I officially like Shakunetsu Kabaddi a lot, though it’s taken a while to reach this point.  Unfortunately this is one of those old-school, slow build sports anime that need many cours to really tell their story (and used to get them).  And of course in 2021 it’s going to get 12 episodes and never be heard from again anime-wise.  So enjoy it while it lasts is the mantra I suppose, and it’s one I’ve had a lot of practice with in anime terms.  Good sports anime are worth celebrating in their own terms, and Burning Kabaddi has proven to be one.

I love sports enough that I really appreciate a series that takes the time time really explore the nuances of its sport, even if it’s one I know little about.  Stuff like the advantage Ojou has over Ren because of his experience gap – instinctively feeling the dimensions of the court and using them to his advantage.  This results in an almost imperceptible accumulation of points for Noukin, because while both Takaya and Ojou are repeatedly successful in their raids, Ojou keeps adding bonus points.

A couple of things stand out here. First, if Ojou had started the match Noukin clearly would have won – if he’d had the stamina to go the distance.  Maybe his lack of durability is a long-term issue, maybe it’s a result of his recent absence – but Ojou runs down to the point where Iura has to scold him to dial it back.  And that’s having sat for much of the first half.  And second, purists might not consider it such but for me a flaw in kabaddi is the relatively small role most of the players seem to have.  There are basically four (of ten, excluding reserves) who really matter in this match – the rest are just there to gang defend.  That seems somewhat unsatisfying to me as a fan.

This is the moment that the soccer coach gives up on Tatsuya, even as he acknowledges his brilliance.  It’s a truism in sports that some guys are just different from everyone else – their engine, their spark of genius, their ability to shine in big moments.  Yoigoshi-kun’s world is different than most people’s worlds.  His frustration with soccer is clearly his inability to adapt to life in a team sport, but kabaddi is a team sport too.  A different kind, to be sure, but even as a rookie he has something larger than the sport and an experienced coach can see that.  Coach has lost this one – his target has the bit in his teeth and now that he’s tasted high-level competition in kabaddi, he’s not going to feel sated until he gorges himself.  Great competitive athletes are always greedy – it’s one of the things that makes them great.

The other key figure in the denouement here is Iura Kei, who’s clearly not one of those special guys and knows it.  He’s been left behind at the altar enough to chafe at it, and he knows that no matter what he does he can never approach the sport from the perspective of Ojou or Tatsuya.  he can only grind harder than everyone else, lift more heavily, support from the background.  Getting acknowledged by Rokugen is as significant an individual accomplishment as a player like Iura is ever likely to have.  But teams need guys like that to succeed too, because there aren’t all that many geniuses out there.  That’s what makes team sports – and manga which focus on them – so interesting.