SASUKE 39

SASUKE 39 (officially,「SASUKE2021」) was officially announced by TBS via Twitter and a trailer posted on the official SASUKE YouTube channel on September 9, 2021. It was the first tournament after Morimoto Yūsuke's second kanzenseiha. The tournament was aired on December 28, 2021 at 6pm JST with a time slot of approximately five hours. Similar to the previous tournament, it features a collaboration with the alcoholic beverage company KIRIN. The logo of the company was displayed on a gold banner hanged on the side of the Final Stage tower instead of a red banner.

Applications
The application was released on September 14, 2021 on their Official Website and Twitter. The deadline for the applications was on October 3, 2021. Similarly to the previous tournament, due to the circumstances brought out by the COVID-19 pandemic, no foreign competitors were invited to compete (due to travel restriction caused by the pandemic).

A special audition featuring various comedians and celebrities were held in July (initially undisclosed) at TBS Broadcasting Center located in Akasaka District, Minato City, Tokyo. It consists of the Godantobi and a bar simulating the Dragon Glider, similar to the auditions held for SASUKE 37. There were estimated to be around 530 applicants and around 100 applicants were shortlisted for the audition.

On the other hand, the applicants applied for the online application, which featured various comedians, celebrities and the general public interacting during the audition consisting of an online interview. Throughout the entire application period, there are around 2000 applicants and around 50 applicants were shortlisted for the audition.

In addition, another special audition featuring YouTubers were held in an undisclosed time at Midoriyama Studio City consisted of the same obstacles aforementioned and doing 100 push-up with a voice cue instead of rhythmic beats from the taiko drum.

Filming
Similar to the previous tournament due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the taping dates were not announced to the public and were filmed discretely without audience except the family members of the competitors, with all four stages taking place at Midoriyama Studio City. According to official merchandise on TBS's store page for SASUKE, filming took place from October 30 to November 1, 2021.

Based on official information, the entire course has begun construction seventeen days prior to filming with the documented processes which may took place concurrently with one another.


 * Excavate large holes which took around a week to complete.
 * Involves around 1000 staff members and above across 50 to 60 companies/contractors.
 * Around 60 heavy vehicles were used.
 * Simulation for the brand new obstacle.
 * Final Stage took around three to four days to build.

Summary
Similar to previous tournaments following a kanzenseiha, the course received a renovation to significantly increase the difficulty, but to a much lesser extent compared to past instances as the majority of the obstacles across the board would be identical to the previous tournament but with some slight changes. In fact, only one new obstacle was introduced into the overall course, with the remaining changes all being modifications to only a few pre-existing obstacles.

The First Stage featured two obstacle modifications: the Silk Slider being changed to one curtain with a smaller landing platform, and the return of the Ni Ren Soritatsu Kabe after a seven-year absence since it last appeared in SASUKE 30, replacing the regular Soritatsu Kabe, with the first wall now being raised to 4.2 meters. The time limit for the regular competitors was increased to 99.9 seconds, the first time in SASUKE history in which the time limit was not in a whole second. The time limit was a direct reference as a collaboration meant to promote the then-upcoming film adaptation of TBS drama series 99.9 Criminal Lawyer (99.9-Keiji Senmon Bengoshi). In addition, the time limit for female competitors remained unchanged from the previous tournament, further signifying the seventh tournament to have a time limit difference and the first time in SASUKE history to do so in four consecutive tournaments. Despite the rest of the course being relatively unchanged, the other obstacles did significant damage to the field of competitors and eliminated various notable competitors in the tournament such as Yamada Katsumi and Yamamoto Shingo, who were the only two All-Stars to compete in this tournament. Others who were eliminated were Darvish Kenji, Matsuda Daisuke, Nagasaki Shunsuke, Kanno Hitoshi, and Tsukada Ryoichi. Unfortunately, bad weather occurred during the latter half of the field of competitors, which added higher difficulty to the course especially to the Tackle and Ni Ren Soritatsu Kabe, leading to multiple timeouts for top competitors such as Araki Naoyuki, Kawaguchi Tomohiro, and the two double champions Urushihara Yuuji and Morimoto Yūsuke. Overall, fourteen competitors cleared the First Stage, identical to the previous tournament, but with new faces such as Goto Yusuke, Ajima Hideki, Mutou Tomohiro, and Suzuki Yusuke who avenged his Soritatsu Kabe fail from the previous tournament.

The Second Stage remained identical from the previous tournament with only a slight modification for the Rolling Log with a shortened track. Despite this minor change, the obstacle brought the same extent of difficulty towards the stage as the previous tournament, with competitors trying to regain senses prior to attempting the Salmon Ladder Nobori. This would lead to various fails from competitors such as Goto Yusuke on the transfer between the two Salmon Ladders, and Ajima Hideki failing right at the end of the Rolling Log. In addition, multiple timeouts occurred from Sugeta Rinne, Iwamoto Hikaru, and Saikawa Kōji. Despite these fails, compared to the previous tournament, a higher number of competitors cleared the Second Stage, as nine competitors cleared it such as Black Tigers member Yamamoto Yoshiyuki, former Black Tigers and now Akko Gundan member Isa Yoshinori, Hioki Masashi, Kajihara Hayate, Mutou Tomohiro, former finalists Matachi Ryo and Tada Tatsuya, Yamamoto Keitaro (who finally cleared the Second Stage after five consecutive fails), and Suzuki Yusuke (who became the oldest competitor to clear the Second Stage at age 43).

The true extent of the renewal came in the Third Stage, which brought upon two significant changes within its course; a modification to the Sidewinder in which the first and third poles automatically rotated on their own axis, and the introduction of the Swing Edge (a very similar obstacle to the Falling Shelves from American Ninja Warrior), involving competitors to do a blind transition amongst a set of handles. These two obstacles along with the rest of the stage brought massive havoc to competitors. The Sidewinder eliminated Mutou Tomohiro, Suzuki Yusuke, and Yamamoto Keitaro, while the Swing Edge eliminated Yamamoto Yoshiyuki, Matachi Ryo (marking the first time he did not attempt a Cliffhanger-type obstacle in the Third Stage), and disqualified Isa Yoshinori for grabbing the frame of the obstacle. The three remaining competitors attempted the Cliffhanger Dimension in which Kajihara Hayate and Hioki Masashi failed at the first transition. Tada Tatsuya, however, managed to clear the Cliffhanger Dimension to avenge his fail from the previous tournament. Unfortunately, he failed on to the next obstacle, Vertical Limit, where he lost his grip on the third ledge, leaving the Pipe Slider and the Final Stage untouched for the first time since SASUKE 34.

Even though no competitor managed to secure a chance to attempt the Final Stage, in the lead up prior to the tournament, various trailers unveiled the new version of the stage. The height was increased by 0.5 meters for a total height of 25.5 meters, consisting of three obstacles with the first obstacle being replaced with a new obstacle heavily implied to be related to speed climbing as notable speed climbers Noguchi Akiyo and Narasaki Tomoa became the testers of the Final Stage tower. The obstacle was covered up with a black cloth throughout the filming of the tournament which would have been unveiled had there been a competitor who managed to clear the Third Stage.

Obstacles
① Quad Steps クワッドステップス

② Rolling Hill ローリングヒル

③ *Silk Slider シルクスライダー

④ Fish Bone フィッシュボーン

⑤ Dragon Glider ドラゴングライダー

⑥ Tackle タックル

⑦ *Ni Ren Soritatsu Kabe 2連そり立つ壁

Time Limit: 99.9 seconds (135 seconds for female and/or over-50 competitors.)

^ Denotes New Obstacle

* Denotes Modified Obstacle

Obstacles
① *Rolling Log ローリングログ

② Salmon Ladder Nobori サーモンラダー 上り

③ Salmon Ladder Kudari サーモンラダー 下り

④ Spider Walk スパイダーウォーク

⑤ Spider Drop スパイダードロップ

⑥ Backstream バックストリーム

⑦ Reverse Conveyor リバースコンべアー

⑧ Wall Lifting ウォールリフティング

Time Limit: 105 seconds

^ Denotes New Obstacle

* Denotes Modified Obstacle

Obstacles
① Flying Bar フライングバー

② *Sidewinder サイドワインダー

③ ^Swing Edge スイングエッジ

④ Cliffhanger Dimension クリフハンガーディメンション

⑤ Vertical Limit バーティカルリミット

⑥ Pipe Slider パイプスライダー

^ Denotes New Obstacle

* Denotes Modified Obstacle

Obstacles
① ^Unknown

② Salmon Ladder サーモンラダー

③ Tsuna Nobori 綱登り

Time Limit: Unknown

^ Denotes New Obstacle

* Denotes Modified Obstacle

Online Promotion
The tournament was initially partially confirmed with a video, posted on April 16, 2021, with videos released every Friday on the Official YouTube channel. Each videos serves as a documentary series in relation to the upcoming tournament during that time, featuring current and/or former competitors, tournament related events/behind-the-scenes, production crew and staff members etc.

The trend was broken on September 25, 2021 due to an impromptu announcement video declaring Sato Kaede's successful appearance in this tournament. Later, on October 15, 2021, videos are released sporadically, no longer situated just Friday. As the tournament's air date draws near, drastic changes occured from November 16, 2021 where videos are released on a daily basis, with some days having multiple videos released on the same day. Thereafter, no videos was released on December 20 and December 27, 2021, ending the trend yet again.

After the tournament aired, videos continue to be released daily until January 4, 2022, where the very last video was released on January 8, 2022.