Yet the brutal, obstacle-ridden reunion quest that ensues – framed from the alternating perspectives of both child and beast – follows no predictable path as Hagen bands with his fellow strays to rise up against those who abused and abandoned them.
The popularity of these Japanese-style shows will be affirmed on Monday night, when the two-hour season finale of the cult favorite series "American Ninja Warrior" — in which Americans compete for a chance to travel to Yokohama to take on the brutal obstacle course of the semiannual Japanese televised competition "Sasuke" — moves from the cable channel G4 to its sister network NBC.
The obstacles are a brutal parade of anthropomorphized inanimate objects: Dancing Stones, Spinning Log, Floating Boards, Jumping Spider, Rumbling Dice, Monkey Peg, Cargo Crossing, Salmon Ladder, Double Salmon Ladder.
Even if clinging to American machismo hurts us, the steeling of young black males will continue, because the obstacles we face are relentless, brutal, and ensconced in the highest echelons of power.
As if reaching that goal would not be hard enough under normal circumstances, the Knicks have been handed another obstacle by the league: a brutal schedule.
As Sir Ian performs the savage dance of the play's title, it is a fearsomely brutal activity, a physical lashing out at all obstacles real and spectral.
They said the move was prompted, in part, by the obstacles arising from evidence obtained through brutal treatment or intelligence gathering.
They said that questions surrounding confessions made after the brutal treatment of some detainees had become an obstacle.
Similar claims have also posed obstacles to investigating the Bush administration's use of brutal interrogations and secret prisons in the years immediately following the Sept. 11 attacks.
