I can’t keep decrying the lack of attention this show gets, though I have the strong urge to do so every week. It’s so straight and true, so meticulous and emotionally accurate – as so many of the best sports anime are. You do have to get past the inherently comic (to most Western eyes) visual of sumo, I get that. Not everyone is going to be be able to do that, or want to. But if you can you’ll be amply rewarded, whether sports anime is your thing or not (though it doesn’t hurt if it is).
One thing I especially like here is that Hinomaru Zumou doesn’t ignore the social aspect of sumo – as in, making pariahs out of boys with the impunity to actually practice it. We’ve certainly seen plenty of that with Ozeki, who’s gotten the runaround from the yankees at his school for the better part of three years. But it’s not limited to him, and we got a good taste of that week with Ishigami and their cleanup hitter, Sanada-kun.
First off of course is Yuuma’s match against the Ishigami captain, which is interesting in itself (and rather lengthy for a sumo match, which – contrary to myth – does happen sometimes) but not as much so as the glimpse into Yuuma’s backstory. I liked the scene where he begged his former karate teacher to help him prepare for this tournament (Kirihito had in fact already been there to do the same). She refuses him on the grounds that Yuuma has used his karate – the karate she taught him – to hurt people. That has to be a pretty fundamental betrayal for a teacher of such a martial art, and I also agree with her that redemption is overrated – people who are good all along are indeed more worthy of celebration, though of course better late than never is a thing.
Yuuma eventually wins his sensei over on the grounds that he’s doing this for Ozeki – and that’s a theme of the episode. It’s interesting to see sumo incorporate all these other elements – judo, wrestling, karate (can karuta or ballroom be far behind) but even with his tricks, Yuuma is a hundred years too early to take down the experienced captain. That leaves it up to Ozeki to keep the dream alive and give Ushio a chance to steal the match with the final bout against Ishigami’s ace, Sada-kun.
Sports anime has to deal with this issue sometimes, but there’s not much suspense to this match. If Ozeki doesn’t win, Ushio doesn’t even get to fight (well, I assume his bout would still happen, but it would be meaningless apart from pride). The narrative makes up for this by giving us a glimpse of Sanada’s past – he too had to deal with delinquents, though he did so in a very different manner than Shinya – and making this a “heart vs. heart” battle. Two guys who love sumo more than anybody – but Ozeki, it seems, loves it even more than Sanada. His win is another long, grinding battle – and it’s by the width of his mawashi belt – but it’s enough to set up the grand finale, Ushio vs. Sada.
leongsh
November 25, 2018 at 12:41 amI think there is a lack of appreciation for both this and Gurazeni outside of Japan. More importantly with such shows, it is better to enjoy them while you still can. You’re not going to expand the narrow focus of Western anime otaku as they have narrowed their focus on certain types of shows.
nivek
November 25, 2018 at 1:21 amGurazeni is heavily popular in some latin america regions thanks to baseball culture here but Hinomaru have the issue of being even more japanese(rather more universal baseball) that other sports.
Marty
November 25, 2018 at 1:00 pmI will never stop being amazed at the ability of anime to make ANYTHING look hype as hell. Personally speaking, I don’t find baseball or sumo particularly thrilling in real life. This is not to say that they’re uninteresting sports, they both have subtleties and intricacies that make them fascinating to their fans, I just don’t see the thrill in it.
That being said, Hinomaru Zumou and Gurazeni are still great watches nevertheless, and that is because of one simple thing: execution. I think part of the magic of anime is that it can take any subject matter and dial it up to 11. That being said, I think what makes these two anime so good is their respective stories.
No matter how you cut it, a good story is a good story, sports anime or no sports anime, and for what it’s worth, both of these are good stories.
Now, to the sad news, I’m afraid that like any other form of entertainment, anime is as much of an artistic endeavor as a commercial endeavor. If a studio pursues only artistically great but commercially poor series, they’ll eventually go broke and fail. I feel that while series like Gurazeni and Hinomaru are VERY good series, but in a world where most western anime fans lean towards either fanservice (both male and female) or larger-than-life wackiness (or a mix of both). I’m afraid Gurazeni has neither, and Hinomaru suffers from the iredeemable sin of being a sports anime in 2018 without any characters for yaoi fans to drool over. Either way, the sad fact remains that as good as Hinomaru is, it’s far too local a sport and doesn’t really pander to anyone, I just don’t think it’ll catch a big audience in the west.
Who knows? Maybe I could be wrong.
Nadavu
November 28, 2018 at 3:11 amYuma’s backdrop was pretty good, and it filled some narrative gaps I had with him. Funny, though, how he now thinks he can take the opposing captain with one swift strike to the chin after he felt to make even a bruise appear on Hinomaru’s face after throwing everything he had against him for 15 minutes…
Guardian Enzo
November 28, 2018 at 9:15 amI think the guys on the team have elevated Hinomaru to something like God status at this point. Yuuma probably assumes anyone else would be much easier to take down.