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Fixing Ninja Shows


With only ANW to inconsistently fly the flag for ninja over the next couple of months, I thought something to keep the NW section of the site semi-active would be to "fix" seasons of the show from around the world. Changes have to be small and realistic, so as much as I want to I couldn't make large changes to the format for example, nor can I say dig pools rather than build them up from the ground for a ninja show building inside or on hard ground. All obstacles proposed must have been available at the time the season was produced.

I'm going to start with probably the worst NWUK season for the time it aired: season 3. The heats were almost identical to the previous year's just with updated aesthetics, the semis were far too easy, the final stage 1 was too long and upper body focused, the casting was appalling on the most part and editing was the worst it had been at any point in the show's run.

So now to improve it without making huge changes:

1) Cast around 20 more returning competitors who performed well in the previous 2 seasons - only inviting back 5 and instead inviting people like Dynamo Joe and Arnie-ish Ashley from Total Wipeout was one of the worst decisions on a ninja show period.

2) Show mostly full runs rather than just clips of people on the obstacle they failed.

3) Stop the repeating replays over and over again with silly music and graphics.

4) Now the course and as I can't make big changes the thing I'll do to improve the heats is get rid of the Jump Hang variants - we'd already seen them twice before and they aren't very good. Then put more entertaining obstacles like Flywheels or Flying Squirrel in their place, in some heats when the fifth obstacle is pretty easy, that can be moved into pool 4 and a different obstacle put in pool 5.

5) Now, the semis and final Stage 1 I'm going to improve by swapping their pool 4 and 5 obstacles: so Ring Jump and Wind Chimes from the final move to the semi-final to make it more difficult, and Jump hang and Ring Slider from the semi-finals move to the final Stage 1 to make it more fast-paced. Kammy's corner from the final Stage 1 definitely needs changed too - I'll get rid of the lache bar between the Big Dipper and Bungees so you have to transition straight to the bungees and I'll get rid of the "three logs" (pipe fitter from heats but rehashed) and replace it with Flying Shelf Grab - admittedly not the kind of obstacle I'd normally put here but the pool it has to go in is long and narrow. I'm thinking FSG will lead to some mistakes as people try to rush the transition between shelves to meet the time limit which I'll make 3:30, this Stage 1 is much less time consuming than the original so a 3 or 4 minute time limit should work.

And there we go... a slightly improved NWUK3!
11/Jul/21, 11:13 am Link to this post    PM Takeshi1
 
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Re: Fixing Ninja Shows


Well done! As I haven't fully watched an international season (mainly due to not being able to access them!) I'll stick to ANW. Some of the early seasons or season 12 (for being unique) stand out in my "Fix!" list, so I'll go with the most recent: 12

I was going to write about 10, but then I realized it wasn't really the show that I didn't like, it was just that I didn't like Summer 2018 in general. I always think it's weird that how we (I) perceive things like TV shows can be so altered by our personal experience at the time.

Season 12 of course carries some baggage with it (and it wasn't really ANW's choice), but also clearly had more issues than most seasons.

1) Show more of the successful people instead of inspiring or "powerful" stories. For instance, Austin Grey who was RUNNER-UP was hardly featured until his final race if I recall.

2) Use a bit more creativity when it comes to course design. While I cut this season a lot of slack for being done on short notice (season 13, I'm not so generous!), I think a bit more could have been done to differentiate episodes. They used that format where they'd predictably swap out two obstacles one week and then the two obstacles in the other position the next week. While this makes sense for using them evenly, it may have spiced it up to change things out a bit more variably. Also, I know they had more obstacles planned so spending the time to add a couple more obstacles for semi-Finals couldn't have broken the bank. It felt a bit disappointing that Semi-Finals couldn't have been done more like a mini Stage Three (no Cliffhangers, Flying Bar, etc.)

3) A bit less exaggerated "safety" - this goes for season 13 too. I'm quite certain ANW had competitors be tested for Covid before they ran on the show, so the socially distanced interviews (and not sharing the microphone) and strict limitations on how many friends could view felt a bit contrived. When this season aired was one of my lowest points with the Covid lockdown (mainly because school was starting, but we couldn't actually go) so seeing a bit more normalcy wouldn't have hurt. That's what I like about Holey Moley season 3.

4) Tackle the Drew situation in some way. I could understand if it was indirect, but the way they edited it felt a bit dishonest. It would've made more sense to say that the Power Tower couldn't be shown because of legal issues with Drew Drechsel of something to that degree. It's better just to say that.

5) Show the clock! Although that goes for seasons 11-13, really.

Season 12 wasn't that bad and not everything can simply be improved, but there were a few things that could've been done a bit more simply.

---
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11/Jul/21, 8:55 pm Link to this post    PM Messup434
 
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Re: Fixing Ninja Shows


I don't know if Australia followed suit but I was glad when Ninja Warrior UK dropped the "furthest fastest" in favour of people having to complete the course to move forward. It may make numbers variable but it is much fairer. I wouldn't be against a repercharge round though where those who didn't complete it but got furthest fastest could get a second attempt.


Should the UK version return, and I think it will even though it's kind of been axed, ideally it would move outdoors and have a course similar in scale to Australia or the US. Realistically though it won't, so varying it up more and introducing new elements is the best we can hope for.

---
"It's a bit like water boarding. It's got water in it... and I'm bored!"
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11/Jul/21, 11:48 pm Link to this post    PM Brekkie
 
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Re: Fixing Ninja Shows


Quote:

Brekkie wrote:

I don't know if Australia followed suit but I was glad when Ninja Warrior UK dropped the "furthest fastest" in favour of people having to complete the course to move forward. It may make numbers variable but it is much fairer.


That was actually something they just said on TV, the official NWUK5 qualifying rule was top 40 from all 4 heats combined moves on, which is actually quite silly as the different heats can take different amounts of time to complete and be different difficulty. It just so happened that exactly 40 people cleared the course across the 4 heats so they edited it as "you have to beat the wall" which I agree is more satisfactory.
12/Jul/21, 10:39 am Link to this post    PM Takeshi1
 
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Re: Fixing Ninja Shows


And talking of Australian Ninja Warrior (which btw is still furthest fastest to answer your question Brekkie!), let's "fix" its debut season now:

For a first season of a ninja show, this was actually a strong one. They were quite good at setting the right level of difficulty - until Stage 2 of the final that is! They also had a lovely location on Cockatoo Island, it's a real shame they had to move after noise complaints.

The first change I'd make actually bounces off a positive of this season. They were one of the only ninja shows to mention the show's international origins and spin-offs on air, with Sasuke, ANW and NWUK all mentioned - as well as the fact that there's many more around the world. That in itself is great. However, it did lead to a couple of facts which I remember to be totally incorrect. The first was when they said "It took ANW six seasons to get a woman up the Warped Wall (CORRECT) and NWUK are still waiting (BLATANT LIE)" - NWUK had a woman beat the wall in heat 1 of series 1! Then the next one is something their executive producer said - that Australia had gone the furthest along the course of any country in their first season... obstacle 4 of Stage 2 is literally one of the worst final results of any first season, NW Germany was probably the worst I can remember but they only had 1 person in Stage 2. Then I'm not sure whether I'm remembering this one right but I think they said at some point that no country had someone attempt Midoriyama on their first season when that's not true thanks to Sasuke 1, but "nobody beat it" in the first tournament would be accurate so probably an honest mistake. So change number one would be to not lie about results of international shows to make your own mediocre one look better (or do your research which seems to have been applied inconsistently).

Change number two is about the rules. AuNW1 recorded the time you hit the water as your fail time so you could have gone really far on an obstacle but failed and be behind someone who failed right at the start of the obstacle on the leaderboard because they fell sooner. Thankfully this was fixed in more recent seasons. One thing that still hasn't been changed though is their DQ rules - they eliminated anyone who gets disqualified from the competition entirely, even if they would have qualified had they hit the water. I can't remember if that caused a big problem in season 1 but it certainly did in 2 and 4. The silly DQ rule needs to go!

My final change is going to be to the finals course. I really liked their Stage 1 but Globe Grasper was an odd 1.7 so I'm going to replace that with Spinning Bridge (are you guys surprised?). I'm also going to increase the Stage 2 time limit from the deliberately impossible 65 seconds to a more sensible 85. Having your competition finish so far from Midoriyama isn't entertaining, having at least 1 or 2 people attempt the final 3 obstacles after the Wall Lift would have been a better ending I think.

Not as much to change with this one as it's a better quality series overall but still a few things which I think would have made this season better.

Edited by Takeshi1, 12/Jul/21, 12:04 pm
12/Jul/21, 11:03 am Link to this post    PM Takeshi1
 
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Re: Fixing Ninja Shows


One fix I'd like on all seasons is introducing a time lime limite from the very first round so the course really does have to be attacked, not spending the first 45 seconds jumping across the floating steps or equivalent.

Do they get three attempts on the Warped Wall in Sasuke as well?

---
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13/Jul/21, 7:35 pm Link to this post    PM Brekkie
 
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Re: Fixing Ninja Shows


Quote:

Brekkie wrote:

Do they get three attempts on the Warped Wall in Sasuke as well?



It's always been unlimited on Sasuke as the stage is timed anyway.

---
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13/Jul/21, 8:09 pm Link to this post    PM Messup434
 
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Re: Fixing Ninja Shows


Quote:

Brekkie wrote:

One fix I'd like on all seasons is introducing a time lime limit from the very first round so the course really does have to be attacked, not spending the first 45 seconds jumping across the floating steps or equivalent.


Totally agree, the majority of the show's superfans first got into the show through Sasuke - the course was fast-paced and exciting and every obstacle felt like it fitted in the position it was in so the course was cohesive. That was in part thanks to the time limit, forcing people to go fast and often forcing mistakes, as well as preventing overlong obstacles from ever being put on a timed course.

We don't get that in the majority of ninja shows now as the Sasuke-inspired "final" is usually relegated to one or two episodes at the end of the series. Everything before that is filler rounds with usually incoherent less entertaining courses, without the tension and excitement that comes with a time limit - and this is the majority of what the audience see and what casual viewers will base their opinion of the show off when they first tune in and decide if they want to watch the show again.

Another big problem with that is the producers make ANW-inspired qualifying and semi-final rounds, lacking inspiration, and then feel like for their Sasuke-inspired "final" that the course has to be like a tougher version of what we've seen from the previous rounds. That leads to obstacles on that course which should never be there - like we saw with all the upper body obstacles on Stage 1 and 2 of AuNW this year, and we see year on year in the European ninja shows - and an overlong time limit which adds no tension.

Time limits undoubtedly make courses more entertaining to watch, and considering the roots of all these ninja shows, I really think that there needs to be a time limit element to every Stage other than the Stage 3 (or equivalent) course before Midoriyama - as well as having stages with more identity as to the kind of obstacles in them, like we see on Sasuke.
14/Jul/21, 9:54 am Link to this post    PM Takeshi1
 


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