why has takeda and bunpei gone MIA?

[shunsukenumber98]

Anyone knows why Bunpei and Takeda gone MIA? I know that they can't compete anymore because of injuries but why haven't they at least appeared in the sidelines? Anyone knows why?

[dakohosu]

Mar 1, 2024 10:53:28 GMT -5 shunsukenumber98 said:

Anyone knows why Bunpei and Takeda gone MIA? I know that they can't compete anymore because of injuries but why haven't they at least appeared in the sidelines? Anyone knows why?

This is a question I've been trying to find the answer to for ages but still haven't really worked it out.

Bunpei I guess is somewhat more understandable because he didn't compete for as long and always felt like the outsider of the All-Stars, in that he didn't seem like he was massively close with them, at least not to the same degree that, say, Nagano and Takeda were. He was also primarily engaged with the community because of his Shiratori shrine, because competitors would frequently go there to train as it was the only homemade course at the time, but he tore it down in 2009, almost immediately after he stopped competing. So combine those two points together and it's plausible he just drifted from the community over time. He did return for 30 and came back for Nagano's retirement in 32, not sure he didn't come back for 28 unless he was injured which was probable. But I think by that point he'd been away for so long that he probably only came back because he was invited to attend, other than that he'd dissociated himself fully from Sasuke, and there hasn't been many other similarly important opportunities for him to return even as a spectator.

Takeda though is different, because he competed for half of his life, until recently at that, and was pretty much best friends with Nagano. I have no idea why he hasn't at least attended further tournaments, especially as he did this in 26-27 when he wasn't allowed to compete by his firefighting regiment, but still showed face. The only plausible reason I can think of is that he recently had a kid, so is likely dedicating himself to being a father again, or maybe finds the fact he'll never be able to compete again too painful or something, idk. That said, he did post a few videos on his YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/@anchannel5992/videos) about a year ago, each dedicated to a given member of the All-Stars, talking about his memories with them, so he clearly does still care about his history with the show. 

What does kind of irk me about Takeda is that the way TBS have treated him on the YouTube channel is a bit concerning. In the tournament recaps before Sasuke 40, he was cut out or skipped over during pretty much every tournament bar a couple, including his 24 fail being completely cut. Makes me wonder if there's something funny going on between Takeda and Inui/TBS. 

[arsenette]

The more time passes the more I learn that things there were obvious and well reported are just not known now. It's a bit disconcerting. Bunpei's absence was not only known, it's been documented in tournaments (if people only saw the tournaments and didn't read things like SMF (separated by year) or read Lost in Ube's blog or even mine). Bunpei has a spine injury that he re-aggravated training for Sasuke one year (I don't remember which one off the top of my head). They had a Navi for it and everything. They even mentioned it briefly during the tournament itself as to why he wasn't there when he was scheduled to appear. Each year past that they kept checking on him and realized that doctor's can't fix the problem and he's been missing ever since. He's been wanting to come back but his body is not letting him. That was well known and no one questioned it because TBS spent so much time explaining it. So reading the speculation is disheartening.

As for Takeda, he mentioned in 28 he wanted to come back to finish unfinished business and would only compete if he found it fun. Having not seen the most recent tournaments but knowing more and more of the All-Stars are retiring because of old age, it seems totally plausible that some announcement was made but no one understood it because of the language barrier. TBS goes out of their way to explain things but gone are the ones who used to translate this stuff to the community. It's showing with the rampant rumors and speculation when usually the information is out in the open explaining the situation.

As for editing, I've already gone through that but bringing up Sasuke 24 and using Inui in the same sentence is just lazy. He didn't edit 24. Inui is not TBS. TBS did not edit 24 (in fact TBS doesn't edit any show - they hire people for that).

[dakohosu]

Mar 3, 2024 11:14:26 GMT -5 arsenette said:

The more time passes the more I learn that things there were obvious and well reported are just not known now. It's a bit disconcerting. Bunpei's absence was not only known, it's been documented in tournaments (if people only saw the tournaments and didn't read things like SMF (separated by year) or read Lost in Ube's blog or even mine). Bunpei has a spine injury that he re-aggravated training for Sasuke one year (I don't remember which one off the top of my head). They had a Navi for it and everything. They even mentioned it briefly during the tournament itself as to why he wasn't there when he was scheduled to appear. Each year past that they kept checking on him and realized that doctor's can't fix the problem and he's been missing ever since. He's been wanting to come back but his body is not letting him. That was well known and no one questioned it because TBS spent so much time explaining it. So reading the speculation is disheartening.

As for Takeda, he mentioned in 28 he wanted to come back to finish unfinished business and would only compete if he found it fun. Having not seen the most recent tournaments but knowing more and more of the All-Stars are retiring because of old age, it seems totally plausible that some announcement was made but no one understood it because of the language barrier. TBS goes out of their way to explain things but gone are the ones who used to translate this stuff to the community. It's showing with the rampant rumors and speculation when usually the information is out in the open explaining the situation.

As for editing, I've already gone through that but bringing up Sasuke 24 and using Inui in the same sentence is just lazy. He didn't edit 24. Inui is not TBS. TBS did not edit 24 (in fact TBS doesn't edit any show - they hire people for that).

OP was asking why they've gone completely MIA from the community as a whole, not necessarily why they're no longer competing. Most people know why they're not competing anymore because of the aforementioned health issues, though I didn't know that about Sasuke 28 and Bunpei. 

Do you have any explanation for why Bunpei hasn't shown face at all since 32, or why Takeda hasn't attended any tournaments after 38? That I think is what OP (and by extension myself) wanted to know.

Re Sasuke 24, I was referring to the edit of the tournament recaps, which Inui and/or TBS as they stand surely have a large hand in determining for the YouTube channel, surely those who actually edit the videos report to higher ups and are, to a certain degree, done what they're told. Not the tournament itself. Who are those higher ups?

[arsenette]

I think the core of the issues really does boil down to 2 different things. Many in SMF and Sasuke community as a whole believe that this is the life of the older competitors. And the other is who exactly controls the overall image of the show along with it's marketing.

On the first part, the nature of the show where you are not a paid actor and it serves no other purpose to be there if you are not competing is something that many have an issue with. This isn't something they are being paid to show up for. With Inui specifically trying to wean people off the the All-Stars, there is no reason why they should be there if at least one is not competing. In the case of Bunpei, he has to travel over 2 hours to get there on his own dime. He's not being paid to stand on an open field for hours on end. Even when I saw him in 32, he showed up for a couple of hours and that's it. He went home after that. Even then, they didn't show him anyway and they certainly didn't pay him to be there. So aside from fan desires.. why would he just randomly show up? I'm glad he tore down the course because TBS made it sound like it was a regular thing for people to show up and train there. He no longer uses it so he got rid of it. No one else trains there. On the occasion that people did show up, it was for the cameras. It was a huge distraction for him and his family thanks to television.

On the second part, Sasuke has 3 separate factions. One is TBS itself. They own the license (when Monster 9/Higuchi lost it) and the IP to the show worldwide (whether it be through outright licensing of Sasuke Japan or it's various international iterations - ANW included). Two is TBS international which and has distribution rights (trust me, it sounds complicated because it is). Three is FOLCOM which is Inui's company. He doesn't own anything, however he is literally the face of Sasuke's image. He controls what everyone sees since he is the sole editor of the show, tasked in producing the show and has the lion share of the invites to the show. TBS has never "produced" the show and anytime before Sasuke 28, Higuchi was the one tasked with creating the image, inviting people, building the set and even distributing the show. TBS was just the channel it was shown on and that's pretty much it. It wasn't until Higuchi broke off and created Monster 9 did any kind of worldwide licensing was even a thing (after Sasuke 17). So after Higuchi went down they had a hard time in figuring out wtf to do since they never had a hand in creating the show so they had to rely on people who used to be on the show in some form but not part of Monster 9. The only one left was Inui who outright refused to be hired to save Sasuke 4 times in a row. When he came back it was to destroy what Higuchi did starting with Sasuke 28. The idea of YouTube channels and anything else was born out of years of the community bitching (led by yours truly) since they never thought it would be necessary. TBS is notoriously terrible with promoting their own shows. So much so that major talent have gotten in trouble for saying out loud that TBS wouldn't air a commercial promoting the show they were on. So it's universal and not just relegated to Sasuke. So later towards the end of my career did Inui realize that people thought Sasuke was cancelled and only then did they try doing some marketing. Problem is, they are not paid additionally to do any of this. I mean like nothing.. Inui is being paid peanuts to produce, direct and edit the show. So they ended up getting some unpaid interns to throw a couple of peanuts to the fans to give the appearance that they care. That is where they added the Sasuke page to TBS (which didn't exist before) and make a dedicated YouTube. As for the higher ups, they have zero control over it since they put zero effort into anything. Inui creates what you see (down to the editing) and some unpaid peon does the YouTube channel. To my knowledge (when I asked years ago - no idea if it has changed now) Inui doesn't have anything to do with TBS's YouTube.