In case anyone hasn’t figured it out by now, it’s not really about the soft tennis…
I have the feeling this episode is a pretty good acid test for whether a viewer is going to buy in to Hoshiai no Sora, albeit a bit late at two-thirds of the way through the run. Akane Kazuki pretty much laid his cards on the table here – he waited a long time to make this story into an anime (perhaps not by choice, but necessity), he had a lot of stuff he wanted to explore, and now that he’s been given the keys at last he’s damn well going to drive the car.
If you’re looking for photo-realism I don’t think Hoshiai is the right fit for you. It’s certainly gritty and individually I think all these storylines are perfectly plausible. Where it starts to become a more overtly fictional work is that all of them should be brought together like this – in any group of kids you’re probably going to get families that don’t have anything superficially dramatic or traumatic going on. But that’s not really the point – I think it’s pretty clear that Akane-sensei wanted a story that comprehensively tackled the challenges and pains adolescents in 2019 face, and that’s exactly what he’s delivering. And because he’s a master storyteller the likes of which anime has very few, if you’re open to that sort of thing it’s working like a charm.
The episode starts by answering the mystery posed by last week’s, and I was wrong about who complained about the Sunday barbecue. It wasn’t Rinatrou’s overprotective mom but Nao’s tiger mom (this series is tough on moms). And her reputation precedes her – the boys on the team call her “the witch” (I don’t guess they realize how that makes Nao feel) and she has a track record of causing trouble for the school. That’s why the principal has no interest in contesting her charge, and he puts the club on a one-week practice ban. Which is perfectly fine for her, as she thinks Nao is wasting his time playing any sport, much less one he’s not a genius at, and believes he should already be devoting all his time to prepping for his entrance exams (or more directly, to doing whatever she tells him).
Nao is testing the waters of standing up to his mom (who ascribes to the “build up their self-esteem by constantly denigrating them” school of parenting), but that’s a big step he’s not fully ready to commit to yet. Nao’s problems are very realistic and if you’ve experienced anything like it you feel for him, but it’s really Yuuta (and Kanako too) who becomes the focal point of the episode. The boys decide to scout their first tournament opponent, Hatanooka Junior High, which features a haffu named Joy who’s already 178cm and has an army of female fans who spy on every practice and ogle him. The problem? It’s only girls who can get away with peeping, and only because the school has given up on chasing them away.
Yuuta is in a tough spot in his life, but he does at least seem to have the confidence of his two older sisters, who know what he’s been afraid to tell his parents. He and Maki have a very interesting conversation as they’re getting ready to go undercover in drag. Maki is preternaturally perceptive and non-judgmental for a kid his age, to be sure, but again it all ties back to the story that Akane is trying to tell. What’s really moving here is that Yuuta is wrestling with indecision – he doesn’t know yet just what sort of person he wants to be, even down to whether he wants to be a boy or a girl. Maki reveals that his mom’s friend who we met earlier, Shou-san, is in fact a woman transitioning to being a man (which helps explain his understanding take with Yuu), but Yuu isn’t sure yet if that’s the path for him.
As for Kanako, she (of course) joins the spying expedition to Hatanooka, and ends up acting as a diversion while Maki and Yuu get some video of Joy and his teammates in action. She gets pushed around pretty hard – though “bullied” may be a little strong considering she went in head-first belligerent with Joy’s fan club – and the rest of the guys are quite incensed on her behalf. She makes a show of resisting when Maki consoles her, but she doesn’t exactly push him away. Later she decides to confide in Takahiro-sensei and reveals what she’s been doing hanging around with the boys all this time – sketching them. That she feels like an outcast has never really been in doubt – that her desire to draw (which her mother dismisses as stupid and not “respectable”) was such an important reason why is only now clear.
I think suspension of disbelief is required in a couple of areas here, one of them being this – not all adolescents are cruel and selfish. My observation has been that most kids this age are basically decent and even kind – it’s just that the ones who aren’t make 90% of the noise. The sofuteni boys are hardly saints but as they grow closer together, they become extremely supportive of each other – including Yuu and Kanako, who are really part of the team now. And I think that’s a very realistic take TBH.
Whether you believe that or not, it’s this experience of trying to fit in and learning how to honor yourself that Akane is really focused on here. As Yuu says, the world always demands that you make a decision already – but when you’re a kid, you’re not always ready to make the big decisions. Sometimes you just don’t know yet. And the kindest thing adults can do (unfortunately also one of the hardest) is give them the space to figure it out themselves. Hoshiai no Sora is nothing less than a plea for understanding and patience with probably the most irritating (especially if you’re their parent) demographic there is, middle-schoolers. It’s a pretty big bite of the apple for any creator, but if anyone has the chops to pull it off, he does.
Panino Manino
November 30, 2019 at 4:36 amThey’re risking Maki being called a “Gary Stu”.
“he can sense things”, “that’s just how he is…”
This episode was “educational”.
Just that conversation alone achieved more than whole anime dedicated to this subject. No complications, just easy to understand explanations and a lot of empathy.
Guardian Enzo
November 30, 2019 at 9:03 amEmpathy is certainly the gist of it. And Akane is such a literate and eloquent writer that anything he tackles is going to be done with grace and wit.
Simone
December 5, 2019 at 6:42 pmI think that the point there was something that Enzo said a few episodes ago – Maki is perceptive because as an abused kid he learned to be the hard way.
Guardian Enzo
December 5, 2019 at 7:30 pmExactly. He’s like a combat soldier who’s learned how to sense danger. In his case what he senses is anger and hostile intent.
Nadavu
November 30, 2019 at 7:41 amStray thought #1: I love how The Witch’s main complaint about the BBQ was that one can’t possibly enjoy it without getting shitfaced…
Stray thought #2: So Sakurai sensei is an art teacher..?
Stray thought #3: I’ve been conditioned to have a PTSD response to the ending theme. At least this time it wasn’t _that_ awful (though it was plenty awful for sure)
I think that one major strength of Hoshiai is that it keeps reminding me of anime I really love: Ping Pong, WataMote, and now Hourou Musuko. It’s like this show is having a dialogue with some of the giants that came before it. Anyways, I’m still majorly concerned that we are going to run out of episodes before there’s a satisfactory resolution to all the different mini-arcs.
Also, as a former teacher myself, I find it infuriating that a known helicopter mom can so easily get the school to dance to her tune. A friend of mine who teaches English in elementary school recently got called in because a mom claimed her son, upon being asked what they learned in class, said he was taught the meaning of “ADHD” and that he has learning disabilities. Needless to say, the kid did not pick that up in 2nd grade English, but my friend got chewed up all the same.
Guardian Enzo
November 30, 2019 at 9:07 amYes, you just pray for the show to be over once the ED ends…
For sure a Hourou Musuko vibe this week. A show this full of inspiration obviously should run for more than 12 episodes but truthfully it’s a miracle it got made at all. As for the tiger mom, unfortunately the reality I see in Japan is that schools will rarely stand up to such parents, and in fact when kids go seriously off the rails the default response is to blame the teachers (specifically the homeroom teacher) rather than the parents, even if whatever they did had no direct connection to their time in school.
Panino Manino
December 1, 2019 at 8:22 am“helicopter mom”
This is really real?
What does it means?
Guardian Enzo
December 1, 2019 at 8:41 amhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helicopter_parent
yualexius
November 30, 2019 at 8:12 pmHoshiai no Sora Episode 8 gave me goosebumps! It just hit right on the feels and it srsly make sense. Furthermore, tackling issues like homophobia, misogyny, body shaming really makes it a brave move and unique move paired with astounding storytelling.
sweejen
December 1, 2019 at 1:38 amI have teared up so many times watching this show. I’m the parent of a middle schooler and a high schooler, and like you, I find that they and their friends are generally a kind and tolerant lot. However, the pressure they feel from school, peers, and society to “decide” their academic and professional futures, their beliefs, their gender identification and sexuality, is real and intense. The hardest part of raising my kids at this stage (and something I totally didn’t anticipate) is trying to convince them that they don’t have to know all of the answers yet, if ever. Akane-sensei really gets it.
Guardian Enzo
December 1, 2019 at 8:12 amIndeed he does.
tsirrus
December 2, 2019 at 1:00 amI’ll softly contest this part:
” Where it starts to become a more overtly fictional work is that all of them should be brought together like this – in any group of kids you’re probably going to get families that don’t have anything superficially dramatic or traumatic going on.”
I’d argue that you have to consider the context: a misfit club (school-wide ridiculed, about to get disbanded, has the reputation of sucking) will tend to filter out all the decent, normal members (Takuto, leaving the club in ep 1, which ironically enough shows up this ep), leaving all the odd-ones. In my opinion weirdness tend to aggregate and stick together as a defense mecanism against the rest (in this case the rest of the school + parents).
Their disfunctionality works specifically because of the context. They’re the tail-end of a bell-curve.
Otherwise, great post, happy that you’re still posting on this show.
kiwi
December 2, 2019 at 8:04 amI loved this episode a lot :’)
Tim
February 26, 2020 at 3:28 pmyea so I’m finally watching this show and this episode was super hard for me. Most of the time I didn’t know how to feel. I was raised in conditions, up until high school, where I didn’t even know what transgenderism was. Holy shit why is my heart beating so loud? oh right, I get it. it’s cuz when I came into high school and originally contested the view that anyone can be anything, I was hated by my classmates, and that hurt, and it hurts whenever I experience something similar. I made a controversial speech my sophomore year, and I literally saw a girl shut her ears(I left the podium crying, but I’m not asking for your pity or even a response, I’m just venting). Point being, I now accept that there are people who believe this, and I try to respect them without compromising my own beliefs. So my feelings for yuta are incredibly grey. Parents like his aggravate me to no end. not cuz what they believe, but cuz of what follows. ppl can believe whatever they want, but parents don’t own their children. I have several lgbt friends who struggle at home, and I want to help them. I wish I could just tell them, “it’s not like your parents will physically abuse you,” but that’s not the issue. the problem is kids love their parents and want to make them proud, but rarely to the point of equivocation of their personal desires, so these people often end up being split in two. I don’t think I need to say how taxing that can be. Wow I’m typing a lot. tldr: I have conflicting feelings on this episode and show as a whole, but I appreciate how well it sends it’s message. it’s kinda how I felt with Tenki No Ko and Vinland Saga, although with vinland saga there was too much to love to feel conflicted, just some of the author’s ideals are a bit polarizing for me. Sorry this was so long, hope no one reads it.
Guardian Enzo
February 26, 2020 at 3:46 pmThanks for that. If I might presume to guess, that may have been just the sort of reaction Akane was hoping this story would provoke.