As you guys know, I love to talk about sports anime for people who love sports (and hate it). Ao Ashi is such an anime for people who love soccer, seriously. I know that’s not a prerequisite because I know non-fans who love it, which is a statement to how good it is as a character piece. But if you really love the sport, all the nuance and peculiarities of the beautiful game, this series just has so much to offer. There aren’t as many good soccer anime as there should be considering how many great soccer manga there are, but when they hit they can really hit.

The reality is, in a tiered soccer organization like Esperion – with J-League all the way down to junior – moving up a level can’t all be about hazing. And there are plenty of guys on the A-team who are perfectly decent. Like Matsunaga, who (with Taira) invites the newbies out for dinner after their nightmare first practice (Yuuma invites himself along). This is an intensely competitive environment – guys are fighting to replace somebody at every level, on every team sheet. But there is a sort of honor code that develops, a support system. And the adjustment to the pace on the field is so brutal that it’s not like the incumbents need to do much to make it seem unbearable.

Not surprisingly much of the talk is about Kuribayashi, the biggest fish in this pond. Overall the tone is respectful and even reverential, with a certain amount of fear – despite the fact that Kuribayashi projects a rather placid demeanor. Ashito doesn’t even know that he’s already graduated from the U-18 team on the national level to the U-20’s, but then he didn’t know there were four Esperion guys on the U-18’s. So when Kurabayashi shows up – along with Tachibana-san (keeping tabs on her brother) and Kaidou-san, it causes quite the stir.

“He’s a nice guy” Taira says about Kurabayashi, “but once you talk to him you’ll see he can be scary. He’s not there. He only cares about soccer”. But the fact is, Kuribayashi (who’s banned from actual practice with the U-18 team) has noticed Ashito. He praises his ability to keep up in the Osim drill – only his technique is lagging – and notes that he can work at being a “complete fullback”. Ashito, in his usual fashion, lacks the experience and vocabulary to articulate what this means to him. But he does grasp it on some level. It’s about vision – which by now, Ashito has figured out is his greatest attribute. And Kuribayashi confirms this.

What Ashito really longs to know is exactly what a “complete” fullback is. It’s true that in football, fullbacks tend to be either offensive or defensive specialists. I don’t know if I would say no one has mastered both, but I suppose it depends on how you define “mastered”. It’s certainly the case that very few fullbacks at the top level excel at both. Fullback is a position that requires the ability to transition from defense to attack and vice-versa at the drop of a hat. And the more you can anticipate play (or a falling pitcher or water glass) the faster you can make that transition.

Back on the pitch, Ashito pleads with Fukuda to let him do the Osim drill with the regulars again, even volunteering to be the permanent middle (defender). The first week of practice has been brutal – the pace of play more than even Ashito can cope with. Fukuda says he can’t offer special treatment, and asks if Ashito is willing to be demoted if he “drags the team down”. Ashito readily agrees, never one to shirk a challenge. This is classic Ashito – he has a basic grasp of what he has to do to level up, but lacks the ability to conceptualize it. The only remedy is to immerse himself in what’s defeating him and let his instincts take over.

And that’s what this is really all about. Esperion may be a thinking man’s soccer, but the pace of play at this level is too fast to actually spend time thinking about what to do. It’s true in the Osim drill, it’s true in mini-games, it’s true on the weekend under the lights. It’s a pleasure to watch Ashito work his way through this, learn to trust his mind and react rather than think. That’s what Fukuda wants to see from him of course – it’s why he’s at Esperion in the first place, never mind with the A-team. And it’s why he makes such a compelling figure at the heart of Ao Ashi.