Ep 176 - Climax

Eh...how should I begin? Although the title is "Climax", most of the views I read and personally, I do feel that this episode is an anti-climax as compared to the wonderful buildup from the past 2 episodes. Well, I'm terribly excited over the fact that I get to hear Tezuka speak so much in a single episode and that we find out about how he feels about his relationship with Fuji but this has made the focus shift from the match. I admit I'm rooting for Tezuka and is very happy that he won but somehow, the producers seem to be in a hurry to settle the match. I can't blame them since the last episode would be on 30 Mar. Although there are lots of other themes to explore, they can't go beyond 3 episodes for just 1 match no matter how mouth watering the line-up is. That's a pity to me though.



Tezuka was the first to notice that Fuji was not as simple as he looked. According to him, the other first year regulars were attention-grabbing and unique in their own ways but Fuji seemed very normal and just like an obedient and nice guy. However, when he saw him play on the court, Tezuka's interest in finding out how Fuji was really like made him agree to the match. Even though he would have asked Fuji to postpone the match due to his injury, Tezuka admitted that he was too anxious to see how good Fuji was at that time and forced himself to play thus making Fuji quite angry then. Anyway, for this ranking match, Tezuka was the one who asked Ryuuzaki-sensei to group Fuji together with him. In fact, even if Tezuka didn't suggest this, Ryuuzaki-sensei would have made the arrangements herself so as to show the team how good those two have become.

It was quite sad to see Fuji crying (not really crying his heart out but tears flow naturally from his eyes) but it showed how much the match meant to him and that he finally tasted the bitterness of defeat. It should be a great learning experience for him which should serve him well in the Nationals (that is if the anime does come back with OVA or the second season like Kyou Kara Maou). I'm praying hard that they come up with OVAs from time to time, it seems like a lucrative business to give up since they are still releasing character singles and the DVD release is still on. The manga is still on but as to when it will start on the Nationals, it depends whether the manga will show whatever they have in the anime i.e. the ranking matches. And I'm still keeping my fingers crossed for a summer release of the movie DVD which is more than 6 months from the theatre release.

With the end of the anime, I don't see myself stopping the updating of this blog but the frequency might not be on a weekly basis. As and when I have new thoughts, buy new Tenipuri stuff etc, I might just post when I like it.