Otanjoubi Omedetou, Aoi Kentarou!

Today's the birthday of Rokkaku's 1st year bucchou, Aoi Kentarou! Well, the reason why he was made the captain really made me laugh when I first saw it in the anime. Trust Oji to do such a thing! And Saeki was made the vice captain just because he was asking Oji about who he wanted to choose. Anyway, Aoi-kun is quite a promising lad though so he deserves the title of the captain even though Saeki clearly enjoys a higher profile than he does. I'm just not used to his loud voice and over-enthusiasm at times so his passionate side is something which I can't handle very well. Then again, if he isn't an enthusiastic guy, this would not be the Aoi we know anyway.

To me, I feel that Aoi is the exact opposite of Echizen thus the latter is awkward as to how he should repond to Aoi's behaviour. Echizen does not show his real feelings on the surface while Aoi is always smiling and wears his emotions on his sleeve. Echizen puts on a cool face but Aoi seems to be like fire where his passion can rub onto you and get you heated up at the same time. Maybe that's why the anime arranged for the two of them to play a match together during the Kantou semi-finals instead of the arrangement in the manga so as to show the contrast. On the other hand, Aoi's stubbornness in trying to get Echizen hyped up over the match is similar to the latter's refusal to admit defeat even when the odds are stacked against him. Even though Echizen said that he doesn't want to play with Aoi again, I guess he must have enjoyed their match very much since it satisfied his desire to go all out for victory.