Oh ho? There’s a lot of tension building up for future episodes and I’m excited for it! Tension, this time around, I’m not necessarily talking about conflict or misunderstanding, but rather they’re already starting to build up the stress for future episodes. It’s July right now, but what’s going to happen once the Winter months come? How will the competitive spirit play out? Or will it all come crashing down. Ahhh, they really just gave a us a glimpse at the future, didn’t they?
We start off the episode finally getting a solid understanding of where Leo comes from. He’s a dancer, from London who has some very high expectations placed on him. It actually bummed me out quite a bit that we didn’t spend more time with Leo in this episode, because I would love for him to be fleshed out and for him to articulate his feelings about the art form he seems to want to run away from. We did get a little bit of that when he ran off with Minamino, but if I’m honest I just want a good heart to heart chat with him and another character. Maybe that character is Mari, maybe it’s Ayu or Jo. Heck, it could even be Scissor Hands Rei, but I just want to know about his feelings. Just who are you and what are you thinking Leo?
Regarding Minamino, I kind of have the opposite sentiment which is honestly quite surprising to me. They’ve already coated Leo in mystery that I’ve hit the point of wanting to uncover what’s going on with him. But Minamino? Well, I wouldn’t say no if there was some sort of backstory that follows him around, but I also think he’s in a perfect position to be the kind who just really wants to win. Sometimes that’s all you need for a motivator. I find him to be a pretty frustrating character because of his attitude, but that doesn’t mean he’s a bad character. He’s, as others have called him, rough around the edges. And I mean, he is just a teenager, so there is still so much for him to learn about the world. Maybe his viewpoint may change overtime, or perhaps he will maintain his desire to be at the very top. Either way, I’m still curious with what they plan to with his character but wouldn’t be upset if he remained the way he is now. Also, shout out to Liu for putting him in his place for a bit. Sometimes there needs to be a jab at the ego.
As for Jotaro, I really don’t see him as a protagonist anymore? I don’t really know how to explain it. He is the focus as the samurai gymnast, but he is really off just doing his own things. Everyone else is tense and worried about a number of different things and there’s Jotaro admiring old pictures on the wall and jumping into a competition strictly to see if he can do an Aragaki. Like, he’s just vibing on his own. And in some ways, that is pretty refreshing. He’s not outwardly expressing his anxieties and worries and quite frankly people are just like “Oh, he’s here. That’s cool” which I think gives him a leg up if he can accomplish his goals. And on that note, I’m really happy that they were able to articulate his goals in this episode. Since he hasn’t really been the focus for the past couple of episodes, it’s been really hard to understand what he wants to do. But hey! Jo, I support you in your endeavor, but please don’t hurt yourself in your quadruple.
Aside from all that, I don’t think I have any other thoughts on the episode. I really think it was the kind of episode that is helping lay out intense moments for future episodes. However, I will say that I would love if Kitty and Rei got a little more screen time because their interaction was really cute, and Rei deserves more friends. But there’s a lot of newfound hope in the air, so we’ll just have to wait and see what happens!
