What's Wrong With American Ninja Warrior? 349
Reader Thom Stark (thomst) writes with a pointed review of this year's Americanized version of (awesome) Japanese TV show "Sasuke." "I've been a fan of the program the G4 channel calls "Ninja Warrior" since I first encountered it in mid-2005. For those who are unfamiliar with the show, it's a re-edited-for-American-TV version of a Japanese show called "Sasuke," with often-snarky English commentary and graphics overlaid on the Japanese original. "Ninja Warrior" is a fast-paced, wildly-entertaining program in which 100 contestants of varying skill levels pit themselves against a 4-stage obstacle course that grows ever more fiendishly difficult with each passing season. There've been 27 such seasons to date, and the most current incarnation has become so incredibly taxing that Batman himself would have trouble completing it. Now G4 has teamed up with its corporate parent, NBCUniversal, to bring the world's toughest obstacle course to America, and the resulting show, "American Ninja Warrior" turns out to be distinctly inferior to its Japanese progenitor. The final broadcast in a series that has run for six previous weekly installments appeared on July 9, with segments on both G4 and NBC, and I thought it was fitting that I mark the occasion with a critique of what I believe to be "American Ninja Warrior"'s fatal philosophical and production missteps, and contrast them with the original pitch-perfect product." (Read on below.)
First, it's important to understand that the Japanese program's name has nothing to do with either ninjas or warriors. "Sasuke" means something like "excellence" in Japanese. It has much the same flavor as the Greek concept of arete, the pursuit of excellence as a defining life goal. G4's marketeers clearly decided that their ADHD-addled core audience of video gamers was unlikely to find a show called "Excellence" compelling enough to warrant paying attention, so they decided to jazz it up by invoking ninjas, instead. Oh, and warriors, too, to make it more appealing to the World of Warcraft fanatics. And that was fine, as far as it went, because G4 had the good sense not to mess with the program content itself (other than to poorly translate much of the Japanese-language commentary, again in an apparent attempt to inject some good ol' American zazz).
As a side note, commentary is not the only translational sin of which G4 is guilty. The competition takes place at Midoriyama, a Japanese place name that G4 insists on referring to as "Mount Midoriyama." The problem with that is that "yama" is a Japanese suffix meaning "mountain." Thus, "Fujiyama" means "Mount Fuji" and "Midoriyama" means "Mount Midori" — which, in turn, means that G4's translation is not only redundant, with its repeating of the word "mountain" in both English and Japanese, it's wildly inaccurate, because the Japanese word means "Mount Midori."
But I digress.
"American Ninja Warrior" — the strictly-domestic production — suffers badly from human interest bloat. The Japanese program (at least as it is presented on G4) frequently features mini-portraits of the competitors, but these segments are very short — typically under 20 seconds — and they help to put a human face on the often-superhuman efforts of the program's contenders. In "American Ninja Warrior," the corresponding segments too often are near-epic mini-documentaries that run a minute or longer, and they seriously impair the program's flow — especially because there are so flinkin' many of them. The producers badly need to rein in their out-of-control bathos machinery and reduce both the number and the running time of their athlete portraiture.
But the worst mistake that the brainiacs behind "American Ninja Warrior" have made is to Americanize the competition. The most endearing philosophical quality of "Sasuke" is that the participants compete, not against each other, but individually against the course itself. There is no zero-sum in the game of Sasuke. Should more than one contestant complete the nigh-impossible series of obstacles (an outcome that has never yet occurred on "Sasuke"), both would be equally celebrated, both would be equally entitled to claim the title of "winner," and the accomplishment of one would in no way diminish the glory of the other. To the contrary, such an event would be cause for national celebration, since winners of "Sasuke" are considered national heroes in Japan.
By contrast, not only have the American producers chosen to have the participants compete against each other in regional qualifying events for a spot in the "finals" competition in Las Vegas (not an unreasonable choice, given that they needed to whittle the field down to a manageable number of contestants for the trials at the actual Mount Midori course), but they've made it a zero-sum game. Like the Highlander, there can be only one American Ninja Warrior — which reduces the exalted pursuit of excellence to just another athletic competition, with the top prize of half-a-million dollars going to the one contestant who not only completes the course, but does so in the fastest time. Anyone else who makes it to the top of Mount Midori is, basically, just another chump. An also-ran. A footnote.
And that's what's really wrong with "American Ninja Warrior."
See also: American Top Gear (Score:5, Insightful)
What's Wrong With Slashdot? (Score:5, Insightful)
Actual critique: 10% (Score:5, Insightful)
This is mostly a disturbingly obsessive whine over details that do not matter, with an actual critique only making up a fraction of the last couple paragraphs. It uses 500 words to lodge exactly two valid complaints:
1. Making a competition out of a challenge, which are fundamentally different.
and
2. Slightly increasing the proportion of the show that is human interest.
If there were some sort of news that made this arbitrary blob of complaining relevant, it would just be badly written, instead of bizarrely atopical and badly written. There's not, and it just seems like completely off the wall "nerd-rage" over nothing in particular. Shameful editorial standards at work here.
A guess? It's designed for idiots. (Score:5, Insightful)
I've not seen American Ninja Warrior, but the vast majority of American remakes of popular import shows get the same treatment. First, you start of with something that's popular. Then you assume that Americans are too stupid to understand any culture other than the perfectly homogenised average of the USA as portrayed by Hollywood. Then you remove everything that doesn't conform to this. And then you end up with something that even the target audience thinks is dumb.
Re:What's Wrong With Slashdot? (Score:2, Insightful)
That don't even really review the subject. Also, how about we don't watch the channel that gutted TechTV.
"Human Interest bloat..." (Score:5, Insightful)
>> ""American Ninja Warrior" — the strictly-domestic production — suffers badly from human interest bloat. The Japanese program (at least as it is presented on G4) frequently features mini-portraits of the competitors, but these segments are very short — typically under 20 seconds — and they help to put a human face on the often-superhuman efforts of the program's contenders. "
Oh, just wait until the Olympics. They will do lengthy segments that try to ferret out the most painful moments in every athlete's life (with soft piano music) so the audience can have a little Rocky moment when an athlete wins an event.
Easy answer (Score:5, Insightful)
The Japanese version does not insult the viewers intelligence. The American version does.
That was not the final broadcast (Score:4, Insightful)
There are two more episods in the July 9th episode, they only did the first stage of Mount Midoriyama.
I do agree that the American show emphasizes competition against each other with the line "who will be the first" instead of "will anyone".
But I do have to ask, how on-point can a review be if the reviewer didn't even watch the show enough to notice it didn't actually go to the end?
i was a fan of the original japanese iron chef (Score:5, Insightful)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iron_Chef [wikipedia.org]
And then they bought it to the USA, with William Shatner, and it completely and utterly sucked:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iron_Chef_USA [wikipedia.org]
The point is, the TONE was off, it was like drunk golf buddies who stumbled on a casual cooking competition, no reverence for the food, no care for the technique. Much like American Ninja warrior: wrong tone, just as you say.
Luckily, the Food Network made another stab at Iron Chef, and this time it worked, with Alton Brown and the "nephew" of the original Chairman Kaga (Hawaiian Fillipino martial artist Mark Dacascos), and other cross overs like Iron Chef Morimoto:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iron_Chef_America [wikipedia.org]
Not as delightful as the original, but it works, it is enjoyable to watch, because the TONE is the same: they really care about the food, and they really pay attention to the cooking and technique.
If something works, don't mess with it!
I am certain some useless Hollywood suit said you need to change Sasuke to suit American audiences. Rightfully, that suit should be fired. If the formula works, don't mess with it, or you have some stillborn mess no one wants to watch.
Re:There must be a winner (Score:4, Insightful)
actually we now do this in kiddie sports where everyone is a winner every season. supposedly people hate it
Cargo Cult (Score:5, Insightful)
I was going to post about the American Top Gear too.
It seems that the USA excels at finding good shows from other countries, bringing them here, and then completely missing the point. It's classic Cargo Cult mentality: the superficial form is there, but they entirely fail to understand why it was good to begin with.
"Human interest bloat" (Score:5, Insightful)
"American Ninja Warrior" ... suffers badly from human interest bloat.
It's endemic in US TV coverage of any individual sport, it seems. The Olympics have been unwatchable for years, because you get 2 minutes of sprinting or swimming or tumbling, and a half-hour sob story about the life struggles of one of the American athletes. Great, she was orphaned at age 2 and raised in abject poverty by her quadrapeligic great-aunt in the basement of a pig slaughterhouse; it's amazing that she overcame that to become a world champion gymnast. Now can we PLEASE turn off the sad music and cut to cycling or equestrian jumping, or javelin-throwing, or archery, or any one of the other dozen events you've been ignoring all week because there's not a photogenic American with a compelling life story in the top 5 contenders?
Re:See also: American Top Gear (Score:4, Insightful)
I tried - once - never again.. that show is horrible.
Re:There must be a winner (Score:5, Insightful)
actually we now do this in kiddie sports where everyone is a winner every season. supposedly people hate it
"people are praised for trying their best" is not the same as "everyone is a winner".
mini-bios (Score:5, Insightful)
The worst part is definitely the little bio bits. Boring, and I just don't care. Reminds me of Olympic broadcasts here in the U.S. Twenty minutes of giving the life story of every American athlete, then thirty seconds of those athletes failing miserably. If there's time left between commercials, they might show the top three or four foreign competitors. Yuck. Drop the "human interest", just give me the goddamn events - as many as you can cram into however much time you have. I would much rather be watching the last place pole vaulter from New Guinea than some shitty story about how American Athlete #3 is bravely competing through the pain of a stubbed toe and their mother's recent diagnosis of a hang nail.
Same with Ninja Warrior - I enjoy the Japanese version from time to time, because 90% of the show is someone actually trying to complete the course. You know, the interesting part that got me to turn on the channel. Minimal time is spent on building up each individual competitor, and the brief sketches they do occasionally give are more than enough to establish who the person is. American version, approximately 60-70% seems to be build-up for athletes who end up eating it on the first obstacle.
Re:There must be a winner (Score:5, Insightful)
That's because when everyone wins, it's not a competition.
In SASUKE, the trials are near-impossible. More often than not, nobody wins. It is not a competition against yourself, it is a competition against the challenge of the obstacle course. If multiple people win (never happened, but is always possible), it would be celebrated (and the next season's obstacles would probably be harder). If nobody wins, that's OK, too. But certainly there is never a time that everybody wins.
And I would argue that if everyone wins, it encourages people to be lazy. If one person wins, it gives that person an ego and makes the losers disinterested. If nobody wins (because it is hard), or if winning is equally available to all but is incredibly difficult (a la SASUKE), it encourages people to try harder. On that note, isn't that the American spirit? That everyone has an equal opportunity to rise to the top, proportional to your efforts, and there is no zero-sum game?
Re:There must be a winner (Score:5, Insightful)
In Japan, people are praised for trying their best. In most seasons, no one wins the final obstacle. In America, there has to be a winner to celebrate, everyone else is a failure. I much prefer the Japanese way of looking at things.
Fast-forward to a week or two from now where we'll see a report on the state of the American education system, explaining how more schools are shifting to a model where kids are praised for trying their best rather than actually understanding the material, and this same poster will be deriding that exact same trait he's gushing over now when it's done by Americans.
Expect the word "coddling" when describing it being done by Americans and "supportive" when the Japanese do the exact same thing.
School should not be a competition. It is possible for everyone to win and it is possible for everyone to fail. (or rather, it should be this way; you are right about the coddling aspect though)
Re:Actual critique: 10% (Score:5, Insightful)
Whats worse, I think he missed out on the most shameful part of what is wrong with the show. And that is, in making the show AMERICAN Ninja Warrior, they've excluded everyone who is not an American.
It was very gracious of the Japanese to let anyone compete. They even gave the Americans the privilege of skipping out on the initial qualifying course (which is never televised but takes place behind the scenes) to guarantee them 10 spots on the show. But now that we're apparently taking over the show (the production company for Sasuke went bankrupt, and at least for now it appears there will be no more seasons of the show), we've kicked all of them out and they no longer get a chance to compete. That's just crap. Former Susuke champion Makoto Nagano even flew in to witness the ANW finals, but of course he doesn't get to compete.
Re:There must be a winner (Score:5, Insightful)
The most egregious thing in my opinion is the human interest horseshit that has been inserted into everything that even remotely resembles reality TV these days. I mean, seriously, we're starting to get to the point where nobody can be a participant or contestant on a TV show unless their parents were tortured, raped and murdered by sex-crazed donkeys, they were forced to live on the streets from the age of three like something out of fucking Oliver Twist, they survived 847 forms of cancer or some other debilitating disease or deformity...
If I ever see a serious contestant that isn't "coming out of a massive tragedy of epic proportions and beating incredible odds (c)(R)(TM)" I believe I may soil myself, and what's worse, it's causing a ridiculous arms race in who can come from the more fucked up background. Soon every contestant is going to have to be a refugee from some fucked up country run by a genocidal maniac or else they'll be considered too boring to be a contestant...
Re:There must be a winner (Score:5, Insightful)
This was what I loved about the Japanese show. There was always more than one "winner" regardless of anyone finishing. These people were respected for their ability and effort. Multiple people could win, and all the contestants cheered for each other honestly and sincerely. This is where America has really fallen down.
Re:There must be a winner (Score:4, Insightful)
Why don't we just crush their aspirations early on? Because America is supposed to be a society where you can become anything you want, no matter what you look like or where you came from. Obviously we have struggled at times to live up that ideal. But, then again, nobody's perfect.
Re:What's Wrong With Slashdot? (Score:5, Insightful)
Amen.
All we really needed was "American Ninja Warrior", "Hollywood", and "non-fiction". The other 795 words was just a demonstration of what happens when someone can't find the stairs out of their parents basement.