I want to know where all of Hanamichi’s confidence comes from. He wins an unofficial match against Captain Akagi (who, mind you, scored 9 goals before he could score one) and suddenly he’s the next in line to become the captain. Or at the very least he has the guts to call himself the new ace of the basketball team. Honestly, godspeed to all of his future teammates, they are going to have one heck of a time dealing with him.
A majority of this episode is spent watching Hanamichi try to get on Akagi’s good side. At first his abundance of confidence makes it seem like he can just waltz (read: break) right into the club, put on the captain’s uniform and declare himself a member of the team. Actually, he doesn’t even start with member. He just immediately calls himself their new ace and simply laughs. Akagi, surprisingly, keeps a pretty cool head despite everything that happened. I mean, it’s very clear that he doesn’t like Hanamichi but rather than give the first year the same energy, he barely entertains it. It’s probably a good move on his part, but it only makes the underclass man only want to be acknowledged more. And I have to hand it to him, his dedication to getting on this team is pretty impressive! I think he’s going about it in all the wrong ways, but at least he’s trying.
I think… the first step Hanamichi needs to work on is not calling the captain a gorilla. But, I have a feeling that’s not going away any time soon. At the end of the day, calling him that is not earning him any friends… especially not of the captain. And because he’s so set on calling him a gorilla, making that assumption that his favorite food must be bananas was also a terrible call. I mean, that and the pinup cards of girls, but all around he is not making good moves! I know he’s the protagonist, but I’m more surprised that he’s been able to make it in, because if I was on the receiving end of all of his hard work, I would be furious. But, I guess potential is potential and he does have a lot of it. I’m just glad that he starts to do things that ultimately help the basketball team even if he really doesn’t understand why he’s doing it. Cleaning the locker room, polishing the balls, and mopping the gym floor were all really good ideas for him to do. And honestly, aside from marking his name on all the basketballs, there wasn’t any harm that was done.
And guess what, he gets to start joining practice! Congrats Hanamichi! You proved you have guts!!
But, we’re still going to need to work on your ego. Right now you’re a one trick pony that thinks he can conquer the world. Everyone knows your name because you’re more of a clown than a star athlete. And at some point, it might be beneficial for you to recognize it. You’re loud and relatively athletic, but compared to everyone else there, who seems to have at least played the sport you’re starting from the bottom. We’ve barely seen Rukawa in action and you aren’t even close. Heck, Haruko is barely watching you. I mean, she’s probably rooting for you, but when compared to Rukawa, the star rookie, you’re next to nothing. But! I think you can get there eventually! You just have to dedicate time to learning the basics so you can actually get on the court.
Aha haha ha…. but the episode preview tells me that you’re going to have quite the issue with this. After all that hard work to get on the team, you’re already willing to quit? Some ace of the basketball team you are. I’m excited to see how that works out for you.
