TBS did a better job this time of promoting the show. I knew at least two weeks in advance that it was going to air. Good job!
Here's a preview!
You can also follow the show via twitter and facebook. Links are here. Spodan!
Tonight! Can Wataru Mori defend his title? Or will Gaku Sano come back and regain HIS title? Can Naoki Iketani show these whippersnappers how it's done? Will someone musical make a strong showing? Will I hate on Casper again? It's the latest edition of the Sports Danshi Grand Prix!
Arisa Mizuki is your host once again. (Actually, her title on the Spodan page is 主宰, shusai, which more or less means she's presiding over these events.)
There are more talking heads this time around. Stop making sense!
Your official hashtag is #spodan
Here we go!
Sparkly.
I'm still disappointed the giant head doesn't do anything.
Ooh. Naoki Iketani was apparently a surprise even for the competitors.
OK, this show is officially roman numeral III. But commercials first.
1st Event: Mountain Flag!
10 meters to the flag!
1st Race: Wataru Mori~!, Gaku Sano, (wow they really really want to make it hard for Mori to repeat), Toshihiro Nobuyama (actor) Nobuyama gets One Direction music for his topless shots, Tetsuya Sugaya
Set. Start! Gaku is up the fastest. And he's got it! Not much of a challenge. Sano actually didn't have a good grip on the rope but was up fast enough in the beginning to make up for it.
Looks like Iketani is being marked as a "legend." Will he only do Monster Box?
2nd Race: Akiyoshi Nakao is still living off Rookies, someone oh, it's blonde Casper, Robin! He's from Hawaii? Seiya (actor) He's a spodan vet.
Set. Start! Robin Seiya...Robin...Seiya...Robin gets it!
3rd Race: Masaya Nakamura, KENZO of da Pump, Mendy Sekiguchi of Generations of Exile Tribe with a 1/2 Kid, Eiji Takigawa (still Crystal Takigawa's cousin)
St..wait! CMs first. What in the world was that 3DS commercial?
Start! Mendy! Nakamura slips! Mendy is the fastest up! And he just gets it! Mendy and Takigawa got up at the same time but Mendy was about a half-arms length ahead!
And Naoki Iketani makes his appearance! But let's have that non-spoiler sink in during commercials.
Sportsman No. 1 reference! The other competitors are worried! Let's see a clip of Iketani doing 23 boxes! That's the record!
OK, we've already seen the 23 box clip three times.
4th Race: ELLY of Sandaime J Soul Brothers, Takayuki Suzuki (Mr. Japan - Hey! He was on SASUKE), Yasukaze Motomiya is old, Naoki Iketani is a LEGEND~!
Set. I skipped Iketani being Iketani because I was twitter riffing on the whole LEGEND thing. Start! Iketani is up fast! AND he shows those whippersnappers!
Final Race: Sano, Robin, Sekiguchi, LEGEND
Set. START! Sano up fastest! Iketani next! But it's SANO all the way!
Mountain Flag Winner: Gaku Sano He's on his way! I bet Iketani wants to push Sano off the mountain right now.
2nd Event: Power Wall
I mean, geez, at least have the statue having moving eyes following the wall. That would be great. And creepy.
First let's have some shilling for the next set of TBS dramas.
1st: Motomiya vs. Seiya! They're off! Motomiya with a slight edge. But he's doing most of the work here. Seiya not putting up much of a fight. He's at a weight and height disadvantage. Motomiya can't put him away though. Time is up! And it's Motomiya!
2nd: Mendy Sekiguchi vs. LEGEND! Big height advantage for Mendy here. Go! But first a commercial.
Back.
Not looking good for the LEGEND! And that's it! Not much of a challenge.
3rd: ELLY vs. Nakamura. Go! Even so far. ELLY having problems! Nakamura gets it!
4th: Casper d. Sano
5th: KENZO d. Robin
6th: Suzuki d. Nobuyama
All those were clipped by the way.
7th: Nakao vs. Sugaya. Evenly matched at first but Nakao has the early lead. Almost there. A bit more. That's it!
8th: Takigawa vs. Mori. Mori is not in a good spot so far as Takigawa takes it.
2nd Round
1st: Mendy vs. Motomiya. Start..And another easy win for Mendy


