Haha, a new character! The creators really picked the perfect guy to stir up a little tension here and there, PLUS, they also finally explained exactly why things have been going so awful for the ETU during the past season. On top of that, the character himself also is quite a character to watch. That’s three flies with one hit.
Natsuki is just hilarious, and this episode made it really believable that the team rather lost its touch after this hunk of energy left due to his injuries. Murakoshi may be a good captain, but he lacks the energy to really inspire the rest of his team, like what Natsuki and Tatsumi did. Gino also is a good scorer, but he’s way too lazy to really be a reliable backbone for a team.
It’s also interesting how this episode addressed the issue of the soccer club’s habit of buying other players, and how at times it can completely backfire. A player may be very talented, but there’s a lot of danger in him, burning out if he can’t find his place within the team. The guys at Sapporo handled this well: there was tension in the team, but those three Brazilians fit in well with the others, along with pushing the rest of the team to their limits.
In any case, I also love how this episode focused on yet another one of the players who hasn’t gotten much attention yet: the forward, Sera. With a lot of players showing their best sides right now, and Natsuki suddenly coming back, he needs to think a lot about himself if he doesn’t plan to just give away his position.
Rating: ** (Excellent)
Oh, and this series surely has nice timing, airing on the day of the world cup finals. Seriously, it really is crazy outside right now. You see fans dressed in orange everywhere. Good luck to the Dutch team. And the Spanish too, of course. ^^;
Just when I opened this page…Spain scored a goal! The Dutch team put up a great fight, I don’t usually watch soccer, but man that’s close.
I am devestated, feel for Oranje. Very close game, and very hard pill to swallow, 1974, 1978 and now 2010!
It will be a while, before I can watch soccer, or anything related to it again.
Poor ref’ing at the end imo..
My World Cup fun has ended when Spain beat German…TT_TT
^ Well, at least you can take some solace in knowing that Germany was the best playing team in the world cup. Even other dutch people I talked to agree with that (and we’re supposed to be their rivals!). Unfortunately their tactics against Spain did not work well. But they deserved to be in the finale with The Netherlands, and that would’ve been a lot more entertaining.
Oh and psgels, three flies with one hit is not an english proverb 😉 I believe you’re looking for three birds with one stone.
Ah crap. I keep confusing these dutch proverbs with these english ones. You don’t want to know how often I get the urge to just write “now there comes the monkey out of the sleeve” in some of my entries.
I’m not sure I trust Natsuki. He seems to have come back at an awfully convenient time. The way they were treating him acted as if he were still recuperating but the way he kicked that ball might say otherwise. Like maybe the injury waylaid him for a time but loss of faith in the team kept him away longer. Just a theory. I don’t think Tatsumi trusts him either.
They picked a really good time to adapt Giant Killing into an anime with the World Cup that went on. A really smart move.
I’m glad spain won, at least they played football and not kung-fu.