Vol 44's inserts

In each volume of the DVD, there's always summaries of the various episodes and highlights from them as seen from the pictures here which I scanned from Vol 44. Since 3 out 4 of the episodes focus on the Tezuka & Fuji match, it's no wonder that we have so many screenshots of their match. Actually, besides the match itself, I like these episodes also because of the fact that they showed the development of Tezuka and Fuji's friendship over the years. From Year 1, both of them had already regarded each other as their strongest rival. If not for the fact that Tezuka was injured when they first had a formal match, we would have known who was stronger at that time since they were already champions in various tournaments since they were kids. Looking at it from another point of view, if that match had gone on smoothly, the anticipation level for the match in Year 3 may not be that high.

Frankly speaking, I'm quite satisfied with the outcome of that match because Tezuka won. Well, it's not really because of the fact that I like Tezuka. He has been said to be the invincible guy like Atobe and Sanada so I expected him to win Fuji given that he's regarded as the No.1 in Seigaku. Moreover, I still feel that his match with Atobe during the Kantou Round 1 may have gone either way if he was in perfect condition. Somehow, I get the feeling that the anime goes too far in emphasizing how strong Echizen had become where the manga doesn't let him win everyone like that. At least I still think that it's kind of ridiculous to defeat Sanada during the Kantou final when he only needed one more point to grab the title. Well, it's no use grumbling over that because I knew from the start that Seigaku would most probably win the title.

I'll probably post the Rikkai members' final message in this volume tomorrow. As for Hyotei and the other schools' messages, I may post them slightly later since there's a number of Tenipuri characters celebrating their birthdays especially next week when we have Atobe and Tezuka's birthdays within a period of 3 days.