Is American Ninja Warrior Too Focused on Adversity?
Producers focus more on backstories than the athletic competition.
What is Ninja Warrior?
I have been a fan of Ninja Warrior since before it was brought to the U.S. Japan started it as Sasuke and has run 36 “seasons.” I put that in quotes because the way they run it in Japan is one 3 to 5-hour special where 100 participants run the entirety of the competition (4 stages) in one long episode, versus the American version, where each season is broken up into city qualifiers, city finals, and national finals. ANW was originally aired on G4 and now airs on NBC in the U.S.
American athletes had participated in the Japanese version and the U.S. started airing ninja competitions and sending the winners to the formal Sasuke competition from 2006–2011. Since the fourth season, ANW has the entire competition in the U.S. with the finals in Las Vegas.
Sasuke has been spun off into international competitions in many countries, including the U.S., India, Singapore, Malaysia, Turkey, Sweden, Denmark, United Kingdom, Bahrain, China, Indonesia, Russia and Vietnam, France, Germany, Italy, Israel, and Australia.
One of the things I love most about Ninja Warrior is that if no one finishes the final stage, there is no…
