2019-05-11, 07:52 | Link #81 |
AS Oji-kun
Join Date: Nov 2006
Age: 74
|
Wow, we just raced through what, six or eight months of the story. We didn't even get to see the Tokyo tournament where Tou hurt his hand.
It's hard to imagine someone as lovely as Haruka being the daughter of Goro. Maybe the mother is a looker.
__________________
|
2019-05-11, 09:31 | Link #84 | |
AS Oji-kun
Join Date: Nov 2006
Age: 74
|
Quote:
I went back just now and watched episode fourteen of Cross Game, which also takes place at a pool. Aoba appears in her bathing suit, but there are no lingering shots of her curves. She's at least one or two years older than Otomi at this point in their stories, too. Like Otomi, Aoba is the target of a lot of male attention. In this episode a senior in the boxing club tries once again, and fails once again, to win her heart.
__________________
|
|
2019-05-11, 10:28 | Link #85 |
Kana Hanazawa ♥
Join Date: Jun 2007
Location: France
Age: 37
|
I still think Nikaido is an asshole too. I mean, he outright said he acted like a dick with the brothers so they'd feel guilty for badmouthing him once he died. That said, he isn't all bad, since he knew he was acting selfishly and eventually stepped down on his own to make place for them.
Souichirou really is nice for forcing Touma not to go all out right away in order for Nikaidou's father not to realize his son sucked and so the former coach won't completely lose face (I think it's way too late for that one). Haruka was finally introduced. I wasn't expecting her to be Goro's daughter either. Curious to find out what she's like. That's the second time Sou sent Tou to pick up Otomi when he thought she was in danger of getting hit on. The first time, he had an excuse not to go himself, but not this time. Does he send Tou because he acknowledges him as her big brother as he claimed (but I don't see why that stops him from going himself), or does he do it because he secretly ships them? I mean, he clearly respects Touma a lot, so it wouldn't be far-fetched for him to see him as the only man worthy of his sister.
__________________
|
2019-05-11, 10:49 | Link #86 | |
AS Oji-kun
Join Date: Nov 2006
Age: 74
|
Quote:
BTW, the interim manager learning about baseball from reading Adachi manga was another silly, but cool bit. If he had stayed long enough, maybe he would have turned next to Peter Drucker's Management like the girl in Moshidora did.
__________________
|
|
2019-05-12, 05:37 | Link #88 |
Me, An Intellectual
Join Date: Apr 2009
Location: UK
Age: 33
|
Wow, that resolved itself rather neatly and anticlimactically. I'm not sure what to feel about that and now I'm struggling to think of what the underlying point of this arc was if there was even one at all.
That said I'm glad Nikaido and the manager turned out to antagonists in a human way and weren't caricatures. And yeah, I do wish the show would stop lusting after the sister. Half her on screen time is basically her standing around looking pretty (for an Adachi character). I feel like that kind of time could've been better spent making her more useful than just the subject of a running gag.
__________________
|
2019-05-12, 16:48 | Link #89 | |
Senior Member
Join Date: Aug 2013
|
I guess I can sympathize with the Nikaidou family because of what a serious condition they perceived Nikaidou jr. to be in, even if it did screw over the Meisei team and he was still kind of a tool to the Tachibana brothers about it. But a father's tears can say a lot .
The new manager learning baseball from manga (and Adachi manga at that) was hilarious. Too bad he's a placeholder for the high school manager and Tachibana daddy's buddy . Looks like Sou is pretty smitten with Haruka, with the other lead girl finally making her debut, although it remains to be seen whether she'll be able to keep the attention of the serial playboy . Quote:
__________________
|
|
2019-05-12, 17:27 | Link #90 | |
Senior Member
Join Date: May 2004
|
Well the Nikaidou's hurdle resolved quite smoothly, more in line with what I was expecting than something tragic that would have been a bit out of tune for the show and the character involved.
Quote:
And yeah, I do also hope the show stops with all this Otomi lusting gags.
__________________
|
|
2019-05-12, 17:28 | Link #91 |
Seishu's Ace
Author
Join Date: Dec 2005
Location: Kobe, Japan
|
I don’t have much sympathy for Nikaidou or the coach. Nepotism is nepotism plain and simple, and none of this would have happened if they weren’t rich. Is it OK for rich kids to destroy a bunch of middle schoolers’ baseball dreams, but not anybody else?
As is often the case, the interesting part here is trying to figure out the author’s POV on all this. I mean, he clearly wants us to have some sympathy, but he also pointedly has Touma say he’s not apologizing for all the nasty things he said.
__________________
|
2019-05-13, 02:46 | Link #94 |
Senior Member
Join Date: May 2004
|
In that regard, what I got is that it was depicted as your rich father at first, but instead it ended to be meant as a baseball thing. In these first episodes the bonds with the fathers and their personal and interpersonal (baseball) stories have been highlighted a lot, so the main reason, apart from the obvious selfishness, was the loyalty between former players. The bonds that baseball creates never breaks. That much is clear, we had different examples. Nikaidou's, Tou father with the new girl's father.
Damn, Tou's father, widowed, even married a former player widow. Making also clear, that this baseball thing is actually a thing. Cause his wife, if I got it right, doesn't even know he and his late husband knew each other. But I leave aside this point for now. the fact that is not exactly a matter of money has been addressed also by the other team with the couple father and pitcher son. The father when asked by Sou if he would have put Tou as ace of the team, was also clear. Then, the show said itself how a good person Nikaidou's father was. The case was closed at the hospital with Tou's line about not apologizing for the badmouthing. So, that's the weight it had, some badmouthing. so of course the behavior was wrong, but yeah, something human. More, something a father would do. What I mean is that the show seemed being quite indulgent on the whole matter. And speaking of which, it's interesting how Nikaidou's father seems to reverse mirror Sou Father. Nikaidou got to play as an ace even when he had not the skills, while Sou apparently seems hinted that he has/had the skills, but for reasons he choose to let Tou be the ace (maybe because more skilled, that's yet to be told) and also his father had the opposite behavior of Nikaidou's. They said how he had never played with Sou (a bit sad when compared to all the other proud fathers ). Specially if what it seems to be hinted is true, that his father was a (strong) pitcher.
__________________
|
2019-05-13, 06:41 | Link #95 |
Komrades of Kitamura Kou
Join Date: Jul 2004
Age: 39
|
If anything, I've never seen an antagonist in an Adachi work you could classify as just simply malevolent or just someone who wants to make life hell for the protagonists. Every character has their motivations, even if they aren't always crystal clear. Nepotism is still nepotism, but you can still sort of understand why Nikaidou, his father and their manager did what they did. Any good father thinks the world of his son, and he did with the knowledge that while confident that his son would survive surgery, to make his own son's wishes come true. This was a lesson for the characters to not judge a book by its cover.
__________________
|
2019-05-13, 19:59 | Link #97 |
Komrades of Kitamura Kou
Join Date: Jul 2004
Age: 39
|
Oh I'm sure he's profoundly aware of the countless careers he probably ruined with his actions. I'm almost absolutely sure he went to every house of the players to bow his head in shame, not just the brothers, and I assume he went to theirs last because I'd think his decision had the biggest effect on the 2 protagonists. His resignation feels more in line with Japanese culture where you resign your position and bow your head in shame in your presumably dishonorable actions.
I mean if we're going to be absolutely strict with it, he should have disemboweled himself in front of the Tachibana house and asked their father to be his second. He was stuck between a rock and a hard place. Either go along with his best friend's plans while fuck up the middle school careers of the players, or alienate his best friend and his (at the time) dying son. Whether he chose well or chose poorly is really up to you, but he was going to go down in flames either way, and Adachi makes it clear the manager was in a no-win situation.
__________________
|
2019-05-13, 22:21 | Link #98 |
Seishu's Ace
Author
Join Date: Dec 2005
Location: Kobe, Japan
|
But Adachi lets the father off the hook too, which is what really grates on me.
I’m not worried about careers so much, because that’s a long shot for any schoolboy ballplayer not an Adachi protagonist. But who knows, some of those kids might have been good enough to get scholarships to high school. And if they weren’t an entitled rich SOB like Nikaidou’s dad, that could have made a huge difference in their lives. But hell, they’re entitled just to play baseball because they love it and not have the experience pissed on by a rich guy subverting everyone else’s needs to his own. Three people had the chance to step up and say “this is wrong, no matter the reason” - the coach, the father, and the son. Probably too much to ask a middle schooler to be that mature (even if he has Hoozuki’s voice and looks 40) but one of the adults should have.
__________________
|
2019-05-14, 01:01 | Link #99 |
I disagree with you all.
Join Date: Dec 2005
|
I thought the father was innocent in this. As I understood the latest ep, he thought his son got the ace position on merit, and his friend didn't have the heart to disabuse him. (Though I guess that would take some pretty strong idiot parent glasses.)
What galls me is how much of an asshole Nikaidou was even beyond getting the position he wanted. There's just no excuse. |
2019-05-14, 04:24 | Link #100 |
Senior Member
Join Date: May 2004
|
Don't know if the father was really that blind, but now you mention it I'm starting to think that it could be truly the case.
On the whole matter, and the indulgence of the author over it, the message seems to be something like, in Baseball it doesn't matter which position you play nor the spotlight you get, because in the end of the journey what you will get as a reward is more important of some cup, it's strong bonds that will last forever. So didn't you endure some hard years, didn't want to pay your dues, fine. Baseball wasn't your true passion. But I'm not sure about it. Anyways. The next episode it seems that the new girl will enter the stage, I'm quite curious about her (it's just a coincidence that Sou got interested in her and she was carrying baseball material, right? ) Hopefully she won't get the Otomi treatment, but all considered I won't get my hopes too up!
__________________
|
Tags |
adachi mitsuru, baseball, sports |
Thread Tools | |
|
|