May 24, 2008

• Recently I got to watch “Sasuke 20” or “Ninja Warrior” as it’s called here in America. It is an obstacle course competition that’s in the spirit of the endurance, strength, and agility of a Ninja. In part I was mostly curious as to how far the American competitors from “G4′s American Ninja Challenge” can go, in a very Japanese show. Impressively, out of the three representing the American’s “Ninja Warriors,” Levi Meeuwenberg was one of them and makes it all the way to the third stage (out of four). Not only that, but he went farther than any Japanese contestant in this 20th version of Sasuke, including Makoto Nagano who is one of the all-stars of this event.

  Levi is a practitioner of “parkour” or “free-running” which I thought would be very beneficial to this obstacle course competition. Whenever he would pass a stage, in his interview he would say things like “it was exactly what I expected” or “I see what needs to be done, and just did it.” Now, is it just me or does that sound like the stereotypical “cocky American,” and would the Japanese also see it as that? It doesn’t help that he beat out every Japanese contestant either does it? However, his answers were really because that is the philosophy of parkour / free-running, in that you see the obstacle you have to overcome, be aware of what you need to expect from it, and conquer it accordingly. Even though he sounded like the ubnoxious American, he really was just being truthful to his professional background. I thought he redeemed himself a bit at the final interview though…
  Q: how do you feel beating out all the japanese competitors?
  A: its not
  about japanese or american strength its about the strength of the human
  body and what all of our limits are.

  You were awesome Levi, and I’m looking forward to see how you do in Sasuke 21.

  • 9:27 am
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