Recorded on location at Midoriyama studios in Yokohama, it airs on Tokyo Broadcasting System (TBS) between Japanese television drama seasons.
Applicants are interviewed or auditioned and trial rounds are held to test their physical ability until the field is narrowed to 100 competitors.
[4] After each full course completion, the First Stage was thoroughly redesigned to be much more difficult and prevent large numbers of people from moving on.
In addition, the course judges can hold the gates closed if a competitor committed a foul earlier in the Second Stage that would result in their disqualification, such as using the Chain Reaction gloves on the Spider Walk as Katsumi Yamada had done in the 12th competition.
Contestants are allowed approximately thirty seconds of rest between obstacles during which they can apply "sticky spray" to improve their grip.
While the first two stages focus on speed and agility, this course almost exclusively tests one's upper body strength and stamina.
Each of these share a single, common goal: reach and hit the button at the top before time expires.
The Sasuke All-Stars were a group of six favored competitors, established by the TBS network, originally thought to be the most likely to clear all four stages.
Consisting of Shingo Yamamoto, Katsumi Yamada, Kazuhiko Akiyama, Toshihiro Takeda, Makoto Nagano and Bunpei Shiratori, they comprised a large portion of the competitors' success in the first decade of Sasuke.
"Shin Sedai" or New Stars became famous since Sasuke 17, after Shunsuke Nagasaki made it to the Final Stage.
Membership in the Shin Sedai has been more fluid than the All-Stars, with Shunsuke Nagasaki, Yuuji Urushihara, Hitoshi Kanno, Koji Hashimoto, Jun Sato, Ryo Matachi, Kazuma Asa, Yusuke Morimoto, Tomohiro Kawaguchi, Shinya Kishimoto, Masashi Hioki and Yusuke Suzuki all having been considered members at certain points.
The members are usually considered to be Yusuke Morimoto, Tatsuya Tada, Keitaro Yamamoto, Jun Sato and Naoyuki Araki.
[16] As an exclusive bonus, trading cards of various prominent Sasuke competitors would also included upon purchasing the book.
The book contains exclusive interviews and round table discussions from multiple prominent competitors such as Yamada Katsumi, Morimoto Yūsuke, Nagano Makoto, Yamamoto Shingo, Darvish Kenji, Kane Kosugi, Akiyama Kazuhiko, Urushihara Yuuji, Matachi Ryo, Kawaguchi Tomohiro, and Hioki Masashi.
This also includes exclusive interviews from Sasuke Producer Inui Masato and Lead Commentator Sugiyama Shinya.