Alright! We’ve made it to High School and we’re starting to see the Seiin Volleyball team build itself out. Well, at the very least we get to meet the captain, Oda who has an incredible love of volleyball despite being at odds with his height. And we also get to meet Aoki who seems to be the mastermind and glue behind it all. And straight up shout out to him for kicking Chika’s ass for being rude to the captain. He has some points in my book.
Of everything that happened in this episode, I think Oda really stole the show. We start off the episode by getting his perspective on the matches that happened in the previous episode and he’s become absolutely hooked on having Chika on the team. And who would blame him? An outstanding volleyball player who goes to his school? Why would anyone let that slide by! But what really stands out is just his desire to keep playing volleyball even though his height would be better suited for something like Judo. I’m a little afraid that this was His episode and we won’t really get a chance to see him be as passionate as he was while he was talking with Chika. I really hope I’m wrong about this because there’s a lot of potential with his character! And they were getting up there with emotional investment in him, but I think they just fell flat. So… I would simply like a little bit more. Oda, I hope you’re able to make it to the finals!
As for the Yuni / Chika situation… I have mixed feelings about it. I’m glad to see that Yuni and his skills are still on Chika’s mind and obviously Yuni still has a lot of feelings about everything that happened with the last episode. And that’s totally fine! I don’t mind the tension between the two! I’m not sure why Yuni stayed on the volleyball team without Chika, but maybe that will come up in a future episode. But it did make sense why Chika decided not to play anymore. He went through at least two experiences where his skill and his attitude led to something… not desirable. But the part that I was kind of frustrated with was when Chika went to the other side of the court and pinned Yuni down. That had so much potential to be an emotional moment! It could have gotten more violent or more dramatic! But in terms of how tense the situation was… it was getting there… but I think it just ended too early and the overall impact was pretty minimal. I suppose it’s good that Yuni got to say his piece saying that he had to throw the game so that Chika could join the team. It’s good to lead the two to help make up, but there was no follow-up and no dialogue between the two! I just feel like there was a lot of potential that wasn’t fully realized, and I’m bummed out about that.
I hope in the coming episodes we’ll get to see more of the Seiin Volleyball team and their dynamics, and I hope that we can have a solid conversation between Yuni and Chika. I just really think the two of them need to talk it out, I don’t think they can sweep this under the rug. I feel kind of bad saying it, but I’m kind of… underwhelmed with the series so far. I’m going to stick with it in case things come together, but I don’t want to get my hopes up.
