Morimoto who deserves tons more recognition than somebody who has never even cleared the 1st Stage.