| Title: | Suzuka |
| Episode: | 11: Showdown |
| Synopsis | |
| While the track&field club attends the All High School Tokyo Regional Preliminaries, Yamato tries to kill time together with Yasunobu. But as none of the usual hang-out locations is opened at sunday morning, Yasunobu offers to take him to some surprise location.
Meanwhile at the Tokyo Stadium, reporters and TV stations cover the arrival of Emerson Arima, former rival of Tsuda Kazuki but now the undisputed high school sprinter hero of the Kanagawa prefecture. Angry about the hype for Arima and about Soichi's unbroken support for Yamato (whom he sees as Kazuki's successor), Suzuka loudly criticizes Arima as inferior to Tsuda-senpai - within Arima's earshot... Yasunobu's "surprise location" turns out to be - the Tokyo Stadium (what a surprise...). Ignoring Yamato's protest he drags the boy along [image1] - maybe there would be some chicks to check out? And so they arrive just in time to find Suzuka-chan being bullied by Arima [image2] and his teammates, claiming Arima to be the undisputed number one regardless of the late Kazuki. Yasunobu tells Yamato to stay out of trouble, and Yamato himself doesn't see any reason to help Suzuka - until he sees the tears in her eyes... so Yamato intervenes, claiming irrelevant whether Arima or Kazuki were faster because the fastest sprinter is - himself! He ends up challenging Arima, at least taking the focus of trouble away from Suzuka for the time being; no sooner than when Miki [image3] informs him of Arima's record time of 10.46 sec for 100 meters dash he becomes aware of his opponent's abilities. And of course Suzuka scolds Yamato for his "irresponsible" behavior... With borrowed spikes and sportswear, Yamato has been assigned the lane next to Arima, and he wonders about the huge audience cheering for his opponent. Yamato's own fan club consists of just Yasunobu for now, as Suzuka is hardly able to look up or even root for Yamato. When the other club members join them and Soichi wants him to finish second with a good time as to advance to the finals [image4], Yamato's fighting spirit awakes: He won't give in to that annoying bully! But Arima isn't the local hero for no reason, and he can take it easy and still keep Yamato at a distance [image5] - until Suzuka gets frustrated and shouts her anger right across the arena... [image6] | |
| Comments | |
| (2005-09-18, Devil Doll:)
Besides the 100 meters dash lasting a full 128 seconds, one downside of recent episodes is Yamato's incredible luck enabling him to get information: First he was able to overhear Soichi and Suzuka, then he met Suzuka's sister by chance, and this time he arrives at the competition in the nick of time to hear Arima and Suzuka talking about Kazuki. They're forcing the development, and thus damage the credibility of the story. But other than that, we got quite a few interesting little scenes once again. Suzuka has to face that Kazuki is gone for good. Her sister told her so, then Yamato, and now Arima - this should suffice. She's aware that "her time has stopped" for two years now - but is she willing to return into the society of the living already? This time she tells herself (and the audience) she was worried about Yamato - but if that's the truth she hides it so well that noone can see it. This way it isn't going to work. But at the end of this episode she makes a first step into the right direction, no longer telling the opposite of what she's doing but just letting her actions stand for themselves. Consequently, Yamato is quite impressed... after all, Suzuka showed him her vulnerable side for the second time today (remember the sauna incident in episode 1?). I have to praise Yasunobu again this time: Without him Yamato wouldn't have returned to the track&field club. Whatever doubts I had about his intentions at first they're all gone now - Yamato can be proud of having such a reliable friend. And just look how Yasunobu doesn't even try to disagree with Suzuka but instead wisely confirms she's right about Yamato, only to add one little line showing her the consequences of the boy's "irresponsible" action, and thus turning the whole argumentation against her... wonderful! (And very Japanese.) Note Miki's hand on Yasunobu's shoulder while they both watch Yamato's race; the same goes for Honoka during Yamato's warmup of course but Suzuka has "her share" of Yamato's skin this time as well. In a way Yamato is acting rather un-Japanese, unafraid of losing his face. Note how different Suzuka is in this aspect; that's why she considers him "irresponsible". And while Suzuka doesn't have a clue that is was her tears who made Yamato forget everything that happened before, Honoka notices his reaction on Suzuka's "rooting" during his race, and she correctly spots Yamato's lie about his challenge. Honoka understands her boy very well... if only she were less timid! Yamato skipping three training sessions would have given her a perfect excuse to visit him at home and ask what's up - she wouldn't even have been had to ask him to return to the club (didn't she try to discourage him before?), she could have treated him to another croquette instead, and maybe confess her feelings right away! I doubt she'll get another chance like this one ever again, now that Yamato is back in the club and willing to overcome the "Kazuki problem". If Suzuka's opponent were Miki instead of Honoka our female lead could have lost already at this point. I wonder whether Soichi is aware what's going on. He has spotted an incredible talent in Yamato as well as in Suzuka - but he has no clue about the problems of the two top performers in his team, thus failing to make full use of their potential. I guess it will be Miki's task to resolve this issue, as Arima (the classical Gaijin, with blonde hair, hateful attitude and Brazilian name) might well become a long-lasting challenge for Yamato (note how he's aware of Yamato's rocket start method but incorrectly links it to Kazuki). ============================================================================= | |
