Poor old Ryman’s Club.  It’s largely ignored at the best of times, and now finds itself in the awkward position of competing with an avalanche of spring premieres, some very high-profile.  In a way I think that’s sort of fitting, because as sports anime go, this is not some grand or fantastical series.  It’s the story of a bunch of guys who have to work a day job to play their sport, who live not in the world of adolescent dreams but adult reality.  Their lives and careers are modest by sports anime standards, so I guess the series’ following would be too.

I think that’s why when the series has tried to big in fictional terms – like the whole EVP drama – it’s largely flopped.  There’s a core believability at the heart of Ryman’s Club that doesn’t hold up well to flights of fancy.  That plot misstep is still hanging over the narrative of course, and will surely assert itself next week.  But we largely got a reprieve from it here, as the episode focused on the on-court dramatics.  And that’s much much comfortable territory for Ryman’s Club.

That said, the series still has to deal with the realities of being a one-cour sports anime.  Stuff like entire rounds being skipped and here, the same with the entire first match against Mitsuhoshi (against a doubles team we’d never seen to the best of my recollection) are less than ideal.  If nothing else the Saeki brothers deserved better in what I assume will be their final match of the series.  They at least got their moment of glory, though (and they won this match with shocking ease).

The bulk of this episode focuses on the singles match, featuring Usuyama against Mitsuhoshi’s Ibuki-san.  Again, if we’d seen him before it wasn’t enough to make an impression on me.  This lacks a bit of suspense to be sure – we pretty much know Ibuki has to win, because Tatsu and Mikoto have to have the stage in the final episode.  But that’s an issue all sports series deal with at some point or another.  And it’s an interesting match – two defensive-minded players facing off, which puts Usuyama-san and his seven years away from the sport at a disadvantage.  He does the right thing and focuses on ending points more quickly, and he puts up a very good fight.  But you can’t overcome the heroes’ plot armor.

The opponents in the main event are Tatsu’s old partner Izumo-san, and the younger Kirishima brother, Takuma – who considers Izumo a mere appendage.  His attitude is another element that plays as a little too broad, but the real drama here is Tatsu ans his bum knee.  He’s trying to work around it but opponents of this level are going to notice something is up – especially when one of them knows Tatsu’s game like the back of his hand.  It’s one thing for him to compete while avoiding smashes – it’s quite another for him to hold up once the enemy starts targeting his weakness.

The first game ends with another dramatic flourish, as Mikoto slips on a pool of sweat (which has got to be a huge danger in sports like badminton and volleyball) and bangs his head against the net post.  I’m assuming he’s going to be able to continue (does the S/J League have concussion protocols?) or we won’t have much of a final episode.  It’s going to be interesting to see how this one turns out – there’s no plot armor now, it’s just a question of which message the show wants to send with the ending.  Whatever the result of the match, I’m hoping the whole bet scenario plays a very minor role in the finale.