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Post by sasukewarrior333 on Jan 10, 2023 10:06:16 GMT -5
This is something I've been thinking about for a while and I'm interested to hear others thoughts. Would it be a stretch to say that seeing Kane Kosugi, Tomohiro Kawaguchi and Shingo Yamamoto's comebacks alongside Ryo's out of nowhere second obstacle choke and Ikuma Horishima having one of the most bizarre fails ever is one of the most insane set of five runs in SASUKE history? I can't think of anything that really compares to it personally.
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Post by dakohosu on Jan 10, 2023 10:47:36 GMT -5
The last 10 runners generally were probably the most stacked, at least in terms of fan appeal, that we've ever seen imo.
I'm generally not a fan of putting random athletes in the 90s because they almost never do well and end up getting digested or cut anyway, but I can forgive #92 because of the other nine runners. I mean, how much better can you get than the four champions running back to back for the first time ever, and Kane and Shingo not only running in this last bracket but also clearing? Kane's clear (as well as his sheer presence to begin with) was a huge 'WHAAAAAAT' moment especially as the marketing material had purposely led everyone to believe he was failing the Dragon Glider, while I genuinely cried for Shingo's clear even though it was sort of spoiled in the trailer - 9 straight Stage 1 fails and then he pulls that out of nowhere, like it'll go down in history as probably the greatest comeback of all time, at least one of.
Even Tomohiro, who I don't think should've been in the 90s to begin with especially now he's no longer at Per-Adra so he's not as marketable as before, provided a lot of emotion from his clear; especially as his reaction took me by surprise, I thought he'd mentally checked out with threatening retirement etc. but clearly Sasuke still meant a lot to him.
Yamada I also usually don't like being so high because his runs are generally immersion-breaking with how slow he goes and the fact that he's obviously not going to clear, I generally preferred him running after his Black Tigers like before. But running before Akiyama made sense from a history perspective, and he also provided some hilarity among all the seriousness with how badly he reacted to his fail. I genuinely laugh so hard every time I replay the 'SHAAAAAAAAA' and then just walks past the audience who have no idea what to do or say at that point.
Ryo's fail provided that section with a good balance of shock rather than just clear after clear. It was also pretty funny seeing him try to keep a straight face after what just happened, especially towards Kane who he trained for months and had done infinitely better than him lol.
Akiyama and Nagano I don't think anyone was expecting them to clear, but the fact they did a lot better than everyone was expecting was very heartwarming imo. Just having Akiyama there to begin with after 10 years was insane, regardless of how he did.
So yeah, as you can tell, I'm quite the fan of the last 10 runners from Sasuke 40. It was certainly better than whatever the lineup was for 39; filled with celebrities, rookie athletes, Darvish and Tomo getting way too high numbers, and the rain plaguing performances left, right, centre.
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Post by m4tt3r0x on Jan 10, 2023 12:17:37 GMT -5
What happened with 92's fail anyway? I haven't seen it in a while, but it looked like the obstacle just straight up broke on him. It wasn't even like Darvish's Dragon Glider fail where at least the viewer maybe could have missed what happened with the support ropes.
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Post by dakohosu on Jan 10, 2023 12:38:09 GMT -5
What happened with 92's fail anyway? I haven't seen it in a while, but it looked like the obstacle just straight up broke on him. It wasn't even like Darvish's Dragon Glider fail where at least the viewer maybe could have missed what happened with the support ropes. The second bar just derailed, it was the same as what happened to Sugeta and Snow Man. I’m actually pretty surprised neither of those two got reruns given how much Inui wants celebrities to do well for the ratings (I mean he’s literally nerfed the course from Shin-Sasuke over time for that reason). Darvish in particular has been one of the most wronged competitors in recent years; screwed over by weather in 37 and 39, and the Dragon Glider malfunction in 38. You’d think they’d have given him a rerun given how much they milk him, but instead they hid evidence of this through not showing the replay even on his Paravi run. |
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Post by sasukewarrior333 on Jan 10, 2023 13:13:24 GMT -5
I'm still trying to figure out whether Sugeta, Iwamoto and Horishima messed up the wire somehow or they got screwed over by a malfunction.
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Post by dakohosu on Jan 10, 2023 15:09:29 GMT -5
I'm still trying to figure out whether Sugeta, Iwamoto and Horishima messed up the wire somehow or they got screwed over by a malfunction. Yeah same. That said it seemed too much of a coincidence with the fact that this has effectively been a non-issue for the entirety of the obstacle's tenure and now happens three times in the same tournament. I rewatched the replays of Sugeta and Iwamoto's runs. The bar derailed immediately once it went very slightly crooked in both cases, and I should also mention that they derailed the bar from different sides, so it wasn't an issue with one side of the track or anything. Either way, the whole point of the stopper is to prevent derailment from happening, especially with how easy it is to get the bar crooked, so whether a 'malfunction' or not it's still poor obstacle design if one of the functional elements didn't, well..... function. Sure, if someone did something legitimately dumb then fair enough, but they were doing the obstacle as intended and still got screwed over. I don't know in what way the obstacle was different this time than before, maybe the stoppers were slicker to the point that they came off more easily, or they were smaller or something, idk. But imo this kind of proves that the Dragon Glider needs to go; they clearly can't get it right as proven by 38 and now 40. Replace it with something less complicated to set up without any bars hooked up to wires or downward tracks etc. |
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Post by subtleagent on Jan 14, 2023 8:32:58 GMT -5
Kane, Tomo, and Shingo's comebacks were pretty epic and easily amongst the best we've ever seen. Ryo... I remember I legitimately screamed when he fell. All that effort to get Kane back into shape for SASUKE and he just goes and... fails in the most ridiculous way possible. Like really WTF? Especially since he probably would've made the Final had he not.
Yamada kinda surprised me since he looked like he was in better shape than even 38 and 39. I don't think he would've cleared anyway (that would be incredible given he'd not only set a new age record, but he'd have broken an 18 tournament fail streak) but he definitely looked great considering he's usually super slow. I feel like that's where his frustration came from, training like hell to get back into shape only to make a silly mistake like that. Guess seeing Kane and Shingo clear got in his head too.
Akiyama was kinda anti-climactic given it was another trampoline fail reminiscent of his Jump Hang slump from 6 ~ 8. It was great to see him back and it was nowhere near as underwhelming as Bunpei in 30 was but IDK I kinda wish he at least got the bar.
Nagano was incredible. Yeah he looked a bit out of shape and stamina clearly isn't his strongest attribute these days but I did say I'd be happy if he at least passed the Dragon Glider which he did.
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