This being a sports anime, there’s a sense of fait accompli to certain events.  And this inter-high semi-final is one of them, because there’s almost no way it wasn’t going to come down to a final showdown between Ushio and Tennouji with Daichi and Hakurou knotted at 2-2.  The only question was how we were going to arrive at that point – and Kei’s loss (which stings for me more than any other in the series so far) pretty much settled that matter too.   The only suspense in this week’s bouts was how Daichi was going to go about winning them.

Of course, given that the team event is Ushio’s only possible path to a pro career at this point, one could argue that even next week’s matchup is a foregone conclusion too, but since Ushio is only a first-year I hold out at least the illusion that there’s some suspense to it.  Indeed the real burning question at this point may be what Daichi is going to do if they do indeed reach the final (presumably against Sosuke’s team).  With Kei hurt badly enough that he’s wheeled out of the arena (in a chair several sizes too large for him), perhaps Kirihito’s return to competitive sumo may be about to arrive at last.

As for this week’s two bouts, the one involving Chihiro looked to be even more of a lock, as he’s certainly Daichi’s #2.  Of course the opponent he draws is also Hakurou’s #2, the national treasure Kanou Akihira (Masuda Toshiki), but to be honest he never comes off as much of a threat.  He’s cowed by his own perceived inferiority to Tennouji, which makes him a bit of a paper tiger generally.  It’s certainly convenient for Chihiro that he keeps drawing these national treasures to keep his nickname perpetuated.  At least to himself…

After Chihiro swallows his pride and defeats Kanou using a rather pedestrian bulldozer approach, it’s Yuuma’s turn.  And he draws Hakurou’s token foreigner (and I mean that literally, as high school teams are only allowed one per 5-man squad), the Mongolian Batomf Batfayar (Okawa Genki).  Mongolians have been among the most successful gaikoukujin in sumo, a sport which has come to be dominated by them – a matter of no small consternation for sumo fans, who tend to be a pretty conservative (read: xenophobic) lot.  We don’t get to know Batfayar enough for him to get past the standard arrogant foreigner trope, and he’d have been a cinch to lose this bout even if the plot hadn’t required it of him.

He’s been offstage for a while, but the stage is set for Ushio to return to prominence next week, as his rematch with Tennouji finally arrives.  And one certainly suspects he’ll win it, since Sosouke presumably awaits in the final and watching he and Tennouji fight again would be a pretty big anticlimax.  As for Kei, it’s looking more and more like he may be destined to end the anime Hinomaru Zumou winless, which would be a pretty depressing turn of events.