Matachi Ryo

Matachi Ryo (又地 諒) is a plumber, who is Unlimited Cliffer No. 2, and a member of the Shin Sedai

Early Tournaments
His first appearance was in SASUKE 21, where he was the third fastest qualifier in the SASUKE 21 Trials. During the tournament, he showed great speed, clearing many of the obstacles quickly, including the Jumping Spider. On the Soritatsu Kabe, he was able to scale the wall on his second attempt. However, on the Flying Chute, he was able to grab the rope but couldn't reach the net and fell into the water there. Out of the eight qualifiers that day, he made it the farthest.

He participated in the SASUKE 22 Trials, but did not make it past the 800m race part of the first round.

He finally returned to competition during SASUKE 25 by winning the pull up event in the Trials, with a result of 42 pull-ups. He drew #6 in the lottery and was the first real threat to the First Stage. He was the first to attempt and beat the new Bridge Jump. However, he mis-hit the springboard on the re-designed Circle Slider and fell there.

Due to his past performance, he was invited to SASUKE 26, failing the Rolling Escargot in an all-cut performance.

Breakout Performances
He earned a spot in SASUKE 27 after qualifying from the trials. Although he took 2 attempts at the Warped Wall, He cleared the First Stage for the first time. In the Second Stage, he struggled on the Wall Lifting and eventually went under the third wall after barely lifting it. He still cleared with 3.43 seconds left. In the Third Stage, he would clear all the obstacles with ease and became the first person to make it to the Final Stage after Urushihara Yuuji's Kanzenseiha, and more impressively the first person to clear both the Second and Third Stage on his first attempt on those specific stages since Urushihara Yuuji in SASUKE 22. In the Final Stage, he climbed about 18.8 meters up the Tsuna Nobori before timing out.

Matachi lost his job prior to SASUKE 28 but was able to clear the first stage with 1.47 seconds remaining, being one of only five to do so. On the Second Stage, he easily cleared the Swap Salmon Ladder and Unstable Bridge, however he wasted almost 20 seconds drying his hands and applying adhesive spray before the Spider Walk and was majorly slowed down by the Backstream. He reached the Passing Wall with around 20 seconds left, however as he was lifting the wall the 10 second buzzer sounded causing him to attempt to hurry and duck under, however due to the new design of the first wall it crushed him underneath, causing him to get stuck and time out there. This was a strange defeat, as all the competitors that cleared that stage in that tournament finished with over 10 seconds left. Matachi would clear the First Stage again in SASUKE 29, however met a similar fate in the Second Stage. He completed the first four obstacles with much more speed than before and finishing the Spider Walk with 35 seconds left, however on the Backstream that he had trouble with in the previous tournament but was now much more difficult, the opposing force from the water jets pushed him back halfway, and he was unable to complete the obstacle, timing out there.

After the tournament, Matachi tweeted on Twitter that he was hospitalized with a lung issue called Pneumothorax from too much training underwater. It took 3 weeks and an operation for him to be released.

After SASUKE 29, he flew to the USA alongside Asa Kazuma, Yamamoto Shingo, Kanno Hitoshi, and Urushihara Yuuji and represented Team Japan in the American Ninja Warrior: USA vs. Japan special. There, he ran the Second Stage up against Brian Arnold but lost the match when he failed the Double Salmon Ladder and Brian cleared the stage. Then, he ran the Third Stage. He was yet again up against Brian Arnold, but this time, both of them failed at the second rung of the Flying Bar. However, Ryo won the match when he made it to the second rung slightly faster than Brian did. This was the only match in the whole event won by Team Japan. NBC nicknamed him the Superfan because he was a fan of SASUKE since he was in 6th grade.

In SASUKE 30, he cleared the First Stage in over 30 seconds, a personal best for him. Then, in the Second Stage he ravaged the Backstream and the Walls and cleared the second stage after 2 previous fails. In the Third Stage he passed every obstacle with ease and even went on to beat the Crazy Cliffhanger and Pipe Slider seeking his 2nd attempt on the Final Stage, becoming one of only six competitors to do so (others being Nagano Makoto, Urushihara Yuuji, Omori Akira, Yamamoto Shingo and Morimoto Yusuke). In the Final Stage he cleared the Spider Climb with a lot of time but once again, he was just too slow on the rope climb and he ultimately timed out again, coming up just short of Kanzenseiha again.

Struggles
Unbeknownst to Matachi, the 30th tournament would be the last time he would come close to making it back to the final for the next 3 years. In this span he would fail the first stage 5 consecutive times in the next 5 tournaments.

In SASUKE 31, he was given the coveted number 100, and while expectations where very high, he shockingly timed out at the Soritatsu Kabe directly after both 98 (Nagano Makoto) and 99 (Urushihara Yuuji) suffered the same fate. This was evidently due to the previous new obstacle, the Tackle which he struggled with, and even resulted in him taking a 20 second break before attempting to scale the wall, which he then failed to complete due to exhaustion. This was Ryo's worst performance since SASUKE 26, where he went out on the Rolling Escargot. It also ended a 4 tournament first stage clear streak.

In SASUKE 32, he wore the number 90. He had little trouble on the first few obstacles, completing the new TIE Fighter and Double Pendulum that took out several other veterans, however fate repeated itself from the previous tournament. He once again struggled with the Tackle, which was now heavier than the previous tournament. It took him almost 30 seconds to complete the obstacle, by which point he was low on both energy and time. He took several attempts at the Soritatsu Kabe before finally completing it, however this used up way too much time and when he reached the top of the wall, a clear was virtually impossible as the klaxon started to sound with around 5 seconds remaining. He would ultimately timeout on the very next obstacle, the Tarzan Rope.

In SASUKE 33, Matachi was given his lowest number since his last Final Stage appearance, with 88, he was taken out by the Fish Bone, a result which saw his first non-timeout defeat since SASUKE 26 and his third consecutive First Stage failure. This was also the first time since SASUKE 26 that his run was edited, although in this case his run was digested

His streak of consecutive First Stage failures continued in SASUKE 34, where he failed the Double Pendulum when he didn't get enough distance to the trapeze bar. His run was once again digested.

Matachi returned for SASUKE 35, wearing #73, his lowest number since SASUKE 27. This time however he would clear the Fish Bone and would defeat the new Dragon Glider on his first ever attempt. However, he once again timed out on the Soritatsu Kabe. This would be the 5th and final fail of his streak.

Resurgence
In SASUKE 36, he finally managed to clear the First Stage for the first time since SASUKE 30 with 7 seconds left. He also cleared the Second Stage with 3 seconds left. In the Third Stage, he would produce one of the most iconic moments in SASUKE history, when he almost failed to transfer from the second ledge to the third ledge of the Ultra Crazy Cliffhanger, but made an incredible recovery by grabbing the ledge with only 1 of his hands. Unfortunately, he would end up failing the Vertical Limit after making it to the final ledge. This was the first time that he had failed the Third Stage.

In SASUKE 37, he was hoping to clear the First Stage once again, but instead he yet again failed on the Fish Bone Kai after he became too reckless when he tried rushing through the obstacle.

In SASUKE 38, he avenged his previous failure and cleared the First Stage with 4 seconds left, but on the Second Stage he struggled on the Salmon Ladder Nobori, due to being dizzy from the previous obstacle, the Rolling Log. He would eventually fail there after making it near the top. This was the first time Ryo failed the Second Stage since SASUKE 29, and also the first time he did so without timing out.

In SASUKE 39, he once again cleared the First Stage with about 3 seconds left, he later avenged his previous failure on the Second Stage by clearing it with 5 seconds left. On the Third Stage, he looked strong on the first two obstacles, but he unfortunately failed on the new Swing Edge after a bad transition on the blind reverse-grab, his first fail on the third stage pre-Cliffhanger.

Trivia

 * Matachi is one of the only six people to make it to the Final Stage more than once (along with Omori Akira, Yamamoto Shingo, Nagano Makoto, Urushihara Yuuji and Morimoto Yusuke).
 * He is one of the eight people to beat the Third Stage on his first Third Stage attempt (along with Akiyama Kazuhiko, Jordan Jovtchev, Shiratori Bunpei, Urushihara Yuuji, Hashimoto Kouji, Kawaguchi Tomohiro and Rene Kaselowsky).
 * Matachi is the third youngest competitor (age 22) to make it to the Final Stage (youngest being Kawashima Takayuki (age 18) in SASUKE 1 followed by Nagasaki Shunsuke (age 19) in SASUKE 17).
 * He and Nagasaki Shunsuke are the only Shin Sedai who has ever failed the Passing Wall.
 * He and Morimoto Yusuke are the only competitors to have never failed both the Crazy Cliffhanger and Ultra Crazy Cliffhanger. Plus, they are also the only Shin Sedai who has never failed the Cliffhanger Obstacle.
 * Ryo, Omori Akira, and Urushihara Yuuji are the only competitors to have had a 100% clear rate on the Third Stage with more than one clear at some point in there careers (i.e. clearing the Third Stage twice without ever failing it); Urushihara ruined this in SASUKE 28, while Ryo ruined this in SASUKE 36 when he failed the Vertical Limit.
 * As of SASUKE 39, Matachi, along with Kishimoto Shinya and Tajima Naoya are the only Shin Sedai members to not attempt the third stage in consecutive tournaments. Matachi is the only one of these three with multiple third stage attempts and is the only one of the three to have cleared.
 * In a recent interview, Matachi mentions the Dragon Glider and Soritatsu Kabe as his favorite obstacles to attempt in SASUKE.
 * Out of any pair of competitors that have both cleared the First Stage, Matachi and Urushihara Yuuji tie for the record of failing the same obstacle in the same tournament more than any other pair of competitors, having done so 5 times. The other pair is Kanno Hitoshi and Yamamoto Shingo.