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Known as Ninja Warrior here in the US, Sasuke (Japanese: Kinniku Banzuke Shiriizu, [Muscle Ranking Series]) is a tournament held in Japan and broadcast on the Tokyo Broadcasting System (TBS) television network twice a year. It consists of four obstacle courses, each more difficult than the last.

Participants must complete each of the first two stages in 95 seconds, with the third stage having no time limit, and the final stage consisting of a 100 foot vertical climb with only a 30 second time limit. Each challenge increases in difficulty as the competitor makes his or her way through the course.

Since 1997, over 1,400 individuals have attempted stage one of the Ninja Warrior tournament. Only 200 competitors have successfully completed the first stage.

Overall, only two people have managed to navigate all four stages completely, within the time restraints.

One particular point of interest is the broad spectrum of participants. Many comedians from various Asian countries compete, as well as firefighters, martial artists, wrestlers, jugglers, Olympians such as Paul Hamm even some competitors as young as 14 years old.

Has anyone got a chance to see the program? And what are your thoughts on Japanese game shows? Are they much more, or less competitive and stranger than American game shows?

I, personally, favor the cooking game show Dotch!, in which contestants are presented with two dishes to choose from, and over the course of the show, they are shown the special ingredient in each dish, and where it comes from, and how they obtain it, for the show. At the shows end, they have to decide which they want to eat, and the majority vote, is the one that eats, with the minority being forced to watch them, as they starve(and considering the show is filmed over 8 hours, from what I've heard, they are actually starving out of their minds, when you see them salivating over the meal)

By the sound, it sounds cool! The only ones I ever see are Iron Chef and MXC (both dubbed, except the host of Iron Chef).

Sasuke the show, NOT Sasuke, the loner emo ninja brooder, with a severe inferiority complex.

*has a small dislike for Naruto's overblown dramatics*

I watch Ninja Warrior on G4tv over here. When i first started watching it, I made fun of it, but then after a while I realized 'Dude! I'm actually getting into this!' because I was cheering them on and going 'aww' when they lost. It was funny. xp

Yeah, I love that show because it's basically the only one I can watch on my TV where it's Japanese with English subtitles. blaugh Plus it's interesting, and fun to watch.