Sports manga (and anime) have many moments of truth. It’s the nature of long-running series, especially ones that hew to traditional plot structures. It’s been pretty clear for a while that Hinomaru Zumou wasn’t out to rewrite the playbook here, but to execute it as well as possible with an unusual sport as the vehicle. So far that plan has worked out outstandingly, but the first real competition sequence is one of those moments of truth. Practice matches are one thing, but the real deal something else altogether.
Hinomaru Zumou has given no indication in six episodes that this particular hurdle would pose it any problems, and happily that proves to be the case. I won’t say it made this look easy, because sumo is by its nature a pretty rough and gritty sport. But by choosing to focus the first tournament episode on Kei, it shifted the narrative just enough to keep things from being too predictable (always a key in a traditionalist show like this one). And if like me one tends to root for the hard-headed overachiever, so much the better.
This tournament appears to be a local regional, with the winner progressing to the sumo nationals (inter-high?). In looking at the Daichi lineup it’s self-evident that Ushio has to win just about every match for them to progress (and he should), and that Chihiro is their #2 gun. That basically leaves Yuuma or Shinya to somehow win that vital third match, as Kei is basically expected to lose. It’s natural – he’s as inexperienced as Yuuma or Chihiro without the benefit of Chihiro’s wrestling or Yuuma’s street fighting experience. And of course, he’s undersized to boot.
The dynamic here is similar to Karuta, with team matches a best-of-5 affair. That puts a lot of pressure on the manager choosing the order – maybe not so much in the early matches that should be fairly straightforward (though Daichi is a complete dark horse), but when things get serious, as in the eventual final with powerhouse Ishigami High. At first Kirihito just throws his strongest out first, and his top four – even Ozeki-kun, who’s clearly stepped up his game massively – deliver the goods. But poor Kei – imitating Ushio’s straight-ahead style – never comes close to winning a match.
That’s gonna be tough on any kid, no matter how realistic their expectations are. He’s not in this, as he tells Chihiro, to “make some good memories” – but he can be no use to the team (and with Shinya being a third-year, that’s especially painful). But Kirihito has given Kei one trump card – and Kei saves it for the finals against Ishigami, where he leads off rather than being sent out as a sacrificial lamb in the final match. All Kei has at this point is quickness and manouverability – and he finally uses them in that final match, where he jumps behind his opponent before the larger (by a factor of… several) wrestler has time to react. But it falls short of delivering a win – and for someone as pissed off as Kei, moral victories at this point are small comfort indeed.
Fortunately Chihiro picks him up in the “wrestling vs. judo” second match with Araki-kun leveling the score. And you just know things are going to come down to the final match between Ushio and Sada Mizuki – nothing less would be dramatically acceptable. Normally one might be tempted to say an early defeat for Daichi might be possible, but the fact that Shinya is a third-year makes that prospect rather dubious for me. I think Daichi will pull through this and live to fight another day, but whatever happens it’s a certainty that Kei is going to walk about from the tournament frustrated and angry, and that’s going to be an interesting development to follow.
