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Birds: 2
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Lame Puns from Dabide: 1
Plot Events: Fuji defeats Kirihara; Echizen begins his match against Sanada
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Okay, remember? Fuji Shūsuke has just demonstrated his ability to… I don't even know, see while he’s blind or something.
Momo: Is such a thing… even possible?
NO. IT IS NOT.
Ryūzaki: At this moment, Fuji has… surpassed even Tezuka!!
*repeatedly facepalms* Is Tezuka a standard measurement now!?
Akaya flashback. Ahh, it’s the stuff we learned in the Another Story OVA. Akaya went to Rikkai intending to be the
Mini-Akaya: I’m definitely, definitely going to beat you three guys!!
Yukimura/Sanada/Yanagi: …Yeah okay. XD
So he’s still on the make for those three… ergo he must defeat Fuji. I’m not sympathetic. And I find it kind of funny that he’s terrified of Ryōma. But to give him credit where credit is due, dragging your racket on the ground to make extra noise is a pretty clever way to fool a temporarily “blind” opponent.
It’s interesting how two kinds of motivation are being contrasted here: Fuji’s (“The Nationals seem like a lot of fun…”) and Akaya’s (“I don’t want to have that kind of feeling [losing] again…”). Neither is the Best reason for winning, but both are at least some kind of motivation, which is a lot more than Fuji, at least, has had before. Fuji’s motivation is the more noble of the two, ergo he will win.
Akaya is freaking out because he doesn’t want to lose again, and he’s worked so hard, and it doesn’t seem fair. Okay, I do feel sorry for him now. :(
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| Weird swirly clouds = tennis magic |
It is Muga no Kyōchi—a state of total selflessness. Not selflessness as in unselfishness, but selflessness as in unconsciousness. Muga is a Buddhist concept; it means detachment, lack of self, no thinking, just acting—it seems like a pretty samurai-ish way of doing stuff, actually… (at least from the little I’ve read by Mishima and others). I’m not surprised that Sanada is the character who both immediately recognizes it and tells us what it is. Muga no Kyōchi, in other words, is a state of pure makoto: how could you be insincere when all that’s left of you is pure action? This website has a fairly good explanation, if you’d like to read more.
In The Prince of Tennis, apparently, Muga no Kyōchi gives you the magical ability to use any technique you’ve ever seen before… or at least that’s been used against you. Oh, tennis magic. Sigh.
Sanada is excited enough about Akaya’s muga-moment that he forgets he’s supposed to be reserved and starts bellowing at him. ♥♥
Kawamura *screaming*: Fuji! Don’t get reckless!!
GIANT HEART OF LOVE
(We haven't seen Taka-san in a while, have we? ♥)
…Really translators? You need to tell me what “gut” is? Muga doesn’t get explained, but gut does?!?! (Fuji's racket's gut has just broken.) Wait, if your racket breaks, don’t you get a time out or something?! Maybe not, maybe not especially if it’s in the middle of the rally. Echizen reminds Fuji to use “the Frame”… what’s the frame? Is it something we saw before and I just forgot? *panic* OH… I’m a dumbass. He means the frame of his racket XDDDD. I fail.
Oh, Akaya drops his racket, so Fuji wins. But only by luck and the skin of his teeth—and do you know why that is, readers? Because neither of them is truly morally ready to be the winner.
Akaya: The… the match… what happened to the match!?
Sanada: You lost, Akaya!!
ROFL
Akaya: Vice-captain Sanada, please hit me…
Yanagi: A-Akaya…
Yeah, they’re in love.
Sanada doesn’t have time to mess around with backhanding little shits like Akaya. He makes him sit down, and he strides out onto the court, undoubtedly pissed because they are going to be late, and he won't be able to sit outside the door of the surgery wing and think intensely worried thoughts. Now he has to play against Echizen. And if Sanada knows anything about history, he knows he’s fucked.
I want Sanada to win. :/
Oh no, Yukimura’s surgery has begun! Obviously now, his surgery is going to be dramatically conflated with Sanada’s tennis match, and if Sanada loses at tennis, YUKIMURA WILL DIE.
Someone says, “Sanada-kun is a battle demon. The moment he steps onto the court, he is able to discard all his distractions.” Sure he is. On the surface, he may be thinking about crushing his opponent, but in his heart of hearts, he is really thinking about Yukimura and how he is GOING TO DIE.
Echizen, on the other hand, is either really nonchalant or just pretending to be… it’s hard to tell with that one.
Thank god Sanada has some sense in his head. He’s not messing around with wrist weights and shit.
*snicker* Since Echizen’s gibe about the wrist weights didn’t work, he falls back on his other favorite intimidating trick, speaking English. That doesn’t work either, and he just goes into Muga no Kyōchi. Hmm, I don't know what I think of that. *frown* He shouldn’t be able to just do it. It’s better if he has to like, have some kind of tragic personal tragedy or something… otherwise he’s just awesomer than everyone else for no reason, and I hate that.
It’s okay, Sanada can beat him anyway. :3
For a while, it’s like a parade of moves we know… It’s supercute how thrilled Momo is when Echizen uses his dunk smash. ♥
It’s true, Sanada; you have fought many battles and have defeated everyone. …Oh, military metaphors. ♥ Oooh, speaking of military metaphors: FŪRINKAZAN! I love fūrinkazan! It’s all… full of references to poetic samurai stuff! Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!
Sanada’s philosophy is to directly challenge his opponents. I so approve of Sanada. *approve approve*
Wait, Sanada’s arm can’t—oh, Echizen must have used Spot. That would explain Shinji’s expression on the previous page. :/ I should pay more attention to the actual plot instead of just ogling Sanada…
Arg, I hate Echizen when he’s smug. It’s annoying. Superior people shouldn’t be smug. They should be like Sanada… quietly smug.
Speaking in English only makes you MORE SMUG CUT IT OUT.
OH THANK GOD. For a moment, it looked like Sanada lost a game on purpose just to jog Akaya’s memory of playing in Muga no Kyōchi, but then Sanada flatly refuses to let us think that. Of course, he doesn’t do that kind of ridiculous nonsense.
Aha! The gods of good story-writing have blessed us. Echizen does not just get to be awesomer than everyone else for no reason. It turns out that Muga no Kyōchi has a weakness: it’s very draining. I feel so much better about it now. Ahahahaha, now that Sanada is winning, he is being smug.
Sanada: What’s the matter? Bed time already?
Things have turned around.
Wait, what? At that exact moment, a string on Tezuka’s racket snaps… Is that supposed to mean something to me? Tezuka and Echizen have a psychic connection through which Tezuka can sense Echizen’s distress? Sanada’s determination to defeat Tezuka’s metaphorical progeny has transmitted itself across prefectural borders? Tezuka can sense the immense danger that his team is in of losing this round? WHAT DOES IT MEAN
What?! Sigh. Apparently the invisible swing “fū” is “just like how one would draw a sword in kendo”. That makes No Sense. But Inui has technobabble for us about it, so it must be true.
Bwahahahahaha Echizen is losing! Oh no, Sanada… now he’s doing his evil laugh. I mean… I just did an evil laugh, too, but… now Sanada has to lose. People who prematurely celebrate their wins always end up losing.
Sanada: You can just fall with despair!
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| So scary!! O______________________O |
Everyone in the crowd, including his own team, is upset because Sanada is using two of his kickass moves instead of the customary one. They all seem to decide that Sanada has to show no mercy to Echizen in order to make up for the fact that Rikkai just had two losses. And, come on, he wants to get back to his dying boyfriend ASAP.
I think another fact is that, as is rather obvious by this point, Sanada enjoys humiliating people. He stayed quiet until it was clear that he was going to win, right, because if he bragged and then lost, it would have been pathetic. But now that he’s definitely going to be the winner, he's enjoying pouring it on. He’s got a lot of anger, that kid. :/
And he’s not as self-controlled as he’d like to be, which is cute. ♥
Sanada: Tezuka… you’ve disappointed me!
For once and for all, you guys… THIS IS NOT ABOUT TEZUKA.
Dan is actually crying because Ryōma is pushing himself so hard. The ichinensei beg Ryōma to give up. (And that is why you guys are not on the Regulars.) Oh for god’s sake, Kachirō is crying, too. Sengoku agrees that Echizen should forfeit. I’m not sure why he thinks so, since Sanada isn’t injuring him… is he supposed to be “crushing his spirit” so badly that he’ll never want to play again? Thank goodness the rest of the Seigaku Regulars spell it out for Sengoku: Seigaku Does Not Quit.
You know, I admire that Seigaku is not full of quitters. It justifies their winningness.
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