I use to watch real old reruns of the original Ninja Warrior, they'd run through all 100 constants for the first round in one or two episodes, no long backstory skits, just a basic introduction, maybe a piece of trivia about them, and faceplant out of the gate.
I have fond memories of watching ninja warrior on g4tv. Even without the long ass backstories there were still people you rooted for. Whether it was some costume choice like dressing up like a mummy, or if they were a fan favorite who kept coming back like the firefighter guy, I still had some connection and fondness for those running the course. Giving 3 minutes for their life stories is bs that just annoys me and drags the show on.
EDIT: He was a fisherman, my bad. Small detail but still.
Those were the good ninja warrior episodes.. Someone should just loop those all day for a tv channel. Make stream channel that’s free with commercials and you’d make money off of me watching all day long, lol
Dude was like in his 40s too. As someone who just turned 39 and has a hard time finding time to work out, he is an inspiration.
Edit: I was wrong. He was 34 when he first won but continued to compete until he was 44. Still awesome going up against people 10+ years younger and doing better than pretty much all of them.
Nagano is my favorite athlete. I remember how sad I was when that younger guy was the first person to beat the entire course twice - I had been watching Nagano try to get that 2nd victory for years, I wanted it so badly for him!!!
He got built up as the man most likely to win it all, and even made it to the final stage at the third event, but he just got progressively worse as he got older and the course got harder. He didn't clear the first stage again after the twelfth event, where he got disqualified in stage 2 for using his gloves from the chain reaction on the spider walk.
No problem. Got a little carried away replying to people in this section of the thread. My wife and I were obsessed with the show in 2008. We give it a few years to forget what happened and watch them again. We just recently rewatched a few seasons, so it's fresh on my mind.
For sure. Particularly the competitive spirit is different. It always felt like everyone against the course in the Japanese version. When two people won ANW, but they decided only the fastest guy really won, that was enough of that for me.
Pretty sure there were two firemen. One was a lot better than the other though. Also the gas station guy and the trampoline kid who I remember almost winning the same time Nagano won his second.
Toshihiro Takeda was the "All-Star" fireman, Shingo Yamamoto is the gas station guy (my personal favorite because he's been to every single event) and Shunsuke Nagasaki was the trampoline kid.
Man, this discussion is giving me flashbacks. I don't think I've thought about Shingo the gas station guy in at least a decade, but I always loved that guy and rooted for him. My friends recommended the original show to me and I remember my mom and I spent one summer watching the whole thing and getting caught up on G4 and getting surprisingly invested in it.
Makoto Nagano. He was so much more tenacious than Akiyama, who was the first but floundered so often afterwards. Was very happy when he finally got it.
Don't know why, but my buddy and I would call him the pizza delivery guy, and joked that he just stopped by to run the course in the middle of his deliveries.
I believe he's returned a few times, but the story was that because of his deteriorating eyesight over time, it's been harder for him to beat the stages of Midoriyama.
In one of the more recent seasons, not a G4 one, I think, Mr. Octopus actually made it through two or three obstacles. The crowd comes absolutely unglued. Then, I believe Shingo Yamamoto made a goof up and failed on an earlier obstacle, meaning Mr. Octopus got further in that event than an All Star. Heartwarming stuff.
Video quality is awful.
Season 26. He got further than Kenji Takahashi, not Shingo Yamamoto, my bad.
Edit: Scratch that, he beat them both "Mr. Octopus over-passed many notable competitors as Kanno Hitoshi, Takahashi Kenji, Miyazaki Daisuke and Yamamoto Shingo."
There is a related show in 2005-2006 called VIKING that follows the same format as Sasuke, and Mr. Octopus got to Stage 2 on two occasions there, it was quite unbelievable.
Does your username by any chance have something to do with Unbeatable Banzuke? I friggin' LOVED that show back when it was on TV, but nobody else around me had heard of it
Takeda was the firefighter. Shingo Yamamoto was the gas station attendant. Nagano the fisherman. Akiyama, the first winner, was a crab fisherman who was going blind and had to retrain as a massage therapist. Shiratori was a teacher, I think, from a rural prefecture who kept being out for injuries.
And then you had Yamada, Mr. Ninja Warrior, who stayed around long enough to turn in to a kind of villain. He lost his job and his family by becoming obsessed with winning, while doing worse and worse, being accused of cheating, retiring and unretiring, finally getting banned, then coming back and bringing a group of young trainees to try to fulfill his wish for him.
Thanks for the info. I will definitely check that out.
I just saw the recent show. He no longer participates in the game, but he mentors these young lings and makes annoying comments while they try to go through the game... kinda annoying.
He also has his own app and seems like he got sponsors for doing whatever it is that he does.
Yep the big three, Makoto Nagano the fisherman, Toshihiro Takeda the firefighter, and Shingo Yamamoto the gas station attendant, damn that brings back memories
Dude who trained on his boat, the gas station attendant who always killed it and then there was some generic business man who was also a monster. God that show brings back memories, have some huge zip folder with that and unbeatable banzuke tucked away somewhere on my computer!
This is what I miss about ninja warrior. Just plain ol folks training for some crazy obstacle course. Now it's dedicated training facilities to pratice and what not.
The 1st guy to complete all courses is now legally blind if I remember correctly. He wasnt at the time obviously but he was impaired. I forgot why he went blind.
We watched every episode of American ninja warrior for a few seasons, and there was one person we always rooted for, because he's from the same small town that my mom is from.
My wife and I watched the American show, until two guys won and they decided only the fastest guy was the real winner. If both men beat the course, both men achieved total victory. Telling one guy he actually lost because he wasn't fast enough was bullshit.
You already edited but I do recall a firefighter as recurring contestant. Either og ninja warrior or the very beginning of American ninja warrior when I still watched.
I got my great grandparents into that show when I was a kid. Really fond memories of us all sitting around the tv watching a show we couldn’t really understand but enjoyed it nonetheless
Everyone forgets the other guy who always did it, and almost won the thing several times: Shingo Yamamoto, gas station manager 🥺 he and Nagano were my faves lol. The old NW was amazing!!
A crab fisherman at that. There were also a couple of ripped firefighters too; I recall because the announcer would say something about being 3% body fat.
No there was definitely a firefighter. I want to say he won, but I can't say for certain. He definitely made it to stage 4 a couple times, where they just gotta climb the rope. There was also a gas station attendant that competed in several series, he was my favorite
I used to loved Ninja Warrior (and G4tv in general) in high school. And somehow I still very clearly remember who you’re talking about although I can’t think of the name right away
Oh man, G4TV. Remember getting video game tips off the TV. Getting kicked off the internet when mom used the phone. Some nostalgia there, wasn’t even all that long ago.
There was a firefighter and that mechanic that both did realky well. Oh, and that wee gymnast! Nagano was the bomb! The US version of this show sucks so bad.
I love gameshows, but I dont watch many because so many of them have to sell the contestants as somehow deserving the prize because their grandma sold her home to pay for their dogs gastric bypass. I dont care. And then, halfway through, they have to stop everything to show a video of their brother who is fighting commies in Uzbekistan and recently lost an eye protecting a preschool from terrorists saying something like, "Everything Ive done for this country will be worth it if you can eat that bowl of bees in 60 seconds and bring home the million dollars, as long as you dont accidentally eat the queen and lose it all. Youve got the whole US military fighting for you. You can do this."
I just want to watch her eat the damn bees. Or answer the trivia question, or drop the ball or whatever. I dont need all the bs. Every hour long gameshow woyld be a great 20 minutes if not padded so much.
That reminded me of the old Takeshi’s castle where they would get 100 contestants in this massive run at the start and would be left with 80. The next rounds would be a brief introduction and 5 seconds later they’re in a river .
I understand the need to have personalities among the contestants, so the viewer has something to root for and a reason to keep watching, but it just got...old. Nothing about the show ever seemed to change, and the backstories had the opposite effect for me; seeing some of the built-up competitors over the years and watching them age out of competition was kind of sad. Like you could tell they'd worked really hard, and it was just all for naught. I remember watching a piece about Brian Arnold and how he apparently quit his job to train for the show. That is WILD.
Gotta love the folks who showed up as these over the top characters or in weird costumes just to clearly have a good time and make fools of themselves for a laugh.
There were a couple random people they'd really focus on, but it was ~5/100. The incredibly timid guy who made models of the course. The guy who completed the course back in 2002 or something but was slowly going blind.
The legit Japanese version of the show was so much better. I just love the (presumed) do-not-give-a-fuck-about-ratings-ness of it. We made the course too hard and all 100 people were eliminated by stage 1 this year? Too bad, get better for next year and we're gonna make that obstacle that wiped out 90 of you harder next time.
It's basically Dark Souls with people and water obstacles.
That's why Most Extreme Elimination Challenge was the best thing that ever happened to television. Announcers are like "...right you are, Guy. Here's Monica Kirkpatrick, she's a rodeo clown from Danang, Vietnam and she loves long walks on the freeway!" Girl comes up to the starting position, yells something dubbed, like, "Ducks are better than chickens!" and then she's punctured a lung, on to the next. I could watch that shit forever.
I always found the American format confusing as hell. I have no idea how far they are in the competition. Havent seen a single episode of mt midoriama or whatever. Wasn't that the whole point???
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u/Uindo_Ookami 27d ago
I use to watch real old reruns of the original Ninja Warrior, they'd run through all 100 constants for the first round in one or two episodes, no long backstory skits, just a basic introduction, maybe a piece of trivia about them, and faceplant out of the gate.