Black Tigers



The Black Tigers, locally known as Yamada Gundan Kurotora, (山田軍団・黒虎) are a group of rookies led by Yamada Katsumi with the hopes of these members reaching the Final Stage and achieve kanzenseiha for Yamada. Competitors in the group would routinely been given a number within the 30's to 60's range where they would typically become the first competitors to clear the First Stage.

History
Yamada formed the group before SASUKE 29 and trained them on his home course. In SASUKE 29 four of them competed, however all four failed the First Stage. Throughout the period from SASUKE 29 to SASUKE 31, Yamamoto Hiroshige would become one of the group's consistent member, reaching the Second Stage twice. Apart from Yamamoto Hiroshige, the other members of the group would fall in the First Stage.

Following the kanzenseiha of Morimoto Yūsuke, the renewal brought by the course in SASUKE 32 made it difficult for the Black Tigers to complete the First Stage. It wasn't until SASUKE 34 where two competitors, Yamamoto Hiroshige and Obata Satoshi managed to clear the First Stage. Yamamoto Hiroshige would unfortunately time out on the last obstacle of the Second Stage and Obata Satoshi would become the first member of the Black Tigers to reach the Third Stage.

Fast forward to SASUKE 37 where the Black Tigers would present themselves as one of the most consistent group of competitors in the current era with the breakthroughs of Yamamoto Yoshiyuki and Isa Yoshinori. Both of them would reach the Third Stage and cement themselves as the ace members of the Black Tigers. They would achieve this feat again in SASUKE 38 with Yamamoto Yoshiyuki almost clearing the Cliffhanger Dimension and Isa Yoshinori failing the Flying Bar.

In the lead up to SASUKE 39, it was known that Yamada Katsumi would remove Isa Yoshinori from the group because according to Yamada, Isa is currently lacking the mentality of making the Final Stage and this would serve as a challenge for Isa to do better in future competitions. Isa would then be recruited as a member of the Akko Gundan that would serve as a trainer for the fellow members of the group.

Internal trials were held for the rest of the Black Tigers to gain an opportunity to compete in the competition. Kawachi Soichiro had outdone his peers by coming into second place when he has the chance to compete for the first time in his four years training with the Black Tigers.