Dear Boys 02-03

Kabitzin on May 31, 2004 · in Dear Boys

Aikawa is finally able to stir Fujiwara back into action by challenging him to a little 1-on-1, and the rest of the team soon follows. Everyone besides Aikawa is out of shape, so they train outside of the school instead of risking embarassment at the hands of the girls’ team. There’s also some flashback to explain how things came to pass. It seems that Aikawa has come to Mizuho to escape from his overbearing dad who is also the basketball coach of Tendouji High School. On the other side, the reason Fujiwara is such a sourpuss is that last year Mizuho’s coach was a real egotistical jerk that refused to take any player input. When Fujiwara assaulted him, the whole school was suspended from competition for a year, and all the other players left (aside from Fujiwara’s 3 best friends). Now he’s all full of angst and stuff. A suspenseful twist is thrown in when we find out that the first practice game will be against Narita Central (where jerk-coach now coaches) in a week.

I know everyone gives Aikawa credit for the creative turnaround, but the females in this series are also very wiley. First is their coach, who apparently orchastrated some agreement with Aikawa’s sister to bring him to Mizuho. Then, there’s Mutsumi, who was the real force behind Fujiwara’s revival. Sure Aikawa rattled Fujiwara’s cage, but it wasn’t until Mutsumi showed him that his mojo was entirely based on his basketball prowress that Fujiwara stepped back into the gym. I won’t even get into Moritaka accidentally coming an hour early to work with Aikawa on free throws. Sneaky!