SASUKE MANIAC July 28, 2008 Sort of liveblog サスケマニア

This week! SASUKE Trial! 80 out of a 1000! Who will make it to the big show? Who will be forced to stay at home? It's SASUKE Maniac!

Here we go!

Photos of this part of the show are up here.

Short interviews with some participants. Some people are from as far as Aomori and Okinawa.

There's a Rice Bowl participant!

Casey Cummings ケーシー・カミングス? He's from America. Or at least he has American flag shorts. Further examination shows that he came to Japan from Hawaii. Some other foreigners! A gaijin kid with a REALLY low voice. I believe the other gaijin are a father and son team. The father is Kent Gilbert　ケント・ギルバート. The son with the low voice is Andrew Gilbert　アンドリュー・ギルバート. They are from California.

Mr. SASUKE is there! He brought someone? That guy is sooo not going to make it.

Oy, I hope Rambling Rican gets photos of the American dude. He's at the corner of the screen while the announcers are talking and well, he's only wearing the flag shorts. Yeah.

Survival Station! They will be put into groups of four. The winners move on to the Final Stage.

Tons of people have sent in letters of appeal! Not all are there!

Ono Takashi is from Fukushima! Sayama Yuuhei is from Okinawa! Tako Yuusuke has Bruce Lee mania! Nomura Katsumori! They are our first four!

They have to do a shuttle run then cross the water using a rope. Then a ring slider! Nomura is out! They have to pile some sandbags (?) then go under then up a an incline! Sayama 佐山雄平 and Tako 田子勇介 are the winners!

Okay, the Jump Ring is where you have to bounce off a trampoline and reach a ring to get across. The rope across the water is called the Destiny Rope.

Next four! No names announced! Asa Kazuma is one of them! He's a..delivery man? Something like that. He has SASUKE pants! Makenai! He's the only one who gets airtime so he'll probably make it.

Tanaka, Tamori, Asa and some dude whose name I didn't catch are the next four. Asa has some writing on his back.

First part is a shuttle run. Asa is the top so far. Tanaka has wiped out! Asa is up! Yes! Asa Kazuma and the other guy are the two from this heat! It was a high level battle!

Tanaka was nervous.

The next four are all high school students.

Kato Ryouma has tons of videos. Hey! He also diagrams SASUKE stuff in his note books rather than doing his homework. He practices the Pipe Slider and Salmon Ladder at home! Let's see if the clip = he will qualify pattern holds.

Two kids named Takami, Satou something and Kato are their names.

Kato hayai. Whoops! Kato just missed the Jump Ring.

One of the Takamis and Satou are the qualifiers! Guess a clip doesn't equal someone who will pass. Damn TBS for not making things easy for me!

Oooh. Clip of the 2006 Trial. It was of the son of one of the next group.

Yamanaka Katsuo - it was his son. Koyama Yutaka. Terada Katsumi looks much younger than 55. It's an all over 50 group.

Shuttle Run. Destiny Rope. CMs.

Back. Shuttle Run again. Destiny Rope. Koyama is first across. NO! He missed! Yamanaka is across! He's the only one! Yoshioka (the one I missed) falls!

Yamanaka! The incline is last! There's a time limit apparently. But he beats it anyway! Yamanaka! He's doing it for the family! The others want to try again.

More clips! Hey look! Nagano at Muscle Park! CMs.

We've got pictures right over here!

There's Nagano! He's trying the new attraction at Muscle Park.

They show the new SASUKE Park. Nagano demonstrates the obstacles. First the Arm Bike.

Then the Shin-Cliff Hanger! No! He fails! Did he dye his hair?

Arm Rings. He has to make the jump similar to the jump you make at the end of the Pipe Slider. No! He lands on his feet just short of the mat.

Surprise guest! Yamamoto Shingo! Oh wow.

More clips from the SASUKE Trial for next week! Yahagi Makoto! That really weird gaijin kid!

See you next week!