Sooooooo Apparently Spodan is Back (with Kane and Iketani)

[Sasuke Mania]

Title says it all. For the first time in (what seems like) ages, the TBS website for Sports Danshi Grand Prix has been updated for the first time in (what feels like) ages, as a new tournament that airs on Tuesday 22 March at 7pm (6am EDT/3am PDT). Including every Sportsman No. 1 tournament (39, including the 2010 tournament), this will mark the milestone golden anniversary of the show's existence, and it's fair to say the staff have something up their sleeve.
16 competitors gathered in the colosseum this year, including Sportsman legends Kane Kosugi and Naoki Iketani, the first time both have competed together in over 18 years (just over 21 years, if you just count celebrity tournaments). The first two winners of Spodan, Gaku Sano and Wataru Mori, have also entered the colosseum, with the latter vowing to retire if he loses. There are also some other familiar faces, such as Kaisei Takechi and Shohei Urakawa of EXILE's "THE RAMPAGE" tribe, as well as previous competitors Koji Tokuda and Shimon Okura.
There's also a new event known as "Crazy Castle", which directly references SASUKE in it, it features competitors having to scale a Soritatsu Kabe (lol), climb a fence, and then climb up a rope.
Honestly I'm a little shocked, but I want to know what you guys think, of course.

[Sasuke Mania]

So it seems instead of posting an ad, TBS are opting to post a bunch of shorts introducing each competitor..okay then.... 

[Sasuke Mania]

Nevermind that! An ad has been posted! Obviously shows some spoilers so..

SPOILER: Click to show

{Spoiler}

[wolf4537]

Iketani just posted on his Facebook a picture with Kane himself, apparently those two haven't seen each other in person since 2004!!!! And I would never guess that each of them are near 50, they both look great!!!

[Sasuke Mania]

Mar 20, 2022 9:45:37 GMT -5 wolf4537 said:

Iketani just posted on his Facebook a picture with Kane himself, apparently those two haven't seen each other in person since 2004!!!! And I would never guess that each of them are near 50, they both look great!!!

I know they have seen each other recently, I remember at some point two years ago Iketani went on Kane's stream (which made it onto Iketani's channel) to play one of the PS1 Banzuke games, those videos are linked below:

[PsychoDelusion]

Mar 20, 2022 9:45:37 GMT -5 wolf4537 said:

Iketani just posted on his Facebook a picture with Kane himself, apparently those two haven't seen each other in person since 2004!!!! And I would never guess that each of them are near 50, they both look great!!!

They keep in touch with each other quite often plus they were together during Spodan 2018 or so.


Monster Box was quite lukewarm in terms of results but Kane clearing 18 boxes at 47 is still super impressive. I think Iketani cleared 18 too though I need confirmation for that. 3-way tie at 19 boxes was the best result but then again, only Sano was one of the more notable names up there.

[lostinube]

Gyao, a streaming service in Japan has the whole show, broken into chunks, up for free until April 5th. People outside Japan might not be able to see it but I think if you have a VPN you'll be fine.
Part 1 (Monster Box)
gyao.yahoo.co.jp/title/%E6%9C%80%E5%BC%B7%E3%82%B9%E3%83%9D%E3%83%BC%E3%83%84%E7%94%B7%E5%AD%90%E9%A0%82%E4%B8%8A%E6%B1%BA%E6%88%A62022/622870f0-afa9-447e-b752-a5d4676461a7

Part 2 (The Crazy Castle, which actually uses a Soritatsu Kabe and some other stuff)
gyao.yahoo.co.jp/title/%E6%9C%80%E5%BC%B7%E3%82%B9%E3%83%9D%E3%83%BC%E3%83%84%E7%94%B7%E5%AD%90%E9%A0%82%E4%B8%8A%E6%B1%BA%E6%88%A62022/622870f0-afa9-447e-b752-a5d4676461a7

Part 3 (Power Wall and Shotgun Touch)
gyao.yahoo.co.jp/episode/%E6%9C%80%E5%BC%B7%E3%82%B9%E3%83%9D%E3%83%BC%E3%83%84%E7%94%B7%E5%AD%90%E9%A0%82%E4%B8%8A%E6%B1%BA%E6%88%A62022%E3%80%80%E7%AC%AC5%E7%A8%AE%E7%9B%AE%E3%83%BB%E7%AC%AC6%E7%A8%AE%E7%9B%AE%E3%80%802022%E5%B9%B43%E6%9C%8822%E6%97%A5%E6%94%BE%E9%80%81%E5%88%86/623aab69-2d62-435a-b166-6b82dc94edcb

There are also some past Monster Box competitions:
Iketani's first Spodan appearance:
gyao.yahoo.co.jp/episode/%E3%82%B9%E3%83%9D%E3%83%BC%E3%83%84%E7%94%B7%E5%AD%90%E9%A0%82%E4%B8%8A%E6%B1%BA%E6%88%A6%20%E5%82%91%E4%BD%9C%E9%81%B8%E3%80%80%E3%83%A2%E3%83%B3%E3%82%B9%E3%82%BF%E3%83%BC%E3%83%9C%E3%83%83%E3%82%AF%E3%82%B9%E2%91%A0%E6%B1%A0%E8%B0%B7%E7%9B%B4%E6%A8%B9%E3%81%8C%E5%88%9D%E5%8F%82%E6%88%A6%E3%80%802013%E5%B9%B412%E6%9C%8829%E6%97%A5%E6%94%BE%E9%80%81%E5%88%86/623050ed-fe76-4cc3-8642-68e05af35717

That time Hirano went for the record:
gyao.yahoo.co.jp/episode/%E3%82%B9%E3%83%9D%E3%83%BC%E3%83%84%E7%94%B7%E5%AD%90%E9%A0%82%E4%B8%8A%E6%B1%BA%E6%88%A6%20%E5%82%91%E4%BD%9C%E9%81%B8%E3%80%80%E3%83%A2%E3%83%B3%E3%82%B9%E3%82%BF%E3%83%BC%E3%83%9C%E3%83%83%E3%82%AF%E3%82%B9%E2%91%A1%E6%96%B0%E6%98%9F%E3%81%8C%E9%A9%9A%E7%95%B0%E3%81%AE%E8%A8%98%E9%8C%B2%E6%A8%B9%E7%AB%8B%E3%80%802016%E5%B9%B410%E6%9C%8810%E6%97%A5%E6%94%BE%E9%80%81%E5%88%86/6230473d-e7ce-4e87-a659-626748a466d6

That weird Spodan where they pitted the Spodan boyz against pro athletes.
gyao.yahoo.co.jp/episode/%E3%82%B9%E3%83%9D%E3%83%BC%E3%83%84%E7%94%B7%E5%AD%90%E9%A0%82%E4%B8%8A%E6%B1%BA%E6%88%A6%20%E5%82%91%E4%BD%9C%E9%81%B8%E3%80%80%E3%83%A2%E3%83%B3%E3%82%B9%E3%82%BF%E3%83%BC%E3%83%9C%E3%83%83%E3%82%AF%E3%82%B9%E2%91%A2%E4%B8%96%E7%95%8C%E8%A8%98%E9%8C%B223%E6%AE%B5%E9%81%94%E6%88%90%EF%BC%81%E3%80%802017%E5%B9%B41%E6%9C%881%E6%97%A5%E6%94%BE%E9%80%81%E5%88%86/62304746-f210-4e8b-8070-939fc5f06636

[lostinube]

SPOILER: Click to show

{The results}The winner was Takechi Kaisei. He's from THE RAMPAGE, one of the EXILE groups. and has been on SASUKE multiple times.

He had to survive Wataru Mori and Yoshito Sato (a Tiktokker) in the Shotgun Touch even though Takechi tied for the Monster Box with Gaku Sano and Sato at 19 (Kane, Iketani and Mori reached 18), won the Body Press, Crazy Castle AND the Power Wall and was in the last four for the Hurdle (won by Mori).
Sano got smoked in the Power Wall and ended up out of the top three.
Mori had to hit 12'40 to win but couldn't get it. Mori vowed that if he didn't win he was going to retire from Spodan. So..

[PsychoDelusion]

Mar 23, 2022 6:07:47 GMT -5 lostinube said:

SPOILER: Click to show

{The results}The winner was Takechi Kaisei. He's from THE RAMPAGE, one of the EXILE groups. and has been on SASUKE multiple times.

He had to survive the Wataru Mori and Yoshito Sato (a Tiktoker) in the Shotgun Touch even though Takechi tied for the Monster Box with Gaku Sano and Sato at 19 (Kane, Iketani and Mori reached 18), won the Body Press, Crazy Castle AND the Power Wall and was in the last four for the Hurdle (won by Mori).
Sano got smoked in the Power Wall and ended up out of top three.
Mori had to hit 12'40 to win but couldn't get it. Mori vowed that if he didn't win he was going to retire from Spodan. So..

SPOILER: Click to show

He'll probably be back next time lol

[wolf4537]

Mar 20, 2022 12:44:55 GMT -5 Sasuke Mania said:

Mar 20, 2022 9:45:37 GMT -5 wolf4537 said:

Iketani just posted on his Facebook a picture with Kane himself, apparently those two haven't seen each other in person since 2004!!!! And I would never guess that each of them are near 50, they both look great!!!

I know they have seen each other recently, I remember at some point two years ago Iketani went on Kane's stream (which made it onto Iketani's channel) to play one of the PS1 Banzuke games, those videos are linked below:

Sorry about earlier, I didn't know they've seen each other beforehand over the past few years but it's really cool to see them interact together especially in those videos

(Maybe them not interacting together since 2004 had to do directly with both of them competing in the Monster Box competition?)

I've always liked both Iketani and Kane, they seem to have a great friendly rivalry from years past that makes me wish I could try the Monster box myself