OP2: “Presence” by Superfly
We’ve been conditioned to think otherwise, but in truth this was a normal week for Ao Ashi. It didn’t take even a week off between cours, after all. It wasn’t all that long ago that two-cour series were the norm, but they’re the exception now – and the ones we do get are usually split cour. As a result that which a decade ago would have been a blip now feels like a milestone. If Production I.G. felt they needed to do something special for the occasion, they succeeded. This was a fantastic episode that felt like literally a whole new ballgame. And the new OP and ED, both music and animation-wise (especially the OP) are bangers.
Watching that OP sequence was a good reminder that any fan of a manga should still feel lucky to see Production I.G. attached to its adaptation. Especially a sports manga. This is not Haikyuu, but these guys are always good – they have a high standard and generally a respect for the material. Ao Ashi is no different from most long-running sports manga in that it doesn’t show its best right out of the gate. And that’s a good thing – series like this thrive on the narrative buildup. They’re personal stories and there has to be a perceptible arc to the main character’s journey. An entire cour effectively of prologue may seem like a lot in today’s anime landscape, but for epic sports series that’s pretty much a necessity.
We start pretty much where we left off, with Anri drilling Ashito on how to watch Kuribayashi (Umehara Yuichirou) in his J-League debut. And what a debut it is – the lad humble brags to a teammate that he’s going to be making flashy plays only, to win over the fans so completely that he never has to to back to the bench. He assists on the winning goal and tees up the guy interviewing him after the match for dessert. As for Anri, she tells Ashito that Kuribayashi says he has four options in mind every time he touches the ball. Ashi-kun says he’s learned something, but we won’t see what until the next match.
An interesting element in this exchange is that Ashito notices Hana has gone missing (put off my Anri’s geekery she declares that she’ll support Ashito “from afar”). Make of it what you will – whether there’s a romantic intent or not (certainly not consciously) it’s fascinating that a boy his age would notice such a thing in the midst of all that excitement. As well, Kuribayashi’s tetchy reply to the question about his stature fascinates Ashito – who, in case you hadn’t noticed, is hardly a mountain himself. Technique is everything to the kid who’s already a pro, and that has to make an impression on the one who’s just taking his baby steps.
In that next match, it’s not exactly smooth sailing for Ashito trying to implement what he thinks he’s figured out. One of the truisms of soccer is that the simple pass is usually the best option – the “killer ball” is in the mind of the beholder. His vision being his strength, Ashito is indeed trying to make incisive and ambitious passes – but his technique isn’t up to that yet. And neither are his teammates – these are not J-Leaguers, they’re youth league B-teamers. In the second half he does simplify things, and with outstanding results. With an injury creating a need on the A Team, everything seems to be progressing smoothly.
Then, that bombshell. Last week I wrote the following: “The ability Ashi demonstrates here, the titular “eagle eye”, is something you see more in deep-lying playmakers like Andrea Pirlo and Xavi Hernandez than forwards.” In fact it’s not deep-lying midfielder than Fukuda-san has in mind for Ashi-kun, but fullback – another role where that ability can be utilized. And that’s the bomb he drops on the poor boy when he’s expecting to be told he’s been promoted. As anyone would be, Ashito is crushed. Not only is he being told he’s not good enough to pursue his dream, he’s being betrayed by the adult he thought was his patron and mentor.
This is a complicated situation, in truth. Fukuda offers three main reasons why Ashi can’t survive as a forward – his first touch isn’t deft enough, he doesn’t have an explosive burst, and he’s not agile enough. The first issue is whether one trusts Fukuda as an evaluator, and that itself is complicated. But if you take it as read that you do, what he’s doing is not wrong. He’s part of an organization, and he’s pushing a kid towards the role where he has the best chance to progress, fullback. The problem then becomes the way he went about it. He defends not telling Ashito this back in Ehime by saying “you wouldn’t have come if I had”. But that’s a weak defense. He tricks a kid into uprooting his life on false pretenses, basically.
We’re in dodgy territory here. Fukuda thinks he knows what’s best for Ashito, but even setting aside the selfish motive of wanting him as a fullback, he has no right to turn the kid’s life upside-down based on his own ideas about what’s best for him. IMHO he should have made the case back in Ehime and let Ashito decide for himself. But that ship has sailed. And what’s become clear is that Date-san was the one who really had Ashito’s back all along. He’s clearly conflicted (and that’s charitable) over what Fukuda is doing here. And he’s once more being asked to be the bad guy and implement Fukuda’s plan for Ashito.
Now it’s on Ashito to make a brutally difficult choice – to stay and entrust his future to the man who deceived him (and who’s judgment he has no reason to defer to) or go home and probably give up on the larger dream of a life in soccer. We know what he’ll decide, but it sucks that this is how it’s all played out. If you want to be a professional athlete you face extraordinarily long odds, and you have to make innumerable sacrifices. That’s grist for the mill of a great sports series, but sometimes the better the drama is the more painful it is to watch.
ED2: “Color Lily no Koibumi (カラー・リリィの恋文)” by Kami wa Saikoro wo Furanai
Riv
July 3, 2022 at 12:38 amI liked this twist! I wonder if Date-san agrees that Ashito would be better as a fullback but disagrees with this method of telling him and getting him on board with the switch or if he thinks it is still an open question what position Ashito would be best in.
Guardian Enzo
July 3, 2022 at 12:51 amI wonder that, too. To me he definitely disagrees with the way it was handled – the open question is whether he thinks it’s too soon to make the call on Ashito as a striker.
Haraga
July 3, 2022 at 2:02 amIt’s not like I predicted the twist, but I kept wondering why Ashito was positioned as a straightforward striker (pun unintended), as what I had in mind for him was closer to a false nine, pressing forward, attacking midfielder or even advanced playmaker. At no point of the story he was shown to be physically gifted to be specifically a top-level striker, and in the modern football this position is kinda getting evaporated anyway. But I didn’t expect Date to actually address the issue, I thought it was just an expectation from a fictional story, and now it seems like
DateFukuda wanted to turn Ashito into Trent-Arnold or Dani Alves all along.From this point the story can go into multiple interesting directions. Will Ashito rebel and want to prove himself as a striker, at the cost of spending a number of games on the bench or even getting temporarily kicked out? Will Ashito keep his pride in check and learn that the important thing is not the position but the role you play and responsibilities assigned to you by the coach? And can it potentially backfire, as Ashito will start playing more methodically and rely less on his raw talent that gives him an edge over teammates? Is this whole thing a charade, and Date just wants Ashito to improve his defensive abilities by playing as a defender for a while, and then he will actually be a pressing forward akin to Roberto Firmino or Timo Werner?
No matter which direction the story takes, I now completely trust the author that he clearly knows what he’s doing and can’t wait to see more.
leongsh
July 3, 2022 at 2:26 amErr… it’s Fukuda that is moving him to Leftback. You’re wrongly blaming Date in your post.
Haraga
July 3, 2022 at 5:06 amMy bad, I meant the correct guy, but somehow their names got mixed in my mind.
Guardian Enzo
July 3, 2022 at 9:16 amAs I noted in last week’s post, I though Ashito’s vision was being teased as a fit for a deep-lying playmaker in the Xavi-Pirlo mold – or maybe even a Bastian Schweinsteiger. But fullback? It’s a fascinating twist but TBH I don’t see the obvious fit. He’s not physically imposing so doesn’t present an obvious threat/defender on set pieces (have we ever seen him head the ball?). He doesn’t have great straight-ahead speed. Vision is certainly important for fullbacks and he has potential as a threat who likes to overlap his winger. But – it’s odd. His skills just seem suited to the center of the pitch.
leongsh
July 3, 2022 at 10:10 amWon’t be (Deleted)
Manga spoiler – GE
Peter Griffin
July 3, 2022 at 11:13 amAdding to the speculation, given what has been said in comments here so far& what you have said about Ashito (that his vision is more suited for the middle of the pitch ala Pirlo or Xavi)… if Ashito is to stay a fullback, my idea for him is closest to Philipp Lahm who is among my most favourite players. He wasn’t very physically imposing, but he would cut inside from the flank & playmake from a central position, while maintaining defensive cohesiveness through intelligent positioning. That said I don’t know if this is a perfect fit for Ashito either, Ashito isn’t exactly showing us that kind of intelligence. Vision maybe, but severely lacking in tactical acumen. I like Haraga’s idea that he could be making Ashito into a pressing forward as well.
Guardian Enzo
July 3, 2022 at 12:28 pmLahm played a fair number of games as a midfielder in addition to his main fullback role, so that’s a possible analog.
RurouniGaijinn
July 3, 2022 at 12:06 pmSince getting into Esperion, we keep seeing Ashito take a wide forward position, which seems odd if you truly wanted to be an out-and-out striker. But it is a rather common theme for players playing out wide to shift their positions up and down their own wing throughout their youth careers. Gareth Bale, Ashley Cole, Hector Bellerin all played either as a winger/fullback before moving either further or deeper down their wing, so on that part, I wouldn’t say it is an extreme transition.
It is true that moving to FB with such a vision is an odd thing to do, but given Ashito’s gifts and flaws (Having great vision but poor technique/footwork), you would think that playing that position allows him to fully utilise his vision (Being stationed at the most corner of the formation, allowing you to seeing the entire pitch) while reducing his exposure to his lack of technique to an absolute minimum.
I do feel rather surprised that an MC is playing as a FB rather than a more prominent position, but it is testament to how good the manga is if you can do that and still produce such great sales results.
Haraga
July 3, 2022 at 3:12 pmI agree that he doesn’t have the physical qualities of a typical fullback, and his ball control is also not that great compared to his teammates. Dribbling in smaller open spaces that wing players occupy may be very tough for him. So I see him as a very contemporary take on the position, a playmaking fullback who constantly cuts inside to attack the half-space and is a part of a very high defensive line, creating chances and also scoring a lot as many good attacking full-backs tend to these days.
As for set pieces, I don’t think what you said is a problem, fullbacks usually stay back or near the ball during attacking set pieces, and during defensive set pieces they mark less threatening players.
Steins
July 3, 2022 at 11:12 pmTo add to the conversation why midfielder would not suit Ashito right now, I would like to remember that in that area of the field is usually where the biggest number of players are and it’s a battle for finding space to play.
In the midfield you survive by either having quick decision making and technique to back it up or by having a strong body and be able to keep possession while facing pressure.
In terms of fullbacks while some are sprinters, you can get by with average to good speed if you can read the flow of the game well and make the right decisions of when to attack or when to stay in defense. What you absolutely need in a fullback is stamina which Ashito appears to have a ton of reserves.
Also it’s going to be interesting to see which side of the field he’s going to play, right now he’s been playing on the left side and if he stays on that side, then inverted fullback is definitely the role that Fukuda sees him playing since Ashito is right footed.
Guardian Enzo
July 3, 2022 at 11:20 pmIf he’s really moving to fullback I’m thinking it has to be left back (though a lot of guys play both sides). As you say, playing on the left makes more sense for a guy without blazing speed whose strength would be cutting inside and making incisive attacks. As a right-footed RB for Experion I’d assume Fukuda would want a guy who could race to the endline and whip in crosses, and that really doesn’t seem to suit Ashito.