How to become obsessed with Sasuke

At last a subject we feel qualified to write about! After just under three weeks our obsession is just growing and growing, with no signs of stopping. Personally we think that's pretty impressive, and if you wanna follow in our footsteps, here's what we suggest you do:

First of all, take a look at this video. Don't worry, it's only 5 minutes. If you can't even manage that, you clearly don't have what it takes to love Sasuke.

Sooo ... did you watch that and think "yeah, that's the shit, right there, I definitely need more of this"? Good, then you're ready to begin your descent into Sasuke madness.

First of all you need to get your hands on a proper Sasuke episode. Not those American broadcasts of Sasuke, known as Ninja Warrior, no, no, those are for later, when things get desperate. You shouldn't have much trouble finding Sasuke 30, if you go to a bay near you or somewhere similar. We recommend you start with Sasuke 30 for several reasons: 1) it's easy to find, 2) it's the latest episode so nothing will feel dated, 3) most of our faves are in this episode, 4) you get to see all four stages, and 5) that's how we did it.

Now, just sit down and enjoy yourself. It's three hours long, but it's so worth. Of course, it's all in Japanese, and chances are you won't understand any of it, but that's okay. That's the beauty of it: when you don't understand the Japanese announcers, you have to make your own running commentary, and it's a lot of fun.

If you're lucky, you're friends with us and we can text you about all the people you will want to keep an eye out for. This pic is the notes our friend Hanna took during her Sasuke 30 watch, and we couldn't be more proud of her. If you're not lucky enough to have us on speed dial, Sasukepedia is helpful too. If you keep a look out fo the starting numbers of each contestant while browsing this page you'll soon start to figure out who everyone is.

It says:
Cute gymnast = 2996
Cute guy = 2994
He who always cries = 2998
Urushihara = 2993
___________________
2992 = Yamamoto Shingo - been in all episodes
2999 = Nagano - best of all
part of Allstars, (also 2980)

Or you can just make up nicknames, like Chriss and I did the first time. If you're not Japanese or familiar with Japanese names, refering to people as "the cute guy", "the tree-cutter", "the angry trainer"; "the guy with the hat" and so on will get you through your first watch.

If you've finished Sasuke 30 and is still totally into this, we recommend trying Sasuke 27 next. It's another good one, where we even gets ourselves a winner. By this point you should also be able to recognize some of the contestants, if you wanna become a total nerd.

You're still good? Not feeling that the show is being repetetive? Good! After this finding episodes gets more tricky, but we've gotten our hands on 24, 28 and 29. If you still need some time to adjust to the show, I'd recommend Sasuke 29: except for the weird Asean Cup stuff it's a pretty straight-forward show, and rather short at only 2:18. Sasuke 28 is good too, but that was the official rebranding to Sasuke Rising and cuts to some weird fancy dinner at random times. You'll only enjoy that if you have a somewhat good understanding of who the All-Stars are, because they're officially retired in that episode and that's hyped up a lot.

Text from Hanna, our most satisfied customer:
"Lit candles, bought candy, heat up the heat pad and cozied up in bed in front of Sasuke 28.
THANK YOU FOR INTRODUCING US TO THIS!!!"

Sasuke 24 is another great episode, but at 5:30 hours it demands a commitment you must be sure that you can endure before you embarge upon your journey.

If you've gotten this far, I trust you can make your own decisions on what to watch next, althoughtfinding the full Japenese broadcasts will get trickier. The Ninja Warrior episodes - Sasuke but in the shortened American format - is your last desperate resource. With these you can go back and watch the first few episodes, which of course will be of interest to the beginning Sasuke fan. We've seen 1-4 in the Ninja Warrior style, and while it works we much prefer the Japanese broadcasts where we can get them. It is cool to see the All-Stars at their best though, even if the course is a lot more awesome in the later seasons.

Once you've gotten this far, all you can do is spam twitter, accept the fact that all your conversations from now on will be about Sasuke, start a blog and start training for your next opportunity to appear on the show. This is your life now.