Guilty Pleasure du jour

[semperfiona]

G4 channel's "Ninja Warrior". It's actually a Japanese competition/sporting event/game show: a four-stage obstacle course and test of strength and stamina. It's showing on marathon today. (Until end of programming tonight.)

I could claim the excuse that I'm watching it to practice my Japanese, and while it's true, it's really not the fascination. These guys--the ones who are really in it for the victory--are very impressively strong. There's a lot of amazing upper arm strength. Your heart goes out to them when their muscles fail at the last, just inches from the end, and they fall into the muddy water many feet below.

And then you have the minor celebrities in Japan doing it for the exposure or the laughs, and failing on the first obstacle. But even they earn credit for trying.

The frightening part is that we've been watching this long enough today to have fan favorites and remember the history of many of the competitors from one tournament to the next.

Comments

[aislinggheal.livejournal.com]

Did you catch any of the "women of ninja warrior" episodes? They had a few on last night; fortunately they reworked the course, making it a bit wimpy (but taking out all of the insane upper-body strength challenges).

I'm kind of addicted, I confess. I especially liked the mother-daughter contestants with their matching kunoichi t-shirts... :-)

[semperfiona]

Yeah, we're watching one now. The course looks kind of cheesy, but it's defeating most of the contestants, so...

[eghost.livejournal.com]

J and I love this show. We've been watching it for quite a while, but the marathon over the weekend was a nice catch-up for us. Makoto Nagano rules!!

[semperfiona]

Oh yeah. I was so rooting for him. Chris's favorite was Bunpei Shiratori (he got a kick out of the name).

[needlegrrl]

we've been watching that, too. it's awesome. :)