Ninja Warrior SE S02E02 recap

I spotted Mårten Nylén when I was at work a couple of days ago (I work at a museum) and as usual when someone mildly famous comes by I mentioned it to my coworkers. Basically got a blank stare in return so I had to text Chriss who reacted much more reasonably, aka by sending me back a message all in caps. Excuse us for being fangirls ...

Aaaanyway, this is what went down in episode 2 of season 2!

Quite a few new obstacles, and they're getting really hard. One clear, and while I won't immediately spoil you as to who that was, maybe you can all make a qualified guess ...

So, what we think happened in this episode was that the fifteen people who made it from the Stockholm qualifiers are now in the Stockholm regional finals, and from there five people will make it to the big finale. We think. It's always a bit confusing to us. 

Source: http://www.dplay.se/ninjawarrior/

First out: Askia Linder, who failed on the rather tricky wind chimes. Apparently they're from ANW, but Chriss and I recognize them as the tampon/dildo obstacles from Sasuke 31. I kinda liked Askia in the first ep, so I'm sad he didn't make it, but I'm laughing really hard at Mårten's comment about how "he looks like a slap in the face". What?

Source: http://www.dplay.se/ninjawarrior/

I completely missed Phillip Lloyd Rochester stealing Usain Bolt's lightning bolt-thing last week. Duuude, you're cool and all, but you weren't even the fastest person through stage one, are you sure you can live up to that gesture? Really?

Well, Philip made it all the way to Cannonball Alley (know as the Chaos balls in Swedish ... and for once I'm gonna say that the Swedish name is a way better name than the English one), and what I found fascinating is that when he got there he looked REALLY tired. We've seen people fail in the most spectacular of ways in Sasuke, but I can't remember anyone making it look like it's as exhausting as that. And look at those muscles, he's not really a weak guy, is he? Then again, Kanno has a lot of muscles and he nevers looks tired ...

Yeah I just wanted an excuse to post this gif again ...

Johannes Ojanpera was the first person this year to struggle with the wall, but after Chriss shouted "I've seen shorter people climb higher walls!" he scaled it like it was no big deal. Maybe he was just messing with us the first two tries ...

Source: http://www.dplay.se/ninjawarrior/

Then we get another proof that the rules can be a little too confusing when Adam says that "everyone here has already cleared the Warped Wall" because ... no, they did not. Ten people cleared it, the other five where just fast enough to get to the final anyway. Keep up with the rules, dude!

They saved the best for last: Alexander Mars, Henning Attlin and Victor Jacobsson (who had the fastest time in the first episode). How did they do? Well ...

Of COURSE the one true Swedish ninja Alexander Mars made it all the way to the top. Honestly, he made it look so easy, and totally proved why he - above everone else - deserved a shot at Sasuke last year. Actually, just watch this clip of him doing it:

BEAUTIFUL. Look at him doing the chaos balls - SO EASY. No one else even made it past them and he made it look like he was just rolling out of bed in the morning or something. I think we're starting to fangirl Alexander Mars pretty hard to, ooops.

Source: http://www.dplay.se/ninjawarrior/

Henning, however, did not do as well. He's never been our fave, but he is definitely good at what he does and fast ... so what the hell even happened here? He almost slipped getting off the Quintuple Step, barely landed on the mat after the Log Grip and while he did the Paddle Boards easily he failed competely at the Jump Hang. That seemed very out of character for him, even though he's fast, he's never really been careless before. Oh well, it's Sasuke Ninja Warrior, these things happen.

Source: http://www.dplay.se/ninjawarrior/

Lastly, Victor Jacobsson. I may be wrong, but I swear his tee touched the water here! It doesn't show in the image, but in the video at least I think there are cleraly ripples on the surface of the water. Though his tee doesn't really look wet later on, but I don't know ... I don't know ...

Source: http://www.dplay.se/ninjawarrior/

He later failed at the Chaos Balls, but due to the confusing rules still made it to the finals along with these other four. Even though only Alexander Mars made it through this stage, I like how different all these competitors are from each other. Johannes Ojanpera is nimble, Phillip Lloyd Rochester is strong and Victor Jaconsson is fast ... but what is gonna be most useful the next time we see them? I guess time will tell ...

A closer look at the second stage will be up this week, then next week Chriss is coming to stay with me for a few days, so we plan on catching up to all the eps we've missed. Next week some of our favs from last year returns, so we are VERY excited.

Until then ....

Sayonara ninja lovers!

Ninja Warrior SE S02E01 recap

And WE'RE BAAAAAAAAAAACK

Did you miss our recaps? We sure missed writing them! I was talking to Chriss how I don't see why I even pay money to get more TV channels because I only watch Netflix these days, but now I see the error of my ways: how else would I watch Ninja Warrior SE? That's worth paying for if nothing else is.

In season 2 it seems Kanal 5 has decided to up their game, in good and bad ways. The good, we'll get to, but the bad is that it's becoming even more similar to ANW. Like we needed that. Now we have five "regional" try-outs and then everyone will meet in the final. This episode is the Stockholm try-outs, followed by Stockholm stage 2 next week, unless I completely misheard. With five try-outs (Stckholm, Göteborg, Malmö, Umeå and Karlstad) that would result in ten episode of regional try-outs ... and then how many eps for the final?

It's too complicated - what's wrong with just going through all the stages at the same time? It's especially ridiculous since Sweden is a pretty tiny country - I can see why having people fly all over the US doesn't really work, but I'm pretty sure taking the obstacle course all over the country is way harder than just letting the competitors come to Stockholm.

But what do I know?

Source: http://www.dplay.se/ninjawarrior/

Here's Stockholm stage one, in front of Karlberg Castle. This is where we get to the good: stage 1 is WAY better than last year. Seeing this even my hubris has to take a step back to admit that I might not pass it easily. Possibly not at all. That thought barely occured to me when I watched season one, not until we got to the later stages. I'll post a longer post describing the stage, but for now let's take a look at how people did in the first ep:

There's meant to be 150 contestants, which means we saw about a fifth of them tonight. Of those, ten passed the course, and HALF of them made it to stage 2, because we still have that dumb rule about people not clearing the course making it to the next one so we can fill a certain number. Idk, I'd get that if there was a risk of no one making it past stage one, as sometimes happens in Sasuke, but I think ten would've been a respectable number of passes without consolation places being handed out. Oh well, we've talked about that before ...

First out there's Dana Star:

Source: http://www.dplay.se/ninjawarrior/

I don't mind the cockiness, but dude, you've got some way to go before you're reaching true ninja levels:

Gotta kiss myself I'm so pretty ...

Of course, Dana seems aware of this, later saying:

Source: http://www.dplay.se/ninjawarrior/

"I think I'm 90% ninja."

Chriss screamed "EXCUSE YOU, WE ARE 150% NINJA" and I think if he had been 60 % units more ninja he might not have been the first (but certainly not last) victim of the Gummi Bridge. My consolation prize to him is that at least he had the best name of the first ep!

Source: http://www.dplay.se/ninjawarrior/

Our first clear of the evening is Askia Linder, who is describe by commentator Adam Alsing as a "looking like a mix between Groucho Marx and Borat". Sometimes I don't agree with Adam, but that description is hard to argue with. He looks a bit dorky here, but apparently he is nothing of the sort:

Source: http://www.dplay.se/ninjawarrior/

During lunch break as a bank man he likes to go to the skatepark and show the kids what's up. Gotta respect that.

We saw ten clears, and two of them are people we remember from last year. Henning Attlin, apparently know as the "guy with the wolf stare" (was that really his nickname last year? I feel I would remember), who quite obviously was eager to try the course again. He did not get the best time and while he tried to play it off I'm sure it pissed him off a little. It's gonna be interesting to see him channel that wolf-rage in second stage, for sure.

And of course, our favourite ninja Alexander Mars was back to defend the title!

Source: http://www.dplay.se/ninjawarrior/

And we got to see some footage of him taking on Sasuke 31 stage 1, which was awesoooooooooome since he was rudely cut from the Japanese broadcast. Or, well, not rudely, but you know ... we wanted to see him.

Adam then explains that he qualified for American Ninja Warrior where he "got through stage one and two" which is ........ not techincally a lie but also not the truth at all. Unless he was on the actual ANW, which I doubt, we're talking about ANW USA vs The World (in the footage he is wearing his green team Europe outfit), and he didn't pass stage one OR stage two there. He failed the Jumping Spider in stage one and the Crazy Cliffhanger (which wasn't really crazy???) in stage three and didn't get a single point for team Europe. :( Okay, so explaining the complicated rules of USA vs The World in a throwaway line was maybe a bit much, but why not just say he was choosen to compete for Team Europe in USA vs The World?

Anyway, Alexander Mars passed, so no worries there, but as we all know, no one is safe in Sasuke, and no one is safe in Ninja Warrior Sweden either.

Here are the ten guys who passed stage one in Stockholm:

Source: http://www.dplay.se/ninjawarrior/

And here are the five guys who made it by being the fastest, despite failing. The ... Fast 5. Haha!

Source: http://www.dplay.se/ninjawarrior/

So there you have it, the first episode, quickly summed up! Later this week I'll post a more in-depth post about the new stage one and the obstacles, and Chriss might give you some of our opinions on USA vs The World ... though possibly after we censor it for curse words there might not be much left to post.

Until then ... sayonara ninja lovers!

The reports of our death have been greatly exaggerated ...

Okay, so I realize that having the last post be "we're not dead" and then not posting for six months is a bit ... I don't know what. Ironic? It's not great. To be fair, I broke my ankle not long after that post and moved back with my parents, so it's not like I could gif anything for quite a while, not having access to my computer and stuff.

Also I was not choosen to be on season 2 of Ninja Warrior SE. Sad face. Though apparently it wasn't filmed until September (I really thought it would be earlier in the summer), so I couldn't have been there even if I had been, with the broken ankle and all. Thank you, universe, for making sure that wasn't gonna happen.

I guess there's always next year.

Anyway, I don't know when exactly season 2 airs, but this blog will be back to recapping it by then, I promise. Before that, we've got USA vs The World to look forward to on January 31 2016. Our very own Alexander Mars will be on team Europe, so you bet we're gonna be watching and covering that. Though I'm not sure which team we'll be rooting for - are we forever team Japan, or do we have to get our patriotism on and root for the Europeans this time?

Well, however it turns out, I'm sure will be screaming about cheating and how we will never trust NBC. That's what usually happens.

Until then - sayonara ninja lovers. Oh, and merry christmas!

What happens on Sasuke, stays on Sasuke ... apparently

Sasuke 31 is over! If I hadn't had Eurovision to worry about (FUCK YEAH SWEDEN), I don't think what I would've done with myself this weekend. Twitter has been way too silent, if you're asking me, but at least we know a few thing. Such as the running order for the contestants, which can be found here in Japanese, or partly translated here. Us hipsters are very happy to see the cute guy Matachi Ryo as #100, though we are also upset that some of our faves are missing entirely, like Wakky, Kinnikun, Lee En-Chih and Mr Octopus Man.

But, our very own Swedish ninja Alexander Mars got #84, which is cool. We are of course hoping he did well, and I did stalk down this pic of him in front of final stage:

Source: https://instagram.com/p/3BjdhOxOAT/

The only American we like Drew Drechsel also took a bunch of selfies, which is not something that can be said for any of the other ninjas. Excuse you!? I refuse to believe there wasn't a single selfiestick present, and I can only assume these are being kept from us for some devious reason. So not fetch.

Source: https://instagram.com/p/3CLm0JC1Pj/

Source: https://instagram.com/p/3CLWgAi1Ow/

Source: https://instagram.com/p/3DG0W1C1Ei/

Since Drew is the only one delivering on the selfie front I'll cheer a little extra for him when I finally get to watch the competition.

Source: https://twitter.com/hanaisensehi/status/602723569240379392

Oh, and Inui retweeted these two. I don't know who they are (except one is an atlethe?), but they look awesome and dare I dream about a girl clearing first stage again???

Here are some more official tweets from the competition:

Source: https://twitter.com/sasuke_tbs/status/602160815383285760

The new start line! And apparently they were up until 2 pm... wait that's not right. I'm assuming it's actually 2 am. People were apparently happy, so good for them!

Source: https://twitter.com/inuimasato/status/602404114492837888

For this we can conclude that they did first and second stage during the first day, and then had to wait until it was dark the second day to finish filming the last two stages.

Source: https://twitter.com/sasuke_tbs/status/602408610820280320

As far as I know Sasuke is usually filmed during one day, but here it's explained that it's been split into two days for safety reasons. I guess that isn't as hardcore, but it's not as third and final stage would EVER be easy, even with some rest beforehand...

Source: https://twitter.com/cocona201345/status/602434769016655872

While everyone talked about the next day of filming, Shingo tweeted about his newly opened gym. Does this mean he wasn't there the second day, or is he just trying to throw us off???

Source: https://twitter.com/sasuke_tbs/status/602442549106647041

Third stage! At least we know someone got there. Actually ...

Source: https://twitter.com/sasuke_tbs/status/602528383054950401

It seems confirmed that someone even reached final stage! I can't even begin to list the people I want there, but Asa and Ryo are high on the list (especially Asa. I will cry if he doesn't make it past the crazy cliffhanger this year) ... and let's be real, I would love for Alexander Mars to get there too, but fuck if I think he will. The Swedish Ninja Warrior course just isn't enough preparation for Sasuke.

Source: https://twitter.com/inuimasato/status/602552757388648449

And then it was over! Out of nowhere. It seems to have gone well, and even if we don't know if someone will Kanzenseiha (no I don't think that's a verb, no I don't care) this year, we will get to see all four stages which is AWESOME.

Inui also tweeted about some of the new obstacles, but you'll have to wait for my post on those until tomorrow. There are rumors floating around saying Sasuke 31 will be broadcast on July 1st, but as far as I can tell that's not confirmed yet. We will keep you posted!

Until then ... sayonara ninja lovers!

Ninja Warrior SE: stage three, part two

As I said, we only saw ~20 minutes (including a commercial break!) of this stage in the last ep, but thanks to Alexander Mars we at least got to see all of it in action. I think this is a pretty good stage, and the three people who attempted it did a lot better than I thought they would. If Kanal5 were to use the Sasuke format for next year, this would make for a perfect stage two. Not Sasuke hard, but a better challenge for the unprepared Swedes.

Source: Kanal5play.se

We start with a Pipe Slider towards a Tarzan Rope. The Pipe Slider is pretty short and unimpressive, but getting on that rope afterwards should've given people more trouble than it did.

Source: Kanal5play.se

Doorknob Grasper, with ropes at the beginning and end. They made this look pretty easy too, but I guess it would be compared to the Arm Rings and Unstable Bridge. It's also in the beginning of the course, so at this point your arms won't be too sore.

Source: Kanal5play.se

The Death Rope. It looked like any other rope, but I suppose the half-moon shape might make it harder than it looks. Maybe. The name is cool though.

Source: Kanal5play.se

Wall Lifting. I didn't pay attention, but I'm guessing it's the same 30-40-50 kg set-up as in Sasuke. You have to pass the last wall in less than a minute or you won't get to go on to the last two obstacles. All three contestants did that in the last ep, with one second to spare for Alexander and David Johansson. Walker Kearney were Asa levels of fast and cleared it in like 30 seconds

Source: Kanal5play.se

Floating Boards. With the heavy rain this became more or less impossible, although Alexander made it through. Possibly witchcraft was involved, we don't know.

Source: Kanal5play.se

The Cliffhanger. Look at that fucking drop, how are you gonna mae that in the rain? Clearly, you weren't. And so close to the end as well. Oh well that's Sasuke for ya!

And that's it, we've seen all the obstacles. We never got to see the tower/Midoriyama, but it was 20-something meters of Rope Climb, unless I'm mistaken. The exact length may have been specified at some point, but I'm to lazy to check if it was 21 or 23 meters. We'll see if anyone gets there next year!

Ninja Warrior SE: episode 10 recap

Air date: 26 March 2015

Obstacles fails:

Stage one

Stage two

Stage one

Stage two

Well, as you can see, no one made it past stage two, which means no one made it to Midoriyama/the tower. Still, Alexander Mars was the last man standing, which means that even if he didn't win any money, he will get to compete in Sasuke 31. And isn't that way better than money anyway?

And no we're not jealous. Not at all. Where would you even get that idea? (Btw Chriss, how is that "steal Alexander's identity and take his place in Sasuke-"plan coming along?).

___________________________________________________________

Chriss & Ell commentary:

Adam Alsing (on the "Jumping" Spider): "It's a completely different obstacle now!"
Chriss: "HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
Ell: "MAYBE FOR THE CONTESTANTS."
Chriss: "YOU KNOW NOTHING ADAM ALSING."
Ell: "It looks basically the same to us in the audience."

Adam then proceeded to pronounce Sasuke like "Sasoke" and Chriss screamed. We're not always easy to please.

~*~

Walker Kearney makes the course looks like a "walker in the park" (what, have we heard that joke fivehundred times already? Naaah, can't be ...) and clears "The Chimney" aka the Spider Climb with ease.

Source: Kanal5play.se

Adam Alsing (commentator): "He's like Santa Claus - except the opposite!"
Chriss: "Excuse you, how do you think Santa gets back OUT of the houses?"

How would Santa do in Sasuke? Now this is a question we'd like to see answered.

~*~

Then firefighter Martin Lindh then fucked up at the Quintuple Step.

Source: Kanal5play.se

We couldn't believe it. He totally Shingo'd it up. :( The firefighters didn't do well at all today, a true shame.

~*~

Then we got distracted talking about how much we want me to compete in Ninja Warrior SE next year. Ya'll should go make me viral or something so they have no choice but to put me on the show. Just sayin'. If I'm not last man standing, how will I ever get to Sasuke?

~*~

I wish I could quote more of what we said, but, a lot of it is really inappropriate comments on the contestants' bodies, so we're gonna skip that (the phrases "I would climb that like a mountain" and "I wouldn't mind getting under that, if you know what I mean" were used). We watch it for the plot, and so on ...

~*~

Then we FINALLY got to see stage two! Sadly, only three people made it there, so we only got to see it the last like twenty minutes. A SHAME, because it was the first time we got to see only new obstacles, and it was fun. For next season, I would love to see more variations in the semifinal and final part one. It's a good course, and yeah, it's fun that people can fail obstacles they've cleared with ease several times before, but come one: we want more obstacles! Give it to us, Kanal5, I know you can do it!

~*~

Alexander Mars made it all the way to the Cliffhanger, but it's pretty brutal and during the drop from the highest bar to the lowest he lost his grip.

Source: Kanal5play.se

So close to making it all the way, but no. I think that Cliffhanger looks like something even the Sasuke stars would have a problem with, but Chriss wasn't on my side. Still, the design is more closely resembling the Ultimate Cliffhanger than any of the easier ones, so I'm not gonna say this should've been easy for any of them. Especially not in the rain ...

~*~

Adam Alsing (commentator): "It's raining pretty hard, maybe we should cancel this."

Mårten Nylén (commentator): "Forget about it! This is Ninja Warrior!"

YEAAH. That's the Sasuke spirit, Mårten!

~*~

Then both David Johansson and Walker Kearney failed when they were trying to get on the Floating Boards. I'm not that surprised, David Johansson is built like a fricking fridge, so his weight would've been against him even if it HADN'T been raining, and well ... when you're trying to grab a fucking board sideways, you kinda need some sort of friction to stay on. Rain would stop even the best competitors, and it seems it did.

Anyway, we're happy for the "winner" Alexander Mars, and I'm gonna finish this sentence before it derails and I start sobbing about being jealous because he's going to Sasuke. Damn.

~*~

And with that, the first season of Ninja Warrior SE is over. While we may have been a little skeptical and/or critical at times, Chriss and I are of course huge fans of the show, if for no other reason than that without we would never had heard of Sasuke. And we would never have become the Sasuke hipsters, which would truly have been a tragedy.

Still, compared to Sasuke 1 (for example), this was pretty good, so I'm definitely hoping for lots more season, and not only because I wanna compete myself. It will definitely be interesting to see the kind of contestants we get next year, when the show is a little more well-known. I'm also hoping Kanal5 fucks with all the applicants/new constestants by completely revamping the stages. Imagine the look on people's faces when they suddenly find themself in front of the Half-Pipe Attack never having heard of it before. I would love that. But that's maybe because that's my fave obstacle.

Of course, we're not done blogging about this show, and you can expect a whole bunch of posts the next week. Then there's American Ninja Warrior, which we've never seen before, but we might recap that as well, just to get our weekly ninja fix.

But until then: sayonara ninja lovers!

Ninja Warrior SE: episode 9 recap

Air date: 19 March 2015

Obstacle fails:

Who failed what obstacle:

As you can see, only one person made it through this round, where we only got to see what is now referred to as "stage one" of "the finale". Since we've always called the try-outs/qualifying round stage one and the semis "stage two", I'll refer to this as "finale: part one" for simplicity's sake. Though nothing is ever simple with these rules. At least it's straight-forward from now on: if you fail, you're out. Your time won't save you, even though they are still counting, for some reason.

__________________________________________________

Chriss & Ell commentary:

After our usual "omg did you see what are favourite Japanese ninjas posted on Twitter today??"-catch up we were both a bit shocked to see that this is the second to last episode. I really thought the finale would span over several episodes, since it was promising to be so awesome: being way more Sasuke than anything else we've seen so far. After seeing so many people fail part one of the finale, I can see why it won't last for more than two episode. Damn. These guys would not last long in Sasuke.

Anyway, we're sad to see the show be over. We may complain a lot about it not being ninja enoughtfor our hipster standards, but we do love the show and it's entertaining us. And, ten eps is longer than any Sasuke episode, so there's that ...

~*~

Chriss: "Batman soundtrack? I approve."

Was definitely about time they stepped up their soundtrack game. Well done!

~*~

We've seen some changes to the stage again, and I'll make a separate post on that later this week (there were more changes than I expected). The Hang Glider is now the Tarzan Rope (easy-peasy), the Spiderwalk is the "Jumping" Spider (we decided that calling it Jumping Spider was over-selling it, see later post) Arm Rings are Unstable Bridge, and the Rope Ladder by the end have become the Spider Climb. Or, as it is known as in Swedish: the Chimney. Terrible name, really.

~*~

Time for Jesper Eriksson, the second person to take on this course.

Source: Kanal5play.se

Chriss: "Haha, his dad's running next to the course just like Mr. Sasuke."

His dad had also expressed doubts about Jesper's ability to clear the course, which kinda sounds like something Mr Sasuke would do (I'm totally making this up, I have no idea what he'd say since I've only seen three of his lines subtitled, like, ever). His dad was right though, as parents tend to be, because Jesper didn't clear it.

~*~

Time fooor:

Source: Kanal5play.se

Ninja Warrior SE's very own Chuck Norris. As you might remember, Adam Alsing (commentator) made a really funny comment last time he tried the course. Apparently Adam doesn't know when to stop, because he tried two different (well, one was basically the same joke as last time) Chuck Norris jokes, and Mårten Nylén (other commentator) didn't even laugh. Quit while you're ahead, Adam, you're better than this.

Source: Kanal5play.se

Adam then informed us that David Marberg has built his own ninja course at his home.

Ell: "We should invite ourselves to work out at his ninja course."

Chriss: "Yep."

Ell: "I'll try flattering him on our blog so he'll like us.

Chriss: "Yeah, write that we like his beard."

Ell: "I'll be all 'oh wooooow you are so much cooler than the real Chuck Norris'."

Chriss: "'Plz let us come train at your ninja course.'"

There you go, David, in case you googled yourself and found this. We can offer you the exclusive opportunity to guest blog here if we can come train at your ninja course!

(Let's be real, we're 90% sure at least one contestant has found this blog by googling themselves. It's okay, we've all been there.)

~*~

Good thing about the Swedish course: I've never understood the design of Unstable Bridge until they specifically pointed out that the second bridge only hangs on two chains instead of four as the first one.

Source: Kanal5play.se

Probably because in Sasuke, they make it look so fucking easy, you never have to consider why it's supposed to be hard. Now, I see why I was wrong when I thought this would be harder than the Arm Rings, because wow, this took down a lot of competitors. Still, this is a second stage obstacle and Arm Rings are a third stage one ... on paper this should be easier!

~*~

Chriss: "I'm starting to think no one will make it past this stage."

Ell: "I wouldn't be surprised if Kanal5 makes sure that at least one of them makes it to Midoriyama. Kinda like how they made sure the Japanese wouldn't win in American Ninja Warrior: USA vs The World."

Chriss: "Wouldn't surprise me, since we know what NBC did."

Ell: "And we never forgot and we never forgave."

~*~

Second to last out: Björn Strömberg.

Source: Kanal5play.se

Adam Alsing: "This guy is far from an idiot."

Charming, Adam, charming. Though he was referring to the fact that Björn probably kept an eye out on the people taking on the course before him, noticing their mistakes.

Adam: "He runs a flower shop with his fiancé. That's not the very ninja."

Ell: "WELL NEITHER IS BEING A SHOE SALESMAN."

Chriss: "AND HE IS THE MOST NINJA SO FAR IN THE WORLD."

We're weirdly protective of Urushihara Yuuji. Who is probably capable of protecting himself. But still. Your job doesn't mean shit here.

Sadly, we won't get a flower shop Ninja Warrior because Björn Strömberg failed the Unstable Bridge, as so many before him.

~*~

And who had the most supporting family? Why, Alexander Mars of course:

Source: Kanal5play.se

Okay, it's not super-obvious here because they refused to line up properly and the guy with the A is wearing a jacket, but yeah, they're wearing tees that spell out his last name. I expect my friends get together to spell out Ell or Hipster depending on how many are there when I get to compete. ;)

It totally worked though, since Alexander was the only person to clear part one this time around. You go, dude! We're rooting for you, we're all rooting for you!

~*~

At first I was pretty sure that someone would at least get to try out Midoriyama, or "part three" of the finale, but now I don't know. They did not do well on this one, and part two? That's a bunch of new obstacle they've never seen before, which leaves me highly skeptical if anyone will actually make it very far on it. What we've seen so far of the finale hasn't been very impressive, and these guys wouldn't survive Sasuke for five minutes.

Speaking of Sasuke, we were informed during the last minutes of the show that if anyone does clear the final stage of the finale (aka Midoriyama) and claims the cash price, they will be invited to participate in Sasuke, kinda like how the Americans were invited when they did well on American Ninja Warrior until the japanese got mad with them (except for Drew Drechsel: the Sasuke people still like Drew, and so do we). That makes me wonder if someone will make it after all, or if they're just building it up for us? Why hasn't it been mentioned before? I'm suspicious.

I guess I could start spamming the Sasuke producers on Twitter to find out if any Swedes have been invited to Sasuke 31, buuut we have not sunk that low in our Sasuke obsession yet, so we won't. We'll wait a week and find out in due time. Until then: sayonara ninja lovers!