I suspect the “only” people who don’t already know are the 97% of Western anime fans who wouldn’t watch it for a million dollars, but Hinomaru Zumou is really damn good.

Many sports series are a bit deliberate at the start, preferring the slow build over the rapid attack.  There are many reasons for this – it’s the traditional shounen approach in general, for starters, and successful sports manga tend to run for a very long time.  They don’t reveal all their charms at once, but they do have to do enough to draw you in – and Hinomaru Zumou certainly did that.  Now it’s starting to spread it’s literary wings and show that it may just be something pretty special.

For me this is was the best episode of the series by a decent margin, and I really liked the first five.  We got a taste of a professional stable here through the person of Shibakiyama Oyakata (Gouda Hozumi, one of anime’s best sound directors in addition to his great seiyuu career).  Kirihito once again shows his immense value as a manager – in Shibakiyama-san, he’s set Ushio up with a master who can understand him, an undersized sumo knows as “The Firecracker” who rose high in the sport but never quite reached the top because of his size (and the domineering presence of Kuze’s father).

There’s some initial skepticism when the 152 cm Ushio-kun shows up – honestly, I can’t blame anyone at the stable for that.  But Shibakiyama himself is the first to spot the true potential of this undersized guest, and soon enough it’s clear the stable’s bottom-feeders aren’t any match for him.  Eventually the Sekitori Saenoyama Norihiro (Shingaki Tansuke) finds himself curious (he’s a curious cat) and asks the cute visiting manager girl (Yamaki Anna) who this little visitor might be.

There are all kinds of interesting permutations to what’s happening here, and Nori-san is an interesting character in his own right.  He’s polite and respectful, even to the high school boy.  He makes it clear he’s in this to win the Yokozuna title for his master that Shibakiyama could never win for himself.  We once again see the extent to which Ushio is a prodigy in this sport as he mows through the apprentices, but while the tables predictably turn against Nori, by no means is Ushio either intimidated or embarrassed.  And despite a mounting pile of losses, the stable master finds himself more and more intrigued by what he sees from the boy who reminds him so much of his younger self.

There’s also the fact that the deeper we get into sumo as a sport (much like other inscrutable Japanese arts like karuta and rakugo) the more fascinating it becomes.  “Be like water” is the mantra Nori impassively shares with Ushio – flow freely in the ring, but harden like ice when the moment is right.  He describes Ushio’s style as “fire” – direct, “even heroic” – but ultimately limited.  But that Ushio only knows one gear is hardly surprising, given both his age and his obsession with proving himself against larger opponents.  It’s only when Ushio declares that “like Saenoyama-san” he wants to be a Yokozuna that the Sekitori grows irritated – viewing (quite rightly, I think) this as a slight against the massive amounts of work professionals like him put in to chase a dream.

All this is handled really, really well – as are the scenes where Ushio bonds with the older rikishi at the stable, relishing his first chance to enter the true world of sumo.  All this culminates with the question both Nori and the cute girl (who turns out to be the sister of the national high school champion) ask Ushio – who was stronger, the Sekitori or the national treasure, Kuze-kun?  Diplomatic as he tries to be, Ushio can’t hide the fact that Kuze impressed him even more than Nori – and this is all compounded by the fact that Kuze is the son of the man who kept Nori’s master from reaching the Yokozuna level.  This is good stuff here, all of it – classic sports anime executed with intelligence and style, and I expect we’re going to see a lot more of that from Hinomaru Zumou.