On Tezuka.

[prillalar]

Oh, Tezuka, you keep me up at night.

Ryoma has both Nanjiroh and Tezuka to help him grow. Who does Tezuka have? We hardly see Tezuka play. When we do, we hardly see him challenged. (Moreso now in the manga, though it seemed odd that he was challenged in that last match

Comments

[prillalar]

I'm still hoping we'll get a manga flashback to sleepaway junior tennis camp. *g*

And I strongly disagree with those who say that he doesn't see Ryouma as a rival

I think this all hinges on how you define "rival". Certainly, Tezuka has set himself up as a goal that Ryoma has to reach, an obstacle he has to overcome. And you're right -- just because Ryoma may defeat Tezuka once, that's no guarantee he'll always do so.

But I don't think I would use the word "rival" to describe them. In the context of sports/competition/battle manga/anime (the ones I've seen, anyhow), your rival is generally your peer, a member of your cohort, or close to it. And Tezuka isn't Ryoma's peer. He's an authority figure. He's set up to parallel Ryoma's father.

I think the closest thing we've seen as a rival for Ryoma in the anime is Kevin. In the manga, maybe Kintarou will be that for him. But nothing on-going.

And I think that's why I like the Tezuka-Ryoma relationship so much. They're not in competition with each other, as rivals are, not right now. Once Ryoma gets to that point, though, then maybe they can be.

God, maybe that's their golden moment. That's when they can be happy. (Talking about love now, of course. *g*) If Tezuka lets Ryoma get too far ahead of him, then he's lost him. Wow, I've got to think about this some more.

I'm quite interested to see what Ryoma's role will be in the upcoming OVAs, since my Tezuka/Ryoma interest is mainly anime-based. Probably it will be total crack, but we can still hope. :)

[wonapalei]

Oh, I didn't mean that he sees Ryouma as a rival at exactly this moment in time. What I said (and I can see, rereading, that it wasn't as clear as it might have been) is that he sees "that Ryouma will definitely become his rival." As in, he isn't good enough yet, but he will be eventually, and then the fun really begins as the two of them start pushing each other instead of Tezuka constantly pushing Ryouma (or pulling him up, I suppose). As you say, "that's when they can be happy." So, in short, I think we agree. :D

[prillalar]

Hee! You're right -- we do agree. :)