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「#03」
It turns out that Tatsumi’s not only about unorthodox strategies in games, but unorthodox coaching during practices as well. This almost resulted in the team collapsing from within as the players fought over how to run their practice, yet I wasn’t the least bit worried because our obsessed giant killer is always full of surprises. In reality, Tatsumi didn’t do much at all except sit back and observe how the players conduct themselves without supervision, before taking all their balls away except one to see how they handle things though. With veteran Kuroda Kazuki (Itou Kentarou) taking it upon himself to run the gong show since Murakoshi wasn’t allowed to, things got pretty damn ugly between him and the younger members of the team who won the last scrimmage under Tatsumi’s guidance.
That may not sound like much happening, but I actually found the fighting between the players both intriguing and entertaining to watch, simply because it depicted the unrest, distrust, and lack of team work within ETU. One of the things I really like about this series so far is how it covers the game of soccer from a variety of perspectives, ranging from the fans, to the management, and finally the players themselves, with this episode being a prime example of the last one. The highlight however was the introduction of the half Japanese, half Italian superstar midfielder, Luigi Yoshida (Ono Daisuke), who is more or less the equivalent to Tatsumi on the actual team. His carefree attitude on the sport, luxurious ride, and womanizer-like personality more or less make him come off as an arrogant ass, but his understanding of soccer, skill, and ability to produce results with ease earns him enough respect to warrant being called “Prince” by his teammates, or at the very least, his pet name “Gino”. Sure he had to use Ryou and Tsubaki to make himself look good against Murakoshi and the other regulars, but the fact that he could still pull it off says something in my eyes.
At first I thought Tatsumi would be at odds with Gino especially after he strolled into practice on his own schedule, but it turns out he doesn’t care what someone’s attitude’s like provided that they can perform and aren’t just all talk. I guess it would be pretty hypocritical of Tatsumi if he didn’t treat others that way, but I was still surprised to see Gino appointed as the new captain of the team. In any case, I like Gino’s character in the same way that I like Tatsumi’s (i.e. arrogant but amiable), so it’ll be interesting to see how he leads the team under new management. The end of this episode showed the beginnings of their first preseason match against the top team in their league, Tokyo Victory, which means we might just get a taste of ETU’s first giant killing next time. I can’t wait to see if they can pull it off, because it’s not a shoo-in even with Tatsumi at the helm.
Preview
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I loved this episode too. I can’t believe how they made soccer to be this interesting. This is one of my most favorite animes in this season.
heh I got one of my non-anime friends to watch this show and he likes it
the power of anime.
Hmm I think I’m going to start watching this series. Reading Divine’s posts just makes things so appealing to me -_-
Divine were you the one doing Katanagatari or was it Omni? Just trying to figure out if it was still gonna still be blogged about here (cause you obviously aren’t blogging enough series already).
It was Omni. I never got into Katanagatari actually.
Easily my favorite series of the season so far. I love that Gino pops the collar on his kit.
@imerik
The other way around. There are too many animes for Divine to blog it alone. It would be nice if there were extra-bloggers.
imerik was being sarcastic. 😐
Could’ve sworn that was sarcasm, since Divine’s still blogging just about everything airing this season, but maybe it’s just me.
OMG ITS HOLLAND!
@Eirias – love it too!! He kinda reminds me of Eric Cantona (not sure if any of you here knows who he is though lol). Now, if Gino’s jersey’s number is 7 then it will be perfect. XD Can’t wait to watch the next episode!
@fallenangelash: LMAO I was waiting for someone to say that! XD
Please Divine, keep blogging this series. It’s been perhaps the most pleasant surprise of the season. As you said it’s very cool how Giant Killing shows the different sides to the sports, it’s also helps that everything is realistic, there aren’t any super shots, or ridiculous stunts with ball. It deserves a good following.
Another enjoyable episode- I usually don’t like sport anime series so I’m a little surprised that I’m enjoying this.
Another very good episode. I also thought it was interesting to the interaction within the team…
I was a little surprised that the guy “with the attitude”, was playing and not in the bench… he was such an ass 🙂
Great series btw!!
Good episode, the story is developing nicely. I can’t wait for what will happen in their first real match 🙂 I lol’d when Tatsumi said he missed the right timing to stop the fight 😀
More people watch this than comments meets the eye. buwah?
I love this show.
Who says anime is dying? This season has given us quite a few excellent gems. Sure, there aren’t any shows with huge budgets and ridiculously complicated plots and all-star casts, but animation studios need to learn that sometimes, all you need is a show with a good plot and a good heart to win over fans.
That’s why we mustn’t judge things from the first time. many people, after watching the 1st episode, said that this series would be a total fail (someones compared it to the manga, and others based on the studio that had done it).. but after 3 episodes, Giant Killing has got fans. personnaly, i like it, because it shows us football from the managers side (not as usual, a player that’ll make his club win with his “special skills”)>> i’ll definitely continue with it.. go go ETU XD
I like this anime. Tatsumi carefree attitude is a bit like Mourinho xD.
I like the team color too, is a mix between Ac Milan (uniform) and M.utd (logo).
It will be awesome if this show stays blogged
Did a quick look-around and I THINK this manga has 13 volumes, so the speed of 4~5 chapters per episode will prove not to be a problem. I like it!