WTF – it’s back!?  Well, for the moment anyway.  As longtime followers of LiA will know, it’s extremely rare (like maybe countable on one hand) for me to drop a series and then go back to it weeks later.  I was pretty convinced I was done with Tsurune: Kazemai Koukou Kyuudoubu after the fifth episode, which was my least favorite of the series and a bit of a cliche bomb.  But I did keep watching, and the last two have been much better – good enough (obviously) for me to provisionally jump back into the pool.  Admittedly that was made easier by both Double Decker and Gegege no Kitarou being on hiatus this week and the season being very weak generally, but I might just have done so anyway.

With Tsurune, for me it’s always been about the tug of war between the more hackneyed school stuff, which is pretty much stock KyoAni – the anime equivalent of those photos that come pre-loaded in picture frames – and the genuinely distinctive bits around the fringes.  Most of that has involved Masa-san (and even Tommy-sensei to an extent), and his relationship with Minato remains the best part of the series.  But even the stuff with the kids (I was going to say “boys” but even the girls got a bit of run this week) has improved some, and I once more find myself somewhat invested in what’s happening on-screen.

The main wrinkle introduced in the last couple of episodes has been Fujiwara (seriously – could an anime set in Kyoto more broadly suggest an elite than that?) Shuu, the freshman ace of Kirisaki High.  He’s played by Ono Kenshou, who I’ve always liked, and he was both Minato’s great rival and comrade in middle school.  While Minato has crashed and burned, Shuu has continued to be a shooting star – unlike Minato staying in the Kirisaki system and building his kyuudou legend on a powerhouse club.  Kirisaki also has a pair of first-year twins whose arrogance is seriously annoying – like, they’re supposed to be annoying and it’s still too much – and their captain is they guy Ryouhei met at the archery shop while searching for help with Minato’s target panic.

When this show works for me it’s because it rises above the predictable, and I still find Minato to be an unusually realistic protagonist.  He’s calm but can’t hide the anxiety roiling inside him.  And Shuu is a nice balance between well-earned confidence and seeming decency – he clearly has no misapprehensions about how good he is, but he generally maintains a sporting air and he seems genuinely concerned with Minato’s welfare. That’s especially interesting in light of the question he asked Minato when they encountered each other at Kazemai’s first meet – “How’s your injury?”  There’s an obvious implication that there’s a reason beyond target panic for Minato’s downfall – or at the very least, a reason why he succumbed to it in the first place.

It’s clear that Shuu and Minato have never been far from the other’s thoughts (I liked the symbolism of Minato digging out his old phone, with wallpaper of he and Shuu, hidden away in a drawer but not discarded), and it’s far from a sure thing that meeting up with his old friend (a meeting he was dreading in many ways) is going to be a positive thing for Minato in the short-term.  The first day of the meet is the individual competition, and it doesn’t go swimmingly for Kazemai – among the boys (only two participate) Nanao manages to advance but Kacchan does not, his obsession with bow-turning (another holdover from Episode 6) robbing him of control.  As for the girls (who of course can’t enter the team event) only Seo advances, and Shirigaku is sick and flames out badly.

I honestly have no idea if this is a long-term return to the rotation for Tsurune, but I’ll certainly keep watching for a while at the very least.  As I said, I’m invested to an extent, especially in Minato – I’m anxious to see how he holds up when subjected to the pressures of competition (with Shuu watching, no less).  Masa has been one of the best elements of the series so far, but his mettle as a mentor is really going to be put to the test if Minato has a rough time of it in the team competition.