Sasuke 29 Official Airdate

Sasuke 29 Official Airdate!

As was noted in my previous blog about the official announcement back in March, Sasuke 29 was to air "this summer".  Lost in Ube found a proposed airdate for Sasuke 29 to be Thursday, June 27th. Thanks to Ube to posted the "TV Guides" for June that indeed had the date and proposed time for Sasuke 29's airing in Japan.

(One of the television guides in Japan for the month of June, 2013) ©LostInUbe

According to the television listings for June that Ube found, The next SASUKE (tentatively titled SASUKE RISING 2013 Natsu) will air on June 27, 2013 19:00 to 21:54 JST on TBS.

Station: TBS (Japan)

6:00 AM (Eastern Standard Time) (THURSDAY Morning)
3:00 AM (Pacific Standard Time) (THURSDAY Morning)

Additional time conversion

As of now I believe only 3 of the All-stars will be returning to Sasuke this time around.  Yamada (pictured above) is officially retired (again) and will not be competing in Sasuke 29.  I am assuming Akiyama is as well and we haven't seen Bunpei in a few years.  So for Sasuke 29 it is expected to see Takeda, Nagano and Shingo.  While I'm upset I won't see all 6 compete, I am happy they are returning.  The ratings for Sasuke Rising (28) the last time showed emphatically a lot of people just stopped watching the show when the All-stars were forced retired. I'm happy to see them back.

As of now actually a shorter show. Just over 2 1/2 hour broadcast range. Since the date at least was correct we can assume that the time frame is about right.  We know already that the show still has to be taped then will be edited down so the exact timing won't be known for another couple of weeks when the full schedule comes out on the TBS online schedule page.  In the past it has fluctuated in minutes (both starting and ending) so I won't update until the actual schedule comes out (the week of the event).  We also don't know what is the date and time for Sasuke Navi (Sasuke preview show) which historically airs at least the same day if not a couple days before the tournament.  We also don't know if there will be any specials before Sasuke 29's tournament airing.

Masashi Hioki日置 将士,  2-Time Grand Champion Yuuji Urushihara漆原裕治 (Cliffer #3), Yuuichi Okada 岡田祐一, with a very blond Ryo Matachi  又地諒 (Cliffer #2) and Hitoshi Kanno菅野仁志 ©Hitoshi Kanno

Btw for those unfamiliar with 2 STQ'ers of those above.  Hioki is the one that I said way back as the "lucky bastard that got Bunpei Shiratori to give a toast at his wedding".  While the guy in the middle named Okada was the guy that had his wife wind up the home-made Rolling Escargot by tying a rope to their mini-van! If you don't know the other 3.. then you haven't watched the show! I love the photos the New Generation put out on twitter when they are being goofy!

For the international viewers it is now a foregone conclusion that Sasuke is no longer worldwide. This.. makes me furious. Since G4TV is no longer in existence, Esquire has announced only ANW (and not Ninja Warrior) will be aired on it's station when it finally debuts in the USA. Coupled with that is the fact that NBC has boycotted Sasuke 28 and now 29.  Since G4TV was the station that edited and produced the Ninja Warrior format and now they are gone, it is still unclear if Sasuke will ever be sold worldwide.  No one outside of Japan has seen Sasuke Rising. :(  For those of us who watch this live as usual, a reminder to new viewers, TBS does not do repeats so if you plan on getting up early on Thursday morning start making your plans now since it's a weekday morning for us in the Western Hemisphere. All streaming information will always be handled by SMF and will not be posted on this site.