Sorta motivated by the potential for hot groupies, Yasunobu easily tricks Yamato into going to the tournament. Yamato doesn’t want to compete, but then he sees Suzuka getting harassed by a bunch of track bullies T__T. It seems she blurted out that the number one sprinter in the nation (Kazuki’s old rival, Emerson Arima) wasn’t even that good. Yamato and Yasunobu are prepared to just walk away, but when he sees Suzuka near tears, he rushes forward to divert the bullies’ attention.
Yamato proclaims that he is the new number one sprinter, and everyone is amazed at his stupidity. It’s clear that Yamato has no idea of how good Arima is, and everyone is so completely dumbfounded that they just walk away. Naturally, he gets a close look when they are both in the same preliminary heat, and Yamato is unable to pull ahead (even with the rocket start). It looks pretty bad until Suzuka suddenly cheers/scolds Yamato, and Yamato catches up to the shocked Arima. Unfortunately, just when it looks like upset city, Yamato stumbles and fails to finish. On the plus side, it looks like Suzuka has forgiven him at last, and they can make some progress in their relationship.
It’s interesting when they continually use Yamato’s naiveté as a plot device to move the story along. By far, the best part of this episode was when the defeated Yamato tells Arima that this isn’t the end, and there will be a rematch (before inexplicably running away). The icing on the cake was how Yasunobu started laughing, while everyone else looked embarrassed and uncomfortable to be on the same team. And man, those track and field bullies are something else, eh?
Next episode looks like a swimsuit party and Honoka’s confession. She’d better make a strong move, unless she is completely confident that she can best all the track ladies in a bikini…
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Kabitzin – who has written 1940 posts on Sea Slugs! Anime Blog.
One of the founders of Sea Slugs, I handle most of the blog admin tasks while wearing my I AM BOSS shirt. I like my action series well choreographed, and my romance series extra trashy. I also have a soft spot for puns.
{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
Hell, even I could run 100m in a minute. Is that the snake academy?
Easy there. The preview only has Honoka asking Suzuka if it were alright for her to confess to Yamato. Not that she would
If you remember episode 8, with Honoka in the public bath that Yamato’s aunt runs, I have a feeling she could probably hold her own against Suzuka or even Miki in swimwear.
Seriously, though, this show is my pleasant surprise of the season. That’s two I owe you for, Mentar (this and Mai-Hime).