| Title: | Suzuka |
| Episode: | 22: Mental Preparation |
| Synopsis | |
| At the second Inter High tournament since Yamato entered the track&field club everyone is warming up already while Yamato is still lost in thought about confessing to Asahina once again. Hattori correctly diagnoses Yamato's state of mind and congratulates Soichi for being the new team captain - but Soichi explains [image1] that in his opinion Tsuda Kazuki, Asahina's and his former team mate, should have been captain had he not died in a traffic accident two years ago so that Asahina is still visiting his grave at times.... noting that Yamato isn't surprised at all about this revelation Hattori now understands why his friend considers his love for Asahina hopeless. But Hattori continues to tease Yamato about his situation until Yamato shouts "shut up" [image2] so loud that everyone can hear it all over the place - and resolves to become the number one athlete in Japan!
As the first heats are about to begin Soichi tries to explain how Yamato can efficiently qualify for the semifinals - but Yamato doesn't listen and ends up winning the first heat [image3] with a new personal record of 10.81 seconds, only to be scolded by his relay partner Sasaki for wasting so much energy already. Even Arima Emerson, the 10.46 sprinter of this region, settled for winning his first heat in 11.09 seconds (but noticed that this baka ran faster than a certain Tsuda Kazuki two years ago...), and Yamato should have done the same as Asahina finally explains to him - but at least she's handing him a towel after the race. The only one to really cheer him up for the next heat is... Honoka-chan [image4], overanxiously trying to hand him a drink although he already has one, and noticing how far away Yamato feels now. The semifinals will only be time races, i. e. the fastest eight runners will qualify for the metropolitan tournament without a final race, which means Yamato won't compete against Arima today. Again Sasaki scolds Yamato for not even reading the event rules, and he's disappointed [image5] when Yamato tells him he'll give it all in the semifinal, not holding back for the forthcoming relay. But Sasaki asks Yamato to at least beat Arima in this case. Asahina is waiting outside the arena instead of watching the semifinals - until Miki delivers the news: Yamato won his heat with a new personal record of 10.68 seconds, beating Arima's time from the previous Inter-High event and running the fastest time of this year! Finally Asahina looks for the boy to congratulate, only to find him in deep depression [image6]. Yamato shows her the result list where Arima won his heat in 10.50 seconds; Asahina praises Yamato for being ranked in second place, only to hear that he doesn't care for anything than being the best sprinter... | |
| Comments | |
| (2005-12-06, Devil Doll:)
Miho-chan doesn't get that much air time in this show - but whenever she does you need to listen carefully. This time she practically announced Yamato's embarrassing scene in the track&field arena... sigh. Yamato is acting foolishly, Asahina is still in denial mode (not even watching the semifinals!)... is there anything new in this episode? Well, we got some numbers - plus two important first time events: 1. Asahina handing Yamato a towel, and 2. Asahina praising Yamato's semifinal result. I've been waiting for the latter scene a long time already; note that it's the first time Yamato didn't brag about his result - so whatever the boy does, Asahina will always do the exact opposite. Maybe she can really even out his extreme emotional fluctuations? Asahina didn't have much air time in this episode but she begins to appear at the important moments, approximating Honoka's behaviour in Hiroshima. Did she learn her lesson? I sense at least some progress for her. It took quite some time for Soichi to contribute his knowledge about Tsuda-senpai to the show, and he finally delivered in a moment when Yamato didn't exactly want to hear it. Then again Soichi's affirmation of Tsuda's former status may have exactly been what turned Yamato into the 10.68 runner all of a sudden... this boy is really full of surprises, as Hattori told us. Did you notice the one line Arima spoke in this episode? Yamato is already running faster than Kazuki... can anyone please tell the boy? I can't make head or tail of Miki. What does she really think of Yamato? She should be happy that she was correct about what to expect from him as sprinter - but watching Asahina she feels that track&field isn't what really counts in respect of this boy. With this episode being a weaker performance of our care bear, it's good to see Hattori shine again - at times Yamato is like an open book for the womanizer. And he finally came up with some more plausible reason for always visiting these track&field events (as he can't be that serious about chick hunting given his non-existent track record so far): Observing the baka may alone be an entertaining hobby. Then again he's never missing an opportunity for a chat with Miki... and doesn't his complaint about Yamato being "pampered by so many people" sound as if he were jealous because Miki doesn't look at him? But Miki still doesn't know about the Tsuda problem, so she'll be of little use for Yamato in this aspect. Then again she's a sprinter and could help the boy where Asahina conceded to have limits of expertise. This Yamato guy really needs a team of specialized coaches to allow for his best possible results, just like any top athlete. It's painful to observe Honoka-chan having returned to her existence as a mouse from episode 3. She gave so much life to this series, so I'd rather have removed her from the show after breaking up with Yamato. Her current performance is pathetic; she didn't even notice Yamato already had his own can of juice... girl, you showed us a much more convincing approach when you were in fighting mode. Poor miko. It doesn't cast that positive a light on Yamato that it took a side character like Sasaki to make him aware of track&field actually having rules! This senpai turns out to be an interesting catalyst for Yamato as he shows a similar attitude as Asahina does, thus making it easier for Yamato to accept his blunders instead of blaming them on Asahina's tempers. If Yamato succeeds in earning Sasaki's respect there's a good chance Asahina will respect him as well - and the forthcoming relay race (which I was hoping to see in episode 22 already) might well be his golden opportunity. ============================================================================= | |
