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!

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!

Ninja Warrior SE: episode 8 recap

Air date: 12 March 2015

Obstacle fails:

Who went to stage three?

Jesper only made it to the Arm Rings, but had the best time reaching them.

Totat passes in the semifinal:

Source: Kanal5play.se

Source: Kanal5play.se

And we're done with stage two/the semifinals! Sadly none of the ladies made it, but there are a lot of strong competitors here, and I imagine anyone who failed at the Arm Rings is gonna be hungry for revenger in the next stage.

________________________________________

Chriss & Ell commentary:

Some guy is having trouble with the Salmon Ladder.

Mårten Nylén (commentator): "But he's correcting himself!"
Ell: "Mårten always sounds so shocked when they do that."
Chriss: "Maybe he thinks that he's the only one could really pass the course. I really wanna see Mårten do the course!!!"
Ell: "YES!"
Chriss: "He should compete next year."
Ell: "Hasn't he published pics of him doing the course on Twitter or Instagram?"
Chriss: "Well, I've got some internet-stalking to do."

Well, I may have over-estimated the amount of pics because I went looking at his Twitter and could only find two pics of him doing the course:

Source: https://twitter.com/martennylen/status/565836637641646080

Source: https://twitter.com/martennylen/status/556497238814621697

Which isn't a particularly impressive find when I also found two pics of him wearing sport bras. More men should definitely wear sport bras.

Honestly, I think we all would like to see both Mårten and Adam take on the course, but somehow I get the feeling Mårten would do better of the two ...

~*~

They have a certain sound, that reminds me of Lost for some reason, that they play a little too often for dramatic effect. It works great on the Warped Wall: it kinda loses its touch after we then hear it during the jump to the Salmon Ladder and pushing the finishing button and everything else. As Chriss put it: they could be playing the Thor soundtrack, but noooooooo.

~*~

We get a flashback to Alexander Mellby's last performance:

Source: Kanal5play.se

 Chriss: "SUPERMAN"

Source: Kanal5play.se

Chriss: "PINK SUPERMAN"
Ell: "NICE."
Chriss: "10/10 would recommend"

That is an awesome tee. Where can I get one?

~*~

Source: Kanal5play.se

Björn Strömberg finishes the course.
Mårten (commentator): "As you can see, this guy has got a good grip: if he's holding onto something, he will not let it go. Typical of climbers."
Adam (commentator): "Also typical of me, if I've got a bag of chips in my hand, I'll never let go!"

~*~

Now we have the trio of coursins ... well, there were four of them to begin with, but one of them didn't make it past the first stage. And only one of them - Andreas Oscarsson - actually passed the second stage. Chriss kinda fell in love with him because of his "Harry Potter green" eyes.

Source: Kanal5play.se

Chriss: "We watch it for the plot and so on."

~*~

I know we talk a lot of shit about the Swedish Ninjas and how the course is too easy and blah, blah, but Patrik Hagelin displayed some true ninjas skills when he managed THIS fucking jump in the Arm Rings:

Source: Kanal5play.se

Dude could probably pass first stage in Sasuke. That is a bold move, and but it paid off, because we've seen a few people fail when they try to get up on the last part of the rings, and he just fucking skipped it. Awesome.

~*~

Anja Hodann didn't make it. :( But she got the farthest of the women, so you go, Anja! Next year!

~*~

Mårten finished by saying something in Japanese, I don't know what, but Adam promptly informed us that it was spoken in "ninja language". No. Just. No. It's Japanese, for fuck sake, dude. You're always talking about how people "speak ninja" or "ninja language", and frankly I'm finding it a bit disrespectful. But what do I know? We're just speaking bork bork bork over here.

~*~

And we're done with the semis! The finals are supposedly split into three parts, resembling normal Sasuke a lot more, and while I'm sure it'll be confusing as hell, I'm totally psyched about seeing more obstacles. The first part, I think, is just the same fucking course all over again, but with the Unstable Bridge instead of the Arm Rings. Personally I think Unstable Bridge looks way easier, but maybe that's just me ...

Until next time: sayonara ninja lovers!

Ninja Warrior SE: episode 7 recap

Air date: 4 March 2015

Obstacle fails:

Who went to stage three?

Source: Kanal5play.se

Total passes in the semi finals so far:

Source: Kanal5play.se

Don't ask me why it says "sista fem platserna" which means "last five places" because it doesn't make any sense. There are still ten more people that will make it to the final, five from next week's ep, and five with the best time as they reached the Arm Rings.

_________________________________________________

Chriss & Ell commentary:

Since we're not longer living together, we had to watch it separately and just chatted on Skype with our comments. I'm not going to quote it word by word, so be thankful for that at least...

~*~

Chriss: "The Swedish translation of Salmon Ladder sounds awful."

Ell: "The girl I'm working with was all 'omg, the Salmon Ladder looks so hard'. And I was like "lol, you should see the Swap Salmon."

Chriss: "She knows nothing."

#sasukehipsters

~*~

Norweigan contestant Jörund Rundhovde flapped around the course and ultimately failed the changed Jump Hang.

Mårten Nylén (commentator): "Right into the fjord!"

Ell: "Hahahaha. Mårten is seriously funny."

Chriss: "Yes. He could maybe join us if we were commentators."

Ell: "Totally. But he'd had to stay in the back. Let the experts talk."

#sasukehipsters

~*~

Next up is David Johansson.

Source: Kanal5play.se

Chriss: "FUCK. That guy really IS built like a fridge."

Ell: "Yeah. He'll never pass stage three."

Chriss: "At least not if it was Sasuke."

Ell: "We'll see how he does in the Arm Rings. That's a lot of body to lift."

Chriss: "Shit. He just ran right up the wall."

Ell: "I thought he had a playboy bunny on his shirt, but it's just an angry ghost."

Chriss: "Hahhaahaha. Come on, angry ghost!"

Joke was totally on us, because the angry ghost made it through to stage three with no problem and a great time. I'm not sure how we ever doubted a guy that can do somersaults without anything to lift him up but his own legs. Looking forward to see him impress us in stage three!

~*~

Adam Alsing (commentator): "He's waving to his kid, but he is a little too young to understand Ninja Warrior.

Ell: "Sschhh, Adam, kids are an important part of Sasuke."

Chriss: "I have been teaching [my nephew] and he's only two months."

Ell: "Him and [your other nephew] can start their ninja training under your supervision."

Chriss: "That's my plan!"

~*~

Spotted in footage showing third stage/the final: Doorknob Grasper, something that could be the Pipe Slider, something with a rope that seems to slide in a half-moon formation, I've never seen anything like that on Sasuke, and looking up "Rope" on Sasukepedia doesn't give any results either. Maybe it's a new thing? Or just a modified obstacle that's way harder in Sasuke? Wouldn't be the first time.

Source: Kanal5play.se

~*~

Chriss: "Being angry when you fail is unattractive though."
Ell: "Yeah, it's better if they cry."
Serious lack of crying in Ninja Warrior SE. They could all learn a thing or two from Asa.

~*~

Damnit, Anna-Lee Markstedt O'Dwyer, we thought for sure you'd make it! That leaves us with only one woman left for the last semi. I don't like those odds, I really don't.

~*~

And while Besnik Shala might have the ugliest pair of underwear I've seen in a while at least he's keeping up with the great Sasuke tradition of stripping down. Though, let's be real, this is modest compared to some things we've seen in Sasuke...

Source: Kanal5play.se

Besnik finished the stage with a great time, so we haven't seen the last of him or his underwear.

~*~

I'm not gonna lie, out of all the things I do not understand about Ninja Warrior SE (and if you've read this blog before, you know there are a few things), why they feel the need to finish by saying "Sayonara ninja lovers" is probably the thing I understand the least.

I mean, ninja plz...

~*~

Anyway, we're left with only one semifinal left and then it's "the final", or third stage. It seems to quite a step up from what we've seen so far, and I'm hoping we'll get to see lots of glorious failures in the episodes to come. That's what we're all waiting for, right? It definitely looks like it could be an interesting stage, from what we've seen so far.

Ninja Warrior SE: episode 6 recap

Air date: 26 February 2015

Obstacle fails:

Who went on to the third stage:

Source: kanal5play.se

And total passes in semi final 1 & 2:

Source: kanal5play.se

Once again I'm confused: will Henning and David lose their places if more than 5 people pass in the next two semifinals? That's how this image makes it seem, but it also specifies that they made it to the final, so I'm not entirely sure. My guess for now is that Kanal5 is deliberately showing us them in the order that makes the episodes the most dramatical, and that the people failing the course didn't know they made it until the end of the day. I mean, it makes for better TV, doesn't it?

__________________________________________________

Chriss & Ell commentary:

First out is our fave Bernhard Dalsheim, who delivers the line "I'm gonna take it slow, 'cause I'm very out of shape" (which isn't true, he has a lot of muscles, but clearly not much endurance). Sadly, Bernhard failed, but he told us in Japanese that he'll be back next year. We hope so!

~*~

Konstantinos Tzaos tells us his approach to Ninja Warrior SE; "I'm gonna pretend the water is lava", which reminds me of this tweet:

Source: https://twitter.com/oskimonster/status/563460693287268352

Translation: "Super course? The Swedish version is just slightly harder than Musical Chairs, for crying out loud!"

~*~ 

Daniel Sköld, the competitor who failed the Hang Glider (interestingly I can only remember that it happened once in the qualifying round, but we've seen two do it in the semis), is at least going all out on his ninja look. Inspiring dude, truly inspiring.

Source: Kanal5play.se

~*~

David Marberg, who failed the arm rings but still got a spot in the final/third stage, got the nickname "The Swedish Chuck Norris" ... well, you can guess why:

Source: Kanal5play.se

The Swedish commentators of course found this hilarious.

Adam Alsing: "Mårten, how do you think the real Chuck Norris would handle the Jump Hang?"

Mårten Nylén: "Ehh, I don't know."

Adam Alsing: "No, because the question is really HOW WOULD THE JUMP HANG HANDLE CHUCK NORRIS?"

I mean that comment isn't super-funny, but he sounded so fucking proud of himself for pulling it off that it is without a doubt the funniest commentator moment so far.

~*~

Martin Lindh didn't get the greatest time in this ep, but as we all know, as long as you finish, you've still got a chance to finish the course, so we're not counting him out just yet. Especially not given his line of work ...

Source: Kanal5play.se

Chriss: "Oh! A fireman! He should wear orange pants."

Do that next time, Martin, and you'll be our fave.

~*~

Camilo Lattof sadly didn't make it, but DAMN, that guy is still the only person in Ninja Warrior SE who has good technique on the Spider Walk, and that's a good enough reason for us to like him. Though naming him the Swedish Speed Demon was a bit much ...

~*~

We end with commentator Mårten Nylén saying that anything can happen in Ninja Warrior and he is absolutely right. That is one of the reasons we love it so much.

Ninja Warrior SE: episode 5 recap

Air date: 25 February 2015

How many people failed each obstacle?

Who went on to third stage/the final?

Source: Kanal5play.se

As you can see, four people cleared the stage, but five from each semi will go on to the third stage/the final. Henning Attlin (the only person in Ninja Warrior SE who could out-hipster us), failed the arm rings as well as four other guys, BUT he had the fastest time finishing the salmon ladder and that meant he went on to the final as well.

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Chriss & Ell commentary:

They're making the rules overly complicated, aren't they? We watched Sasuke with basically no knowledge of the show and not understanding a word of Japanese, but we very quickly picked up on the simple rules: if you finish one stage, you go on to the next. If you don't, you're out. If no one finishes, then the show ends.

I mean, we're happy for Henning, of course, it's always nice when someone's impressively fast time is rewarded (Alexander Mars, with the best time this semifinal, reached the arm rings at least 30 seconds later than Henning, so had he finished his time could have been spectacular), but it ain't very Sasuke to let someone who failed a stage move on to the next.

Personally we think it would make more sense, if it's so incredibly important that 25 people reach the final (I think - but don't quote me on this - that this is 5 people from four semifinals, PLUS the 5 people with the best times over-all, but I might be wrong since they are being a bit vague on how it'll go down), that they should pick the person who got the furthest before failing, even if that would come down to centimeters in some cases.

In any case, there is a risk that we see six people complete second stage/the semi final in the next episode and that one of them won't even make it to the final because they let someone who failed pass the episode before that. Hopefully it won't happen, but it could, and it makes everything way more complicated than necessary.

Honestly, when you turn Sasuke into a competition like this, it feels like watching an entire season of American Ninja Warrior USA vs the world, and we're not loving it. Is the same system used in ANW? I know they let people move on to the next stage based on the time, but is the second stage/semi final done in heats like this?

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Chriss: There should be more celebrities in the show, like they have on Sasuke.

Ell: Well, technically Kitsune is a gladiator, so she's a celebrity.

Chriss: Yeah, but they should get like ... Paolo Roberto for next season.

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Announcer: "Only three people in the world have every completed Ninja Warrior."

Ell: "No, only three people in JAPAN."

Honestly, only the Japanese have done it, and I know they're trying to make it sound more awesome by phrasing it like that, but they are kinda erasing the fact that no non-Japanese person have ever been close to achieving Kanzenseiha when they never mention it. Hey, maybe I'm just overly protective of my faves.

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Despite all our negativity we like the show, but we would love to see the New Stars from Sasuke take it on. They'd laugh all the way through and it'd be amazing.

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And the ultimate proof that the rules are a little bit too confusing came from the announcers, when they repeatedly referred to the qualifying round as the semi when discussing one of the contestants. We know, it's confusing us too, and we should just stick to calling them first, second and third stage to make it simple.

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One last thing: we totally missed that they are airing two Ninja Warrior SE eps this week. SWEET, more Ninja Warrior! Not sweet that we didn't realize this until today, and totally missed to recap this episode yesterday, when it aired. Because of that we will not be recaping today's ep until tomorrow. Sorry about that!