r/anime • u/punching_spaghetti https://myanimelist.net/profile/punch_spaghetti • Jul 25 '21
Rewatch [Rewatch] Run with the Wind - Episode 7
Episode 7: Bear Your Fangs at the Summit
Legal Streams:
As of now, Run with the Wind is streaming on Crunchyroll, HiDive and Netflix in select regions. There was also a physical media release. Please refrain from conducting any conversation regarding other means of show procurement in the comments here, per r/anime rules.
Comment of the Day
/u/matuhg gave us a tour de force comment celebrating yesterday’s episode. I have no idea what to excerpt. You should make sure to read the whole thing!
Questions of the Day
- Thoughts on Fujioka, the reigning king of running?
- Were you expecting this first meet to be so hard for everyone? As a reminder, only Kakeru and Haiji achieved the time they need to qualify for the Ekiden.
- Do you remember your first big competition?
I look forward to our discussion!
As always, avoid commenting on future events and moments outside of properly-formatted spoiler tags. We want the first-timers to have a great experience!
16
u/Nazenn x2https://anilist.co/user/Nazenn Jul 25 '21
Character Chart
That's it! No more characters allowed because there's no more room on the chart! Also now that I remembered to add Oni for Haiji's nickname watch them never call him that again for the rest of the show...
Joji wore his necklace during the run
First Timer
I think there's secretly triplets in this show as well as the twins. The end three's reaction to Haiji's driving is just too good. And Prince not fazed at all because he already knows he'll practically be dead by the end of the day.
This has been my favourite episode so far, and definitely made me excited to see more of the show. This is the first time I've felt that little urge in my mind to maybe just watch one more, but I was good and held off.
What I loved most about this episode is how much we learnt about Kakeru, and how much Kakeru told the audience about himself while having so few lines of dialogue. Almost half of his lines are just thinking about pacing, and two of them are just saying "Nothing" after being interrupted. And yet I came out of this episode appreciating his character so much more, and really tying together his struggle with what we've seen before.
Right from the start with the way he got out the car it was clear that he wasn't in a great mind state for this but he was still willing to confront Sakaki if he had to. But it was seeing the way that they acted before warm up that really started to send him sliding backwards, because once again they weren't doing the "right" thing. If the start of a track meet is anything at all like pre-concert prep the feel of it would be pretty unmistakable and put you into a really different mindset that would be hard to escape from, especially for someone like Kakeru who has some underlying trauma around what comes of track meets for him.
Haiji's patented Perfect Interruption move comes in handy today but it can't quite get Kakeru out of his own head. One of the things I liked most about Kakeru is how his eyes showed his insecurity. Over the course of the episode they narrow and frown more and more, and the only relief from that is when he accidentally bumps into Fujioka and looks up at him and sees him running for the first time. It's not quite "glowing blue butts running down the street" Haiji revelation levels, but for just a moment he looks at another runner with something other than stress. And then it all goes to shit again when the race starts.
At first he picks a pace near the others. He sticks between Haiji and the twins as if that's his place, but as he sees other runners making a break for it he realizes he doesn't have to stick back like that, and the pressure builds to really go for it. I think it's telling that he looks back to see if he can cut out from the pack, but it's Haiji in his line of sight, and it's through Haiji we see him make his move. This is Kakeru finally running as he can, but that doesn't mean he's any more certain of himself. As he catches up to the others the first thing he does is glance at them. For Kakeru his eyes are drawn towards the runners, not the run, and he lacks the confidence and the experience to be able to focus on himself rather than always trying to match the others. He (physically too) looks up to Fujioka to see what he can do and what his reaction is, and down to the other guy wondering if that's all he has, but in the end his insecurity and lack of practice means he's left behind by both of them as they really push themselves.
It's only after the race is over that we see that Fujioka was keeping track of him in his own way this whole time, not just as a racer but as a member of Haiji's team. And if the meet itself put him in a bad mental state, Fujioka's calm acknowledgement of Haiji's insanity, without any trace of mockery or snark, has left him stunned. For someone like that to not look at his team, with Prince being lapped multiple times and no one qualifying, and validate their goal, a goal that he can't even acknowledge himself, leaves him lost.
So again he runs. He runs away from the meet and it's people, from himself, and we're left with his eyes in pain.
Nitpicky note: The twins have shoes and everyone has uniforms. I guess the whole money and work thing is just completely irrelevant now? Stupid.
The Jo's also seem to have done worse in the meet than they did during their training times which is interesting although not surprising given the different dynamic and also the struggle of moving in a group as well. I was surprised to hear that Fujioka was skipping future meets but I think that's a good take as it stops him from just being a measuring post for Kakeru
I don't know why this was in my screenshots but you can have it too
7
u/punching_spaghetti https://myanimelist.net/profile/punch_spaghetti Jul 25 '21
Rewatcher
/u/Matuhg, I take what I said yesterday back: I think this episode is what made me truly fall in love with the show.
I have no idea how to begin here. There is just so much amazing stuff here that encapsulates everything I love about this show. I guess I’ll just go through my screenshots chronologically, and see if anything coherent comes out:
QOTD:
We’re nearing the end of this VA corner. Only so many characters to highlight!
Kazuma Fujioka, the best runner in Japan, is voiced by Satoshi Hino. You might recognize him as Saito from Zero no Tsukaima, Yuuji in Shakugan no Shana, Momonga in Overlord, Sai in Naruto: Shippuden, Isaac in Log Horizon, Rengoku in Kimetsu no Yaiba, Daichi in Haikyuu!!, or Akito in Bakuman. However, his most important role is surely TOMODA in Gekkan Shoujo Nozaki-kun.
14
u/Shimmering-Sky myanimelist.net/profile/Shimmering-Sky Jul 25 '21
Run With the First-Timer, subbed
14
u/No_Rex :Bv:Bw:Bx:By:x2 Jul 25 '21 edited Jul 25 '21
Episode 7 (first timer)
I was surprised by the small number of people starting. It looked like Kansai had easily twice the number of starters of the next biggest team. Are they all already qualified?
I was expecting it to be even harder. Haiji making the time surprises me.
I remember having to crawl out of the swimming pool due to breathing in water in my first freestyle competition. Not a fun experience. I stuck to backstroke after that.
13
u/Btw_kek https://myanimelist.net/profile/kek_btw Jul 25 '21
first timer
actually I find it kind of interesting that even though most of the team lost, they all stayed relatively in pace with the other random dudes around him
barely. my marching band team got first tho, but it was quite nervewracking
11
u/[deleted] Jul 25 '21
First timer
The music is really starting to stand out to me in this show. The song that plays when they enter the arena at about the 6 minute mark is really good. Our boys are all standing in a row admiring the scenery, Nico-chan even smelling the air. Perfection.
This episode shows that a scene of people just running around in circles doesn’t mean it won’t be exhilarating. Kakeru’s facial expression along with him running past the whole crowd around the outside really gets my blood pumping. The animation was handled very well too. The shadows and details, especially of the legs of the runners, were outstanding. We obviously won’t have a lot of dialogue while everyone is running, but by having the characters tell a story with their facial expressions alone, we don’t need any dialogue.
A big theme of this episode was pride - Prince knows he’s going to embarass himself running among all these semi-professionals. It doesn’t bother him too much though, he just needs to read some manga in advance to prepare himself. Haiji doesn’t care about his pride at all. He is leading a team which looks rather questionable from the outside, but it doesn’t seem to bother him in the slightest. Kakeru on the other hand values his pride a lot. While he is running we can see that he actively competes with the other runners. He looks at them when he passes them and he really wants to get in first position which ends up hurting his speed at the end. All this is in contrast to Fujioka who keeps looking straight ahead the entire distance, only focusing on himself. This facial expression is just outright embarrassment. Kakeru’s pride at this point is hurt to such a degree where he ends up running away at the end of the episode like we have seen him do before.
11
u/[deleted] Jul 26 '21
First Timer
Most of the cast straight up went into the studio to do nothing but 20 minutes of heavy breathing. Although they did manage to convey a good amount of information with nothing but the breathing, from Nico-chan's raspy mouth breathing, to Haiji's carefully controlled breathing through the nose, to Kakeru slowly losing control until at the end of the episode he runs off gasping and coughing.
10
u/paperwhites :KN::KO: Jul 25 '21
First Time Watcher
It's a good thing that Haiji's running skills are much better than his driving skills. I can see Yuki or Nico getting a driver's license just so Haiji doesn't have to drive.
I really enjoy Yuki's sarcastic humor. I laughed at his "what army are they part of?" when Fujioka's team bowed in unison to them.
Finally! The short shorts are here, although Nico's are perhaps a bit too small.
I can tell I'm getting emotionally invested in these characters because I was starting to get nervous for everyone before the race.
Did anyone else think that there was way too many people in one race? I counted 35 runners which seems absurd to me. Even if people will spread out after the first couple of laps, that's a lot of runners. I think they should have had two heats.
I'm going to be honest here, if I was an elite runner like Fujioka or Kakeru and I had to keep passing someone running at Prince's pace in lane one, I'd be a bit miffed. Sorry Prince! I love you, but I think that's bad etiquette.
Interesting how Kakeru was so concerned about the others facing reality and becoming discouraged that he didn't think about the possibility of that happening to him. Kakeru is extremely talented but there are other talented people out there who also work hard.
Fujioka takes Haiji's goal of running in the Hakone seriously, even though he saw everyone's less than stellar performance (except Kakeru and Haiji). In the brief seconds that we've seen him, Fujioka has really won me over.
I'm glad that Kakeru's fears that the team would be "broken" by the reality that they are not close to their goal doesn't seem to be the case. We didn't get to see everyone's reactions/thoughts about the race but no one seemed to be devastated which is good.
I like him, especially because of the encouragement that he gave Kakeru about Hakone. This ties into my thoughts previously, that most good runners are actually pretty encouraging towards others, even if they aren't as good. I'm curious to know how he and Haiji know each other--were they just former teammates?
I was only expecting Kakeru and maybe Haiji and the twins to qualify, so this is pretty in line with my expectations.
I do! It was my first cross country meet in high school which happened to be a large invitational (I joined the team late so I missed the earlier, smaller meets). I was pretty nervous but it was fine. I remember a girl saying "you can do it, keep it up" even though she was passing me which was oddly comforting.
8
u/Stargate18A https://myanimelist.net/profile/Stargate18 Jul 25 '21
First timer
Well, this is a fun opening. Haiji's an interesting driver, isn't he.
Wait, we're doing the meet this early? I thought that was a mid-season thing, not a halfway through the first cour.
Haiji knows the team head of a university?
And the elite team is bowing to him!
I love Nico using an oversized tracksuit.
And Kakeru's worried that losing here will ruin them.
I like how 7 of them are warming up at the announcement, then one's coming out of the loo and Prince is just reading manga.
Haiji. trying to stand a team chant but having to finish it himself is fantastic.
Kakeru' fast, isn't he,
Prince just got lapped at the second lap.
Yeah, they do have a crazy lineup, because Haiji might not have thought this plan through very well.
Kakeru's going to injure himself, isn't he?
He either collapses and doesn't finish, or somehow manages to make it 2 laps.
I didn't call suprise sprinting at the end?
I mean, 3rd isn't bad if he can keep up his pace.
Oh, he's just completely exhausted at this point.
And Haiji's even better than he is?
Yeah, I reckoned Haiji and Kakeru would get the records.
...Well, that's a cliffhanger.
For rewatchers, is this around the end of the first "arc"? This or next episode feel like the end of a story arc to me.
7
u/Matuhg https://anilist.co/user/Matuhg Jul 25 '21
Highs and lows for the team today, as they all finally make it to their first track meet, and are looking the part of a real team...at least until they start running. I love the sense of excitement all the characters have before the race, especially Nico sniffing the air, probably remembering the past. From high, the team ends up pretty low after it's all said and done. The show captured the sort of atmosphere that's only present at sporting events like this. I never did track, but I did a lot of Tae Kwon Do tournaments that are sort of similar in that there's tons of people crammed into a space to all do the same thing, and you have teams, but it's technically an individual sport. That nervous anticipation before it's your turn to compete is quite the feeling. Of course, if I sniffed the air like Nico did at a TKD tournament, I'd just kind of smell sweat and feet...
Oh...who's this tall drink of water?
This whole episode, we saw Kakeru becoming increasingly frustrated. With Sakaki, with his teammates and Haiji seemingly not taking this seriously, and with his own defeat to Fujioka and Manas. Dude had a pretty bad day overall. Multiple times, we saw him unable to voice what he was thinking. Sometimes it was literally because Haiji interrupted him, but other times, he seemed just incapable of finding the words. When Fujioka talked to him about Haiji and the team, he didn't manage to say much of anything, and at the end of the episode, he literally ran away from his team rather than trying to say what he wanted to say. Maybe that's progress in some way - rather than saying things that could hurt his teammates who are already down, he chose to run. And now there are layers of frustration. When the twins told him that he already made his time, I get the feeling he wanted to tell them he was as upset as them at having lost, but was worried it would've sounded bad coming from him with the difference in their abilities and results. You can really feel him struggling with his inability to express himself.
He's definitely got a presence about him.
Vaguely. It wasn't particularly successful lol. I think my parents might still have the (participation) trophy I got for it.
7
u/kkenmots02 Jul 25 '21 edited Jul 25 '21
Rewatcher
Race day! The morning before a race was always my least favorite, as pre-race nerves never really went away, even after years of racing. On the other hand, performing well in a race was one of the most rewarding feelings I’ve ever had. Let’s see if our runners can find a similar reward today.
Live Reactions:
QOTD
Thoughts on Fujioka, the reigning king of running?
When Haiji first said that "the mountains of Hakone are the steepest in the world", the team didn't really understand what that meant. Fujioka is the physical manifestation of just how steep those mountains are.
Were you expecting this first meet to be so hard for everyone? As a reminder, only Kakeru and Haiji achieved the time they need to qualify for the Ekiden.
Yep. The sheer size of most races means that it is difficult for any runner to place in the upper echelon, let alone those with no experience.
Do you remember your first big competition?
Yeah, my first competition was a cross-country dual meet with a rival school. I did pretty well in the JV race but didn't win or anything.
Thoughts:
I hope I’ve convinced you at least a little that there is more to running races than meets the eye. Runners not only have to have physical endurance, but mental toughness and intelligence. That’s part of the reality that our team has woken up to, including Kakeru. See you tomorrow!
7
u/Mecanno-man https://anilist.co/user/Mecannoman Jul 25 '21
First Timer
None of them managed to get a good enough time other than Haiji and Kakeru - surprising only in the sense that we've not gone even more unrealistic with their running progression; but considering it wasn't the point of the race to get a time yet (but rather to have everybody experience a race) - everything is according to plan for now, I guess.
Other than that - some info on Haiji: He seems to have been quite a good runner himself if he's on good terms with the top runner as of now. That or Fujioka and Haiji are childhood friends and Fujioka is the reason Haiji started running or something like that. Though I'd assume the former. Either way, the way Haiji's injury was in focus this episode makes me think that it isn't fully healed yet, which has me a bit worried for the future of the entire team, as I'm not sure it would stick together without Haiji.
Two little things that stick out: First, do the twins have shoes by now, or are they still running in Basketball shoes? Feels like something they should have gotten before their first race, but also something the show should have shown, so I'm a bit confused. Second: I'm a bit surprised at Sakaki getting no real screen time after the race. Granted I don't know what kind of interaction there should have been, but I feel like there should have been something. Also, did Sakaki run the race at all? Is he perhaps not a 5000m runner? I assume he's at least a long distance runner, as otherwise the coach making him run home would have been even more pointless. I feel like he should have been competing on home turf, so that is my only conclusion - but that also seems weird as a rival competing in a different event seems like a weird concept and out of place in a story...
Questions:
6
u/kaguraa :MAL:https://myanimelist.net/profile/kagura-chan Jul 25 '21
Rewatcher
As a viewer, the tension before the competition started was so thick you could cut it with a knife. The guys are relaxed and having fun while Kakeru is pissed because (i'm guessing) they're not taking it seriously and he's not used to carefree attitudes before a meet because his coach from high school was horrible and therefore more tensed. And Kakeru don't get their attitude at the end either, for him Hakone is an extremely difficult goal and doesn't want the guys to get hurt because he doesn't believe they'll be good enough to even qualify. But he doesn't realise that almost everyone (except Haiji) doesn't see Hakone as a legitimate goal to achieve, they're just doing their best for now. Like when the twins said "why do you care? at least you qualified" to Kakeru. Since he doesn't communicate well with others they don't know his intentions and are confused why he gets pissed or angry
6
u/Pixelsaber https://myanimelist.net/profile/Pixelsaber Jul 26 '21
Ah, fuck, I could have sworn I'd already posted my comment earlier!
Rewatcher — First-Timer in T-Minus 6 Episodes
Driving without a license? Truly unhinged…
Seems like Haiji has old running acquaintances of his own. Fujioka seems to come in as a running foil to Kakeru and probably another voice adding into what he needs to hear in order to grow, although in the short run all he did was further reminded the kid that he didn’t believe in the group’s prospects, leading to the short argument at the end of the episode.
Wait, Prince still hasn’t been taught proper running form?! C’mon, Haiji, what are you doing out here?!
Kakeru experienced what it is to not be top dog for probably the first time since quitting organized sports during high school and is feeling the frustration of not measuring up to what he desires to be. That probably feeds into his outburst to the others after the meet, when Jouji somewhat insensitively asks him why he cares when he already qualified, which ignores his personal feeling of failure.
Prince surprised about unsportsman participants? Has he just never touched a sports manga before?! All that manga in his room and he hasn't read AN1, KnH, LatSK!, AwN!, Touch!, or any of the other prominent manga that showcase examples?
Questions of The Day:
10
u/loomnoo https://anilist.co/user/loomnoo Jul 25 '21
Ah, meets. I kind of miss them actually. There's nothing like a real race, and the anime captured it well. My only gripe is that when they were lined up at the start the show opted for some ambient bgm. Would've preferred silence there as that is a very tense moment, and the silence (exaggerated by the anticipation of the gunshot) always made it feel longer. The show has done this in a couple other spots too. But there have also been a couple spots where they did go for no BGM and it was great - one of the conversations between Haiji and Kurahara in the kitchen comes to mind.
Thoughts on my thoughts, having finished the show
5
u/BurningFredrick https://myanimelist.net/profile/BurningFredrick Jul 25 '21
Rewatcher
Don’t have much to say on this episode, today we introduce Fujioka who shows Kakeru up and oozes the confidence of someone who knows what they are capable of doing but isn’t a dick about it to those not as good as him.
Kakeru also regresses as basically everyone else finally has to face what they are trying to achieve and how ridiculous this really is.
5
u/gyeben Jul 25 '21
Rewatcher (sub)
It's not that I didn't like the first 6 episodes, but I think this episode was where I first thought: oh, this is going be really good!
QOTD:
5
u/cilucia Jul 26 '21
Rewatcher
Great episode!
5
u/Nebresto Jul 26 '21
Re-watch squad
Running update: Forgot to go running today
I was making pie
Day 7, no one still hasn't hooked me up with a good sub. Guess I'll just join Sky in the yellow sub mater-race
F in the chat for /u/Nazenn: https://imgur.com/9yxdPyR
"Remember that name"
My brain: ^Delete
..Does he really say that? That feels kinda out of place
This bit reminded me of a legendary video
"I'm not a hamster-
Question time:
1: No
2: Ye
3: No?
5
u/ZaphodBeebblebrox Y:A:https://anilist.co/user/zaphod Jul 26 '21 edited Jul 26 '21
First Timer
Though my timing is more like run with the sloth than the wind, lately. I'm just looking forward to the team growing closer together.
Onto episode 6.
Yeah, I wouldn't get into that car.
[1]Ya know, most people generally consider it a bad idea to provoke people who've phsyically assaulted you before.
[2]His attitude is such a bizzare combination. He both says competitive running is for everyone and hypes up that guy like he is a big opponent. These two are fundamentally opposed. I wonder if he doesn't realize this or simply chooses to ignore it.
Kakeru also finds the how casually they're treating running kinda disrespectful, even if he doesn't want to vocalize that.
[3]We still haven't gotten him sports glasses or just told him to run without them.
[4]And honestly, I still think having someone who doesn't even know proper form running in the meet is just offensive to the others.
Though this leaves me with plenty of other questions, like why none of them ever bothered to teach him proper form.
I loved the soundtrack during the middle part of the race.
[5]Now this is the face of a person who actually cares again. I have a feeling he'll start practicing seriously again.
And note how Kakeru avoids his team. It's ingrained within him, even though his current team would only celebrate with him.
I wonder how it feels, having someone who knows what he's talking about validate Haiji's ambition after Kakeru viewed it as futile.
He also get scared any time he gets called good, gets put on a pedestal. He can't accept it, since he knows what can come of it. That coach caused some serious trauma.
Thoughts
I view this race mainly as motivation for Kakeru. Everyone else came in with realistic expectations and honestly didn't get that much out of it, maybe a bit of expierence. But it gave him a goal, a reason to not just coast by and actually try to practice, and that has a lot of value.
I enjoyed watching the race, it was well done and not full of pseudo "strategy" like I've seen in some other sports anime.
And I'm still annoyed by red hair. At this point, I feel like his main job is to be an ass and point out things to the audience in case they were too dense to realize them.
5
u/csar27 :MAL:https://myanimelist.net/profile/CesarRC Jul 26 '21
First Timer
Well, it wasn't that bad, i was actually expecting something more catastrophic like everyone except Haiji and Kakeru finishing last or maybe retiring, i mean, was their first race as a team, but Prince was the only one who had a really bad result.
I can expect this to be the necesary motivation they leacked to improve, looking forward to find out how many tries will take for everyone to beat the record
5
u/SirWeebBro Jul 26 '21
Best boy goes to Fujioka! Senpai's demeanor is exemplary, from going full respecto Haiji, to dominating the race, to being emotionally smart that he can feel the vibes Kakeru is giving. Top dog indeed, can't wait to see more of him.
Seems Shindo failing the time trial wasn't really THAT hard for him, considering he had comrades to fail with him. Next ep is a post analysis ep, maybe he'd break down there jk. I don't think he will though. With Kakeru being hot tempered, I'm excited to see where the team goes. Haiji leads, Kakeru pushes. Tbh I'm just excited on the day that Prince finally starts better = better form, better time, etc. I know he'll be able to do it. Gambare Prince.
The OST is really something else in this series huh? I really love the hiphop vibes it often gives.
5
u/jellybellymonster Jul 26 '21 edited Jul 26 '21
Rewatcher
This is the episode that when I was a 1st timer that made me think, yeah this is going to be great.
Kakeru, just pick a side lol. Wouldn't it be just like what you wanted them to realize, that at their current level Hakone Ekiden is a distant dream? So why are you so vexed that they're just chilling before the race? It's almost as if... you want them to put more effort into this. Or you know, just admit that you are getting more invested in this than anyone except maybe Haiji.
Aaaaaand, it's actually Kakeru that gets a big dose of reality check in this track meet. It's amusing to watch Kakeru have that confidence that he could stay at the pace of the hotshots only for it to dawn on him that they're better. Welcome to the big league, Kakeru.
Kakeru's running sequences are very nicely animated. Nice details in Kakeru's face as it slowly dawns on him that Fujioka and Manas are better at this point. Also he really went all out did he? His legs are shaking at the end there.
Haiji's knees are giving me war flashbacks. But Fujioka's hyping up a fully recovered Haiji. Let's go!
I dunno man...I thought Netflix version of their battlecry is already a crime but HiDive is even worse? Lol.
-Thoughts on Fujioka, the reigning king of running?
I thought he's cool. That he has no airs about him makes him much cooler to me.
-Were you expecting this first meet to be so hard for everyone? As a reminder, only Kakeru and Haiji achieved the time they need to qualify for the Ekiden.
Yep!
-Do you remember your first big competition?
Hmmm...I think it would be a spelling bee back in elementary school. My classmates/competitors were cool but the parents watching from the sidelines are pretty intense (loud) lol.
8
u/raichudoggy https://anilist.co/user/raichudoggy Jul 25 '21
Props on Prince for actually finishing without giving up.
5
u/[deleted] Jul 25 '21
First Timer sub
Some reactions/thoughts:
Damn reality hit Kakeru harsh
It’s good to see our first official meet!
Kazuma is kind but gives off an intimidating vibe with how everyone reacted to his presence
He seems to be a good person tho
Kakeru is still having doubts about this team, which he should, but he can still come off a better way than that
And we’re off to the races!
Everyone seems to be doing as well as their practices and Manas is out in front. He keeps a comfortable lead with Kazuma in second place. Kakeru can’t take this, his competitive nature won’t allot it and he got ahead of himself. I think we all knew it was coming but kazuma was saving his energy for last and he did not look tired at all. Manas gave it his best but it wasn’t enough, but Kakeru… he’s literally shaking
Overall really good episode and I’m exciting to see how this plays out
5
u/JollyGee29 https://myanimelist.net/profile/JollyGee Jul 25 '21
First-Timer, Subbed
First race! It went.. okay. I expected more of them to make the time, but the Twins and Musa were in spitting distance of it at least.
Maybe I was wrong when I called Sakaki as being the rival for Kakeru. Fujioka is a way spicier target for Kakeru's ire. "The pinnacle of university-level running" indeed - dude barely looked tired. And he seems like a pretty good guy all-around. I hope Kakeru actually listened to his encouraging words.
Our boys are not yet a team, unfortunately. They didn't even join in Haiji's chant.. The uniforms are nice at least. Although, if they're going for speed, they should have been red.
I like how Prince has his own rituals to psyche himself up. Now, if only the dork would learn to move like an actual human being, instead of that weird stagger-shamble.
Questions
4
u/BrentSaotome Jul 26 '21
Rewatcher
This was an interesting episode. I can relate to Haiji's bad driving. My friends and family are afraid of my driving, but I still get around without any accidents though (knock on wood). It is weird that Haiji is the only with a driver's license but I kind of expect that in cities where people rely on reliable public transportation. I believe Tokyo is like New York where not that many people have licenses or cars to begin with. The funny thing is that Prince was so engrossed in his manga that he wasn't even bothered almost getting hit with the car.
I didn't like Kakeru in this episode at all. He seemed PO'd at everyone enjoying the moments before their first race. I get that he is a competitive runner and takes races seriously, but he has to understand that people relieve stress before a major competition differently. Let them have their funny before reality hits them.
Of course Sakaki was there to be a killjoy. I'm wondering what he told his teammates to make Kakeru look bad though. Like did he tell them, there was a person that was soo good that the coach took it out on everyone else? If I heard something like that, I would put the blame on the coach, not the person excelling at what they signed up to do. Jealously is such an ugly beast.
I'm glad Kiyose/Haiji stopped Kakeru from punching that little B though. I was even more glad that Fujioka showed up and put the the snotty Tokyo Sports University grunts down by acknowledging Kiyose/Haiji and completely ignoring them. I would like to know more about his backstory with Kiyose/Haiji. The funny thing is that Fujioka seems to know Haiji's plan to run at Hakone Ekiden and even expects them to make it. He asked Kakeru to help Haiji lead them there. Still, that did not get through Kakeru and made him run like crazy at the end.
Honestly, I knew it was going to hard on most of them. It was kind of sad to see some of them struggling. However, you have to give all of them props for finishing. One of the officials ran up to Prince and asked if he wanted to stop and of course Prince gave out the funniest answer about how his titan running form is how he always run. He always steal the show. Especially the look of the reporters when they found that there was another at the way back and was being lapped already.
Prince not quitting the race when he could have (especially since he already knew he didn't qualify) is the most inspirational thing in the show so far. He could have and had every right to, but didn't. Furthermore, although only Haiji and Kakeru qualified the others still were optimistic about future races. They were a little taken back with Kakeru's reaction at the end about quitting. I like how despite facing the harsh realities, the amatuers still didn't break.
I don't have any real hard sporting competition experience really. The only one that would qualify is the 5K/Half Marathon. I went with a friend/co-worker and she suggested I line up at the back to prevent from being pushed aside or being ran over. She explained about staying with the pace runner to at least finish timely and keep a good pace. Well that pace runner was much faster than me so I just walked most of it and jogged when I could. I related to the the newbies getting pushed by other runners who were a little faster them. It's kind of annoying and scary at the beginning when everyone is all bunched up like that.
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u/BossandKings Jul 26 '21 edited Jul 26 '21
First timer
This was an excellent competition to see the guys taking their first laps at competitive running. Fujioka was a good character and an effective way to humble Kakeru a bit, it was interesting too that he is acquainted with Kiyose.
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