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「開幕！インターハイ予選」
“Raising the Curtain! Inter-High Qualifiers”
I’d have to check the archives carefully, but this may be the first ever case of an indirect kiss using an alien mask. Smart thinking, Nana!
You may have noticed in the Spring Schedule post that I’m not listed as covering Area no Kishi this coming season. That is correct – unfortunately the show is a casualty of scheduling considerations and reality intrusion. With a pretty strong looking season on tap and only time to blog three shows at RC, I’m just not committed enough to this show to give it one of those three spots, and it never drew a big following on the site. It’s pretty solid and I enjoy it, but so far it hasn’t quite taken hold for me. As to how long the show will run, I’ve yet to see that confirmed anyway – at least one more cour, for sure – so with this post I bid Area no Kishi a fond “Ja Mata” as one of my RC selections.
Where do we leave things? Well, the show is about where it has been – it’s generally entertaining, with neither the on-field action or personal relationships standing out as exceptional. The team itself seems to be in pretty good shape, having clawed their way to a 4-1 win over favored Shonan High (I can’t imagine the pink uniforms helped), a match in which Kakeru came off the bench to score his first goal (as did basketballer Takase) and Araki managed to wheeze his way through the entire ninety minutes. It was also a match in which Enoshima employed the 2-5-3 alignment I speculated about last time, with the wrinkle of making it a sort of amoeba alignment, collapsing the entire formation to trap the ball when it was entered into their supposedly undermanned defensive area.
On the personal side, progress is glacial for Kakeru and Nana – though there is in fact that indirect kiss. Their relationship is the most interesting part of the series for me, and I’ll be watching to see if there’s meaningful movement in that direction. They’re good together, far more comfortable with each other and less caught up in anime clichés that most couples, but maybe that’s because they’re not really a couple yet. There’s also the matter of Nana’s efforts for the Nadeshiko, of course, which have been both the least realistic and most interesting soccer story so far. As for Kakeru’s progress, that mask seems to have done more than given him a hormone spike, as the limited vision sparked a flash of inspiration and he may have finally conquered his ball control issues – could this be the “mythical feint” of next week’s episode title?
Preview
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If Ultraman counts, it’s been done before, in Sasemeki Koto!
https://randomc.net/image/Sasameki%20Koto/Sasameki%20Koto%20-%2003%20-%20Large%2033.jpg
Sorry to see this go. I still hope you’re watching this, though, since you got me interested in the first place!
Anyway, the most interesting thing in here is their relationship, after all. Nana is one of the least annoying female leads, and her wit and personality really got me rooting for her. She isn’t just a pretty girl for the MC, but can make decisions and act on her own convictions–something I don’t see very often in a shonen series.
I will be watching, and I’ll probably cover it in digest mode over at LiA. At least for a while, anyway, and we see how things develop. I certainly like the series, it’s just a question of not enough time and too many series that seem to have more reader interest and potentially interest me more, as well.
So this is the last post in here huh.
No wonder, with only 3 comments(one from the author) and only limited views(793).
Well if it’s still gonna be covered in LiA…
The game was interesting mostly. And some potential rivals showed up(Nakamura Yuuichi I presume. Can’t mistake that gruff voice).
Seven was practicing with that mask? Another one in the list of unbelievable things in this show but oh well.
Didn’t quite get how that feint happened or worked but let’s see how Kakeru pulled it off.
I came in this show for the drama and the soccer matches. Both are still there but as you said, they’re not being fully played out in this show. But I’m still optimistic and I’m still enjoying this show so I’m still gonna watch it even if it’s not gonna be covered here.
Slightly off-topic but Enzo seems to be getting shows that either attract a large number of comments(S;G, Another, Mirai) or few to none at all(this, UN-GO and some shows I didn’t watch that he covered).
Such is a blogger’s life I guess.
Kuroko might fall to the latter group and E7(and maybe Apollon) to the former but let’s see.
That’s not radically different from my guess, belat, but we’ll see. I think Apollon should have a decent following.
Thank you for blogging this series so far!
Although I was trying not get involved with the new series anymore, this post of yours made me start watching and marathon all 13 episodes in a day. Sorry to hear that you won’t be covering it this season and I can see why.
Area no Kishi is a great work. Especially since I’m reading the manga concurrently.