I know, I know, this Volley-Bu post is woefully late. In my defense however the episode was also dreadfully boring! I suppose boring is still an improvement on last week though huh? Without further ado, lets dive into this weeks rant on Volley-Bu!
Like I said, this week was a slight improvement from the last, mostly because it focused on someone else. As thankful as I am for that though, I don’t think this rival team introduction quite worked. The idea behind this episode is pretty sound. Volley-Bu is introducing us to the rival team relatively early so that we have time to get to know them. That they get a whole episode dedicated to them is actually pretty good! But the problem is that this came out of absolutely nowhere and wasn’t properly setup nor presented very well. Volley-Bu spends the entire episode hyper focused on Fukuho Tech, the new team, but it fails to present them through our leads eyes. We barely even see our leads reactions or thoughts about Fukuho Tech until right near the end. While it works for establishing them as characters, it fails to build much tension.
As for the Fukuho Tech as a team… They are alright. Certainly a much healthier dynamic than our leads, a lot of jovial banter and Volley-Bu did a decent job establishing their connections. The only conflict within the team appears to be Ochi’s drive to see Nationals and Subaru’s promise to get him there. It’s enough to drive them forward without tearing them apart or pissing the viewer off like we see at Seiin. I almost wish these guys were our leads because we got more of their inter-team dynamic in one episode than we have from our actual leads. That might be slight hyperbole but I really do prefer Fukuho Tech and their antics to the bullshit melodrama of Seiin. Especially because, as the rivals, Fukuho Tech are destined to lose and I’m looking forward to the emotional fallout between Ochi and Subaru. They are simply more compelling.
Of course a good bit of my enjoyment for Fukuho Tech came from their reaction faces. In an episode filled with substandard animation, as per Volley-Bu’s usual, these faces were a joy. I would go so far as to say they were the best part of an otherwise boring episode, both visually and narratively. They brought a levity to a lot of scenes, such as the cafeteria or confrontation scene near the end. I wish the rest of Volley-Bu could be that expressively animated rather than relying on the “pretty boy” models.
All in all this is a step up for Volley-Bu. Its still a really boring episode in a season of greats, but its slightly better. I said it in our seasonal check-in post but the only reason I haven’t dropped this show is because I’m here to write a review about it. Someone needs to get it out there how absolutely dull, and occasionally offensive, this series is. It might as well be me.
