Makoto Nagano
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Makoto Nagano is a 35-year old fisherman who is regularly seen on the television show SASUKE, otherwise known in the United States as Ninja Warrior. Nagano spends 300 days a year on his fishing boat, and he uses his boat to train for the Ninja Warrior competitions.
In 2005, during the 16th Sasuke competition, Nagano came extremely close to making it to the final stage for the 2nd time in his Ninja Warrior career. Nagano first got caught on the 3rd-stage obstacle, The Devil's Swing, a trapeze-type obstacle in which one has to gain enough momentum to reach the final obstacle, the Pipe Slider. The trapeze got caught on the green resting pipe. Nagano managed to get himself unhooked from the green pipe, and even grabbed a hold of the Pipe Slider after getting some momentum back. However, Nagano couldn't hang on, and the pipe ended up sliding down the track. His bid to make an extended jump onto the Pipe Slider was in vain.
Previously, Nagano had made it to the final stage, and seemed to win it all, but ended up hitting the red button 0.11 seconds too late, just missing his chance at Ninja Warrior glory. This would be reversed in 2006, during the 17th Ninja Warrior competition when, finally, a champion was crowned for the first time since Akiyama Kazuhiko won in 1999. Nagano hit the red button with just over 2 seconds left on the clock.
Nagano is also the only man to have ever made it to the final stage (Final Viking) of Viking: The Ultimate Obstacle Course coming within 5 feet of the finish before running out of time.
