The Japanese have some of the craziest shows ever. Distributed by Monster9 whom eventually did Viking: The Ultimate Obstacle Course. And you know it’s definitely a big deal if ESPN picked up US distribution rights for Viking. G4 picked up distribution on Sasuke but gave it the American title Ninja Warrior.
On the twentieth competition which will air here in the States on May 18th, it consists of one hundred competitors that try to battle it out against a four stage obstacle course which consistently gets more difficult at each stage. The course requires an enormous amount of stamina and arm strength along with agility being that there are many things that require balance and I personally couldn’t imagine ever completing.
I will say that there’s definitely a perfect body type and size for this competition. In past competitions, there’s been some Europeans and even a couple Marines that tried their luck at it. But while they conquered the first stage easily, eventually their size actually became a detriment since their arm muscles would have to carry a lot more body mass over the stamina and endurance stages.
A competition of this sort would do very well in the US in my opinion, depending on if someone could get around the liability issue since Sasuke is done with no equipment at all pretty much. Creation of such a course here would definitely bring many to compete along with a huge viewer base for telecast. Think about it, if this was produced in the United States, this challenge in my opinion is actually way more interesting than something like American Gladiators. It also would not be the first time a Japanese show has been redone in the US. Kitchen Arena, anyone? Oh yes. I speak of Iron Chef.
Photo Credit: (ninjapoodles)
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Efren wrote:
Considering that the Japanese shows are actually 3+ hours long, are Americans actually going to have the stamina to watch these shows?
It’s interesting to see that Sasuke and Kunoichi (the women’s counterpart) tend to favor body types who are extremely compact and powerful for both the men’s and women’s competitions, while people whose body types tend to stray too far in one direction or the other (overly muscular, or overly thin) don’t progress very far. Not that I’ve actually been paying attention to the men’s physiques at all…*grin*
Posted on 02-May-08 at 3:06 pm | Permalink
moye wrote:
This show is incredibly addicting, and it’s even more fun when they have semi-famous American athletes compete on it. Someone needs to create a channel that just airs Japanese programming with English subtitles.
Posted on 05-May-08 at 10:03 am | Permalink
Belinda wrote:
Absolutely! Surely it would be successful!
Posted on 09-May-08 at 1:16 pm | Permalink