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Lame Puns Saeki Steals from Dabide: 1
Plot Events: The Kantō Tournament begins; Momoshiro and Kaidō vs. Marui and Kuwahara
--------1----Kelfin----1--------
Life this week has been okay. I cleaned my whole house and made meatloaf, so I feel very accomplished. I also did not get the job I interviewed for, but the personnel manager called me especially to tell me that I did everything exactly right, and the only reason I didn’t get the job was that they gave it to someone with more seniority—that’s good information to have. (Even though it would be even better to have a full-time job…)
In other news, on Glee this week, there was a sad leprechaun. Now I find myself in sore need of a sad leprechaun of my very own. If someone would be my leprechaun, I would take very good care of that someone~~~ *puppy eyes*
I’ve been on tenterhooks ever since the last volume ended, waiting to see what Sanada will do next. ♥ You guys, the manga totally deviates from the anime here (or, more accurately, the anime is the deviant one), and although I skimmed these next few volumes once while working on a Rikkai-based fan project, this is basically all new stuff. I fully expect that it will all be amazing and awesome, and anyway better than the anime. (For one thing, there is no golf-tennis.) Sanada SANADA SANADAAAAAAAAAA!!!
Here’s what happens: Ryōma falls face-first into Sanada’s
Thank god my baby-daddy is there. Someone has to do the Right Thing.
Yagyū: Hurry up and take him to the hospital.
It turns out that Ryōma has only fallen asleep, so Sanada moves on to his next showdown: Akaya! He’s going to lay down the law! Bwa ha ha ha! It’s too late to apologize, Jackal! *gleeful cackle* You can’t do anything now about the fact that you didn—
Holy Shit.
O________________________O
Sanada just backhanded Jackal across the face! (Apparently this necessitates him standing with his feet like a meter apart, which is weird, but hey. Maybe it’s some kind of martial arts stance, what do I know?)
Sanada: Jackal… You were with him the whole time. Why didn’t you intervene?
Kelfin: That’s what I said!
Akaya is too busy being stunned by the fact that he lost to realize that he’s about to get smacked.
Way harsh, Sanada. Your teammates can’t even lose matches they play for fun? D:
Rikkai, Rikkai, Rikkai… How to make sense of Rikkai…? Although they are undoubtedly cool—the best tennis team in the series, hands down, even though Hyōtei is sparklier—they are also a tad unbelievable. In particular, Sanada’s Iron Fist of Law is a little bit… much. I doubt that any serious adult would let him get away with doing things like smacking people for losing; perhaps that is why, to my knowledge, we never see any coach for Rikkai. The more pressing question, though, is why do his teammates put up with it? Sanada’s reasons are fairly clear—his boyfriend is dying, he’s desperate to keep the eternal vow of victory he made with his dying boyfriend, did I mention that his boyfriend is dying?—and Akaya is so un-self-controlled and in desperate need of guidance that I understand why he’d accept Sanada as his leader. But Jackal, Marui, Yagyū, Niō, and Yanagi all seem like
Marui always makes me think of this Ella Fitzgerald song. (Bonus track!)
How did Ryōma get home? He doesn’t know, either, but… wow. Why is he so tired that he just fell asleep like that? Poor kid.
Hi Karupin ♥
Meanwhile… at home… in the dark… Sanada practices martial arts because he is a MAN and he does MANLY things. Like brood about Tezuka. I mean! Like threaten Tezuka’s metaphorical progeny! That is the MANLY thing to do.
Inui is sitting home with his statistics, calculating Seigaku’s chances of winning. It’s cute. He has a pic of himself and Renji as little kids, which is Even More Cuter. Did they go to Hawaii together, do you think, or does he just have a Hawaii picture frame? The frame is probably a present from Renji. *wibble* I actually care about Inui right now, and I support his earnest desire to do better. Gosh. I feel like the manga got immediately better when Rikkai showed up—everything feels reinvigorated, like suddenly what we’re doing actually matters.
The next day, Ryōma’s sleeping in class. I hope he’s okay. …And now he’s talking to himself. Out loud. He never does that. Did Akaya hit something serious?! *worries* Oh, I remember now. This is the buildup to that enormous, lame joke about everyone having red eyes, just like Akaya.
OMG Kaidō ilu.
Kaidō: OUT OF MY WAY! QUIT LOITERING IN FRONT OF THE DOOR!
Because if you yell really loud, no one will realize that you secretly like cute animals and have a girly name.
So everyone has excuses for—wait, what? Cactus got in Fuji’s eye? I mean, I remember the myū, but… seriously!? How do you get a cactus in your eye??? There’s no way that can be accidental. Listen, I was a dumb, clumsy kid who poked around in places she wasn’t supposed to, and even I didn’t get cacti in my eye! In my nose, sure (note: cacti don’t really have a nice smell, so don’t try it), but never in my eye.
You know, though, Ryōma talking aloud to himself and being a little worried makes him a much better character. He has officially moved up my likability scale from “die quietly” to “has potential”.
Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee Ōishi can play tennis again! :D
Eiji: I’ve been waiting for you… Ōishi!
OMG they have a fist-bump! *glee*
…Wait, gross, the ichinensei are doing much the same kind of squealing that I am. And now I feel dirty. Thanks, ichinensei. :/
~*~
Okay, it’s finally time for the Kantō tournament finals! We see all the teams. Hyōtei have the cutest pants of everyone. I guess everyone is just there to watch? Oh, and probably for the award ceremony. Scouts are there—that’s appropriate; there should be scouts.
Everyone on the Seigaku team is wondering why everyone on the Rikkai team is staring at Ryōma. Don’t know why they’re wondering—it’s not like he’s the protagonist or anything.
Yanagi doesn’t look cool with his eyes closed. That look doesn’t make a lot of sense unless you’re in chibi form. Right now it just looks like he’s walking around with his eyes closed. Or, more accurately, it looks like he has his eyelids lowered demurely. It’s extremely feminizing, but he doesn’t really look feminine otherwise, so it gives me this creepy feeling—like those computer-generated people with large breasts and manly hips that they use to test how people visually assign sex traits to the people around them. Yanagi should get glasses or dramatic hair or something to distract me from his elfin androgyny.
Oh dear, Ōishi, stop it, stop—oh. I guess he has a moment here where he realizes that in order to be a good vice-captain, he has to be overconfident and kind of a jerk.
What, Rikkai has a cheer squad? O__O And they’re such a good cheer squ—GOD DAMMIT Horio just said the exact same thing!!! I have to get out from under this Horio curse.
Okay okay okay. Forgetting Horio. Doubles tennis! My favorite! (It seems like so long since I’ve read any doubles.) Momo and Kaidō… I love them both, what can I say?
*snorfle* Marui. (You know, his bragging doesn’t seem so obnoxious after what Ōishi just said.) Eee! He’s so playful and adorable, and probably it’s not nice to be this conceited, but as long as you can back it up, I don’t care because YOU ARE CUTE. MARUI I LOVE YOU. ♥ Marui not only has me and the cheerleaders rooting for him; he also has Jirō! Who loves him and (I’m sure) secretly stalks him, and who, according to the fanbooks, stole Marui’s wristband at the Newcomers' Tournament and continues to carry it around in his bag… three years later. I bet he has never washed it.
 |
| It is clear what Shishido thinks of Jirō's crush. |
Who names his or her kid Jackal, by the way? Is that supposed to be a Brazilian name? Hang on, let me check Que Nome Darei ao Meu Filho? by Pandiá and Ana Pându, my Brazilian baby name book, which I purchased in São Paulo. Hmmm…. nope, Jackal is not in it. Nothing between Jabotão (“árvore de tronco reto”) and Jaci (“a mãe dos frutos, a lua”). (Both Tupi names, if, like me, you’re interested in that sort of thing.)
This is going to be a great match, because Marui and Jackal are both genuinely good players, and Momo and Kaidō are full of integrity and the real desire to improve. This fills me with happiness. Possibly, this is because Rikkai is so much better in the manga than in the anime. Do you guys remember anime!Rikkai? Remember… the cake… and the head shaving… and the golf-tennis. *shudder*
This match is too exciting to comment on. Good tennis is actually occurring. Back when it’s over kthxbai.
Wait, pause for commentary on this picture.
Kelfin: WTF?
Otto: *head tilt*
Kelfin: …Why, just… why, why do you think this is here?
Otto: You know, when I run out of space on a page, I always just add a panel of crotch. Not the ball moving past someone’s midsection, just crotch.
Ooooh, Marui’s going to let Kaidō hit Boomerang Snake! (Ha! Boomerang Snake makes me laugh every time, because I remember when... Go watch here from 19:00-19:45. It’s hilarious, because it’s the English dub, and also because they are So Easily Impressed. And because they say Boomerang Snake at least a hundred million times.)
Marui and Jackal have an adorable partnership, in which Marui sparkles and Jackal gets shit done. Jackal acts a bit put-upon, but probably he secretly likes it.
At the same time, Yukimura is sitting in the hospital, with little birds flying around his head and fawns eating from his hands—oh wait, no, he's just languishing quietly. OMG His surgery is today! How did I forget that?!
(Factoid: it says on Yukimura’s calendar that July 27 is a Sunday. That means that The Prince of Tennis takes place in 2008.)
Kaidō has been traumatized by the fact that Jackal can also do an around-the-pole shot.
Ōishi: The shock, and the humiliation—the very foundation of the tennis that he worked so hard to create for himself has been undermined just like that.
Why doesn’t someone take Kaidō aside and teach him how to do something that is not Snake?
“Momoshiro understands Kaidō’s pain the most, because they’re rivals,” the manga informs us. —The hell? Oooookay, Prince of Tennis. If that is how rivals work, I guess that is how rivals work.
Why is Kaidō always forced into the role of the damsel in distress? Now Momo is offering to save him. (“I’m going to pull you through this!! So just wait for me!”) Things like this make me glance around surreptitiously, wondering, DOES NO ONE ELSE SEE THEIR OBVIOUS FLIRTING?!?!!?! No one on Seigaku seems to notice.
In an effort to “pull Kaidō through this”, Momo is gravely wounded. (Read: He skinned his knee.) Kaidō takes off his bandanna and gives it to Momo to stop the bleeding.
Ahahaha. Yeah. They’re doing it. Especially because then they deliberately have a fight on the courts in order to inflame their spirits, after which we are told, “Momoshiro trusts in his rival! And Kaidō responds in kind!!”
I like the way this match is handled. Even though Jackal and Marui have superior skills—we’re not asked to suspend our sense of disbelief in order to imagine that Momo and Kaidō are magically better than they are—the Seigaku team does challenge them, and everyone grows and learns things during the match.
One nice touch is that Jackal has a flaw, too: pride, Yagyū tells us, that won’t let him rely on his partner when his ability has been called into question. In an interesting moment for Prince of Tennis Doubles Philosophy, Marui makes a risky decision to abandon the plan (their formation) in order to rescue his partner. Although I wanted in my heart for him to go and help Jackal, for a moment I worried that maybe he was making the wrong choice, because formations are an important part of playing doubles. But of course, it is always the right decision to support your partner. ♥
And because Marui makes that decision, he and Jackal win the match.
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