筋肉番付 公式データブック完全版 ナインフープス Kinniku Banzuke Official Data Book 9 Hoops

In 1998, TBS (no Monster9 yet) published 筋肉番付　公式データブック完全版 (Kinniku Banzuke Koushiki Data Book Kanzenban or Muscle Ranking Official Data Book Perfect Edition). The book included some photos, description of the events from the show, data and recaps from certain episodes and other information that they thought someone might desperately need. Remember, this was almost two decades ago so the internet was just a place for crappy geocities pages and AOL chat rooms.

(click on scans to see larger versions)



Like SASUKE, Kinniku Banzuke always featured a mix of amateur and pro athletes, celebrities, your mom, possibly your dog and whoever else they could grab off the streets.

 
(clockwise from the top right: Ronaldo, Michael Jordan, various Japanese baseball pitchers, Ronaldo, Carl Lewis, Charles Barkley)


(clockwise from the top right: Scottie Pippen, Yuuji Oda, the cast of the first SASUKE, Sir Charles and MJ, bicycle pants)

Currently, Kinniku Banzuke is being shown in the US as Unbeatable Banzuke but certain episodes and events are not part of the package of episodes being aired or marketed overseas. 9 Hoops is one of the events that has not aired. However, we know from the Sportsman No. 1 special that aired this January that Michael Jordan and Charles Barkley (although Barkley's attempts were not shown) gave 9 Hoops a shot (see what I did there?). They weren't the only NBA players though.




 Sorry for the weird looking scans.

According to tables in the book:

Version I
9 - Michael Jordan Chicago Bulls
4 - Charles Barkley Houston Rockets

Version II
8 - Darnell Valentine Retired, former Trailblazers/Clippers/Cavaliers
6 - Kobe Bryant LA Lakers
5 - Hakeem Olajuwon Houston Rockets
5 - John Starks New York Knicks
4 - Clyde Drexler Houston Rockets
3 - Moses Malone Retired, former half of the NBA
2 - Scottie Pippen Chicago Bulls

Sprinter Carl Lewis (from the 2nd scan) got a 3 on Version I.

MJ wasn't the only perfect for Version I. Japanese basketball player Hideaki Toyama 外山英明 and a former Denmark basketball player named Anders Petersen  ペーターセン・アナス got all nine biscuits in the basket.

For Version II, the only listed perfect was a third-year high school student named Hitoshi Nakamura 中村仁.

Unfortunately, the book only goes up to 1998, is inconsistent with facts and tends to ignore certain useful information (like air dates). Still, it's a nice little look at stuff that hasn't been seen in a while. More to come!

筋肉番付 怪傑! 金剛くん Kinniku Banzuke Kaiketsu! Kongou-kun

In 2001 - 2003, Monster 9 main man Ushio Higuchi teamed up with Ouchi Suigun 大内水軍 to create 筋肉番付 怪傑! 金剛くん Kinniku Banzuke Kaiketsu! Kongou-kun. The comic was about Kinniku Banzuke's mascot character Kongou-kun and his adventures with his friends. In one story arc, they take a comic-ized version of SASUKE. (Click to enlarge)

















Most of the obstacles are not very different from the real things other than being exaggerated in size and the fact that the competitors take on the obstacles at the same time whilst fighting. One thing to note though is that in the Final Stage, when they are going up the Spider Climb, rather than the walls separating after a certain amount of time, the walls start closing in on the contestants. So yeah.

Kane Kosugi Week! Kane: The Videos

Happy Birthday Kane!

To celebrate this Kane-errific day, let's review all the videos that neat person on youtube, lostinjapan999 *cough* has uploaded of our man of the hour:

Geinojin Sportsman No. 1 First Half



Geinojin Sportsman No. 1 Second Half



Pro Sportsman No. 1 First Half



Pro Sportsman No. 1 Second Half



Kane: Try Again



Kane goes to Shaolin



Wait a second! There are some new videos up! They must be there to celebrate Kane's birthday! Enjoy!

Kane does SWAT



Kane does some acrobatics



Kane does some wirework



Kane does some stunts

TBS, 2002 and the cancellation of Kinniku Banzuke

Question: What do Kinniku Banzuke, Ultraman Cosmos and Food Battle Club have in common?
Answer: They all caused headaches for TBS in 2002.

Food Battle Club (フードバトルクラブ) was a showcase for the premier competitive eaters of the day including Takeru Kobayashi 小林尊 and his main rival at the time, Nobuyuki Shirota 白田信幸.



However, the death of an Aichi prefecture junior high school student during a bread-eating contest caused such programs (Food Battle Club and other specials) to be taken off the air. The last Food Battle Club (FBC 3: THE SPEED) aired in April, 2002. Competitive eating shows would make a comeback years later due to popular demand but they haven't had the impact they had back in 2001 and 2002.

(As a side note, I remember watching the FBC shows. In one particular contest Kobayashi and some other guy faced off in tuxedos to a steak speed-eating contest. All dressed up...and then they said "Screw the utensils" and just picked up their steaks in their hands and started gnawing on them. Further research finds that that was from FBC The King of Masters )



In June 2002, Ultraman Cosmos main actor Takayasu Sugiura 杉浦太陽 (now known as Taiyo Sugiura 杉浦太陽 and also known as the guy who got Nozomi Tsuji of Morning Musume pregnant) was charged with extortion and assault stemming from an incident two years prior. TBS and affiliate MBS pulled the remaining Ultraman Cosmos episodes and re-ran other Ultraman shows in it's place until the next Ultraman show was ready to go.

Sandwiched between the end of FBC and Ultraman Cosmos was the end of Kinniku Banzuke.

Since Kinniku Banzuke (Muscle Ranking aka Unbeatable Banzuke) seems to be going strong on G4 people are still trying to figure out what it was that actually caused the show to go off air. Mike Hale's review of the show in the NY Times mentions that the show was still getting high ratings when it got pulled due to injuries. So what exactly happened?

(By the way, I'm using various Japanese sources that I'll link to. If you find any errors in how I translate certain lines, please let me know.
Also, the following pictures come from various sites and are linked to or used without permission. If you hold the copyright to them, please mail me)

The answer lay with something called 力島 (chikara jima, which can literally mean Power Island). It was a multi-part course much like the other events on Kinniku Banzuke.

The ball (or in this case the "rock") that you see below seems to have caused the problems.


During a single taping of the show on May 5th, 2002 (this is the date of the incident according to TBS) two university students, a transfer student from China and a local, were injured on two separate parts of the course.

The transfer student was injured during the ロックバレー ("Rock Valley") portion of the course where one has to get on the ball (which is 1.8 meters in the diameter and 47 kilos in weight) and go across a waterway (which is 2.5 meters in width and about 1.4 meters in depth). The student lost his balance and fell, injuring his cervical vertebrae and had to be taken to the hospital.

Despite the injury, the show went on. The other student (some sources say they were injured back-to-back) was injured during a different portion known as the ロックアタック ("Rock Attack"). During the Rock Attack the student was unable to stop the rolling rock (which was coming down a 15 degree incline) and also injured his back. The student was taken to the hospital (some articles say that he was parazlyzed).

Overhead view of the course:


TBS shut down the course - despite saying that others had participated with no problems and that they had had some people test out the safety of the course - and later released a statement saying the show would be put on hiatus while they re-thought and re-examined the safety aspects of the show.







Kinniku Banzuke as it was never went back on the air. Five months after the incident, perhaps to create some distance from the old show, TBS premiered Taiiku Ookoku (体育王国) which was essentially the same program but safer. It lasted until September 2003. The Japanese wiki states that one of the reasons it might have gone off the air was due to the beginning of TV Asahi's 報道Station (Houdou Station) whose main host was Ichiro Furutachi 古舘伊知郎 whom many may recognize as the lead announcer during many Kinniku Banzuke and SASUKE broadcasts. Taiiku Ookoku was followed by Golden Muscleゴールデンマッスル (also known as 黄金筋肉) but that show too only lasted a year, going from 2003 to 2004. The shine (and possibly the thrill) of the shows had worn off. Recently, a spiritual successor to these shows, Taiiku no Jikan 体育の時間 ran on TV Asahi for less than half a year.

So while American viewers are just getting warmed up these shows seemed to have run their course in Japan. There are rumors that they're going to scale back on Sportsman No. 1 shows (perhaps not airing the Geinojin Sportsman shows or making them shorter) and SASUKE has only broken a 16 percent rating once in the last three years. One hopes that TBS doesn't give up on these shows just yet.

Added: DUH. I should have checked the wiki first and saved myself the time. The Japan Times has an archived article here. Eh, it was fun to research and write about anyway.

Articles used in this post:
http://www.zakzak.co.jp/geino/n-2002_05/g2002050707.html
http://www.geocities.co.jp/Hollywood-Stage/9275/page016.html
http://www52.tok2.com/home/textoyx/topic/20020506.htm
http://www.47news.jp/CN/200205/CN2002050601000171.html
http://narinari.com/log/news/200205society.html#219
http://www.tbs.co.jp/pressreleases/20020513.html

Six Things February 10, 2008

1. Super Bowl XLII. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Who knew you could spell schadenfreude with an 18 and a 1? A week later and it's still the gift that keeps on giving. Bill Simmons gets all emo. Some Pats fans can't let it go. Even the Onion joins in on the fun. I'm glad I recorded the replay because I can watch that fourth quarter over and over again.

2. Gyoza-gate is still one of the top stories in the news here.

3. "JapanSoc is a social bookmarking site, devoted to news and stories about Japan."

4. There is a new English wikipedia entry for 筋肉番付 (Kinniku Banzuke -- known as Unbeatable Banzuke on G4 in the US). The person who created the page is trying to do a translation of the Japanese page. If you want to practice your Japanese this might be a nice little exercise.

5. Frozen Grand Central by Improve Everywhere.

6. Huh, Hawaii's caucuses might actually matter for once. Cue the "Barry Obama, Hometown Boy!" campaign! Of course once the primaries are over Hawaii will follow this up by having absolutely no impact on the general election.

The First SASUKE? Plus, Kane Kosugi at the Shaolin Temple: Kinniku Banzuke!

Well, it looks like G4 is going to re-air the Kinniku Banzuke (Muscle Ranking) series as a show called Unbeatable Banzuke. For those who don't know, Kinniku Banzuke is the TV series that spawned SASUKE, KUNOICHI, Sportsman No. 1 and the Muscle Musical. It aired from 1995 to 2002 and was then replaced by two other shows that didn't do as well and eventually got canceled. You can read all about it here.
Kane Kosugi was a big part of Kinniku Banzuke as a competitor in SASUKE and the Sportsman No. 1 shows (he dominated the early Geinojin Sportsman shows until Naoki Iketani showed up). Kane moved to Japan to try to make it on his own, away from the shadow of his father Sho Kosugi (well-known by teen-aged boys of the 80s for being a ninja). Part of Kinniku Banzuke was about Kane going around and trying different things like being a stunt man or going through SWAT training. In the following clip, we see him learning martial arts at the Shaolin Temple:



And here's an interview from 2003 with Hawaii's Eye-Ai magazine.

Omori Akira AKA Monkkiki (he changed his name to jump-start his career based on advice by that fortune teller lady who's always telling people that they should have died some time or that they will die because of..something) was also a regular in the early days of Kinniku Banzuke. He even went to learn Muay Thai kickboxing for the show. As far as I know, G4 has never aired any part of the first SASUKE competition so we don't know much about it. In the following clip, I assume that the first 40 seconds of this is part of his run in the 1st show as his contestant number matches that found in the SASUKE wikipedia entry and he makes it to the final stage:



Couple of other SASUKE related notes:
The cast of the Muscle Musical will once again perform during NHK's Kohaku Uta Gassen.

Some other competitors for the Sportsman No. 1 show on New Years Day aside from Ronaldinho, Paul ANTHONY Terek and Wakky are Nakayama Kinnikun, handball player Miyazaki Daisuke (who won Sportsman No. 1 in 2006), football player Kinoshita Noriaki (NFL Europe) and San Francisco Giants outfielder Rajai Davis.