American Ninja

The American Ninja Challenge and American Ninja Warrior are the preliminary trials hosted by to determine the representatives for SASUKE. The trials started in the Summer of 2007 for SASUKE 19 and continue to this day. The fifth American Ninja Challenge has been renamed American Ninja Warrior and has subsequently taken over as the primary format for the American Ninja qualifiers. Subsequently, the regionals and Finals have been picked for airing by NBC.

American Ninja Challenge 1


The first American Ninja Challenge was held in the Summer of 2007 for SASUKE 19. Potential competitors were asked to submit videos to which would then be selected by G4. G4 then selected the ten videos and let the viewers choose the top three. The top three selections were then flown to Los Angeles to compete in a series of trials to test the contestants speed, strength, and endurance. The winner would be flown to Japan to compete in SASUKE 19. The finalists were Brett Sims, Colin Bell, and Bryant Powers.

American Ninja Challenge 2


The second American Ninja Challenge was held in conjunction with SASUKE 20 in the spring of 2008 shown in daily segments over a week on G4's Attack of the Show. As with last time, potential competitors were asked to submit videos to which would then be selected by G4. Viewers were then asked to vote for their top six, who were then collectively flown out to Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton in Southern California to compete on a marine training obstacle course in three 1v1 intervals aired daily while G4 correspondent Zach Selwyn narrated the action. The winners of those intervals were later taken to a SASUKE-inspired obstacle course, dubbed the Ninja Killer. The two top times were then flown to Japan to compete in SASUKE 20. Notable SASUKE American contestant Paul Terek was on hand during the competition to give input on the finalists along with Selwyn while Master SGT. Christopher Marano oversaw the training course in the "first round". Day 1 of airing was used to hype up the challenge along with providing information on the details, many of which were later repeated with day 2 and onward actually progressing through the competition. The six finalists were Brian Orosco, Rick Seedman, Mark Witmer, Joe Simonsen, Levi Meeuwenberg, and Ruselis Perry.

American Ninja Challenge 3


American Ninja Challenge returned in the summer of 2008. This time the competitors were not flown out to LA, but instead were announced during an episode of Attack of the Show. From the finalists, viewers were asked to vote and the top three would join Levi Meeuwenberg and Attack of the Show! hosts, Olivia Munn and Kevin Pereira. Past winners like Brian Orosco, Colin Bell entered videos. Brian Orosco and Mark Witmer won two of the three spots, as they both competed on the ANC 2 course. Joining them was the only female winner to date, Luci Romberg.

American Ninja Challenge 4


American Ninja Challenge returned for a fourth time in the winter of 2008 and the early parts of 2009. Like ANC3, the competitors were not flown out to Los Angeles. Potential contestants were asked to send in videos and the winner would be "selected" by Olivia Munn. The winner was David Campbell, who had been trying to compete since ANC2. He was joined by returning competitors Olivia Munn, Luci Romberg, and Levi Meeuwenberg.

American Ninja Warrior 1


The popularity of the American Ninja Challenge led G4 to create an licensed version of SASUKE, titled American Ninja Warrior, with all contestants from the United States and all play-by-play commentary in English. The tryouts and semi finals competitions were filmed in the United States. The top 30 from the six-obstacle qualifying round advanced to the semifinal, where the top 15 times through an extended nine-obstacle course participated in a final round on the beach to determine the 10 qualifiers for SASUKE 23.

American Ninja Warrior 2


A second American Ninja Warrior was held by G4 for SASUKE 26. The qualifying round and semifinal was held in Windward Plaza at Venice Beach, California on August 7 and 8. Following that was a new feature, a four-day boot camp in the California mountains where competitors trained on replicas of SASUKE obstacles such as the Cliffhanger and Floating Boards. After each day, one to two competitors were eliminated via the Heavenly Ropes.

Also at the events were SASUKE All-Star Nagano Makoto, Shin Sedai Urushihara Yuuji, and Okuyama Yoshiyuki. Each were there to sign autographs, and all three got to run the qualifying round course. Both Okuyama and Urushihara cleared, but Nagano failed the jump to the Jumping Bars.

American Ninja Warrior 3


A third American Ninja Warrior was held in the spring of 2011 as a qualifier for SASUKE 27. Like the previous tournament, the qualifying round and semifinal was held at Venice Beach, and was followed by a four-day boot camp in the California mountains. The grand prize was increased from $250,000 to $500,000. In addition, the Japan finals were aired on NBC as part of a two-hour special.

American Ninja Warrior 4


Following the success of American Ninja Warrior 3, and with the future of SASUKE uncertain, G4 and NBC held American Ninja Warrior 4 in spring 2012. Unlike the previous three American Ninja Warrior tournaments, six regional tournaments were held at three sites - Venice Beach in Los Angeles, Fair Park in Dallas, Texas, and the campus of Florida International University in Miami, Florida. Within each region, the traditional American Ninja Warrior format was followed; the top 30 from a six-obstacle qualifying course were narrowed to the top 15 from a nine-obstacle semifinal course. The top 15 from each of the six regions, plus 10 wild cards selected by G4, competed in a full-scale four stage SASUKE course built in Las Vegas, Nevada. The Vegas course mainly followed SASUKE 27 with a few minor changes.

American Ninja Warrior 5


With the success of the past American Ninja Warrior competitions, American Ninja Warrior 5 was held starting June 2013. About 55% of the obstacles used on this season were new, with some of them had never been used on both American Ninja Warrior and SASUKE. In addition, the City Finals course was extended to a ten-obstacle course with the last four obstacles being used as the back half of the course. This would eventually make American Ninja Warrior as the staple of the obstacles for most of the SASUKE/Ninja Warrior's international formats in the future.

American Ninja Warrior 6


American Ninja Warrior 6 premiered on May 2014 and this marks the beginning of the rise of female competitors such as Kacy Catanzaro, Michelle Warnky, and Meagan Martin. These three women are the first female competitors to complete a qualifying course. In addition, Catanzaro became the first female to complete a city finals course.

American Ninja Warrior 7


The seventh American Ninja Warrior was premiered on May 2015. Also, starting on this season, the cash prize for completing Stage Four is doubled from $500,000 (from the past three American Ninja Warrior seasons) to $1,000,000. The season concludes with Geoff Britten and Isaac Caldiero becoming the first two Americans to achieve "Total Victory", this marked the first time in which kanzenseiha/total victory had achieved outside SASUKE tournaments (excluding the kanzenseiha in KUNOICHI tournaments, since American Ninja Warrior was mostly based on SASUKE). However due to Caldiero finishing Stage Four faster than Britten, he would take the cash prize.

American Ninja Warrior 8


Following the total victories of Britten and Caldiero, American Ninja Warrior 8 premiered on June 2016. Starting on this season, the prize money would be split equally if more than two competitors successfully completed Stage Four. In addition, the course on this season was also significantly altered to increase the difficulty, with the most notables were the introduction of the Floating Steps in every city qualifying course (replacing the Quintuple Steps from the past three American Ninja Warrior seasons) and the escalation of the Warped Wall's height in every city qualifying course for the first time ever (from 14 feet from the past seven American Ninja Warrior seasons to 14.5 feet). This season also introduced the American Ninja Warrior: Obstacle Design Challenge, a yearly competition in which fans will submit their own obstacle ideas and the winning designs will be used in the following season.

American Ninja Warrior 9


The ninth season of American Ninja Warrior premiered on June 2017. With the success of female competitors such as Jessie Graff, new competition rules are added for female competitors. This would include a women's leaderboard; Top 5 in City Qualifiers and Top 2 in the CIty Finals, giving more female competitors the opportunity to advance to further rounds.

American Ninja Warrior 10


The tenth season of American Ninja Warrior premiered on May 2018. This season is notable for lowering the age limit for the competitors to be eligible to compete. Instead of 21 years old, competitors must now be at least 19 years old to be eligible to compete. In addition, the Mega Wall, an obstacle which appeared in the All-Stars Special, made its first appearance on the city qualifying course. Also, at the end of the season, if no competitor achieved total victory, the competitor who made the furthest than any other competitor (also known as the Last Ninja Standing) would receive the cash prize of US$100,000.

American Ninja Warrior 11


The eleventh season of American Ninja Warrior premiered on May 2019. This season featured the Power Tower, in which the top 2 competitors from the qualifying and city finals course would race side-by-side for a chance to receive the Speed Pass (which would automatically send them to the Las Vegas finals) and the Safety Pass (which would grant them the another chance to attempt Stage One or Two if they failed) respectively. The season concluded with Drew Drechsel and Daniel Gil attempting Stage Four. Drechsel completed the stage while Gil timed out. This makes Drechsel just the third competitor to achieve total victory.

American Ninja Warrior 12


The twelfth season of American Ninja Warrior premiered on 2020 and will be the first season after Drechsel's total victory. Originally, the qualifying rounds would be taped in three cities (Los Angeles, Washington DC, and St. Louis). However, due to the circumstances brought by the COVID-19 pandemic, tapings were postponed days before the first qualifying rounds were scheduled to begin.

The season would push through as tapings were held in mid-July, resulting with the season starting in September. Compared to previous seasons, there was no Las Vegas National Finals and brought a completely different format. The season featured 50 top competitors from the previous seasons, with each choosing two people from their community to compete with them (these could be rookies or returning competitors). The series featured an abridged format with three rounds: Qualifiers, Semi-Finals, and Finals.

In the Finals, the top 8 competitors (Jake Murray, Daniel Gil, Lucas Reale, Najee Richardson, Austin Gray, Adam Rayl, Jesse Labreck, and Amir Malik) would compete in a playoff bracket on the Power Tower, with Gil eventually defeating Gray in the finals and winning $100,000.

American Ninja Warrior 13


The thirteenth season of American Ninja Warrior is set to premiere on May 2021. This season re-introduced the Las Vegas National Finals and the $1 million cash prize. However, due to the circumstances brought by the COVID-19 pandemic, there will still be no live audience and no walk-on line.

This season featured the “Split-Decision”, a point on the course where they will have to pick between two different obstacles. In qualifying, the Split-Decision will occur on the fourth obstacle, in which competitors must choose between two different balance type obstacles in order to advance. In semifinals, the Split-Decision will occur on the ninth obstacle, giving competitors the opportunity to choose between an upper-body intensive obstacle or a heavily modified balance-type obstacle.

American Ninja Warrior: Women's Championship 2