I’m not sure I ever remember a KyoAni series being as widely ignored as Tsurune: Kazemai Koukou Kyuudoubu seems to be, on either side of the linguistic divide. When it comes to this studio and others with a very well-defined signature style, my views tend to be even more contrarian than they usually are. So I suppose it’s no real surprise that I’m enjoying Tsurune more than the typical Kyoto Animation series by a good margin. I guess it falls somewhere in the murky middle – too many guys to appeal to the studio’s “A” audience, and not enough pander to appeal to its “B”.
For me, as a viewer who appreciates a certain emotional openness in an era in anime when that’s not much in vogue, Tsurune is appealing despite its shortcomings. Does it take that too far sometimes? You bet, and this week’s episode was a pretty good Jekyll and Hyde survey course on the good and bad of this show. As I noted last week Tsurune definitely paints in primary colors where emotions are concerned, and as it did this week it often tries too hard to sell the moment. But a good heart and a good protagonist can make a lot of faults tolerable.
There are still elements of the whole Masa-san car crash angle that don’t add up for me. Turns out there was nothing sinister in that mystery request Masa made of Nakazaki-san (the archery shop owner – finally got the name) – he just asked him to deliver green headbands for the team to wear during the tournament. But why would he have needed to do that in the first place, since if he’d never been in an accident he would have been able to do it himself? It smacks of dramatic convenience, and the episode plays up the whole storyline surrounding Masa-san’s absence a little too hard.
Fortunately I find Minato sympathetic enough that even when Tsurune pushes his story a little too hard, it still kind of works. And the tension in the air as the Kazemai boys (poor Seo flamed out in the individuals without the worried boys even being bothered to cheer her on) try, shot by shot, to qualify for the finals is electric. There’s always pressure in sports, especially for a kid, but kyuudou seems like a sport that’s especially wired to be nerve-racking. When Minato reveals through his internal voice that he’s afraid, for me at least it’s hard not to feel for him. But surely Masa must have put him in the Ochi position for a reason – he just needs to figure it out.
When it does, it carries with it a frankly pretty over-wrought sequence where Minato and Kacchan have a pretty manufactured confrontation. That’s followed by a kumbaya moment where Minato declares that dammit, he’s going to call everyone by their first name because this is a team. You tell ’em, Little Man. For all that this is over the top (which it is) I do get that the feeling of being the last to shoot has to be immensely frightening. And Masa’s reason for placing Minato in that role, so he’ll see his teammates in front of him and lose the sense that he’s alone. As for Masa himself, I’m glad we didn’t go the cliche route of him having been critically wounded or anything, though he’s certainly not going to make it back for the finals. And Kazemai better not win them, because that would such a credulity stretch as to put my goodwill for this series to the test.
leongsh
January 14, 2019 at 8:52 pmYou’re just begging to be disappointed. The way this whole thing is setup for the last episode is for the Kazemai boys to win. Since Shu is shooting in the last position as well, the cliche ending is a foregone conclusion. Shu has not missed a single shot – getting kaichous (all 4 regulation arrows hitting the target) all tournament long. Since you’re a baseball fan, picture this – Kazemai is the baseball team that barely makes it to post-season as a wild card. It then defeats each team it comes up against and gets to the World Series finals to play against the 120-plus-wins-in-regular-season favourite juggernaut Kirisaki team. Kazemai will take it to the wire with the go-ahead run in the top of the 15th inning in Game 7 of the finals and close out Kirisaki in the bottom of the 15th inning for the win. In terms of Kyudo, it’s obvious that it will be a case of Shu not making kaichou for the first time in this tournament with a missed 4th shot while Minato achieves a kaichou. I am not going to kid myself that this won’t happen. It’s been building up to it.
That all said, this would however be a case of where Shu would see his loss as a bigger win since he loses to Minato who has made a comeback which proves him right to wait and believe in Minato and everyone else that dissed Minato or looked down on Minato being wrong. He has gotten back his fated rival that would push each other to higher levels.
Damn… I stuck my neck out so far that I am going to look very foolish if it turns out that Kazemai loses to Kirisaki at the end in the next episode. (^_^;;) There’s a slim chance of that happening but I do stake my many years of watching sports-related anime to know the score.
Guardian Enzo
January 14, 2019 at 9:13 pmOf course I acknowledge the possibility that could happen – it’s certainly a very cliche option. I just hope it doesn’t. I don’t really buy the baseball analogy either, because the nature of kyuudou makes this sort of upset much less feasible. One or two freak moments can’t change the outcome – it would take a systematic upheaval of five archers consistently shooting better than we’ve ever seen them shoot and five shooting worse. The nature of this competition lends itself to weeding out chance and supporting the logical result.
Still, this is anime (and worse, light novel anime) – such things probably don’t matter here. There’s a good chance you’re right but I’m going to hold out hope until all hope is crushed. After all, winning the competition really shouldn’t be the triumph for Minato here – conquering his target panic and regaining his love for archery should be.
leongsh
January 14, 2019 at 10:32 pmIt’s not common for a manga, or in this case, a light novel, to take the path of Major. Goro never won a major event during his school days. That said, each time, he showed his tenacity and single bloody mindedness to drag his team and himself to compete toe-to-toe against the top seeds. His growth and struggles throughout make up a sort of bildungsroman in baseball anime form.
Tsurune is not that kind of story. It’s a story about healing, mutual support and finding closure to moving forward from the past. Kyudo just happens to be the sport that the story revolves around. The Kazemai boys have started to believe and trust what they have learned and practised. Yhe commentary about their tiebreaker performance highlights that they have being transformed from their woolly efforts earlier. They were hitting their targets with no misses. Based on the Kazemai girls commentary that their practice scores are usually16 (out of 20), they are not far off in reaching 18 or higher. There will be karmic effect on the twins. It’s crying out for it with all their nasty attitude and behaviour. Shu will still be Mr. Perfect until the very last. I think we may get to see a repeat of that beauty of a shot again by Minato at the end of tiebreaker in the finals. That last shot that hit the bullseye had Shu smiling on Minato’s comeback even before it hit the bullseye – such is the beauty and sound of the tsurune – it was clear to Shu that the arrow would hit dead centre.
Yukie
January 14, 2019 at 10:59 pmI’m also glad Masa-san wasn’t terribly hurt, as that would’ve been too much trope for me.
I was extremely angry t/o the entire episode towards the archery shop owner and the adults in general. Yes, they didn’t know Minato’s mom died in a car crash, but it was incredibly selfish to just dump the news on the kids and then leave them to figure how to sort out all these thoughts and emotions right before a competition. It’s actually pretty amazing that Minato was able to pull himself together whilst having to deal with the pressure as the Ochi.
Really enjoyed the part when the girls spoke some sense into the boys though (poor Seo).
Based on what I’ve read on reddit, apparently the anime actually changed the plot quite a bit (I don’t know the details though).
I just hope next episode we get to see the twins crash and burn, and Minato get a few more kaichuus (I also don’t think Kazemai will win).
Craidon
January 15, 2019 at 5:57 amJust three words: twins, target panic.
Guardian Enzo
January 15, 2019 at 9:36 amThat would certainly be Karma.