Shou decides he’ll face his fears and do stunts, which he does perfectly, so that’s going to be a great advantage for the team. Also the Chinese guy can do some cheerleading tricks so they get welcome him in the team. I’m a bit worried Sho wants to turn him into a squirrel mascot but he’s not going to…. at least I hope he won’t…
This episode showed us the training of the newbies, learning the basis. Everyone seems to be doing fine expect Afro-kun and Pink Shota. The first one because he doesn’t seem to take training seriously and Pink Shota because he doesn’t have the strength required. Therefore Hisashi aka Grumpy-kun wants them to undergo some really hard training like the one Saitama in One Punch Man did to become stronger… Seriously… the training he wants them to do is scaring me.
But anyway, what is interesting to analyse is Grumpy-kun’s involvement in the team. He’s involved, he’s too involved, he’s even more concerned about practice than the regular members and although his way of speaking his mind is a bit harsh he does have a point. I also understand he fears the other members’ willingness to do cheerleading might not be as high as his. Heck, he comes to practice earlier than everybody, spams the group chat with text messages, gets mad at the people who are late and even cares about what he eats in order to “build up muscles” properly. His reasons for wanting to do this sport were not explained yet but it is rather clear he cares about it a lot. Thus wanting everyone to be as involved as he is is understandable, but not really rational.
At some point Grumpy-kun decides to have a talk with Kazu in order to convenience him to to more pressure on everyone. According to him, they won’t be ready for the qualifiers if they keep on practicing this way. Kazu kindly explains him that “yo kiddo, not everyone can be as involved as you are and also, not everyone is like you. So let’s not rush things”. But that doesn’t convince Hisashi who wants the team to adopt a strict training regime, like the Sparks’s one. Kazu pays attention to what Hisashi said and the next day he brings some gym balls and announces they’ll adopt a different regime training, not as hard as the Sparks’s one but still, which seems to make Grumpy-kun less grumpy. However, Afro guy continues to be late and to mess around. He’s clearly the member who shows the less involvement and that pisses Grumpy-kun off so they fight a bit.
But you know what?
I like Grumpy-kun
He’s nice. He may lack of tact but he wants what’s best for everyone. He has a goal and does everything he can to achieve it. Even if he’s a bit grumpy all the time he recognizes people can have good intentions and gladly accepts them when they do their best. He’s also capable of apologizing when he needs to and isn’t too stubborn. Like during that Christmas party, when one of the Punk guys and Break dancing brothers gave him food and drinks, you could see he was happy. It felt like he was afraid people might be angry with him because he’s strict. So I guess he was relieved by this attention and thanks to it, he might start to see the positive side of “messing around” with other people. Also he apologized to Pink Shota and Afro-guy for getting mad at them. Okaaaay that did not last long since Grumpy-kun got all grumpy again when he heard “we should take tomorrow off” and ended up leaving the party angrier than before after receiving some weird cake on the head.
I don’t really like Afro guy. He’s a bit too carefree for me and I find him not funny and annoying. He has no reasons whatsoever for being late everyday expect his lack of motivation. When you practice a sport with other people, the last thing you should do is take this lightly when your teammates are involved and care about the sports. So yeah, get your things together Afro guy.
I’m glad the drama in this episode involved two newbies since I was a bit worried the anime was going to left those new characters aside, without giving them screen-time nor interesting things to do or relevance. Although it might still be the case for the Break dancing brothers, chinese guy and the punk guys but Pink Shota, Grumpy-kun and Afro guy did get some screen time. SO yeah, I’m glad the drama involved Grumpy-kun and Afro guy since it gives them room for development. Furthermore, it is also nice to see Pink Shota trying his best and standing for what he believes in. You’ll get there son, you’ll get there.
Next episode we’ll continue with Grumpy-kun’s drama, Haru becoming again, the personal psychologist of the team, helping everyone with their problems. Maybe we’ll learn why Grumpy-kun cares so much about cheerleading in this episode.