Episode 46
As I suspected, it’s a pre-finals prep episode (with a little bit of gameplay at the end!). And what a pre-finals prep episode. Hyuga was back in full force and dressed to impress, so of course he completely stole the show. I am completely in love with his outfit here:
I wonder how long he’s been standing there practicing his scowl. And how many ways he tried wearing his coat before he decided on that one. All so he could… look more badass while begging for the coach’s forgiveness? Toho doesn’t deserve Hyuga. None of us do.
I don’t get this Coach Kitazune at all, he’s the worst and I want him to get hit by lightning immediately and I don’t like how they’re trying to make him seem like he’s not a total asshole just because he’s got a code of honour. Like that’s great and all, but why does his code of honour prevent him from playing Hyuga anyway? I understand why he kicked him from the team in the first place, but when you have correspondence from an adult admitting he pretty much baited Hyuga into running away, there’s no shame in reconsidering, especially when the kid’s apologising. And as for quitting his job to “take responsibility”? He’s resigning over a decision that nobody disagrees with in order to protect an arbitrary set of black-and-white morals that have no value to anyone other than him. That is the least responsible thing I have ever heard. But I would also like him to quit because he is, as previously noted, the worst. So mixed emotions.
I’m sad we didn’t get to see Hyuga fight Coach Kitazune IRL (we were so tantalisingly close), but his challenge scene was enjoyable, mostly for the close-up shots of Hyuga, which in my opinion are some of the coolest-looking pieces of animation from the entire series so far. In fact, there was a lot of cool art/animation in general this episode, which is refreshing considering we’re coming off a string of not-so-great-looking ones. But it is the finals, they’ve got to step it up. I thought this image of Tsubasa was particularly apt:
I don’t believe I’ve ever seen his essence captured so well. A behemoth with cold, dead eyes, capable of focusing only on complete victory.
Nankatsu and Tsubasa were very much the B-plot of the episode, and I didn’t find myself too interested in their side of things. It’s all the same as usual. Tsubasa shouldn’t be playing but is, everyone is remarkably zen about it, etc, etc. Nobody cares, Hyuga’s back.
The tail end of the episode packed in quite a lot of information. We got maybe 15 seconds of actual gameplay and Hyuga has already punctured a football in what may well be the most startling display of dominance ever performed by a middle-schooler. David Attenborough should study this. And on top of that, the twist that Wakashimazu has to give up football forever to be a full-time karate kid if Toho loses. Which means we now have no reason whatsoever to want Nankatsu to win.
I’m curious to see just how much time they’re going to devote to this finals match. Will it stretch out to the very last episode? The ‘80s anime final was something ludicrous like 15 episodes, so I hope they can give it enough time. But then again, a lot of those episodes were just Tsubasa hobbling around the pitch internally monologuing about how he has to win, so they probably have some leeway either way.
Episode 47
Oh okay, Hyuga punctures a ball with the sheer force of his kick so Tsubasa gets to do it too. I see how it is. He can’t let anyone have anything to themselves. I hope the organisers have enough spare balls to cope with this.
First goal of the match goes to Toho with a good solid Tiger Shot, which I guess isn’t a huge surprise. I never noticed it before but Nankatsu actually gave away a lot of first goals this tournament. Maybe it’s to lull their opponents into a false sense of security before they systematically tear them to pieces. Whatever the reason, Tsubasa answers the goal with a successful Drive Shot of his own pretty soon after, leaving things level by the end of the episode.
I guess you could consider this a Wakashimazu episode, i
f you have to assign it to any one character. He’s kindly volunteered to aggravate his old traffic injury so that he can believably let in as many goals as Morisaki. OH AND THEY FINALLY SHOWED HIM SAVING THE PUPPY. I fully support this. It’s completely vital to his character.
Speaking of that mid-air injury, what a mindlessly self-destructive clash for both sides. There was absolutely no need for that whatsoever. I am becoming more convinced by the episode that Tsubasa is actively trying to permanently incapacitate himself.
After that little mishap, Tsubasa appears to have run out of PP on his Drive Shot, and I’d be lying if I said I weren’t just a little bit relieved. Drive Shots have really become devalued in the last few episodes. It’s gotten to the point where I’m genuinely taken aback when one of them pays off. Now the Tiger Shot, there’s a shot you can set your watch to. Having said that, I’d be surprised if we didn’t get at least one more attempted Drive Shot before the match is out.
I don’t feel there’s been an awful lot to comment on with regard to the finals so far, but it’s early days and I absolutely loved the art for this episode – the manga-style shots looked really nice and made the whole thing a lot more interesting to watch than it might have been otherwise. We’re 15 minutes in so far, so if things continue at this pace I guess the match will last around 3 more episodes? I imagine it’ll be clear enough by the next episode, which, judging by the episode title, will more than likely swing heavily in Toho’s favour. ‘Til then!