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!

The new obstacles

Okay, so here are the obstacles that have been confirmed by Inui's Twitter for Sasuke 31:

Source: https://twitter.com/inuimasato/status/602693337385046017

So, for our first obstacle, we're bringing back the classic Barrel Climb. Personally, I don't really love this one as the start, I think Quintuple Step to Tarzan Rope is way more fun. This one is only fun when people realized they are screwed, lies down and pretty much accepts death. I know it's a classic, but still ...

Source: https://twitter.com/inuimasato/status/602693975087026176

I can't believe the TACKLE MACHINE is back!? Of all fucking obstacles? This one was in like half a competition back in the 90s, and I just assumed that we all moved on a pretended it was never a thing. But nope, it's back. It does not really fit well into the first stage, you know ...

Source: https://twitter.com/inuimasato/status/602694315194777601

There's supposed to be a third new obstacle on first stage, but so far no one seems to know what that is. I didn't really understand this tweet, but running it through Google Translate made it a little more coherent:

"New third area, "Music Box" was scattered forgot to take photos w

I'm sorry"

My guess is this means the third new first stage obstacle is called Music Box. I know what this means!!!

You know I'm right.

Source: https://twitter.com/inuimasato/status/602694590068445184

I googled "Salmon Radar", but all I found was this:

Source: http://www.radomes.org

Which means that they're either going golfing (I guess Shingo and Hioki would be happy to hear that!) or they're brining back the Big Boulder:

Source: http://sasukepedia.wikia.com/wiki/%C5%8Cdama

This doesn't seem right. Let's see what Google translate has to say:

"2nd Stage minor renewed salmon ladder to climb and down."

Ooohhh, another Salmon Ladder that you climb up and down. That actually sounds a lot more reasonable, now that you mention it ...

Source: https://twitter.com/inuimasato/status/602694986333704192

Here's something brand-new:  a third stage obstacle called the Sidewinder! I think you grab onto a penis and swing across, but I'm not sure. Unless you spin on them and them jump, but they seem way too far apart for that.

Source: https://twitter.com/inuimasato/status/602705993487650816

Here we see that we start with the Drumhopper before getting to Siderwinder. That's cool, I really like the Drumhopper. It's exactly the kind of shit I'm expected from Sasuke third stage.

Source: https://twitter.com/inuimasato/status/602695617337380864

And I don't know about you guys but I've always felt the Vertical Limit was waaay too easy, so naturally adding a sideways jump was the only way to go. Like. Of course. Especially after the Crazy Cliffhanger - the obstacle I think they wanted gone because it was too hard??? This makes sense.

Also, notice how the CCH has water underneath it instead of fire, I'm gonna take that as the final proof that I didn't win that obstacle contest ...

Actually ... does any of these obstacles look like something we were shown in that broadcast? I can't find them among my screencaps at least.

Oh, well, we'll have to wait until the broadcast I guess. Until then - sayonara ninja lovers!

Ninja Warrior SE: stage three, part one

Technically, this is referred to as "stage one" since what we called stage one on the blog is "qualifying round" and stage two is "semifinals". Yeah, why not? Technically this is also just the same stage we've seen a few times by now, but with some modifications. Hey, why change something that works?

As we saw yesterday, this proved to be quite a challenge for the aspiring ninjas anyway, so maybe it's best to ease into it. I'm sort of hoping the course will be brutally upgraded for next season so that everyone who scoffed at how easy it is (myself included), will immediately fail. A girl can dream, right?

Source: Kanal5play.se

Yes, the Quintuple Step - again. You'd think the contestants would be laughing at this by now, but since we actually saw a guy fail it yesterday, you'd be wrong. This just proves one of the things we love about this show, namely that YOU'RE NEVER SAFE.

Source: Kanal5play.se

This obstacle has changed again, and now it is the Tarzan Rope. Probably easier than the Hang Glider, but there's a longer jump which makes it harder to time.

Source: Kanal5play.se

Cross-Bridge is exactly the same.

Source: Kanal5play.se

Source: Kanal5play.se

Since the angle on the Jump Hang isn't the same in the pics it's hard to tell, but to me it felt like it had changed? It looked like a longer jump than in stage two/semis, but they didn't mention it so I guess it wasn't. They could have gone with Jump Hang Kai here though, that would've been fun.

Source: Kanal5play.se

The "Jumping" Spider. We can't say it without the airquotes, because look at it: no trampoline, no half-circle structure, and no distance to the obstacle. Yeah, it's obviously harder than the Spider Walk we saw before this, but compared to Sasuke, it's a joke. Sorry.

Source: Kanal5play.se

The Warped Wall is "four meters and a little more". How much is a little more? No one ever seems to know.

Source: Kanal5play.se

The Salmon Ladder is still here, but this time around you have to climb five steps before you can go on to the ...

Source: Kanal5play.se

Unstable Bridge! Definitely last episode's Ninja Killer. At first people couldn't even deal with the first bridge, but even those who did lost their grip on the second one. One guy almost finished it, but messed up his jump and slipped of the mattress. Classic Sasuke.

Source: Kanal5play.se

Finally we have the Spider Climb, or "the Chimney" as it's called in Swedish. I can't get over that name. Only one dude finished it, but he had trouble since his technique, having one leg bent and one straight, works a lot better on the Spider Walk/Jumping Spider than it does on this one. Study the Japanese ninjas and you'll see how it should be done.

In ep 9 we also got a good look at the next stage, known as stage two, although I'm calling it the finale part two. I'm not making a separate post on it until we see it in action, because I'm not sure about the order of the obstacles, but here's what they'll face:

Source: Kanal5play.se

That's the order (left to right) they were shown in this ep, but they can't be serious about having the Wall Lifting and then two more obstacles??? Not only is that wrong, it might kill someone. Though to be fair, this course will probably kill them all before they even get that far. It's starting with the Pipe Slider to a Tarzan Rope??? And then there's a rope, the Doorknob Grasper, FOLLOWED BY ANOTHER ROPE. Nah, sure, that's totally reasonable, especially given what we've seen so far. Totally.

Oh, and the third obstacle, that half-moon rope-thingy? It's called the Death Rope in Swedish. I haven't found it on Sasukepedia, so I don't know if it's a thing in any of the other Sasuke competitions, but I suggest that we all start using that name, because it's badass.

Also, you might not be able to tell from these pictures, but rain is POURING by this point. I don't know if it still does when the contestants get to them, but if it does ... well, they're fucking screwed, you know? No way will they survive that.

In any case, it seems we have a very interesting last episode to expect. Well, if anyone survives that Pipe Slider, that is.

Until then: sayonara ninja lovers!

And the winner is ...

Remembered that contest we told you about last week? Well, today they had the liveshow where they showed some of the obstacles people had sent in, and since it's only the middle of the day here in Sweden, we could watch it without losing any sleep (FOR ONCE).

We didn't understand everything that was going on (how about, "almost nothing"), but here are some of the submissions that stood out to us (all pictures are from the Niconico liveshow):

This one wins for best drawing skills! Actually, it looks really cool, it's kinda one of our favourites.

I don't know, this might be kinda cool??

Everyone was kind of making fun of this in the comments, but I kinda like it? I mean, it would probably be insane hard to actually hold on, but still ...

Hahahahaha, this one is one of our favourites, because it's just kind of "WTF?". Also, this comment: "Sasuke: Brought to you by IKEA." Ikea should totally sponsor Sasuke.

Kinda liked this one, although I have no idea if it could actually work.

Another insane one. Is it supposed to be spinning while you're climbing through it??? 

A Sasuke cliffhanger! 

At first I thought this was some kind of version on the Giant Swing, but apparently it's a seesaw pipeslider??? Anyway, that's INSANE. And kind of amazing.

Haha, trying to figure out how some of the obstacles actually worked ... Good thing they had a whiteboard standing by!

Hahaha, me and Ell both thought this one was crazy. Naturally, we love it.

Whoever did this was really serious about their work, and we like that!

And a nice little backflip.

Upside down Body Prop; very nice, we approve!

This guy actually built his obstacle, 10/10 would recommend, very Sasuke of you!

We liked this one because Excel.

This would be AWESOME, but probably really tough.We named it "Crazy pipeslider".

Sadly, they didn't show Ell's Motherfucking Cliffhanger, so we're hoping one of the submissions above get to take home the prize! We actually don't know who the winner is, but we think it's going to be announced over at TBS' Sasuke website. God knows when.

Sayonara ninja lovers!

New Obstacle ideas

Something with fire, you say, Chriss? I have some really good ideas in that case. They came to me just as I was about to fall asleep, which might not be when you get the best ideas, but I strongly feel that these could make Sasuke's ratings skyrocket, should they use them in Sasuke 31.

First out, I have an idea for a first stage obstacle that would be called something like the Ring of Fire, or Fire Ring, I'm not picky about which one is picked. I'm thinking it should be right before the Jumping Spider, and it would look something like this (excuse my poor Paint skills):

It's simple, really. You jump on the trampoline, dive through the ring of fire, do some kind of somersault and land on the mat like it's no big deal. No loose cloothing on this obstacle, if you know what I'm saying ...

Yes, some people might argue that it would be really dangerous if someone, idk, did something as absurd as catch on fire while attempting this, but I've already got it figured. If you do it correctly, you won't catch on fire, and if you fail and do get lit on fire, then you're just gonna land in the water below and immediately be extinguished. Perfect, right?

Next up is a third stage obstacle based on the Crazy Cliffhanger. I've heard rumors that they want to remove this obstacle, but I think that would be a bad idea when it could be developed into something even better. I'm not sure on the name for this one, since Ultimate and Crazy is making it very hard to come up with something that will really tell you that we're taking the obstacle to the next level, but after careful consideration I've decided to name it the Motherfucking Cliffhanger.

As you can see, it is exactly like the Crazy Cliffhanger, but instead of landing in muddy water when you fail, you fall into a raging inferno. I think this would be the final motivation certain competitors, such as Asa Kazuma, needs to actually finish this obstacle.

Yeah, I'm totally feeling these ideas. Now I just need to find out how much it would cost to send a package to Japan ...