It’s time for another tournament, and this time Ayano’s tea is predicting good luck. Yamato is so over Honoka that he wants to confess to Suzuka again, but he knows he hasn’t changed, and feels the result will be the same. Back from rating track and field girls, Yasunobu confronts Yamato about Suzuka. After getting the summary of Suzuka’s past with Tsuda from new captain Miyamoto, Yasunobu realizes that Yamato feels inferior to Tsuda. From this springs a new plan: just become the number 1 athlete in Japan and Suzuka will love you. Yasunobu has fired up Yamato like Miki never could, and he goes over to Miki to gloat.
This time Yamato is able to focus on his obsession with Suzuka and block out any doubts before the race. He runs a 10.81 and wins his heat; however, Sasaki is worried that Yamato will burn out before getting to the relay races. Yamato is like screw you relay losers, so Sasaki tells Yamato to at least get first place. Now, even Sasaki has to admit now that Yamato is really serious about track and field. Miki reports back to her shogun that Yamato ran a best time of 10.68 (Emerson Arima’s best time is 10.46), but when Suzuka goes to congratulate Yamato, she finds him steamed about only taking second place. That’s right, second place; Arima was just taking it easy in the early heats, and ran a 10.50 at the end to take first. Yamato is no long satisfied with second or third place, and asks Suzuka if something is wrong with his running. He feels that in the last 20m he is losing speed, but Suzuka can’t help him when the discussion gets that technical. However, she is now completely enraptured in his mojo, so it won’t be long before Suzuka is over Tsuda like Yamato is over Honoka.
This felt like a setup episode, although we did see the conclusion of Honoka snatching defeat from the jaws of victory. That awkward juice scene capped up the amazing reversal that Nana engineered; just think how badly owned Suzuka and Yamato would have been if Honoka had scored Arima as a boyfriend. If Honoka had just hired me as a best friend for two episodes, this episode would have ended with her at Arima’s arm as he makes snide comments in front of a defeated (and badly drawn) Suzuka, while Yamato ran away. If Yamato can’t come out as number 1 in the next few episodes, perhaps Suzuka will still love him for being really competitive. Otherwise, he’ll just have to defile Tsuda’s grave to worm his way into Suzuka’s arms.
And what was up with all those dust blowing scenes? Is there a new sheriff in town or something? Also, I barely recognized Sasaki in this episode…
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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.
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Well, the bland “reorganization” episodes are almost over with. It’s slowly getting time to prepare for the (pretty strong) end run :->
“Find the all emeralds!” err “Beat Emerson.” Will Yamato beat Sonic in the final episode? Looks like he’s going to spend more time with Miki now because she’s a runner too and she seems to like Yamato even more. I guess there’ll be a conflic between Suzuka and Miki in the next episodes. I think she only kept away from Yamato because she knows that Suzuka likes him but if Suzuka doesn’t gets antifreeze soon, Miki will probably not hold back longer because of her. Then again, Yamato is such a blockhead I doubt he’s able to appreciate what Miki has to offer.
Still wondering why it’s called “Suzuka”. Regardless whether Yamato ends up with her or not, the focus is clearly on him, not her, isn’t it?
Hahaha good observation about the blowing dust, I noticed it too!
Maybe Tsuda’s ghost? “It’s OK Suzuka, I want you to be happy” *sniff*
I don’t know what I would do if the blowing dust was really Tsuda’s ghost telling Suzuka that she’s a floozy for wanting Yamato so bad after the tragic traffic accident. I think the angst would just shoot out of control then.
But it would pave the way for Tsuda to inhabit Suzuka’s body for 100 days…