[Prince of Tennis] Volume 03 - Street Tennis (Genius 017-025)
... in which Ryoma plays some idiots, Kirihara shows up for the first time and is adorable in a psychopathic sort of way, and Momoshiro and Ryoma suck so bad at doubles. And not in the good way, either.
Genius 017 - Have Mercy
(Okay, I seriously think this chapter is a waste of time, because talking about filler. Oh, well, here goes.)
The tennis uniform store is handling the uniform orders--their minds are blown by the fact that Seigaku ordered a small.
The freshmen think Kachiro's dad is awesome because he coaches at a large tennis club, except for Ryoma who yawns. Sasabe (the guy who was being an ass on the train in Vol 1) and his father are obnoxious to Kachiro's dad. Ryoma kicks their asses 6-0.
MOVING ON.
**
Genius 018 - Guys Who Are Determined to Win
It's ten days before district semi-finals and everyone is pumped up. We're introduced to Ryuuzaki, who as it turns out, is also the math teacher for the seniors.
Tezuka and Ryuuzaki make a speech about how regionals are important and how nobody can let their guard down. Regulars are in court A & B, juniors and seniors are in court C, freshmen pick up the balls. *g*
Inui is the one preparing the training menus and everyone is shocked that he's still around. He passes out ankle-weights (2 bars of 250 g each) and tells everyone to try a convoluted training exercise where they have to hit tennis balls of a certain color at the same colored cones. Eiji's really good at this. No one can match Eiji when it comes to distinguish moving objects like that, says Oishi as he and Fuji watch. I am torn between Dream Pair and Golden Pair love, but melt a little on the inside.
Eiji has bad stamina. We all knew this. Everyone is tired after the practice and Inui starts handing out advice to the team. Eiji needs to develop his forearm muscles. Oishi and Kaidoh are too slow when it comes to moving backwards and forward. Kawamura and Fuji need to develop their leg muscles. Momo's not accurate enough.
Tezuka isn't flexible enough (o_O) and his expression is too serious (o___O;;).
Ryoma is too short, so he has to drink two bottles of milk a day. *g*
Everyone has to have 10 bars of ankle-weights. Everyone says, "........" and then starts hitting tennis balls at Inui. I wonder why they never do this when faced with Inui Juice?
**
Genius 019 - Kirihara Akaya
Kirihara is asleep on the bus. Seigaku is apparently the end of the line (clearly not a metaphor in any way, shape, or form) and the conductor kicks him off the bus. Paralleling this, Ryoma overslept and Tezuka wonders where he is. Also, Tezuka has very bad hair.
Meanwhile, Kirihara's talking on his phone to his coach--does Rikkaidai even have a coach? I mean, I'm sure they have one but I can't remember ever reading about him. Anyway, Kirihara's supposed to play Kakinoki for practice, whatever that is. Kirihara figures out that he's at Seigaku and then the coach hangs up on him.
Seigaku is doing their hitting-colored-balls-at-colored-cones practice thing. Kirihara says, "Eh, what a meaningful practice" and I wibble at his apathy. The freshmen notice Kirihara and Oishi questions Kirihara. I just stare at the scanlation, which is stunningly bad. ("I'm a second year champ in Ritekai Middle School. The legendary Kiruhara Akanari, is me!!")
Seriously--Kirihara's on a team with Sanada as fukubuchou and he thinks Tezuka is stiff? That says something about Tezuka.
But akd;ajkadj Kirihara is the most adorable thing ever. Even more adorable when you think about the fact that his eyes get bloodshot and he is psycho when he's pissed off. sdfa;kjs I love him.
Anyway, Kirihara challenges Tezuka to a match and remarks that Tezuka was the only one who could beat [Rikkaidai's] senpais in past prefectural tournaments. Tezuka says very briefly, "Get lost, outsider."
Kirihara tries to cajole Tezuka into a game and I die a little more at his cuteness.
Arai tries to defend Tezuka's honor or something (wtf?) by hitting a tennis ball at the back of Kirihara's head. Kirihara hits the ball back anyway--he doesn't even have to turn around--and Kirihara says, "Can you not interfere with our conversation?" (I die a little more at his cuteness. I just. He's such a cute little psychopath.)
The thing I love about Rikkaidai is that they're so much more about mind games than any of the other schools are (... although I'm not sure what you'd consider Shitenhouji as, er). Kirihara's very serious when he says, "I will defeat you"--but then a few moments later, he grins and says, "Just kidding". It's all very calculated to unnerve Tezuka (well, if Tezuka has nerves) and I love, love, love him. (Did I mention that I love Rikkaidai?)
Kirihara returns Arai's tennis ball by hitting it back in Arai's direction, but it misses and hits Momoshiro, who is standing next to Arai. Chaos ensues, Kaidoh gets hit in the back of the head with a tennis ball, and someone screams, "OH NO--KAIDOH HAS GONE INSANE!!!!!" (Seriously, wtf?)
Tezuka restores order. Or something. Thirty laps, everyone! Kirihara slinks off and runs into Ryoma. As they go their respective ways, Kirihara throws a tennis ball back at Ryoma and Ryoma basically repeats the same stunt that Kirihara pulled on Arai.
Ryuuzaki asks Tezuka about Kirihara and then tells him not to push himself, he has to think about the future and take care of his body first. Tezuka says that at the moment, the only thing he cares about is winning the tournament with the team.
***
Genius 020 - Street Tennis
The first time around, I dozed through this chapter. Hopefully the second time around will be better.
The freshmen are looking at the match-ups for the district preliminaries--nobody in the list is memorable except, of course, for Fudoumine and Kakinoki. (If Rikkaidai's in a different district, why is Kirihara supposed to play Kakinoki, anyway?)
District prelims will start in two days, and only the top two will go to the prefectural tournament.
Meanwhile, Ryoma's piggybacking on Momo's bike and they're talking about the team line-up. Tezuka is Singles 1, Fuji is Singles 2, and the Golden Pair are Doubles 1. The question is, who's going to be Singles 3? Ryoma and Momoshiro decide to play a match of street tennis to decide the matter.
They meet An, who smiles and waves at Ryoma, and two guys from Gyokurin (Izumi and Fukawa) who explain the rules: play a game against the current team on the court, winner gets to have the court, and only doubles are allowed. Izumi and Fukawa mock Ryoma and Momoshiro, both Ryoma and Momo are pissed--and Ryoma takes the service game with the Twist Serve. Momoshiro and Ryoma are really good, but sad from a doubles team perspective, so Gyokurin hits the ball down the center of the court and both Momo and Ryoma argue about it. And then Gyokurin kicks Momo and Ryoma's asses like whoa. *g*
Momoshiro says, "If it were singles, I could beat that one guy and go on to the other." I eyeroll so much.
Apparently Izumi and Fukawa are Gyokurin's star doubles team, and they say that Momoshiro and Ryoma are so lousy at doubles that they can beat Momo & Ryoma as many times as they play them.
"Real men should play doubles!!!" quoth both Momoshiro and Ryoma. I just sigh.
***
Genius 021 - District Preliminaries!!
Eiji cooks eggs, Kaidoh works out, and Kawamura says goodbye to his father, who is the sweetest thing ever. Yumiko offers Fuji a ride and Momoshiro bikes to pick Ryoma up before the tournament. Ryoma bitches about having to eat Japanese food and says it doesn't matter if he's late--Seigaku is the first seed. Tezuka and Oishi ride the bus to the park where district prelims are supposed to take place.
District prelims are for the Tokyo Prefecture; Kantou is finals for East Japan, and then there's Nationals. Seigaku arrives and everyone remarks on how tough they look. Tezuka is the reserve, shocking everyone--and of course, Ryoma and Momoshiro are playing Doubles 2.
Eiji and Oishi apparently share one soul:
... Momoshiro and Ryoma do not.
Since this is Seigaku's first match, they have to play all five rounds, even if a winner has been decided (they only need three / five victories to move up).
Doubles 2 match begins. To say the least, it is ... painful and kind of annoying. Izumi and Fukawa mock Ryoma and Momoshiro some more, and Ryoma says that they'll only be satisfied if they can defeat Izumi and Fukawa at their own game. Since I remember how the match turned out, I break into fits of coughing.
***
Genius 022 - We'll Take Revenge!
Momoshiro and Ryoma are going to use the *AH-UN* Tactic, and everyone goes o_O So do I, because as far as names go, AH-UN doesn't quite compare with Scud Serve and Rondo to Destruction and Laser Beam. Oh, well, at least there aren't any wrestling masks yet.
Gyokurin gets the serve and they hit the ball right down the center just like last time. Momoshiro yells "AH" and Ryoma yells "UN" and then Momoshiro hits the ball. Everyone kind of goes "..." and I really, really like Eiji and Oishi's faces here because it's just so o_O;;;
As Katsuo remarks, "They cooperate pretty well, but ... it's so embarrassing."
Then Fukawa realizes that Momoshiro and Ryoma only know how to return balls in the middle of the court and they're lining up in a straight line--which means the other side of the court is wide open. When Gyokurin hits the ball to one side, Ryoma and Momoshiro collide with one another.
"..." goes Seigaku. "Apart from the center, they have no cooperation in other areas," says Tezuka.
Fuji just snickers, which--I don't even want to know why.
Gyokurin starts doing really well.
***
Genius 023 - First Defeat
Everyone's looking at the school matchups and someone says, "This year, Seigaku and Kakinoki will take the first and second placings as usual." An, who's watching, thinks that it might not be true. Then she sees the Seigaku vs Gyokurin match and she goes to see what's going on. What's going on is that Gyokurin is kicking Seigaku's ass.
The freshmen ask Inui if there's such a big difference between singles and doubles and we're treated to a long and rather dull explanation of doubles play and why Momoshiro and Ryoma suck. Gyokurin wins their service game and they change courts.
Ryuuzaki tells Ryoma and Momoshiro that they are playing pathetically and Momoshiro remarks that although he knows what to do mentally, his natural reflexes are overriding it. Ryoma and Momoshiro start arguing a little about it and the Gyokurin pair finds this hilarious. This, of course, incenses both Ryoma and Momoshiro--who have now fallen into Gyokurin's trap.
"Tezuka, did we choose the wrong pair?" Ryuuzaki asks.
"Yes," says Tezuka and I choke laughing.
Momoshiro serves with the DUNK SMASH AND--
-- beans Ryoma in the back of the head. Er.
"Great!!" cheers Gyokurin. "A self-destructive team!!"
Then Ryoma tries to hit a return and Momoshiro moves in the way, so now it's Momoshiro's turn to get hit in the head. ^^;
"Another self-destructive shot!!" cheers Gyokurin. "Lucky!!"
We get another panel of the Golden Pair watching in something like horror--at least on Oishi's part.
Oh, lord. Momoshiro and Ryoma draw a line in the sand--er, court--and decide that all the balls on the right side are Ryoma's and all the balls on the left are Momo's. I just sigh. A lot.
***
Genius 024 - Doubles
Momoshiro and Ryoma start using their singles playing style against Gyokurin. As Inui remarks, "Just to sum it up, they are using their original style to play. This is not what normal players do though."
Seigaku starts doing pretty well. "Doubles is really fun!" says Ryoma.
"Doubles? You call that doubles?!" says Gyokurin. I start longing for Rikkaidai D1 or the Silver Pair.
Gyokurin hits the ball down the center and Momoshiro returns it with the Ah-Un tactic again.
***
Genius 025 - Advancing to the Districts!!
Seigaku wins 6-2. Gyokurin says that if Momoshiro and Ryoma ever want to play them again, they're always welcome to drop by the steret tennis courts.
"Sure," says Momoshiro.
"But I already had enough of it," says Ryoma and turns around abruptly. I sigh.
"YOU TWO IDIOTS!" says Ryuuzaki and proceeds to ream both Momoshiro and Ryoma out.
The Golden Pair takes their match 6-0. "If you thought that was Seigaku's real doubles..." starts Oishi. "... then we'd have a headache," finishes Eiji. I fall a little in love with the Golden Pair all over again.
Gyokurin figures that they still have singles, then they spot Kaidoh. "AI YA!!" says Gyokurin's Singles 3, "I ... I don't want to ..." Unsurprisingly, Seigaku wins that one 6-0.
Kawamura's up for Singles 2. "Ni...ce to meet you," stammers Kawamura, who even forgot his racket. The Gyokurin player snickers. Then Oishi throws Kawamura his racket and Kawamura shouts, "WA HA HA!! OK--I'M BURNING!!!!"
Also unsurprisingly, the Gyokurin player stops snickering.
Fuji takes Singles 1 6-0 and it's a clean sweep for Seigaku.
After lunch, Seigaku needs to play a school called Mizunohuchi. Ryoma goes off by himself to drink Ponta because he's the reserve in this set of matches. Meanwhile Fuji and Tezuka are watching rival school Kakinoki beats Suzuyonma and Kakinoki's captain and club manager says, "You're not weak at all, we're just too strong!!" Uh, ego much?
Apparently this is his catch-phrase. I sigh.
Kakinoki's captain comes up to ask Fuji & Tezuka if they got any data and basically is an ass to Tezuka. "Fuji, let's go," says Tezuka, and then Kakinoki's captain grabs Tezuka's arm.
"Let go!" says Tezuka and the Kakinoi captain is a little freaked out.
Meanwhile, Seigaku plays Mizunohuchi and takes a doubles match 6-0. Ryoma's annoyed because he's a reserve and Ryuuzaki tells him to learn from the others or at least cheer them on, but if he doesn't listen, she'll pinch his cheek.
"GO SEIGAKU!" cheers Ryoma. ^^;;
Seigaku takes their first three matches and on the other side, Fudoumine kicks Kakinoki's asses. We see our first shot of Shinji and I wibble because I love, love, love Shinji.
"How ... how could this happen ... Fudoumine wasn't this strong before ... Fuck!! I can't believe we lost to a bunch of unseeded players!" says Kakinoki's captain. Shinji, who is pissed for once, is about to slam the guy with his racket, only Tachibana stops Shinji just in time.
"Don't make it into something big," says Tachibana, "Let's go."
"Yes, Tachibana," says Shinji, and we get a really nice Shinji panel. I prepare for Fudoumine fangirling.
Genius 017 - Have Mercy
(Okay, I seriously think this chapter is a waste of time, because talking about filler. Oh, well, here goes.)
The tennis uniform store is handling the uniform orders--their minds are blown by the fact that Seigaku ordered a small.
The freshmen think Kachiro's dad is awesome because he coaches at a large tennis club, except for Ryoma who yawns. Sasabe (the guy who was being an ass on the train in Vol 1) and his father are obnoxious to Kachiro's dad. Ryoma kicks their asses 6-0.
MOVING ON.
**
Genius 018 - Guys Who Are Determined to Win
It's ten days before district semi-finals and everyone is pumped up. We're introduced to Ryuuzaki, who as it turns out, is also the math teacher for the seniors.
Tezuka and Ryuuzaki make a speech about how regionals are important and how nobody can let their guard down. Regulars are in court A & B, juniors and seniors are in court C, freshmen pick up the balls. *g*
Inui is the one preparing the training menus and everyone is shocked that he's still around. He passes out ankle-weights (2 bars of 250 g each) and tells everyone to try a convoluted training exercise where they have to hit tennis balls of a certain color at the same colored cones. Eiji's really good at this. No one can match Eiji when it comes to distinguish moving objects like that, says Oishi as he and Fuji watch. I am torn between Dream Pair and Golden Pair love, but melt a little on the inside.
Eiji has bad stamina. We all knew this. Everyone is tired after the practice and Inui starts handing out advice to the team. Eiji needs to develop his forearm muscles. Oishi and Kaidoh are too slow when it comes to moving backwards and forward. Kawamura and Fuji need to develop their leg muscles. Momo's not accurate enough.
Tezuka isn't flexible enough (o_O) and his expression is too serious (o___O;;).
Ryoma is too short, so he has to drink two bottles of milk a day. *g*
Everyone has to have 10 bars of ankle-weights. Everyone says, "........" and then starts hitting tennis balls at Inui. I wonder why they never do this when faced with Inui Juice?
**
Genius 019 - Kirihara Akaya
Kirihara is asleep on the bus. Seigaku is apparently the end of the line (clearly not a metaphor in any way, shape, or form) and the conductor kicks him off the bus. Paralleling this, Ryoma overslept and Tezuka wonders where he is. Also, Tezuka has very bad hair.
Meanwhile, Kirihara's talking on his phone to his coach--does Rikkaidai even have a coach? I mean, I'm sure they have one but I can't remember ever reading about him. Anyway, Kirihara's supposed to play Kakinoki for practice, whatever that is. Kirihara figures out that he's at Seigaku and then the coach hangs up on him.
Seigaku is doing their hitting-colored-balls-at-colored-cones practice thing. Kirihara says, "Eh, what a meaningful practice" and I wibble at his apathy. The freshmen notice Kirihara and Oishi questions Kirihara. I just stare at the scanlation, which is stunningly bad. ("I'm a second year champ in Ritekai Middle School. The legendary Kiruhara Akanari, is me!!")
Seriously--Kirihara's on a team with Sanada as fukubuchou and he thinks Tezuka is stiff? That says something about Tezuka.
But akd;ajkadj Kirihara is the most adorable thing ever. Even more adorable when you think about the fact that his eyes get bloodshot and he is psycho when he's pissed off. sdfa;kjs I love him.
Anyway, Kirihara challenges Tezuka to a match and remarks that Tezuka was the only one who could beat [Rikkaidai's] senpais in past prefectural tournaments. Tezuka says very briefly, "Get lost, outsider."
Kirihara tries to cajole Tezuka into a game and I die a little more at his cuteness.
Arai tries to defend Tezuka's honor or something (wtf?) by hitting a tennis ball at the back of Kirihara's head. Kirihara hits the ball back anyway--he doesn't even have to turn around--and Kirihara says, "Can you not interfere with our conversation?" (I die a little more at his cuteness. I just. He's such a cute little psychopath.)
The thing I love about Rikkaidai is that they're so much more about mind games than any of the other schools are (... although I'm not sure what you'd consider Shitenhouji as, er). Kirihara's very serious when he says, "I will defeat you"--but then a few moments later, he grins and says, "Just kidding". It's all very calculated to unnerve Tezuka (well, if Tezuka has nerves) and I love, love, love him. (Did I mention that I love Rikkaidai?)
Kirihara returns Arai's tennis ball by hitting it back in Arai's direction, but it misses and hits Momoshiro, who is standing next to Arai. Chaos ensues, Kaidoh gets hit in the back of the head with a tennis ball, and someone screams, "OH NO--KAIDOH HAS GONE INSANE!!!!!" (Seriously, wtf?)
Tezuka restores order. Or something. Thirty laps, everyone! Kirihara slinks off and runs into Ryoma. As they go their respective ways, Kirihara throws a tennis ball back at Ryoma and Ryoma basically repeats the same stunt that Kirihara pulled on Arai.
Ryuuzaki asks Tezuka about Kirihara and then tells him not to push himself, he has to think about the future and take care of his body first. Tezuka says that at the moment, the only thing he cares about is winning the tournament with the team.
***
Genius 020 - Street Tennis
The first time around, I dozed through this chapter. Hopefully the second time around will be better.
The freshmen are looking at the match-ups for the district preliminaries--nobody in the list is memorable except, of course, for Fudoumine and Kakinoki. (If Rikkaidai's in a different district, why is Kirihara supposed to play Kakinoki, anyway?)
District prelims will start in two days, and only the top two will go to the prefectural tournament.
Meanwhile, Ryoma's piggybacking on Momo's bike and they're talking about the team line-up. Tezuka is Singles 1, Fuji is Singles 2, and the Golden Pair are Doubles 1. The question is, who's going to be Singles 3? Ryoma and Momoshiro decide to play a match of street tennis to decide the matter.
They meet An, who smiles and waves at Ryoma, and two guys from Gyokurin (Izumi and Fukawa) who explain the rules: play a game against the current team on the court, winner gets to have the court, and only doubles are allowed. Izumi and Fukawa mock Ryoma and Momoshiro, both Ryoma and Momo are pissed--and Ryoma takes the service game with the Twist Serve. Momoshiro and Ryoma are really good, but sad from a doubles team perspective, so Gyokurin hits the ball down the center of the court and both Momo and Ryoma argue about it. And then Gyokurin kicks Momo and Ryoma's asses like whoa. *g*
Momoshiro says, "If it were singles, I could beat that one guy and go on to the other." I eyeroll so much.
Apparently Izumi and Fukawa are Gyokurin's star doubles team, and they say that Momoshiro and Ryoma are so lousy at doubles that they can beat Momo & Ryoma as many times as they play them.
"Real men should play doubles!!!" quoth both Momoshiro and Ryoma. I just sigh.
***
Genius 021 - District Preliminaries!!
Eiji cooks eggs, Kaidoh works out, and Kawamura says goodbye to his father, who is the sweetest thing ever. Yumiko offers Fuji a ride and Momoshiro bikes to pick Ryoma up before the tournament. Ryoma bitches about having to eat Japanese food and says it doesn't matter if he's late--Seigaku is the first seed. Tezuka and Oishi ride the bus to the park where district prelims are supposed to take place.
District prelims are for the Tokyo Prefecture; Kantou is finals for East Japan, and then there's Nationals. Seigaku arrives and everyone remarks on how tough they look. Tezuka is the reserve, shocking everyone--and of course, Ryoma and Momoshiro are playing Doubles 2.
Eiji and Oishi apparently share one soul:
... Momoshiro and Ryoma do not.
Since this is Seigaku's first match, they have to play all five rounds, even if a winner has been decided (they only need three / five victories to move up).
Doubles 2 match begins. To say the least, it is ... painful and kind of annoying. Izumi and Fukawa mock Ryoma and Momoshiro some more, and Ryoma says that they'll only be satisfied if they can defeat Izumi and Fukawa at their own game. Since I remember how the match turned out, I break into fits of coughing.
***
Genius 022 - We'll Take Revenge!
Momoshiro and Ryoma are going to use the *AH-UN* Tactic, and everyone goes o_O So do I, because as far as names go, AH-UN doesn't quite compare with Scud Serve and Rondo to Destruction and Laser Beam. Oh, well, at least there aren't any wrestling masks yet.
Gyokurin gets the serve and they hit the ball right down the center just like last time. Momoshiro yells "AH" and Ryoma yells "UN" and then Momoshiro hits the ball. Everyone kind of goes "..." and I really, really like Eiji and Oishi's faces here because it's just so o_O;;;
As Katsuo remarks, "They cooperate pretty well, but ... it's so embarrassing."
Then Fukawa realizes that Momoshiro and Ryoma only know how to return balls in the middle of the court and they're lining up in a straight line--which means the other side of the court is wide open. When Gyokurin hits the ball to one side, Ryoma and Momoshiro collide with one another.
"..." goes Seigaku. "Apart from the center, they have no cooperation in other areas," says Tezuka.
Fuji just snickers, which--I don't even want to know why.
Gyokurin starts doing really well.
***
Genius 023 - First Defeat
Everyone's looking at the school matchups and someone says, "This year, Seigaku and Kakinoki will take the first and second placings as usual." An, who's watching, thinks that it might not be true. Then she sees the Seigaku vs Gyokurin match and she goes to see what's going on. What's going on is that Gyokurin is kicking Seigaku's ass.
The freshmen ask Inui if there's such a big difference between singles and doubles and we're treated to a long and rather dull explanation of doubles play and why Momoshiro and Ryoma suck. Gyokurin wins their service game and they change courts.
Ryuuzaki tells Ryoma and Momoshiro that they are playing pathetically and Momoshiro remarks that although he knows what to do mentally, his natural reflexes are overriding it. Ryoma and Momoshiro start arguing a little about it and the Gyokurin pair finds this hilarious. This, of course, incenses both Ryoma and Momoshiro--who have now fallen into Gyokurin's trap.
"Tezuka, did we choose the wrong pair?" Ryuuzaki asks.
"Yes," says Tezuka and I choke laughing.
Momoshiro serves with the DUNK SMASH AND--
-- beans Ryoma in the back of the head. Er.
"Great!!" cheers Gyokurin. "A self-destructive team!!"
Then Ryoma tries to hit a return and Momoshiro moves in the way, so now it's Momoshiro's turn to get hit in the head. ^^;
"Another self-destructive shot!!" cheers Gyokurin. "Lucky!!"
We get another panel of the Golden Pair watching in something like horror--at least on Oishi's part.
Oh, lord. Momoshiro and Ryoma draw a line in the sand--er, court--and decide that all the balls on the right side are Ryoma's and all the balls on the left are Momo's. I just sigh. A lot.
***
Genius 024 - Doubles
Momoshiro and Ryoma start using their singles playing style against Gyokurin. As Inui remarks, "Just to sum it up, they are using their original style to play. This is not what normal players do though."
Seigaku starts doing pretty well. "Doubles is really fun!" says Ryoma.
"Doubles? You call that doubles?!" says Gyokurin. I start longing for Rikkaidai D1 or the Silver Pair.
Gyokurin hits the ball down the center and Momoshiro returns it with the Ah-Un tactic again.
***
Genius 025 - Advancing to the Districts!!
Seigaku wins 6-2. Gyokurin says that if Momoshiro and Ryoma ever want to play them again, they're always welcome to drop by the steret tennis courts.
"Sure," says Momoshiro.
"But I already had enough of it," says Ryoma and turns around abruptly. I sigh.
"YOU TWO IDIOTS!" says Ryuuzaki and proceeds to ream both Momoshiro and Ryoma out.
The Golden Pair takes their match 6-0. "If you thought that was Seigaku's real doubles..." starts Oishi. "... then we'd have a headache," finishes Eiji. I fall a little in love with the Golden Pair all over again.
Gyokurin figures that they still have singles, then they spot Kaidoh. "AI YA!!" says Gyokurin's Singles 3, "I ... I don't want to ..." Unsurprisingly, Seigaku wins that one 6-0.
Kawamura's up for Singles 2. "Ni...ce to meet you," stammers Kawamura, who even forgot his racket. The Gyokurin player snickers. Then Oishi throws Kawamura his racket and Kawamura shouts, "WA HA HA!! OK--I'M BURNING!!!!"
Also unsurprisingly, the Gyokurin player stops snickering.
Fuji takes Singles 1 6-0 and it's a clean sweep for Seigaku.
After lunch, Seigaku needs to play a school called Mizunohuchi. Ryoma goes off by himself to drink Ponta because he's the reserve in this set of matches. Meanwhile Fuji and Tezuka are watching rival school Kakinoki beats Suzuyonma and Kakinoki's captain and club manager says, "You're not weak at all, we're just too strong!!" Uh, ego much?
Apparently this is his catch-phrase. I sigh.
Kakinoki's captain comes up to ask Fuji & Tezuka if they got any data and basically is an ass to Tezuka. "Fuji, let's go," says Tezuka, and then Kakinoki's captain grabs Tezuka's arm.
"Let go!" says Tezuka and the Kakinoi captain is a little freaked out.
Meanwhile, Seigaku plays Mizunohuchi and takes a doubles match 6-0. Ryoma's annoyed because he's a reserve and Ryuuzaki tells him to learn from the others or at least cheer them on, but if he doesn't listen, she'll pinch his cheek.
"GO SEIGAKU!" cheers Ryoma. ^^;;
Seigaku takes their first three matches and on the other side, Fudoumine kicks Kakinoki's asses. We see our first shot of Shinji and I wibble because I love, love, love Shinji.
"How ... how could this happen ... Fudoumine wasn't this strong before ... Fuck!! I can't believe we lost to a bunch of unseeded players!" says Kakinoki's captain. Shinji, who is pissed for once, is about to slam the guy with his racket, only Tachibana stops Shinji just in time.
"Don't make it into something big," says Tachibana, "Let's go."
"Yes, Tachibana," says Shinji, and we get a really nice Shinji panel. I prepare for Fudoumine fangirling.