Gary Levin

USA TODAY

American Ninja Warrior, now in its sixth season on NBC, has steadily climbed in ratings. But fans of the extreme obstacle-course competition may not realize the show is based on a long-running Japanese tournament with even more antic announcers, the infamous Warped Wall and a group of amateur all-stars that include a gas-station manager and a fisherman.

Early next month, Ninja Warrior, known in Japan as Sasuke, will return to U.S. TV under a new deal between NBC-owned Esquire Network and Tokyo Broadcasting System. Esquire has obtained rights to 26 Ninja Warrior tournaments, each filmed on a single day, along with seven Kunoichi spinoff contests that feature only women contestants.

The tournaments, which aired on the small G4 network from 2006 to 2013, will return as a 63-hour Labor Day weekend marathon (Sept. 3, 7 a.m. ET/PT) in Japanese, with English subtitles. They feature many obstacles familiar to fans of the American spinoff, which early on sent a group of high-scoring competitors to Japan to compete on the original version of the series. Additional newer tournaments of the series, never seen in the U.S., will debut next year.

"We thought it would be a great opportunity to reintroduce the origin story, as it were, to the broader public" of recent American Ninja Warrior fans, says Adam Stotsky, president of E! and Esquire. "What fans will see is that the competitive dynamic and extreme athleticism is unusual, and fed through the Japanese fanatical lens we think makes for a great experience."

Only four Japanese competitors have ever completed the entire four-stage course in the allotted time without falling (one won twice), and last year marked the first win on the American finals course (actually there were two, but only the fastest won the top prize).