SASUKE 12

Intro
The twelfth tournament, official name: SASUKE2003秋 (literally SASUKE 2003 Autumn), is arguably one of the best and most successful tournaments to not have Kanzenseiha. It is also the eighth tournament since Akiyama Kazuhiko's Kanzenseiha.

The tournament was supposed to take place at early August 2003, but a typhoon called Typhoon Etau struck Japan during that month, postponing the tournament to 23 September 2003.

First Stage started out with Yamada Kōji clearing the stage with 13.70 seconds left on the clock, became only the second #1 to clear First Stage (with the third one would be Kanno Hitoshi in SASUKE 27) and the first #1 to do that in his debut. After a string of failures, #70-100 showed great success. All six SASUKE All-Stars (five at the time and future SASUKE All-Star Shiratori Bunpei) cleared First Stage for the second straight tournament (which turns out to be their last tournament clearing together). Due to the weather that still affected from the mentioned typhoon above, First Stage went into the night for the first time in SASUKE history (a trend that would continue for several more tournaments). Just like the previous tournament, First Stage had 11 clears, the first time ever in SASUKE history where two consecutive tournaments have the same amount of First Stage clears.

In Second Stage, a record eight straight competitors cleared. Had it not been for Yamada Katsumi's disqualification, there would have been a 100% Second Stage success rate, the only other tournaments where this has occurred being SASUKE 6 and later in SASUKE 32. It also would have been the only occasion all six of the All-Stars would have made it to Third Stage.

In Third Stage, competitors again went deep into the course. Out of the 10 competitors, nine of them made it to Cliffhanger Kai and five of them made it to Pipe Slider. In the end, three competitors cleared Third Stage (including Shiratori Bunpei, who cleared on his first Third Stage attempt, being the first one to do so since Jordan Jovtchev in SASUKE 8) to make it to Final Stage, the most since SASUKE 3. In Final Stage, Nagano Makoto came 0.11 seconds short from achieving Kanzenseiha, the closest loss at the time. Incidentally, Nagano Makoto's near-miss of Kanzenseiha in this tournament was aired only a week after Mizuno Yuko's near-miss of Kanzenseiha in KUNOICHI 2003. The appearances of Shiratori and Nagano in Final Stage marked only the second and most recent tournament where multiple All-Stars reached Final Stage, the first coincidentally being SASUKE 3.

Obstacles
① ^Yamagoe 山越え

② Rolling Maruta ローリング丸太

③ ^Ipponbashi 一本橋

④ Jump Hang ジャンプハング

⑤ Soritatsu Kabe そり立つ壁

⑥ Tarzan Rope ターザンロープ

⑦ Rope Climb ロープクライム

Time Limit: 85 seconds

^ Denotes New Obstacle

Obstacles
① Chain Reaction チェーンリアクション

↓ Brick Climb ブリッククライム

② Spider Walk スパイダーウォーク

③ Balance Tank バランスタンク

④ Gyakusō Conveyor 逆走コンベアー

⑤ Wall Lifting ウォールリフティング

Time Limit: 70 seconds

Obstacles
① Rumbling Dice ランブリングダイス

② Body Prop ボディプロップ

③ Lamp Grasper ランプグラスパー

④ Cliffhanger Kai クリフハンガー改

⑤ Pipe Slider パイプスライダー

Obstacles
① Spider Climb スパイダークライム (12.5m)

② Tsuna Nobori 綱登り (10m)

Time Limit: 30 seconds