Welcome to Hanebado AKA the sport anime where young players get repeatedly abused by the adults. Last few weeks we have the most terrible Mom ever and this week, a loud mouth coach. I mean, what’s up with all these melodrama here? It has gotten to the point where it becomes unbearable to fully embrace. It’s just that Hanebado wanted to be a serious sport show but the character writing doesn’t have the chop to pull off effective drama.The character inconsistency is all over the episode. Take evil-Ayano, the way she talks and sits (look at the screenshot) don’t fit with what we knew about her characters. What happened with the old-Ayano who wanted to be a part of the team? That leap of personality is just way too clumsy. Then we have the shouting boss which has a punchable attitude, but worse he does a 180 degree at the end where suddenly he becomes some sort of amenable person. No. It isn’t how you develop a character, Hanebado.
This episode focuses on the central match between Nagisa and Nozomi, ex-friends in middle school. It’s just that Nozomi always has an inferiority complex towards Nagisa. She knows that Nagisa is better than her, and she makes up for that by training her best. For a girl who has been listening to her coach to the point she wonders what she even plays for, it’s good to see her standing up for herself and playing the match the way she wanted. Although Hanebado’s tendency for injecting stupid drama is still there. Like, where the heck does Nagisa’s knee injury come from? Do we aware of it before? Does it feel like cheating? A bit, yes.
The match, likewise, has some unusual focus as Hanebado would underline some important points at the first set then skip straight to the end. Hmmm? Why don’t you let us see how Nozomi fight back? We have no sense that it was a close match until the umpire announces the score. We aren’t sure anymore about Nagisa’s knee either since it never brought up later. So apparently, this is just the regional tournament so that both Nagisa and Ayano will participate to the National stage. But first, they’ll need to settle for this final match. Normally I wouldn’t care less since I’m not particular fond with either character, but now that Connie and maybe Evil Mama might be at the attendance, how much more crazy will Ayano become? Maybe a Disney-villain level of cruelness?
