Cultural Differences

[zallia]

I've been watching through the entirety of Ninja Warrior since Spike's decided to show them in order and label the episodes and I've been intrigued by something I've noticed.
Okay, for those of you that don't know the Ninja Warrior or Saskue tournament is held once or twice a year on Mt. Midoriyama in Japan. There are 4 stages of obstacles, the first two with a time limit, the third no time-but almost entirely upper body strength and the last is a giant rope climb in 30 secs. It's a very difficult challenge and out of 100 contestants only around 10 people will pass the first like 4 the second, and sometimes none will pass the third. There are a number of joke competitors, but for the most part these guys are muscled, practiced men. Olympic athletes even. And since the beginning, these guys have come to practically every competition and have even built replicas of the obstacles in the their own yards to train during the year. Like big, moving obstacles. And in like 17 tournaments only 2 people have ever completed the entire thing.

Okay? Now, here's the kicker. There's no prize whatsoever. No money, no vacation, just title of Ninja Warrior. And they work so hard to be able to beat this. Like life-consuming training for this thing. And they don't berate each other, they cheer the others on and are upset when colleagues fail. 

And then I look at our competitions. Take Survivor. Million dollar prize. Usually a car or two to be had as well. And the people that go on there, don't even bother to look in a book to learn how to make fire or dig a latrine or build a shelter or even watch past episodes. For a million dollars! It just...baffles me. And I don't know if it's the difference between athletic competition and famewhored-ness or Japan and American work ethics. Anyways, just something that I've been contemplating a bit.

Comments

[xarx.livejournal.com]

You also have to take into consideration that Japan has long standing traditions of honor and shame. Both are things we as a society did away with long ago.

[wyrmis.livejournal.com]

We have various people--gymnasts, "amateur" wrestlers (greco-roman), weight lifters and so on--who train daily for regional competitions and never have any light shed upon them. These people usually have a massive amount of dedication and integrity, spending as many as 10 hours for single shots at glory that the majority of us will never hear about. They are passed over for the more showy sports with all the big money coming in. When we do hear about them, it is that one guy who took steroids to win despite the vast majority who don't touch anything like that because they want to get there on their own struggles.

I suppose that Americans working hard isn't enough to sell commercials, though, so these people end up wrecking their body for four or five years of pretty much being unknown even when they are the best and mediocre basketball players get a six digit salary.

[serisun.livejournal.com]

I actually say an episode or two of this show. I remember some big, towering American Olympic athlete competing. But yeah... to these guys it was all about saying that they did it & none of them were mean spirited at all. Not even to the gaijen Olympiad.

But I think a lot of what you see on our "competition" shows occurs because people are set so against each other & the producers or hosts encourage the poor sportsmanship. Seeing people act like assholes seems to be a hot seller. I don't know why. Personally, I don't think that behavior is at all entertaining unless it gets put in its place right quick with a smack to the head.

I guess as just an example. I did watch the premier of Kid Nation. The first day; all 40 kids were doing a great job working together and getting what needed to be done... then the "host" tells them they need to split up into 4 color groups and immediately there is kids acting like asses to the other teams because they are the "blue" team. And suddenly people no longer want to do the work that needs to be done because it now has a "pay scale" value & the labor jobs are crap pay while the sit on your ass jobs are high dollar.

Show me a Japanese show that so decisively pits their player against each other with the mere rules of the game show! Perhaps that is the cultural difference.

gawd I got a long comment going on here. I'll shut up & stop rambling now.

[zallia.livejournal.com]

Was that the earlier one with the Navy Diver? That guy was awesome! He got really far too! I was really rooting for him and sad that he only participated in a couple of tourneys. But it was funny cause it was the early obstacles when they still had shitty production values and the whole freaking course would shake since he was so much more mass than the Japanese guys!

[serisun.livejournal.com]

I don't recall anything about him being in the Navy. I just know he wore his Olympic outift on the show & he was really tall & hugely muscular. I think he was blonde or light red haired. I remember he made it to the 3rd event but I can't remember if he failed on some curtain hanging thing or some other hang on by the tips of your fingers thing.

[ersatzpixie.livejournal.com]

I've watched a bunch of those off the g4 channel. have you ever seen the viking warrior one? it was in Japan, and still the whole obstacle course thing, but they also have math problems and questions like "what color do you get if you mix blue and black?" thrown into it. I don't think they do that one anymore....I only saw it the once.

I think it's amazing that these people work so hard the whole year for this competition where there's no prize. and that one guy is the only one who's ever one it and he keeps coming back every year except he's going blind and he's dedicated so much of his life to it his family has basically disowned him because he can't win.

have you ever seen the all female version? there's this one kickass chick who has won it about 3 or 4 times, and she's the only one who has ever won it. and once there was this 13 year old girl who almost made it through to the last level.

it's just amazing. amuuricans could learn a thing or two from ninja warrior. there's gotta be a healthy productive medium in there somewhere.

[zallia.livejournal.com]

That's right, it's on G4, not Spike. Spike has the Murder show. It's the only time I ever watch those networks.
I think part of it is just that honor system, since Iron Chef is kind of the same thing. All you're really winning is honor, and even though it's the same in the US version, they seem to take it more seriously over there and feel the wins/losses more.
Oh and Makoto Nagano completed a tournament as well. He hadn't done it by the 15th and I think 16th, so I'm thinking it must be the 17th since I think they're only barely doing the 19th now.
And I've seen a few eps of the Kunoichi tourney, but I missed out on the marathon monday. I like how they tailor it to where it's more balance and other female strengths. That 13 year old girl was awesome! Did you see in one of the earlier ones when like the only woman made it to stage 2? She couldn't even do the Spider Walk cause her legs weren't long enough to get on both sides!!