Shakunetsu Kabaddi is nothing if not a traditional sports series, even if the subject is what most would call a non-traditional sport.  And that means, eight episodes in and with the first major competitive action behind us, it’s time for new club members.  I admit there’s a predictability to this, but somehow these things bother me less with sports anime than most genres.  I would call it a comfortable familiarity more than anything else.  Is that a bias on my part?  Probably.  But in the end I don’t think that matters all that much.

The first of the newbies to make his appearance is Ban Nobutaka (Kamio Shin’ichirou), he of fierce appearance and meek demeanor.  So much so in fact that only Souma can hear what he’s saying.  Bearing a slicked-back pompadour that was forced on him by “friends” in middle-school, he’s a secret Yoigoshi Tatsuya admirer.  In fact, he kept the pompadour because back in middle-school Tatsuya said it was cool.  Tatsuya has totally forgotten that meeting but Ban has joined the team strictly to get closer to him.

Close on his heels are Seki Ryuta (Komada Wataru) and Hitomi Yuuki (Murase Ayumu, of course).  These two bring opposite challenges to kabaddi.  Seki weighs 85 kg (80 is the cap for tournaments) and Hitomi looks like he weighs barely half that (and is frequently mistaken for a girl, including by Tatsuya).  Seki, however, is a former sumo, and as we’ve seen repeatedly experience in other sports seems to be a significant advantage in kabaddi.  Hitomi however has no such background – he’s joined the team to try and man himself up a little and change the way people view him.

These two new members fill very familiar niches in the sports manga orthodoxy.  We’ll see how they pan out but honestly all three newbies seem more distinctive than Date and Misumi, who have never made much of an impression.  And in any case having new members is an important development opportunity for Tatsuya.  As you’d imagine being a mentor isn’t exactly a natural role for him.  His tack is to try and do everything himself to make up for the deficiencies of the rookies, whereas Azemichi-kun actually takes the time to teach them the tricks of the trade and cover for them in practice matches.

The key realization for Tatsuya is that the seemingly hopeless Yuuki does better when paired with Azemichi than with himself – be it in practice against the captain, or even in the team-building bowling session.  Tatsuya’s instinct is always the individual first – it helped lead to his downfall in soccer.  But again we see it crash headlong into his hatred of losing.  And now Tatsuya is in a situation where his aversion to collaboration is incompatible with his drive to be the best – kabaddi (like soccer) doesn’t work that way.  I think we all know which will win out, but I wouldn’t expect it to come off without any hitches.