For the little captain, this is where the rubber meets the road.
Last week he was the professor, and this week he was promoted to Buddha. But Daigo is going to need every bit of intelligence and wisdom he has to get through this crisis. Even under the best of circumstances there are limits to what a 13 (or maybe he’s 14 now) year-old boy can do trying to compete against teams led by competent adult coaches. And let’s face it, Fuurin Junior High’s baseball team is hardly the best of circumstances for Daigo to be operating in.
Truth be told this team is a pretty ragtag bunch. Exactly enough players to field a team and no more, six girls starting against opposition that’s almost entirely boys at an age where that’s starting to matter, and as a group hardly possessing a winning personality. Between Yayoi and Tao’s constant whining and defeatism, Tanba’s crippling nervousness and general lack of skill, Anita’s loose cannon attitude and Nishina’s immaturity, Daigo is pretty much herding cats here. If they were a massively talented group that might just be manageable even for a kid if the kid is Daigo, but they really aren’t.
Oobi is hardly unbeatable – they’re basically a four-player team, though the others seem generally adequate – but they’re stacked compared to Fuurin. Even in middle school starting lefties at second base and – Heaven help us – shortstop is highly unorthodox. But the baseball mantra of starting your best players up the middle gets stronger the younger the competition, and maybe in junior high you’d try and get away with it. Michiru and the Yokohama trio are certainly talented enough to pull it off, seemingly – at least against this level of competition – but it’s a losing play at the national level.
It’s on Daigo not to force Nishina to pace himself, and his downfall was pretty predictable. It was the smart and mature choice to have Akira abandon breaking balls when he was clearly incapable of mastering them even enough to be a decoy in one day, but this is a 7th-grader. His stamina both mental and physical is just not up to this yet, and even if he’s got a million-dollar arm at this point he pretty much has a ten-cent head. His first trip through the order is spectacular – only the cleanup-hitting catcher puts the bat on the ball. But Nishina doesn’t even last three innings going full speed even against the weaker bottom of the order, and wildness takes over (a great piece of detail work here is Watanabe-sensei showing is Daigo trying to frame Nishina’s pitches).
Even here, Akira would have escaped the third if Sakura hadn’t slipped and played a fly to right into a 2-run triple. Predictably Nishina falls apart mentally after that, especially after Tanba-kun drops a throw at first after Seira (good on her) makes a great play. He throws hard and the “weird” thing about his pitches is likely a lot of natural movement, but he’s a hundred years too early to be calling himself an ace. But for Fuurin and Daigo, it’s at this darkest hour when things get really interesting.
This makes the second time we’ve seen Daigo in captain mode lose his cool. The first was with Anita on their scouting mission, and that was a controlled sort of anger – almost calculated. This is something different, in the moment and more raw. Nishina is totally quitting on him, and Daigo really lays into him. He verbally berates him for quitting on his team (he’s right, starting pitchers don’t do that). And what’s more, he sends an extremely pointed message the way catchers have since time immemorial – by firing the ball back to the mound as hard as he can. Green rookie or no, there’s no way Nishina can miss the intent behind that gesture.
I don’t mind seeing Daigo like this at all – I love it, in fact. He can’t survive as a C3 (coach, captain, catcher) in middle school by being a professor or bodhisattva – there are times when he’s going to have to be an angry, wound-up little kid exhorting his team with pure passion. This game is probably hopeless, but for Daigo and Fuurin (and certainly Akira) it’s nearer the beginning of the journey than the end. How they lose this game is going to be important for their future, and Daigo is already enough of a baseball man to understand that. He’ll do his best because he always does, but I suspect it’ll actually be good enough to turn this situation into a long-term net positive.
elianthos80
August 30, 2020 at 9:03 amCaught up with the last 4 episodes aahhhh
– Yeeessss Kandori this bird has talons XDD. Wonder how her southpaw-killer instincts will fare against Mayumura and the other kid if either/both start pitching >D Do some damage there Birdy.
– New OP! I quite like it. Also some bittersweet feelings at the twin dirt spots on Daigo&Mutsuko’s uniform there because this really reminded me of a happy middle school accident involving me and the guy I used to like… *pats Mutsuko* you got it bad my girl. Ganbare :°D , Yayoi and Tao already got their class S vibes & ai ai gasa in the rain going but YOUR DAY WILL COME THE FLOWER WILL BLOOM… eventually. In the meantime, one little slip and one mighty save! Huzzah.
– Going by the OP and ED too Chisato’s artsy nee is going to join the team it seems. About time these kids got some breathing space and some more player even if just one. Relatedly: lordy the new ED fanservice is awkward but I bet all the butt&feet lovers will be happy. Still it’s rather uncomfortable to watch D,: . Nice dandelion at least.
– their oh-so-uninterested teacher’s fantasies are just… :°D. Then she got their ‘we’re sorry. we won’ I snorted my tea :°D and then the ‘please don’t go home’ *chortles*
– nice bit of continuity in keeping Anita’s uniform front a muddy mess even in throwaway shots across episodes btw.
– HIKARUUUUUUUUU T3T
– Go Daigo go :,> do your best mah kiddo. With all the odds against the team you’ve done plenty already.
Rio
August 30, 2020 at 12:24 pmI kinda felt for Nishina. The errors of your teammates are harder to accept when you have utmost confidence and you really feel yourself that you’re pitching good in the game. He was doing great pitching. Reminded me of Urabe a lot. I kinda did not like that Daigo went so hard on Nishina and didn’t even reprimand the others. I understand he might not want to focus on it but still, I felt for Nishins there.
Though it is understandable that he doesn’t know how to pace himself yet, he probably has not played much in little league. And his ready to give up attitude reminded me of Hikaru’s last season but at least Hikaru’s got the batting talent to redeem the runs himself.
Rio
August 30, 2020 at 12:27 pmForgot to mention, you can clearly see that Nishina still has a grade schooler mentality lol. Hoping he gets more focus moving forward!
Proto
August 30, 2020 at 1:47 pmI kinda felt for Nishina. The errors of your teammates are harder to accept when you have utmost confidence and you really feel yourself that you’re pitching good in the game. He was doing great pitching. Reminded me of Urabe a lot. I kinda did not like that Daigo went so hard on Nishina and didn’t even reprimand the others. I understand he might not want to focus on it but still, I felt for Nishina there.
I guess they wanted to compare it to Mutsuko who went through a similar situation last game (her performing well in the opening and the team behind her underperforming. However it shows the difference in their mental strength in that Mutsuko pulled through while Nishina fell apart almost immediately.
Rio
August 30, 2020 at 5:31 pmYes, I commend Sakura for that mental strength, she’s a senpai but I noticed that she also tends to worry a lot about her mistakes. She’s very close to Daigo so that’s a bonus for her too. My problem with her is that she’s a very emotional pitcher, she gets swayed a lot.
What I meant to say is that Daigo did not even reminded them to be careful next time (Tanba deserves some for that drop at least.) And went hard on Nishina for requesting to be switched out. Don’t worry, I understand these things are the catcher responsbility and I fully support Daigo. He could’ve just explained that accidents happen in a ball game and Nishina should just focus on retiring the next batter out and focusing on what’s ahead instead of just excusing their mistakes making Nishina feel alone.
I love the fact that we are getting the focus on Nishina though, again his breakdown reminded me of Hikaru (my boy) and well, it was a necessary wake up call for him. He was a cocky brat so you can infer how he was in grade school, this was pretty much his maturity game (I hope lol).
— Enzo—
That’s true. I’m glad that the team saw Daigo being not his calm self. I kinda miss his personality on S1 because he was cheeky and dedicateda and was never afraid of telling people off. In s2, I find him too soft sometimes, especially with Mutsuko.
I just hope we see more of his pitching lead though, kinda like how Toshi tends to talk about each batter he faced (sometimes, I want him to shut off his mind like in S5). More catching mechanics too!
Guardian Enzo
August 30, 2020 at 1:47 pmYes, and having taught middle-schoolers I can tell you, 7th-graders are basically grade-schoolers emotionally.
As I said, it’s on Daigo for letting Akira throw himself out in the first three innings. I do feel for Akira, but Daigo was right – as a leader, you don’t berate people for making mistakes despite an honest effort. But quitting mentally, especially as a SP, is a different matter. Daigo is trying to help Akira develop the mentality of an ace.
When you consider everything, Daigo is a remarkably good leader for a kid his age. It’s obvious that he knows baseball encylopedically, but he’s a true servant leader – employing techniques he no doubt has no clue he’s employing by pure instinct.