Oh man, this episode really stood out as a steppingstone to get us hyped for the upcoming competition! It took me a little bit to warm up to it, but there were certainly moments where I was incredibly hyped for the competition to get started. I’m really looking forward to what these final six teams will bring to the rink.
When the episode first took off and started giving us flashbacks, I was really hyped for them! I want to know more about the drama between Shinozaki and Sasugai and just about everyone in general. Most of the fighting between Shinozaki and everyone came pre-skate leading and I was really hoping that we would get deeper into it. So, I was kind of disappointing that we didn’t get very much of it during the actual episode and that probably means there won’t be very much of it going forward. It’s disappointing, but we have to keep the story moving or else we won’t actually see who will take the victory in the competition. And if I’m honest? I’m not really sure which team I want to take home the victory.
We really don’t know very much about any of these teams except Iondai, but I’m still hesitant to let them take the win. I mean, they have protagonist power on their side, but like I’ve mentioned in previous posts, they don’t really stand out aside from the fact that Maeshima and Sasugai are part of them. It’s kind of a bummer because I can see that they are trying to make them all unique, but we didn’t get enough of that in the beginning episodes so I can’t bring myself to be fully invested in all the members of the team. But I suppose of all the teams, I am rooting for the greatest number of people on Iondai’s team so I suppose I do want them to win! But at the same time, St. Clavis really shakes things up! Taiga for one has just been a fun character to throw in the mix with his confidence and drive to take home consecutive wins. I’m also a fan that he has connections and friendships with Iondai so it makes him seem so much more like a strong rival rather than an enemy. Because he also has Shinozaki on his team who at this point is most definitely the enemy. He passed the point of just being a rival to the point where people just want to take him down. And that alone makes me excited to see St. Clavis perform and dominate the ice. They’re most likely the final boss, but I hope they put of up a damn good fight.
As for the team with the twins, I appreciate what they bring to the table, but I’m not going to expect very much from them in this final competition. I loved that the two of them called Maeshima out for his performances and it’s really nice to see them so passionate in the sport. Heck yeah! He deserves to get called out. But I feel like they’ve already had their chance in the spotlight, so they’ll do pretty well but I don’t anticipate them winning. Then we have the two other teams that we’ve heard next to nothing about, given that none of them have hair with color, I don’t think we’ll see too much about them aside from their various thoughts on the competition. Now, I personally think I want Himekawa’s team to win. I didn’t like him very much in our first few episodes, but he and his team comradery really grew on me especially from last week’s episode.
But regardless of the outcome, I’m pretty fired up for the final competition. I hope that everyone will bring their best skating to the rink and that if there’s going to be drama, I hope it goes all out. Good luck to all the teams, I hope you all are able to knock Shinozaki down some pegs and Sasugai, I hope you’re able to get your revenge on him and that you two can skate together again.
