Tosei. ;A;
I'm posting this VERY TL;DR rambling entry assuming that you've all read chapter 15b over at raep_time, or have watched up to episode 24 in the anime, raw. (Is the sub out yet?)
I never really had massive love for Tosei. I liked them a lot, loved them, even, but I'm hardly a Toseifag and I didn't really care for them until halfway through the Nishiura versus Tosei game. Typesetting made me have a love-hate relationship with mind-vomit Kazu, and there are times when I can't figure Junta's random personality out.
I love Shingo, though, and Jin because he was a short, grumpy, flailing thing. And Rio, who's the fluffiest and dorkiest puppy ever. Yama-chan makes me squee when he appears, however rare, and let's not forget my massive super love for their coach.
This is the panel after Nishiura's win is declared and just after both team thanked each other for the game. You can see them lined up facing each other, Nishiura's ten to Tosei's more. But if you include Abe's emo!moe moment, that beats all.
This is what I love the manga for. You get to see these random scenes in still frame and get to appreciate certain scenes better. I love the anime a lot, it allowed me to understand the effing game better, but the manga is awesome, too. I read and watch both and never get tired of them.
I've never really felt very bad for the opponent's team in sports manga/anime. Most of the time, I never really get the chance to, and most of the sports manga/anime I've had the chance to follow have had terribly annoying opponents. Take Eyeshield 21, for example -- true, you do get to like Deimon's opponents sometimes, but it's never really to the point of feeling very bad for them. I never felt bad for the losing team in Prince of Tennis, even when I sometimes want Ryoma to lose badly the little dick. The worst I've felt for the losing team had been for Shoyo, in Slam Dunk. They had been aiming for Kainan for years, and that year had been their opportunity, only Shohoku cockblocked them bad. The old sports anime, like Grander Musashi (fishing is a sport, shut up) had the common theme of bad-guys-join-the-good-guys so there's always consolation there.
With Tosei, though, you don't really start out thinking "this team should lose," or "oh my god I hope they lose!" and not even "this team will lose." Well, for me it wasn't like that. There were times when I would be convinced they'd win, even when I already knew the end of the arc. They were the champions of last year's Koushien, the way they conducted themselves on the field was very different from how Nishiura did, and Higuchi at least made some of their characters known so you can't say they're cardboard opponents and you actually like them immediately, the moment you see them.
They were a good team. (I still think they lucked out when they won last year's Koushien, though. They are great, but not terrifically, frighteningly awesome like, say, ARC.) And they baaaawww a lot. A lot of the members of the team aren't going to be playing anymore after their game with Nishiura. Junta and Kazu will never be an official battery again, not unless they go to the same university, and considering that they spent middle school and high school together (with Rio, the three of them all in different batches), I don't think they have a high chance of ending up in the same uni. This was their only season together, the three of them in the team, was it not? They didn't even last one round in their last season together.
I liked Junta (and his ass), Kazu (despite the mind vomit), Rio (for the flailing), Shingo (for the yarashii), Jin (for the grumpy and omg cute expressions), and Yama-chan (for that jab he did on Junta). I like their coach. I think one regret I have about this arc was that Higuchi never gave Tosei's coach a name. She gave the base coaches that appeared in five pages names, but not Kantoku? I CAN'T KEEP ON CALLING HIM TOSEI KANTOKU. D: Maybe he should be Ii-san, after Iichan.
It wasn't anyone's fault. Junta could have thrown better, Kazu could have figured Nishiura earlier, Jin could have run faster, Take could have hit more, Shingo slipped a few times -- everyone made errors that let Nishiura steal a couple of runs and they underestimated Nishiura. To their credit, Nishiura had just as many mistakes, and the boys had a shitload of data to use against Tosei. And they managed to hold on at the last inning.
SO YEAH, saraba, Tosei. I enjoyed the past four months with you.
Watch this one! It is sad! Especially the bit from 1:20 - 1:30. ;_;
... why don't I have a Tosei icon.
Click to viewI never really had massive love for Tosei. I liked them a lot, loved them, even, but I'm hardly a Toseifag and I didn't really care for them until halfway through the Nishiura versus Tosei game. Typesetting made me have a love-hate relationship with mind-vomit Kazu, and there are times when I can't figure Junta's random personality out.
I love Shingo, though, and Jin because he was a short, grumpy, flailing thing. And Rio, who's the fluffiest and dorkiest puppy ever. Yama-chan makes me squee when he appears, however rare, and let's not forget my massive super love for their coach.
This is the panel after Nishiura's win is declared and just after both team thanked each other for the game. You can see them lined up facing each other, Nishiura's ten to Tosei's more. But if you include Abe's emo!moe moment, that beats all.
This is what I love the manga for. You get to see these random scenes in still frame and get to appreciate certain scenes better. I love the anime a lot, it allowed me to understand the effing game better, but the manga is awesome, too. I read and watch both and never get tired of them.
I've never really felt very bad for the opponent's team in sports manga/anime. Most of the time, I never really get the chance to, and most of the sports manga/anime I've had the chance to follow have had terribly annoying opponents. Take Eyeshield 21, for example -- true, you do get to like Deimon's opponents sometimes, but it's never really to the point of feeling very bad for them. I never felt bad for the losing team in Prince of Tennis, even when I sometimes want Ryoma to lose badly the little dick. The worst I've felt for the losing team had been for Shoyo, in Slam Dunk. They had been aiming for Kainan for years, and that year had been their opportunity, only Shohoku cockblocked them bad. The old sports anime, like Grander Musashi (fishing is a sport, shut up) had the common theme of bad-guys-join-the-good-guys so there's always consolation there.
With Tosei, though, you don't really start out thinking "this team should lose," or "oh my god I hope they lose!" and not even "this team will lose." Well, for me it wasn't like that. There were times when I would be convinced they'd win, even when I already knew the end of the arc. They were the champions of last year's Koushien, the way they conducted themselves on the field was very different from how Nishiura did, and Higuchi at least made some of their characters known so you can't say they're cardboard opponents and you actually like them immediately, the moment you see them.
They were a good team. (I still think they lucked out when they won last year's Koushien, though. They are great, but not terrifically, frighteningly awesome like, say, ARC.) And they baaaawww a lot. A lot of the members of the team aren't going to be playing anymore after their game with Nishiura. Junta and Kazu will never be an official battery again, not unless they go to the same university, and considering that they spent middle school and high school together (with Rio, the three of them all in different batches), I don't think they have a high chance of ending up in the same uni. This was their only season together, the three of them in the team, was it not? They didn't even last one round in their last season together.
I liked Junta (and his ass), Kazu (despite the mind vomit), Rio (for the flailing), Shingo (for the yarashii), Jin (for the grumpy and omg cute expressions), and Yama-chan (for that jab he did on Junta). I like their coach. I think one regret I have about this arc was that Higuchi never gave Tosei's coach a name. She gave the base coaches that appeared in five pages names, but not Kantoku? I CAN'T KEEP ON CALLING HIM TOSEI KANTOKU. D: Maybe he should be Ii-san, after Iichan.
It wasn't anyone's fault. Junta could have thrown better, Kazu could have figured Nishiura earlier, Jin could have run faster, Take could have hit more, Shingo slipped a few times -- everyone made errors that let Nishiura steal a couple of runs and they underestimated Nishiura. To their credit, Nishiura had just as many mistakes, and the boys had a shitload of data to use against Tosei. And they managed to hold on at the last inning.
SO YEAH, saraba, Tosei. I enjoyed the past four months with you.
Watch this one! It is sad! Especially the bit from 1:20 - 1:30. ;_;
... why don't I have a Tosei icon.