What keeps me coming back to Tsurune: Kazemai Koukou Kyuudoubu?  It might be a pertinent question for a series I dropped, given how rarely I return to those over the course of my blogging adventures.  It’s still not a slam dunk for me, but given that it’s a one-cour show and we’re already 8 episodes in (no idea what will happen with that week lost to the typhoon), there’s not a lot of point in dithering about at this point.  So if I had to hazard a guess I suspect I’ll stick with Tsurune from this point forwards.

To answer my own question, there are a couple of main points that stand out.  First, Minato.  His pain seems very real to me – there’s an honesty and authenticity to his portrayal that appeals.  Plus, he’s simply a good kid, and hard not to feel for.  Then there’s Masa-san, and his relationship with Minato.  He’s likewise a quite authentic character and rather mysterious too, and good mentor relationships among males are very rare in anime (well- bad ones are common, but good ones are rare).

There’s also the fact that archery is inherently a beautiful sport.  Not to pick on Hinomaru Zumou (which I think is the better series in more respects than not) but it’s kind of the opposite of sumo – which is all sweat and pale flesh in places you don’t want to see it and grunting.  Archery has a natural grace to it, like some kind of melding of history, sport, martial arts and religion (and indeed, in Japan it’s well-represented in all those areas).  Kyoto Animation for all its faults is a natural choice to do justice to all that makes kyuudou so mesmerizing, and they’re doing exactly what you would expect them to do with that chance.

So for that, I put up with the moments that are too cliched – like much of the stuff with Nanao and Kaito – and Seiya being kind of creepy and weird.  It’s easier to do that because while tiresome, there’s nothing especially crass or mean-spirited about these weaker moments in Tsurune – just clumsy and a bit tired.  At this point the equation seems to be tipping in favor of the positive, and what this show does well (see above) is not something one can flip the channel and get from any other anime at the moment (or indeed, very often whatsoever in recent years).

As for the tournament itself, it was interesting to watch play out.  Naturally (for drama purposes) Kazemai got paired up in the same group with Kirisaki.  And the first round was pretty disastrous, with only Seiya and Nano doing much damage and Ryouhei even breaking a string.  That catches the attention of the archery shop owner, who’d just sold him a new one – a string which Ryouhei chickened out from using in the end.  That owner not only knows Masa but his photographer brother, too, leading one to believe there’s more backstory coming there.

In the aftermath of this ugliness Minato and Kaito go off to be alone, though Nanao doesn’t let that stand unchallenged.  His role is clearly to be the irritant to Kaito’s oyster, but Nanao seems fine with it – even when Kaito insults him pretty savagely (telling him he only shoots for “fashion”) Nanao merely notes that his approach led to a lot more hits than Kaito’s seriousness.  Nanao seems to end up helping Minato too – which seems to irritate Seiya to no end.  I don’t know what this boy’s deal is, but the whole possessive stalker thing is really squirrelly and I’m glad Shuu told him off for it.  Seiya really does need to get a life and stop trying to live Minato’s, even if he’s convinced himself he’s doing it for the right reasons.

It seems more and more that the Minato-Shuu relationship is going to prove the critical one (along with Minato and Masa) in Tsurune.  It’s Shuu that Minato is chasing, and Shuu is waiting for Minato to catch back up – telling him he can only reach the heights he’s destined to if Minato is standing beside him, pushing him.  In that light I imagine Shuu was thrilled to see Minato get off a couple of fine shots in the second round, and for Kazemai to sneak through to the finals despite only hitting 20/40 targets.  I hope they don’t win or anything – that would be wildly unrealistic at this stage – but they’ve suffered enough (especially) Minato to where it would be nice to see them rewarded with some real progress.