So we’ve already had English, Dutch and French, and now this episode also throws in a bunch of Brazilians. Awesome. Their portrayal is a tad stereotypical, but they did well in contrasting with the rather uptight Japanese players. And who knows, something’s telling me that the next episode will add a lot more colour to them. One of the reasons this show is so awesome is because of its huge and incredibly diverse cast, and with this episode it became even more diverse.
This episode had no soccer matches, but for a series like this that’s no problem at all: it again showed that this isn’t just a series about football, it’s a show about everything that involves football, from the players to the fast to the press and the coaches and all of the other staff members behind a team who all have their own functions. With so many details, I can more than forgive the few unrealistic parts about the soccer.
The cast really is huge, probably the largest of the entire season, but nearly all of the characters here stand as individuals. Take the supporters for example: you have the loyal fans, then there are the fans with the most status who rally everyone on to cheer as hard as possible, and then there also are the older fans who long for the nostalgia of the old Tatsumi.
I also loved Tatsumi in this episode, you can really see that he knows that he’s not going to win easily, and even he has to motivate himself a bit after such a losing streak of five matches. I think that for a lot of people, they’re into a test of endurance: how long can they keep up with the team’s abysmal performance? How long will it be before Tatsumi will live up to his name and brings a victory to the team? Seriously, out of all of the sports series I have seen so far, this one feels by far the most unique.
Rating: ** (Excellent)
The soccer matches are like the least fun thing about this series. It’s all about press conferences!
I didn’t watched yet, but i imagine that they portray most of the brazillians in a bunch of niggers called Pepe (a mexican name by the way).
Well, i like this series, it is going in a good direction but it have to take care to not fall down in a bunch of cliches (especially envolving the characters, that sometimes are portrayed in a very stereotypical way).
In other hand its good to see Studio Deen doing something else than a otaku/fushoji centered anime (nothing against it).
Yeah Pepe is surely not a Brazilian name… ahahaha… At least, they were talking Brazilian Portuguese, not Spanish neither Portuguese… and very slangish Brazilian Portuguese… “saca só” “to ligado!!” >_
And it’s nice and strange to hear your mother language in anime. It’s so unique… and funny… Well, it’s a pity our soccer players are portrayed as a lazy bunch and lack seriousness… I can’t blame the anime…
I’m also Brazillian, and I got to admit that this imagem os pretty common among people outside Brazil, specially with the likes as Ronaldinho Gaucho, Romario, Robinho, Wagner Love, Adriano and other players… YUP, hearing Br. portugueese was pretty crazy xD
and, about the players…I thought PEPE looked like Ze Roberto [from Hamburger SV], even though the other one was called “Zel-Berto”. the voice-actors are probably from Sao Paulo, a state in Brazil.
AND, finally, the scene where the 3 of them play with the ball was definetely the best animation sequence in this show!
What got me the most was number one fan coordinating cheering. Where’s the fun in that? You get from work, travel huge distance just to be ordered about an on top of it to be told you’re not cheering enough?
@Linnie: Yeah, there was that older fan who seemed to be saying the same thing. I wonder if that is going to get played up as an issue. I personally wouldn’t enjoy cheering like that, but I tend to think of organized sports the way some people view organized religion. Football stadiums remind me too much of rallies from Nazi Germany for me to ever step inside one. On the other hand, some people have fun by becoming part of a big mob, so maybe I’m not the right person to judge.
hahahaha, good to see there’s lots of brazilians following this blog – being one myself – guess that a soccer anime in a world cup’s year called some hehe, it was really fun to finally see br portuguese on a anime, and even if the representation was kind of stereotypical it’s what brazillian players normally show in the media. I don’t think I would act this much different, even more that players that normally go to japan – or other countrys which soccer isn’t that important – are the ones that would probably never be famous in brazil or europe, so they are right of enjoying the opportunity and the money, besides being all serious is not like brazil at all or at least that’s what most of us pass up!!!
@Juri what about him? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pepe_%28footballer_born_1983%29
Re the scene with the three Brazilian players, yeah it felt like a bit of a stereotype, but they looked so cool though when they were doing tricks with the ball. And I liked that, one was trying to hold back, total lols that they bought copies of their own shirt though!