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!

Sasuke Hipsters vs the world

After staying up all night to watch the Oscars (terrible idea, don't do it), we're now watching the American Ninja Warrior USA vs the world special before we get to go to bed again (I mean, we have slept, some five hours after the Oscars ended at 6 in the morning here, but we have been more or less dead all day).

Not a good idea. We're obviously only in it for team Japan and they're not doing very well. In our tired state we're reacting worse than Asa whenever our faves fail. And saying not so nice things when the Americans succeed (which we won't repeat here: this is a hate-free blog).

Hmpf. This is why having it as a competition rather than a challenge is a bad idea. 

When watching Sasuke you can cheer anyone on because their success will not affect yours (or, if you're watching rather than competing, your faves) at all, and that's the beauty of it. You never have to wish for someone to fail so that someone else can succeed, but watching this it's hard not to, and that bothers me even more than the failures of team Japan.

Deep thoughts from a tired mind.

Oh, and when Team Sweden eventually is formed and I get to be on it, I'll be known as the #sasukehipster. You know were you heard it first. ;)