Sasuke 40 Official Confirmation

[dakohosu]

Video confirming Sasuke 40 as well as requesting applications.

It's quite early compared to previous years so hopefully that means we'll get a tournament in the summer/early autumn time.

[m4tt3r0x]

The 1997 VHS player xD

If you really think about it it's amazing this show has gone on for 40 iterations across 25 years. Kinda hard to believe

[Ninja Warrior Ryan]

http://instagram.com/p/Cc7vgi9rH47

[dakohosu]

Apr 29, 2022 15:31:40 GMT -5 m4tt3r0x said:

The 1997 VHS player xD

If you really think about it it's amazing this show has gone on for 40 iterations across 25 years. Kinda hard to believe

Yeah true, also how it was saved from an almost certain cancellation and has continued for another 10 years, despite RISING being possibly the worst way to revive the show lol. I still can't believe Sasuke 39 had 32 million viewers, that's given me confidence that the show is nowhere near as niche as I always thought it was. 

Also, the fact that applications have opened early have made me hopeful that they'll air the show on September 27, as that would be the official 25th anniversary of Sasuke in addition to it being the 40th competition. Another advantage would be that if they tape it during summer time then a lower chance of fecking rain.....

Needless to say, I'm way more excited for this tournament than I have been for others because of the milestone. Obvs not expecting any course changes (I mean 39 was the best opportunity to do this and look how that turned out) but hopefully we get some surprise returning faces from the past like we did with Sasuke 30. Guys like Kongu, Hashimoto etc. Even if they are almost definitely going to fail Stage 1, it's just a nice change-up from either the same cohort clearing, a bunch of joke competitors, or Shunsuke and Kanno getting digested fails lol.

[subtleagent]

Hopefully we'll get a few course changes, though I'm not expecting much.

[azn]

Out of curiosity, I wanted to see the input from Japanese commenters, and it's very interesting to say the least.

To start, some of them also want changes done to the course, which is no surprise in that department. Considering the growth SASUKE has on YouTube, maybe they can properly have a campaign for an obstacle design challenge or something along those lines.

A topic that I found to be very common and very intriguing was that a lot of commenters wanted newer competitors to appear (most of the translations said "new hero's" which we can refer to as new top level talent I suppose), instead of the same group of competitors. Some even suggested to even go as far as to have serious "large-scale qualifying sessions" or in other words, a trial format for SK40.

I just don't know if they will be willing to do that as from the looks of things in recent years, the competitor pool seems to be leaning more towards big name competitors, celebs, or competitors who are in some form of over-advertised faction, rather than proper dark horse competitors (who are still present, but it's very rare to see them). I wouldn't mind it at all if they greenlight a trial format, but I highly doubt that it will come to fruition.

[dakohosu]

Apr 29, 2022 23:56:34 GMT -5 azn said:

Out of curiosity, I wanted to see the input from Japanese commenters, and it's very interesting to say the least.

To start, some of them also want changes done to the course, which is no surprise in that department. Considering the growth SASUKE has on YouTube, maybe they can properly have a campaign for an obstacle design challenge or something along those lines.

A topic that I found to be very common and very intriguing was that a lot of commenters wanted newer competitors to appear (most of the translations said "new hero's" which we can refer to as new top level talent I suppose), instead of the same group of competitors. Some even suggested to even go as far as to have serious "large-scale qualifying sessions" or in other words, a trial format for SK40.

I just don't know if they will be willing to do that as from the looks of things in recent years, the competitor pool seems to be leaning more towards big name competitors, celebs, or competitors who are in some form of over-advertised faction, rather than proper dark horse competitors (who are still present, but it's very rare to see them). I wouldn't mind it at all if they greenlight a trial format, but I highly doubt that it will come to fruition.

Yeah this is the reason why I think the whole celebrity focus is a law of limiting returns.

Obviously we need celebrities on the show to boost the ratings (which clearly worked for 39) and improve general word of mouth about Sasuke, but I feel like recently it's become a bit ridiculous. Like for Sasuke 39, outside of the usual crowd, pretty much EVERY competitor was a celebrity or a professional athlete, which I think is a bit overkill. Fundamentally, Sasuke is an entertainment show, I get that, but there are hundreds of competitors who have trained for years and have never been given a chance to compete because it's almost as though if you're not a celebrity or a known competitor you've basically got zero chance at this point.

I mean look at some of the guys on YouTube; complete unknowns who can demolish Stage 3 and do insane Cliffhanger and Vertical Limit tricks. How can Inui look at this and just not let them compete in favour of the 50th celebrity out of 100? Surely a dark horse/breakout star will also help the ratings as well by adding a nail-biting element to the tournament.

[komasixx]

So does this mean they are doing a summer competition and we won't get one in the winter. Or maybe we get 2 this year

[dragstar]

Speaking of celebrities, I wonder if there would be other figures of Iwamoto caliber that are currently training to compete in Sasuke someday.

[dakohosu]

I hope we get two competitions this year.

Given how successful 39 was and how well all the social media content has been received, it makes sense to give fans what they want. Having said that, Japan's been having a pretty rough time with Covid over the past couple of months (cases are up to the tens of thousands daily compared to like 100 a day at the time 39 was taped), which has been the main reason we've been getting tournaments only one a year because of the extra precautions and organisation etc.. Rene said 38 was supposed to be in May, which would've potentially implied that we would've got 2 tournaments that year if it wasn't for Covid.

2 tournaments a year is the sweet spot for me. Because there's only about 3-4 months between the airing of the first tournament and the pre-release hype from the second, as opposed to like 10 months with one-a-years which can get pretty boring. Also, I've found that when tournaments are aired only once a year, I naturally have bigger expectations from the tournament so I almost always walk away disappointed lol. 3 a year is when law of limiting returns starts to kick in; everytime there's been three or more tournaments in a year (like 14-16, or 22-25) the ratings have taken an utter nose dive.... it also makes the results way less impactful knowing that they'll be competing again in like 2 months...

[komasixx]

If you look at the ratings, they were going up until the 2 new years competitions and then went up when they were near new years but not actually on new years. So let's hope this trends upwards

[azn]

May 1, 2022 5:24:18 GMT -5 dragstar said:

Speaking of celebrities, I wonder if there would be other figures of Iwamoto caliber that are currently training to compete in Sasuke someday.

Maybe they can get some competitors from the most recent SPODAN tournament to compete. 

[dakohosu]

I’m all for some new athletic celebrity faces debuting in 40, which seems more than likely give the occasion. After all; guys like Saikawa and Hayate did really well coming out of nowhere and clearing in their respective debuts. Would also like to see guys like Mori and Iketani return just for the spectacle; though the latter got declined for 39 so who knows.

Having said that, I don’t really like the way the competitive field has been going recently r/e celebrities. It seems as though a higher and higher percentage of the field is either the same bunch of well known competitors, or celebrities, with little to no room for new faces with interesting backstories who could actually haul a** on the course (like those YouTube guys who do crazy Cliffhanger tricks).

Even as someone who has consistently preached that celebrities need to be on the show for the ratings and fan interest; when I saw the lineup for 39 I just thought does there really need to be THIS many? The only saving grace was that a relatively small number of them were joke competitors (celebrities and joke competitors aren’t necessarily the same thing, in spite of popular belief), which again I understand why they’re there but personally as someone who watches Sasuke to see his favourite competitors kick butt I can’t stand them, especially when there are like 10 in a row. They also get what seems to be 10 hours of screen time; which I know is inflated by the fact that I’m waiting for their runs to be over.

I just hope 40 will give some new talent a chance to actually get on the show, at the expense of maybe 5-10 celebrities (of which I hope KAREN is one, her runs grind my gears), which will honestly have little to no impact on ratings provided guys like Darvish and Iwamoto etc still compete. So many unknowns who’ve trained for years but have never got that golden ticket.

[dt]

I would love to see them invite complete unknowns that haven’t shown they can demolish stage 3. I feel like if they invite all the guys who are literally dedicating their lives to beating stage 3, it could get boring. Imagine if they did that and then had like 3-4 total victories. I know that is unlikely but it’s possible if you invite a ton of diehards, and having too many winners is a bad thing when the aura of the show screams impossible. I think they should focus on inviting people who are strong/fit/athletic but also work regular jobs and don’t dedicate their lives to it. Part of the reason the all stars are so revered and popular WAY after they were surpassed is because they are the everyman. It’s just SUCH a hard balance to strike with Sasuke any more because if you invite the everyman they have no chance of actually winning because of how absurd and muscle specific the back half of the 3rd stage is. But I still think it would do them good to have, for lack of a better term, regular people

[LusitaniaAngel313]

OH MY! That WAS fast! What a time to come back to see the news spread like wildfire! CAN'T WAIT! IT'S GONNA ROCK!

[dakohosu]

May 4, 2022 21:30:41 GMT -5 dt said:

I would love to see them invite complete unknowns that haven’t shown they can demolish stage 3. I feel like if they invite all the guys who are literally dedicating their lives to beating stage 3, it could get boring. Imagine if they did that and then had like 3-4 total victories. I know that is unlikely but it’s possible if you invite a ton of diehards, and having too many winners is a bad thing when the aura of the show screams impossible. I think they should focus on inviting people who are strong/fit/athletic but also work regular jobs and don’t dedicate their lives to it. Part of the reason the all stars are so revered and popular WAY after they were surpassed is because they are the everyman. It’s just SUCH a hard balance to strike with Sasuke any more because if you invite the everyman they have no chance of actually winning because of how absurd and muscle specific the back half of the 3rd stage is. But I still think it would do them good to have, for lack of a better term, regular people

There's a huge difference between beating obstacles in practice and in competition, so I doubt that if they invite 3 or 4 of these YouTube prodigies that they're going to achieve Total Victory in their very first attempt. I mean remember how everyone was hyping Keitaro up for Stage 3, and then he failed the Sidewinder. Hioki can easily do the 180 transitions in practice but has now failed it in competition 6/6 times. Matsuda's never cleared Stage 1 despite having an entire course replica in his back yard, etc. etc.

There are also some obstacles that I'm sure these guys don't train (like the Backstream or Fish Bone), and because their training is so focussed on specific obstacles, any potential change could also slip them up. Realistically, I reckon they're probably likely to fail somewhere in like Stage 1 as they seem to dedicate most of their focus to Stage 3, which as we've seen from a lot of the Unlimited Cliffers and STQers, often comes at the detriment of Stage 1 performances. 

These guys are also what I would class as 'everymen', given that all of them have regular jobs and none are pro athletes. Yusuke doesn't dedicate his life to Sasuke, he's a software engineer and even said he spends 80% of his time working and 20% training and doing other stuff. It's just because they're known for Sasuke so they don't really post about anything outside of Sasuke, it doesn't mean that they don't have lives outside of the show. 

I do agree that there was something special about the Golden Era because it was a test of pure strength and athleticism rather than your ability to build and practice on specific replicas, but Stage 3 now is so hard that general fitness and strength training just won't cut it. I mean if someone like Sean McColl can still fail Stage 3 (on ANW USA vs the World), then you know to have any chance of beating it you gotta get used to the specific movements.

[Tico]

When do they usually start filming?

[m4tt3r0x]

May 10, 2022 0:36:37 GMT -5 Tico said:

When do they usually start filming?

The last two years they filmed right around Halloween time (October 30ish) iirc. Both tournaments then aired a little before New Years of that year. That's a little less than a two month gap between filming and airing. It seems possible that they're going to start filming earlier this year as they're already requesting applications earlier than usual.

For perspective, Sasuke 39 was announced early September, whereas 40 was announced late April. That's over a four month difference, so it's possible we'll see a late summer/early fall airing of 40 (like Septemberish), with perhaps a filming date around early July or so. This is all pure speculation on my part based on previous time restraints of past competitions. It probably will be different honestly.

[dakohosu]

May 10, 2022 0:36:37 GMT -5 Tico said:

When do they usually start filming?

They've actually been gradually reducing the gap between applications opening and filming.

Sasuke 36-39 all aired in late December but applications were opened in June, July, August, and September, respectively, with all of them taping in late October-early December. So the most latter only had a month and a half gap between when applications were first allowed and taping. That said, I have a feeling that was because they may have had to wait longer to get the green light from production cos of Covid, and then had to rush to finalise everything for an air date before the end of the year (after all it was marketed as Sasuke 2021 not 2022 lol). 

So it's honestly impossible to say. Optimistically we could see an air date around July-August based on the above trend, but given that they have more time throughout the rest of the year for auditioning, setting up, filming, editing, etc. they might take their sweet time. Besides, the last summer tournament was Sasuke 34, where applications opened at around the exact same time but didn't air until October, with there being an almost three month gap between taping and airing. I just feel that because it's 'Sasuke 2022', as long as they get it out before the end of the year they can rest easy lol.

Not that this will happen with the pandemic brewing in Japan, but I was hoping for two tournaments this year, with Sasuke 40 being taped maybe in June in the blistering heat as a handicap. It's always interesting when tournaments (like Sasuke 8 and 15) have an additional element like weather that makes the entire course harder, but for the entire field, not like 39 where the last 10 competitors exclusively got f***ed. 

[Ninja Relaxer]

I hope they do film in the late summer or early fall. October/November is too cold for an outdoor competition.