Wait, you’re just getting to episodes five, Alex? Uh…yeah. Sorry. I’m like two weeks behind on this amazing badminton anime, sorry about that. Anyway, let’s get into this since my posting schedule is super messed up! Episode 6 coming like, right after this, so look for that one, too! Sorry again!!
Episode five threw us back into the match between Hanesaki/Riko and Connie. What we know is that Connie is good–like really freaking good. She’s the prodigy after all, so that’s great.
Riko, though, tells Ayano that she’s not alone–Ayano is part of the team, and the team has her back no matter what. I love this, because it shows that Riko is a caring individual and knows that in a doubles match the partners need to trust each other. Good girl Riko is amazing.
However, all of this is sort of thrown out in light of Connie’s character, which I sort of enjoyed to be honest. We get Connie as a child in a pretty well-timed flashback. She was alone–she was ALWAYS alone (according to Connie), until Hanesaki’s mom, and I guess her mom(?) came along.
Well, yeah, so Connie has issues, we finally got that figured out, but her obsession with having to beat Hanesaki still bothers me a bit. But for now that’s her character, and the person I really want to know about is Hanesaki. So, I’ll make this episode 5 review quick and jump into episode 6.
The match progresses, Connie plays alone against Ayano and Riko (Go Riko! I love you!), but we get two thoughts:
- Connie: If I don’t win…
- Hanesaki: I need to win to be part of the team
Connie…if you don’t win what happens? That’s a question I actually want answered. What happens if you don’t win? Will your mom leave like she did with Hanesaki? That’d be awful and prove that mom is a total bitch of a person and shouldn’t be anywhere near anyone ever because that’s awful.
Hanesaki…You don’t need to win to be part of the team! Just play, accept them, be yourself, and do what you can! You don’t need to win! But, then again, knowing Hanesaki’s background she feels like she needs to because when she lost…well mom disappeared. So, there’s something to build off there in all honesty. I like what Hanebado did with those little thoughts, even if they were brief, because they actually give us a lot of insight into the two characters.
Anyway, the match continues, and Ayano ends up like a zombie….which is super freaky. Connie notices it when Ayano hits a return that nobody should have been able to grab, but that’s Ayano for you…always showing she can do something amazing.
What I like about this is that it’s progressing Ayano’s character into something we’ve only seen in the OP and first episode…we get her zombie look in that, and finally we’re seeing what could happen when she loses all sense of anything except the match being played.
Well, the match ends with a win for Connie…AND HER PARTNER! Who got fed up wit not playing and scored the final point! Woohoo!! But, that’s not the important part here. What’s important about Hanesaki and Riko losing is what happens next…
Ayano makes excuses for the loss! She didn’t really lose! But, you did, honey. You lost to Connie. And that just makes Hanesaki go crazy…it does. Connie comes up to Hanesaki after their practice match near the bus, and we get a talk about their mom. Connie actually seems genuine during this, too, which is odd to me. Is it a ploy? What is she gaining from this? She’s talking about how Uchika (mom) saved her, but Ayano takes this in an awful way and thinks about how her mom left for Connie. So, is Connie talking down to Ayano or is Ayano over-reacting? Hmm…I’m not sure, but I think Hanebado did a good job with this conversation because it gave us two of the most prominent character so far one-on-one and the outcome was uncertain.
Until, well…this:
DAMN, AYANO!!! Okay, you’re absolutely crazy!! I’ll just let you handle this…somehow. Character progression is great here, because we have a completely different side of Ayano showing itself, but it’s also super freaky. What is she going to do? Is she going to accept the team as they are? Is she going to just play as a goddess zombie person? It’s really up in the air, but it gets me excited!!! I actually want more zombie-like Ayano!!
That’s basically it for episode 5, we got progression out of Ayano, we got backstory on Connie, and we got some development between the two–their relationship sucks, and I want them to play against each other one on one, full out, in a tournament. It would be amazing!!
Super sorry this was so late! Like I said, episode 6 review coming very quickly…and then I’ll be on a better posting schedule again!
Thanks for reading!
Alex 🙂
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