Who is considered a “Ninja Warrior All Star?”

The Ninja Warrior All Stars point to the most prominent competitors of the Ninja Warrior series: the TV Program itself was the creator of the All Star member group. The show apparently has also designated a theme song for each All Star Member.

Currently the members of the Ninja Warrior All Stars are:
1. Katsumi Yamada (山田 勝己)
2. Shingo Yamamoto (山本 進悟)
3. Kazuhiko Akiyama (秋山 和彦)
4. Toshihiro Takeda (竹田 敏浩)
5. Makoto Nagano (長野 誠)
6. Bunpei Shiratori (白鳥 文平)

Although the members of the Ninja Warrior All Stars are set in stone at this time, the term was used quite ambiguously during the beginnings of the show. It seems that the term started to appear during the 4th season of Ninja Warrior, and by the 6th season it was recurrently used throughout the program. At this point, the term was commonly used to refer to strong competitors only. Contestants such as Kane Kosugi, Shane Kosugi, and Akira Omori would fit this description, and among them, we can say that Omori and Kane Kosugi were considered All Star Members.

One simple way to find that the contestant is either an All Star or a very strong competitor is to look at their number tag. Generally speaking, most or all of the All Star members has always been in the high 90’s in their appearances.
Here is a brief history of number tag usage for Ninja Warrior Contestants:
2nd Season: Number 99=Omori, Number 100=Akiyama
3rd Season: Number 99=Akiyama, Number 100=Omori

The members of the All Star group started to really come together in the 4th season, in which Yamada (previous finalist) was number 100, and similarly another finalist Yamamoto was number 98. Number 99 was Omori, who, until then, was always in the top 90’s. Akiyama was number 86, but was treated just the same as when he had the number 99. Even though both Omori and Yamamoto retired in the 1st stage, they were given the same numbers on the following 5th season of the show.

Since Katsumi Yamada and Shingo Yamamoto’s number tags has been set in the 90’s since season 4, we can think of this as the time when they have officially become All Star Members. Kane Kosugi also had number tags in the 90’s for most of appearances. Thus, although not included in the members now, Kane Kosugi and Omori Akira are considered “ex- Ninja Warrior All Stars.” Both these members have not been on Ninja Warrior since the 7th and 8th season of the show.

Toshihiro Takedo had “All Star treatment” from his second appearance in season 6. By the 9th season, his number tag was always in the high 90’s. Kazuhiko Akiyama was in the high 90’s already in the second season, and has stayed that way since his Total Victory in Season 6. Makoto Nagano’s official recognition as an All Star was the 10th season, by which then the All Star members has been fixed and the term “All Stars” has been used very frequently on the show. Bunpei Shiratori became a member in season 14.

Although looking back to many of the contestants who could have and an one point may have been considered an All Star, today there are only 6 members of the Ninja Warrior All Star. Although there is no set definition for an “All Star,” we now know that they all have a number tag in the high 90’s.

All All Star members (at this point in time), do not have any Olympic experience in any sport. An interesting fact of the two who have completed the entire course, i.e., TOTAL VICTORY, are both relatively small (both about 160cm) and both have experience as a fisherman.