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 season 2 stage 1

It's so cute that you guys miss us. :') We're defintely going to recap the rest of the season, but somehow we're both very busy right now. When we started this blog Chriss lived with me, which made watching together very easy. These days, though, we live in different parts of the country, so finding a time where we both can stream the eps can take some planning. But we'll try to recap at least episode 2 this week!

I figured that before that we could take a look at the new first stage. I think it's a vast improvement from last year, because it doesn't look easy, it looks really hard.

Let's break it down!

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

We start with a classic - the Quintuple Step. I don't know how far away the steps were last year, but it feels like the gaps are larger this year? Apparently these are 2,5 meters apart, which is one small step for a giant, one giant step for a ninja ... ehh, or something like that.

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

"The Magnet", a lamer version of the Cross Slider, but since this is first stage, I think it's hard enough. People in the first episode did better on this one than I thought they would.

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

"The Gummi Bridge", or Floating Tiles as it's apparently known as in English. Three tiles that you must jump on, and no touching the rope. This was the one that killed most people in the first episode, and I can see why. It doesn't seem like much of a problem, but of course it would be. 

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

A modified version of Jump Hang, with something similar to the Chain See-Saw from Sasuke 27. You have to grab onto the hanging cones before you can swing over to the net itself. Surprisingly, most people that made it past the Gummi Bridge had no trouble with this one. 

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

"Double Ladder" or Double Tilt Ladder, apparently straight outta American Ninja Warrior season 6. I thought that would be hard with the tilting and how much arm muscles it required, but NOPE, people made it seem fucking easy. Of course they did.

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

Ahhh, it's starting to feel a lot like Sasuke. The classic Warped Wall, but slightly higher than last year because fuck you, that's why. It's now 4,26 m, but I'm not entirely sure how much higher that is because I don't think they mentioned the height last year. High enough, I should guess.

And that's it. A post on stage 2 will follow once we've, you know, seen it.

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!

Throwback Thursday

Ahh, a year ago ... when  I first watched Ninja Warrior Sweden and then convinced Chriss that watching three hours of a japanese game show would be a good way to spend our time. My Timehop actually informed me that February 2nd was the day when we watched Sasuke for the first time.

Good times @Chrisstheninja pic.twitter.com/wRMUQmQk0B

— Ell Eastwood-Solo (@Ellociraptor) February 2, 2016

Back then we didn't know anyone's name of course, so we had to come up with creative nicknames, like The Hat Man (Shingo), The Tree Cutter (Asa), Angry Trainer (Mr. Sasuke) or The Guy Who's Father Wasn't Dead (Kawaguchi Tomohiro) ... funny, we never had a nickname for Nagano, except maybe That Guy. We could tell he was special even before we knew who he was!

Tonight the first episode of Ninja Warrios SE season 2 airs and we could not be more excited. Sort of. I'd be more excited if I were in it, ehehehe! But it's gonna be great, spring truly is the Ninja Warrior/Sasuke season so we'll pop out of the snow, like daisies, and hopefully blog more. I know you've been dying to read our most excellent recaps.

Anyway, Chriss is staying with me this weekend, so we'll get caught up on Ninja Warrior SE and watch USA vs The World (no spoilers, please! Though I think I already know how it went because Drew Drechsel spammed my entire twitter account with praise during the broadcast. Drew, you're still the only American we like but that's pushing it, dude!). Except some recaps and general fangirling after the weekend.

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!

Audition! :D

Hej, remember that awesome audition video I made for Ninja Warrior Sweden? Well, it must've impressed more people than just us hipsters, because I'm set to audition for the new season!

I first heard back from them a couple of weeks ago and was asked to submit a lot more information about myself, how much I work out and why I wanna do this (so I can go to Japan and compete in Sasuke, duuh) and while it did say "you'll be asked to go to an audition in a few weeks" I didn't dare assume I would get one... why get my hopes up, you know?

But today it was confirmed I'll be auditioning during the first week of June! I don't know where, when or how it'll happen, but I least I know that it will and that's good enough for me.

It's been a terrible week, so these were the kind of news I really needed. Now remember to send good thoughts out into the universe and hope I get to go on the show!

Ninja Warrior SE season one master post

Because I have no life, I'm compiling a post of literally everything you need to know about the first season of Ninja Warrior SE (also because I have other more important things to do, so what better procrastination is there than Sasuke-related stuff?).

Qualifying Round

The qualifying round saw 125 competitors take on the first stage and was aired as four episodes.

Course and obstacle description

Total obstacle clears and fails during the qualifying round:

Since it's been said that there were 125 competitors, that must mean 9 people were cut from the show completely.

Obstacle clears and fails during the first episode:

Contestants in the first episode:

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Episode one recap not available

Obstacle clears and fails during the second episode:

Contestants in the second episode:

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Episode two recap not available

Obstacle clears and fails during the third episode:

Contestants in the third episode:

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Episode three recap not available

Obstacle clears and fails during the fourth episode:

Contestants in the fourth episode:

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Episode four recap

Semifinal round

The semifinal round saw the 66 people who passed the qualifying round compete for 25 spots in the final round and was aired as four episodes. 

Course and obstacle description

Each episode saw five people move on to the final round: those who passed, and (if less than five passed) those who had the fastest time when reaching the Arm Rings. After all four episodes, the five people with the best time reaching the Arm Rings also moved on so that a total of 25 people would be in the final round.

Total obstacle clears and fails during the semifinal round:

Obstacle clears and fails during the fifth episode:

Contestants in the fifth episode:

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Finalists from the fifth episode:

Episode five recap

Obstacle clears and fails during the sixth episode:

Contestants in the sixth episode:

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Finalists from the sixth episode:

Episode six recap

Obstacle clears and fails during the seventh episode:

Contestants in the seventh episode:

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Finalists from the seventh episode:

Episode seven recap

Obstacle clears and fails during the eighth episode:

Contestants in the eighth episode:

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Finalists from the eighth episode:

Episode eight recap

Final round

25 contestants were set to take on three different courses, known as stage one, stage two and stage three. Stage three is known to Sasuke viewers as final stage, or Midoriyama to American Ninja Warrior fans (except at least in Sweden it's just Midoriyama, not Mt Midoriyama).

Final round was aired as two different episodes, making the entire season ten episodes long.

The 25 contestants and their semifinal results:

Source: Kanal5play.se

Source: Kanal5play.se

Course and obstacle description stage one

Course and obstacle description stage two

Total obstacle clears and fails during the final round stage one:

Total obstacle clears and fails during the semifinal round stage two:

Obstacle clears and fails during the ninth episode:

Contestants in the ninth episode:

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Episode nine recap

Obstacle clears and fails during the tenth episode:

Stage 1

Stage 2

Contestants in the tenth episode:

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Episode ten recap

Additional links:

Ninja Training with Mårten Nylén

Kanal5play.se/NinjaWarrior

Ninja Warrior SE facebook page

Ninja Warrior Sverige YouTube channel

I may update this post in the future if we write new posts or find new links. Until then: sayonara ninja lovers!