Last week, I wrote about the incredible ballet of strength, speed, and stamina that is Ninja Warrior (called Sasuke in Japan). The contest is held twice a year in Japan and attracts contestants from all over the world. If you’ve seen the show Wipeout on ABC, I want to assure you that Ninja Warrior is absolutely nothing like that.
OK, they are both similar in that they involve Japanese obstacle courses. But while Wipeout is a silly show featuring whatever housewife or insurance salesman the network can rope into it, Ninja Warrior is a serious competition, with 100 top competitors chosen from thousands of applicants. Numerous former Olympians, including several medal winners, have tried (and failed) to defeat the course at Mt. Midoryama.
As much as I’ve boasted about Ninja Warrior these past two weeks, there is one sport that is at least as fantastic and fun to watch. That would be The Women of Ninja Warrior (known as Kunoichi in Japan). Occasionally, the geniuses who developed Ninja Warrior will redesign the course to focus less on brute strength and more on agility and grace. The woman’s course requires a Spiderman-esque level of agility, as the ladies bop and weave their way through the obstacles on the path to total victory.
As previously stated, only two men have ever claimed total victory over Ninja Warrior. The club is even more exclusive on The Women of Ninja Warrior. Only one woman, Ayako Miyake of Japan, has ever defeated all four stages of the course – and she did it three times in three consecutive contests.
Ninja Warrior (and the Women of) airs in the US on the G4 Network, available on most cable systems.
Watching Ninja Warrior is a family affair in my house. The boys (ages three & eight) love it as much as I do. A word of caution – if you’re going to watch with younger children, you should be prepared to mute the TV or change the channel during the commercials. G4’s target audience is clearly not the under 10 year old ninja loving set – but maybe it should be.
