Darvish Kenji

Darvish Kenji (樽美酒 研二), is a drummer for the Japanese rock band, Golden Bomber. He is currently regarded as one of the most consistent celebrities to compete in the current era of SASUKE.

Darvish would make his first appearance in SASUKE 28 where he failed the Rolling Escargot. In SASUKE 30, he made it through a majority of the course easily, however he took two tries to scale the Ni Ren Soritatsu Kabe. He was low on time and energy, as he had trouble climbing the Lumberjack Climb. Eventually, he fell in the water. He was shown crying after he fell in the water.

In SASUKE 31, fellow Golden Bomber member Kyan Yutaka would also compete in this tournament, in the hopes of avenging Darvish's fall from the previous tournament. During his run, Darvish would finally beat the First Stage with a few seconds left on the clock. However in the Second Stage, he went out on the Cross Slider, despite receiving advice from other competitors.

In SASUKE 32 he was hoping to make to the Third Stage, however due to the rain being present during tapings of the stage, he shockingly failed at the beginning of the TIE Fighter. In SASUKE 33, he got revenge on the TIE Fighter and breezed through most of the course with ease. However, he once again failed the Lumberjack Climb. He was rushing the obstacle and he didn't get a proper grip on the railing to pull himself up, which led him to fall on the side of the obstacle and into the water below.

After what can be considered as one of the most shocking fails of the tournament, Darvish's run in the next tournaments would be some of the best in his run in SASUKE. In SASUKE 34, he cleared the First Stage avenging his fall on the Lumberjack Climb last tournament. His Second Stage run was short-lived, almost falling when landed on the sloped platform, he timed out on the Reverse Conveyor. He returned in SASUKE 35, wearing #96. He breezed through the First Stage, clearing it with 1.03 seconds left, the slowest time of the day. On the Second Stage, he progressed slightly further, timing out after lifting the first wall of the Wall Lifting.

He returned in SASUKE 36, wearing #98, his highest number. He clear the First Stage with 6.12 seconds left. On the Second Stage, he cleared the stage for the first time with 7.03 seconds left. In Third Stage, he failed the transition between the Flying Bar and the Sidewinder, possibly due to inexperience at the stage.

Looking forward to return to the Third Stage, he competed in SASUKE 37, wearing #97, but shockingly failed the transition on the Dragon Glider. He competed in SASUKE 38, wearing #93, but unfortunately he once again failed on the Dragon Glider in nearly the exact same way he did in the previous tournament. Upon closer inspection, it could be seen that the first bar jammed near the end of the track in a similar fashion to Nagano Makoto's Slider Jump Attempt. Darvish however, was not given a rerun as it likely wasn't noticed until post-production.

He competed in SASUKE 39, once again wearing #97, and he would shockingly failed the Rolling Hill, due to the rain during taping that possibly made the dismount platform slippery.

Trivia

 * Darvish being given #98 would be the highest number in the SASUKE RISING era assigned to a competitor who had previously never made it to the Third Stage.
 * After he Failed the Rolling hill in SASUKE 39, Darvish made a rock song about never giving up on anything, the official name of the Music Video roughly translates to "[Kenji Darvish] My result of SASUKE was so bad that I felt like I was going crazy, so I wrote a song about it."