I was all set to open by saying Tsurune is a series that adds up to more than the sum of its parts. But really, when KyoAni’s art and animation are parts, I don’t really think you can say that. Still, strictly in the narrative sense there are a lot of elements to this series that are on the ordinary side. It does tend to trade in sports anime cliche a good bit. The whole Nikaidou chip-on-the-shoulder thing is pretty heavy-handed. And it tends to treat its female cast rather poorly.
Despite all that, I like Tsurune more than (apart from the visuals) I can probably justify. It has a nice feeling to it, as nebulous as that is – these are good people (the Kaze-kids and Masa-san especially) and easy to root for in life. The complete lack of irony or snark is both a blessing and a curse – it limits the amount of depth you’re ever going to get out of this premise, but it also makes the whole affair feel very genuine. And as a topic kyuudou is rather interesting for its very (to me) indecipherability. It’s exotic and culture-specific yet here tied in with a certain universality with the ones practicing it.
It’s certainly a contrivance to have Kazemai and Tsujimine double-booked at the same kyuudou range for their training camp (is this place some kind of archery retreat-onsen?) – I mean, where is Tsujimine getting the money for this in the first place? But it does its job in pushing the plot forward, I suppose. For a minute there I thought we were going to see the training camp and beach episode tropes checked off in the same episode, but the beach part was a mere afterthought. Tsujimine is there with their advisor, but he’s no coach – he’s just there for administrative reasons and as far as this trip is concerned, all he’s worried about is whether they’re biting.
We’re given privy to yet more reasons why Nikaidou-kun feels resentful. His uncle was turned down by Saionji-sensei as we know, but while she told Minato (though he has no idea she’s talking about Nikaidou’s uncle) it was because she didn’t want to change his shamen form, Oji-san says she told him it was because she wasn’t accepting students any longer. That doesn’t jibe with the fact that she takes on Minato and Shuu, which (in flashback) seriously pisses off the young Eisuke and presumably sets him off on his path of righteous indignation. He’s fiercely loyal to his uncle and the shamen uchiokoshi form, even if there’s seemingly no one around who can teach it.
This “shamen vs. shomen” thing is apparently a pretty big deal in kyuudou, which I guess means they’re a lot more different than they appear to a novice like me. So when Oji-san tells Eisuke he should switch because he can’t keep up with instructing the team any longer (apparently his illness is worsening) Eisuke takes that as a slight to the years he’s spent defending it. So when the two teams get chummy sharing the kyuudou range – sharing curry and fish, buying drinks, Kazemai even watching Tsujimine practice – Eisuke gets surlier and surlier.
It’s no surprise when Nikaidou rejects his uncle’s suggestion that he take advantage of the opportunity to learn from a real teacher. Masa, however, hasn’t seen the troubled, coltish lad he’s unable to life coach, so he takes the initiative (he might have followed Eisuke onto the beach for all we know). Apparently even being shamen isn’t unique enough – Eisuke also has something called a kakehodoki release that’s even rarer, which Masa expresses great admiration for. Flattery gets him nowhere – for now – but his suggestion that the two sides have a practice match is no doubt another stratagem to bring Nikaidou-kun back into the light.
