Asa Kazuma

Asa Kazuma (朝 一眞) is a carpenter and hedge trimmer, as well as a former SASUKE competitor. He is best known for being one of the shows fastest competitors in the RISING era, hence his nickname on ANW vs. Japan as "The Speed Demon" and for his well known and unfortunate streak of Crazy Cliffhanger fails.

He debuted in SASUKE 21 as the #4 SASUKE Trials qualifier. In the competition, he was able to make his way through most of the obstacles in the First Stage, but ended up timing out on the Soritatsu Kabe when he was unable to scale it.

He participated in the SASUKE 22 Trials, but failed to qualify for SASUKE 22.

He returned in SASUKE 27. There, he got his revenge on the Soritatsu Kabe and went on to complete the First Stage. In the Second Stage, however, he went out on the Double Salmon Ladder when slipped on the final rung.

For SASUKE 28, Asa became one of the four New Stars, along with Urushihara Yuuji, Matachi Ryo, and Kanno Hitoshi. He became only the second of five to clear the First Stage, doing so with over 16 seconds left. In the Second Stage, he had no trouble with any of the new obstacles, and reached the Passing Wall with 50 seconds, and though he struggled there, he still cleared with 25.13 seconds left. On the Third Stage, he cleared the first two obstacles with little trouble. However, his strength was sapped by the time he had got to the third ledge of the new Crazy Cliffhanger, and he slipped and fell into the water before he could attempt a swing to the final ledge.

In SASUKE 29, he blazed through the first stage and completed it with 30.30 seconds left, the fastest time of the day. Despite the significant changes to the Second Stage such as the 45 second time reduction and more powerful jets in the backstream, Asa became only the third out of the 21 who attempted it to clear the stage, doing so with a narrow window of 4.05 seconds remaining. He made it back to the Third Stage for the second time in a row. As with last time, he completed the first two obstacles. However, he failed the Crazy Cliffhanger once again by failing the transition to the final ledge.

After SASUKE 29, he flew to the USA alongside Yamamoto Shingo, Kanno Hitoshi, Matachi Ryo, and Urushihara Yuuji and represented Team Japan in the American Ninja Warrior: USA vs. Japan special. There, he ran the First Stage up against Brent Steffensen but lost the match when he failed the Giant Cycle,when he jumped so high he hit the wheel with his head and lost focus, and Brent cleared the stage. Then, he ran the Second Stage, this time up against James McGrath, but yet again, lost the match when he failed the transition of the Double Salmon Ladder and James cleared the stage. He was nicknamed the Speed Demon by NBC for his First Stage run in SASUKE 29.

In SASUKE 30, he once again cleared the First Stage with the fastest time again, with 35.55 seconds still left on the clock the fastest by a japanese competitor and 5th fastest. He also cleared the Second Stage with yet again the fastest time, 10.00 seconds still left on the clock. However, he failed the Crazy Cliffhanger for a third straight time where he once  again failed the jump to the fourth ledge.This is arguably his best performance as he cleared the First Stage and Second Stage with more time,in fact the fastest times of the tournament

He also competed on American Ninja Warrior: USA vs. The World representing the same Team Japan as with the USA vs Japan special. In his Stage 1 match he had to beat Paul Kasemir's time of 1:17.21 seconds, however he failed the Jumping Spider immediately disqualifying him. He also competed on a Stage 3 match-up against Vadym Kuvakin who had made it to Hang Climbing (as well as Paul Kasemir who had failed the Cannonball Incline). However, Asa also failed the Cannonball Incline when he lost his grip transitioning to the third ball.

In SASUKE 31, he once again cleared the First Stage. On the Second Stage, he took his time on the first half of the course, almost failing the Salmon Ladder Kudari when the bar momentarily clipped the top rung on the way down. However he managed to clear with 3.35 seconds and yet still advancing to the Third Stage. But unfortunately, history repeated itself as he failed the transition to the 4th ledge of the Crazy Cliffhanger yet again.

In SASUKE 32, he shockingly failed the TIE Fighter, after he slipped on the panel, and tried to dismount on to the platform. This was his worst performance, and the first time since SASUKE 21 that he failed the First Stage.

In SASUKE 33 he got revenge on the TIE Fighter and cleared the First Stage with 29.13 seconds remaining - a time only bettered by Drew Drechsel. This was followed up by a Second Stage run which saw him clear with 5.94 seconds left. In his return to the Third Stage, Asa navigated the the Drum Hopper Kai in a composed manner. However, his run came to an end on the Flying Bar, when the bar slipped off the second cradle as he was building up momentum to make another jump. Though he appeared on the sidelines in SASUKE 34, he has since been retired, as he sustained an injury after 33.

Trivia

 * In most of his competitions, he wears the Japanese Character for spirit (魂 tamashii) below the word SASUKE on his back. In addition, he has specially made pants for Sasuke reminding him of his goal.
 * He is also one of the more emotional competitors showing emotion in defeat and victory. For these reasons, he is sometimes called, "The Spirit of Sasuke"
 * He has the fastest first stage clear out of any Japanese competitor, with his SASUKE 30 clear of 35.55 seconds
 * Asa is one of 7 competitors to share the feat of clearing the first and second stage in the fastest time in that same tournament, for Asa he did this in SASUKE 30. (The other 6 are Yamamoto Shingo, Nagano Makoto, Levi Meeuwenberg, David Campbell, Ragivaru Anastase, and Yamamoto Yoshiyuki)
 * He, along with Sato Jun share the dubious record for most fails on one version of the cliffhanger, both have 4 with Asa failing 4 times on the crazy version, and Sato failing 4 times on the ultra crazy version
 * Until SASUKE 38, Asa held the record of consecutive cliffhanger fails with 4, this would be broken by Satō Jun.
 * His naming of Shin Sedai prior to SASUKE 28 has been heavily criticized by fans due to his record arguably not being sufficient enough for such a title. Many believe this decision spoiled the results of the tournament due to the top 4 competitors of the tournament being the 4 Shin Sedai named in the SASUKE 28 Navi as well as Hashimoto Kouji's demotion spoiling that he failed the First Stage.