Ep 174 - Tezuka Kunimitsu vs Fuji Shusuke

Subarashii!!! One of the best episodes and matches I've seen in Tenipuri!! This must be the best match since I saw Tezuka vs Atobe where I was gasping in admiration for the high tension and level of play exhibited in this match. I'm sure the next episode would be even more electrifying with the atmosphere in the first two games already reaching a climax. And there are some mysteries/discoveries thrown up in this episode which says a lot is going on in the background.



1) After Fuji's halfway-done match with Echizen in the rain, he actually had a talk with Tezuka where the latter asked him why he was holding back during the match. Fuji then confessed that he had problems going all out to win others and derived joy from getting his opponents to display their full potential. And Fuji really thought that this was going to be a problem in their quest for glory in the Nationals and asked Tezuka to take him off from the regulars squad if he finds someone better to take his place.
It is only until Fuji saw Tezuka going all out to win Atobe at the expense of his shoulder injury that he finally realized the meaning of playing to your full potential. He had thought that Tezuka was the same as him i.e. holding back in his play style but then he came to know the passionate side of Tezuka. Thus, Fuji's play style changed as he started to be more focused on victory. In a way, Tezuka brought about a change in Fuji's usually cool and composed play style so that's why he behaved the way he did during the Kirihara match. Under normal circumstances, he would never have been so worked up.



2) Fuji and Tezuka did have a match before when they were in Year 1 and the result was a complete victory for Fuji. However, something seems to be wrong with this as we see from the recollections that Fuji was quite upset over the result and grabbed Tezuka by his T-shirt. Did Tezuka go easy on Fuji or what was it that made him so angry? Why on earth did they have a match secretly? More and more questions are out there so I hope there's an answer by next week. Maybe that's why Fuji was so enthusiastic about this "rematch" in order to settle whatever scores they had with each other in the past. Besides, Tezuka is the one who comes up with the match schedules. Although he could have arranged for a match between him and Fuji much earlier, he might have deliberately saved this encounter for their last school ranking match as an conclusion to their junior high days in the tennis club.



3) Tezuka's serve in the second game seems quite different from his usual serves. Seems like he added a spin to the ball which resulted in the increase in spin and curving angle of the serve. Isn't he going to name this serve or something? Apparently, in the next episode, Triple Counters, Tezuka Zone and Zero-shiki drop shot are all going to be shown so it's really going to be a high-level match between the guys!!! I'm rooting for Tezuka! Ganbatte Tezuka-bucchou!

Read from some websites that there is going to be a new anime on 6 Apr in the Tenipuri slot as announced in some manga magazines so the last episode is most likely on 30 Apr. That would make it 178 episodes which does not fit very well in the DVD release schedule of 4 episodes per DVD. Why is it that sports anime usually do not make it beyond the Nationals Stage? Slam Dunk was like that (ended at 101 episodes even though the last match for Shohoku in the Nationals was with Sanou) and now Tenipuri is most likely to end before they show the Nationals arc. Maybe it's because of the fact that the anime is far ahead of the manga where vol 27 should be the match between Sanada and Echizen. Just hope that they can release the movie DVD soon and get Tenipuri back once the manga catches up to the Nationals arc. I wonder if Konomi-sensei will include the Senbatsu arc in the manga though...