Prince of Stride: Alternative Episode 5: [Again- Just You, Only You]

Why does this title sound so gay ?

The first scene shows Kuga aka the White hair dude, hitting the hot Heath-senpai. Well, I didn’t know Kuga-Senpai was such a bully… That’s  apparently the reason why Kuga was fired from the Stride Club, for hitting Heath. I’m sure everything is just a simple misunderstanding. But yeah, if everything was simple in Anime there will be no plot.

OPENING

ASHIRE STRIDE  NANANANANA DOUBLE EMOTION

NANANANA

IT’S PRETTY CREEPY …

…

Did I miss something ?

This is literally the first image after the opening…

Sorry 4 U Nana, I don’t think you’ll ever get the D

We learn that Ayumu is recovering from his injuries in a hospital in Tokyo, where Hozumi visits him sometimes. But as expected, Ayumu’s injury is quite problematic for the Club. Now they need to find another member or they’ll have to withdraw from the competitions. Riku and Takeru have the idea of inviting Kuga the bully in the club cuz they know he likes to Stride…. I don’t remember anyone saying that but… Oh well.

Kuga-senpai is there, next to his black motorbike cuz he’s such a bad boy. He says that he no longer has the right to be in the Stride club and leaves on his motorbike cuz he’s so mysterious.

Later that day, Riku wonders why nobody wants to join the club and doesn’t understand that it’s because his boyfriend, Takeru acts like a creep, touching everyone’s legs. A random student that we will never see again comes and talk to them. For the purpose of this review I will call him Juanito. Juanito then, tells them that nobody wants to join because of the KGB incident, which stands for Kuga Berserk…

I don’t know who came up with this name.

It’s shit…

I’m sure it’s Juanito…

It’s always Juanito

Plus, KGB reminds me of the Soviet Union Police… The KGB, Komitet gosudarstvennoy bezopasnosti or Комите́т госуда́рственной безопа́сности (КГБ). Yeah I don’t speak Russian, but I know how to Wikipedia… So that’s a creepy name. Juanito where did you go to find such a name ?

Anyway, the KGB incident is Kuga bullying Heath, like we saw at the begging. Because of that Kohinata refuses to let Kuga join the Stride club. The KGB incident almost shut the Club and Kohinata worked hard to avoid that. That’s why he forced Ayumu to join, to have a new member replacing Kuga the bully. Also, that’s why Kohinata feels guilty about Ayumu’s injury. Since he was the one “forcing ” him to join, he feels responsable for what happened. But then…

Plot twist: Heath is ready to tell the truth about the KGB incident

Are you ready ?  

Because foulalala, I did not expected that at all

Kuga is actually a nice guy

Seriously ?

Oh wow…

I need a moment to catch my breath, this is so unexpected… I don’t know what to say

Heath’s story is quite simple. When him, Kuga and Yagami ( the oldest one) were first year students, the Stride Club was popular with lots of members.  Our three first years made it into the official team and the third years started being jealous and stuff. Then one day, their relationner fucked up so Kuga and Heath ended up colliding during a race. That’s how Heath was hurt.

But then, the crappy third year relationner was like ” NANDA TEME ?! Stop pretending that you are hurt little shit” and started hitting Heath with his mighty skinny leg. Like a white knight to defend his princess, Kuga was like “Imma gonna protect u with my own body ” and then he punched the third year in his tinny vagina.

The problem was that apparently, if it was known that many members were involved in the fight, the club would have been shut down. So Kuga took the blame. Which is a bit stupid if you ask me but since nobody cares about what I’m thinking, I’ll just shut up. Buuuut… It would have been a lot easier to accuse the crappy relationner right? And even so, Heath could have told Kohinata the truth so that everything would have been fine between them. Also, if Kuga was fired from the club because of the fight, considering that the truth was never revealed, does he really have the right to join again ? I’m talking about the school rules and stuff..

AAAh, Jean Pascal is telling me in my earpiece that in a School Anime, we don’t really care about the school rules

Thanks for the heads up Jean Pascal

But thank god Riku heard my prayers and solves the problem by saying:  LMAO nobody cares, if Kuga hasn’t done anything wrong then he should join. Yes, It’s as simple a that. So Heath is like : yeah ok good idea ” I really want to connect my feelings with him again”.

WTF, what does “connecting my feelings” mean ? 

Why does this sound so gay to me?

I swear, this is starting to be so gay I can’t even

So they all go to see Kuga the bully actually nice guy, to ask him: ” hey come and join the Stride club. We finally know the truth so everything is fine lol”. And Kuga is like “gmlgmglmglmglml, I’m not sure ” so Heath says:

” I won’t take you for granted anymore. If something happens I will protect you”.

Come on, just kiss already, go for a ride on the black motorbike, eat ice cream while looking at the sea, confess to each other and let’s just end this quickly shall we ? But neh, Kuga leaves on his motorbike, whispering something to Heath cuz he’s mysterious.

The day of the match arrives. Everyone is like “olalalala we miss one runner, plz kuga senpai come”. I REALLY WONDER IF HE’S GOING TO COME OLALALALA, THE SUSPENS IS KILLING ME !

Aaand Kuga arrives, they are all like ” yeaaah, youhou, let’s connect our feelings together”.

The end

You’ve certainly noticed that I changed my tone in this review. It’s because honestly, I’m quite disappointed with this show. The drama seems a bit forced and soooo déjà-vu that I can’t even. Maybe I’ve seen too many shows like that… I don’t know…

 My main problem with this episode is that, even if it was dedicated to Kuga, what did we learn about him ? Nothing. Next episode will be the race and then Yagami’s brother will arrive. So we will probably never learn anything about Kuga. Also, what do we know about the characters ? eeeeeh, nothing. Really.  Although I like Heath I couldn’t care less about his problem with Kuga. Why? Because we don’t know them. I was sitting there, watching the whole explanation about the KGB incident, but I didn’t care at all. I did not even know those two were friends before. They are introducing Kuga right with his drama… bad idea. Also, currently, the most developed characters are Ayumu and Kohinata. What about the main guys? And Nana? I thought they were the main characters of the show? And what about their friendship? Are they even friends? Sure they have gay scenes but… yeah… I thought Stride was about “connecting feelings” but now, I don’t see much connection between the characters. Expect for Ayumu and Kohinata again.

 I checked on MAL to see how many characters this show has; 33 characters. I’m not joking, 33 characters for 12 episodes. Goodbye my dear character development… I shall never see you in this series. The best counter example that I can think of is Haikyuu. Every time, when they are facing a new rival team, there’s almost two episodes dedicated to them. Even more in the case of the big rival teams such as Fukurodani or Nekoma. Of course Haikyuu has more episodes but for Prince of Stride, I think the directors were a bit too ambitious. Or they didn’t really care… I don’t know.

Well, this all for the complaints on this episode. I can surely think other few things but nothing as important as the lack of character development. So please, Prince of Stride do something. Or show me more of that Reiji prince idol guy, and I won’t complain.