This polysyllabically titled show airs on Crunchyroll a week late, so despite my judicious attempt at avoiding spoilers I'd heard considerable chatter about this episode being just wretched and 'worse than the last one'.

Given that the last episode was about our poorly socialized protagonist getting tunnel vision and missing the point of her hobby, I fully expected this episode to be a bit of a downer with Yura's Ahab complex causing issues.

Boy howdy.

One of the overriding themes of this show is sportsmanship. This episode also focuses on the importance of not becoming what one despises and how easy it is to fall into that trap, especially if one feels strongly that one's cause is noble.

The other major point of the show is that the raison d'etre' of a hobby is to enjoy oneself. This is not to say that winning is not important, but the enjoyment is the goal. If lives are not at stake and what you are doing  is unpleasant and wearying without an enjoyable payoff...then one needs to stop doing it or start collecting a paycheck for it.

  As expected, Yura drives her team hard to the point of misery, at one point disregarding a fairly severe leg injury incurred by Kirishima. The kicker is that at the last minute Yura fires the winning shot....a split second after being hit.
By the rules this means Yuras winning shot was illegal but it's undetected by anyone except her opponent, the malevolent Haruna.....who smiles knowingly, informs Yura that she now respects her because she'll do anything to win and walks away.

The episode ends a tad ambiguously. Yura has the opportunity to make this right, but she's feeling a profound obligation to her teammates who she ran into the ground to get this victory....what does she do? Well we'll know for sure next week.

Of course most people reading this know that there is only one correct answer, but Yura doesn't. Her backstory is that she's never had friends. She hasn't learned about sportsmanship and she's carrying the shock of the earlier lesson about fighting to the end...for which she is seriously overcompensating.

I expect that the NEXT episode will be the nadir (emotionally...dramatically it might be quite compelling)



This is the antithesis of a shonen manga. Japanese society puts a VERY high value on giving your all and going all out whatever the cost. Shonen manga and sports manga tend to do the same with the former focusing on crushing the villain utterly.

This show, is about remembering to step back, breathe, and keep things in perspective...and how easy it is to fail to do that.

Yura is not an idiot, she's young and ignorant. She's learning, like we all do, as she goes and she's making mistakes. There is actual character development here. I'm still liking this show quite a bit though I think I may actually be the only one now.


So...for those of you who've been watching...any bets on whether or not she just flat out shaves her head this time?

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at 08:56 PM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
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