History Awesome / NinjaWarrior

* In a different form of awesome, there's Nagano's reaction to screwing up by touching part of the water on the Cliff Hanger, and no-one but him caught that he did: he disqualified ''himself'' and bowed out of the competition in a beautiful show of sportsmanship.

** Original champion Kazuhiko Akiyama, in Sasuke 11, would clear the First Stage for the first time since his return to the competition in Sasuke 6. To put this into perspective, the clock displayed on-screen usually only counts down to tenths of a second, battling his worsening eyesight and injured knee. Akiyama finished with '''three-hundredths''' of a second left on the clock. Akiyama is shown literally in tears immediately following his run. He would go on to the Third Stage before failing.

* Pretty much anytime someone wins, who gets practically instant fame in Japan. Or when someone makes it '''past the first stage.''' It's just that impossible. The more notable runs include:

** Original champion Kazuhiko Akiyama, in Sasuke 11, would clear the First Stage for the first time since his return to the competition in Sasuke 6. To put this into perspective, the clock displayed on-screen usually only counts down to tenths of a second. Akiyama finished with '''three-hundredths''' of a second left on the clock. Akiyama is shown literally in tears immediately following his run.

*** A special note to Jordan Jovtchev. In the 8th tournament, he cleared the first stage with ''0.00'' seconds left on the clock. Even better, he made it all the way to the final stage, only to fail on the Spider Climb.

** Oh so many in Sasuke 27. First, 27 people cleared the first stage, more than any tournament except the second and fourth. Secondly, David Campbell, on his third stage one attempt, beat the course with ''44.32 seconds'' left on the clock, with his nephew Travis Furlanic only a second slower. And come time for the third stage, three people beat the previously unbeaten Ultimate Cliffhanger, and of those three, two make it to the final stage. Ryo Matachi (one of the finalists) had never been past the first stage before 27 and made the second and third stages look like pieces of cake. [[spoiler: The other finalist, Yuuji Urushihara, passes it, not only becoming the 4th total victory winner, but the only competitor to have achieved multiple kanzenzeihas, except for Ayako Miyake in the Kunoichi tournaments, who won 3 times in a row.]] Holy fucking shit, this was a tournament of badasses.

* Pretty much anytime someone wins, who gets practically instant fame in Japan. Or when someone makes it '''past the first stage.''' Its just that impossible. The more notable runs include:

*** In the 23rd tournament he failed to complete the first stage due to a technical error with the slider jump which prevented him from gaining enough distance to reach the cargo net. He then had to retry the first stage again - and succeeded! He has now officially taken Katsumi Yamada's title of "Mr. Ninja Warrior/Sasuke."

*** ''Kunoichi'', the sister compettion to ''Sasuke'', would have Rena Higashi become the youngest competitor to clear that course, and she would make it all the way to the Third Stage.

*** To put this in perspective, one woman has won as many consecutive tournaments as all men have won tournaments in history.

* In a different form of awesome, there's Nagano's reaction to screwing up by touching part of the Cliff Hanger: he disqualified ''himself'' and bowed out of the competition in a beautiful show of sportsmanship.

** American competitor Jessie Graff's performance in the 34th tournament. Besides becoming only the second female to clear the first stage, she became the first competitor to clear stage two.