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「兵藤清春」 (Kiyoharu Hyoudou)
“Kiyoharu Hyoudou”
I’m going to be interested to see how this episode of Welcome to the Ballroom plays with the viewing public. Having seen the first two eps of the series at Anime Expo I already had a pretty firm opinion, namely that this ep was substantially better than the premiere (which was quite good in its own right). Stage-setting is hard, and sports shounen often seem to take a bit of time to find their stride.
In the final analysis, I think expectations will have a lot to do with how this series is perceived. The notion of a series about ballroom dancing carries a whiff of something exotic and unusual (though dance manga have had a minor boomlet in recent years). But in point of fact, I think it becomes apparent quite quickly that Ballroom e Youkoso is quite a conventional story – Haikyuu!! is the obvious comparison but by no means the only one. Thing is, though, calling a show conventional is not a criticism. Chihayafuru is likewise a series that quickly reveals itself as fairly conventional despite its unusual premise, and even Boku no Hero Academia – while obviously not sports-themed – is a very traditional shounen in terms of structure.
In the end it all comes down to execution. Are the production values strong? Check – Team Haikyuu!! is on the job. Is the main character relatable? Roger – Tatara has enough quirkiness and grit to lift him above what’s superficially a stock personality type. Is there a distinctive supporting cast? Is the core subject matter treated realistically, and does the work display a thorough knowledge of it? Do the original author and director have a sense of snappy dialogue and good pacing? Every bit of evidence suggests that the answer to all this questions is affirmative, and that makes Ballroom e Youkoso a good bet to succeed – probably winning itself multiple seasons of anime to adapt the manga in the process.
More members of that supporting cast emerge as the story proper rolls into motion this week. First, Banba Karen (Kodaira Yuki) and Jinbo Tomochika (Horii Chado), the unlucky pair drafted by Sengoku-san to teach Tatara (they’re still students themselves, so his lessons are free). Inexperienced teachers and a student with poor concentration and no experience yield predictably disastrous results, but Tatara-kun’s spirit remains unbowed – especially when he sees Hyodo Kiyoharu (Okamoto Nobuhiko, admirably off-type) and Shizuku dancing together at an amateur competition (which they win).
Kiyoharu is obviously an important character, the frival every good sports shounen needs. But he also represents something real and tangible in a way Sengoku doesn’t – Hyodo-kun is a boy Tatara’s own age, and he’s dancing with the girl Tatara is smitten with. Yet he’s also a stretch goal for sure – he already dances at a professional level (Shizuku claims even she’s not in his league, though there’s a degree of modesty in that I suspect), and even last year’s practice pants are too long for Fujita-kun. Kiyoharu is a fierce competitor but seemingly a flatliner when he’s not practicing or performing – you can see Tatara trying to psyche himself into believing the two of them are rivals, but the truth is that Tatara isn’t even a blip on Kiyoharu’s radar screen (yet).
It’s going to be interesting to see how this triangle evolves over the course of Ballroom – will Kiyoharu wind up being effectively a co-male lead, as we have in Chihayafuru, or is he here mainly as a foil for Tatara? Again, Tatara tries to convince himself that Kiyoharu is spoiled, entitled – his family owns a dance studio and he’s been Shizuku’s partner since they were five years old – but the truth is, Kiyoharu busts his ass to be as good as he is. As for Tatara, his genius seems to be of the instinctive kind – explanations don’t do it for him but if he can watch, he can learn (and quickly). So much so, in fact, that he can already “shadow-dance” with Shizuku just from watching Kiyoharu do so a few times. There are already a lot of flags being hoisted in Ballroom e Youkoso, and they don’t all agree with each other – and to me, that makes the series that much more of an interesting prospect. Remember, conventional doesn’t have to mean predictable…
Preview
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I am not kidding but there is bad urge within me to cut their absurdly long neck.
Dem epic necks tho!
http://lostinanime.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/Eyes-400×351.jpg
This is so stereotypical shounen and I love it. It reminds me of Yakitate Japan in the weirdness of the premise. I’m still adjusting to the anatomy as it makes me laugh sometimes, but it’s definitely made my watch list.
Nine years??? He can’t compete with nine years of experience at a high school age!!
Middle school, actually!
https://randomc.net/image/Ballroom%20e%20Youkoso/Ballroom%20e%20Youkoso%20-%2002%20-%20Large%2014.jpg
This face expression lol
For whatever reason, the dynamic of the characters really reminds me of Hajime no Ippo, with the plain but hardworking MCs, the supertalented but occasionally douchey Sengoku as Takamura, the comedic background characters, and Kiyoharu as a much friendlier rival character like Miyata.
Kiyoharu’s annoyed yawn was by far the best part of this episode.
great anime so far it’s another love triangle
They are all some sort of human-giraffe hybrid, right?
With these two episodes alone, just and introduction, you can’t know if you’ll like this or not. The same happened with me reading the manga, these two episodes aren’t enough, and one could even be tricked into believing that this series have dumb fanservice, which isn’t true at all.
These are the first couple of chapters of a shounen manga. You have to convince an audience used to formula to support your series so it won’t get cut. People need to give shows like this a little space – an author can’t show all his cards right at the deal.
These chapters did only the basic to announce what the show is about, but it doesn’t exactly shows what makes the series “clicks” with the audience. Not every series manages to start with a bang, hang in there people!
I’m liking how the first couple episodes establish what makes Tatara want to aspire towards being someone who has to constantly fight to be on-point with dancing like Kiyoharu. Also enjoying how Kiyoharu isn’t portrayed as the standard D-Bag character that hates Tatara from the get-go. It gives him more complexity to see him work so hard towards dancing, yet be kinda ehh about it.
LOOK AT ME, LOL
https://randomc.net/image/Ballroom%20e%20Youkoso/Ballroom%20e%20Youkoso%20-%2002%20-%20Large%2009.jpg
I got best girl and there is nothing you can do
Parasyte is back!