Furuya noticed something about another person?  Did that really just happen?

The next couple of weeks on Daiya no A figured to be pretty tough.  The focus is going to be on two secondary teams while we’re forced to wait on what Seidou’s team is going to look like in the final (which is mostly what I care about at this point, to be honest).  Fortunately, one of those teams is Yakushi, who might actually be my favorite team in the series if Eijun didn’t play for Seidou.  And we get a nice little bonus in the new ace for Ichidai High.

No, Kimura Ryouhei doesn’t sweep through this series like a smiling hurricane the way he did in the last couple eps of Haikyuu.  Still, there’s really no sports show that isn’t going to be improved by his prominent presence, and he has a major role to play here as Kousei Amahisa, who’s been a very minor player up to this point.  He’s the sick-talented, socially clueless and arrogant ace for Ichidai – not a character we haven’t seen before, to be honest, but Kimura breathes a lot of life into the part.

Kousei’s preeminence in the episode makes me have a bit of doubt that Yakushi is such a lock to reach the final – as does Yakushi’s rather cocksure and matter-of-fact talk about how they’ve won 33 straight games (which is indeed an impressive feat).  Kousei is interesting, but I still hope Yakushi wins – I just love their slovenly, rambunctious Joie de Vivre.  Especially Raichi, who once again proves himself the most charismatic foil in the cast when he easily turns around a Kousei fastball and hits a towering home run off the scoreboard.  To Kousei’s credit this only fires him up, and as usual Yakushi’s pitching is a bit of a hodgepodge, so this result is very much in doubt.

Really, though – isn’t an Eijun vs. Yakushi baka-bash what we’re really all waiting to see?  I hope Yakushi gets there, and as for Seidou we don’t know a whole lot yet.  Furuya has actually noticed that Miyuki is hurt (so very out of character) but Miyuki refuses to acknowledge the fact, sending Furuya to the clinic to get checked out but but not himself.  Miyuki will play, presumably, but what of Furuya?  He shouldn’t start even if he’s healthy but this is Kataoka we’re talking about here.  Unfortunately it seems as if we’re going to wait at least two more weeks to find out, and my notion that the final of the Fall tournament will close the season seems pretty unlikely at this point.