Kakeru and Nana enter Enoshima High School, where Kakeru hopes to meet Ryuichi Araki, an amazing player who had his brother’s respect. But when they get there, they find a bunch of weirdoes claiming to be the Football Club and a fat otaku who sneers at everything soccer-related. But what is the truth behind his disdain?
What They Say:
“Enoshima High Football Club!?”
It is the inaugural ceremony for Enoshima High School, and the clubs are out in full force looking for new members. Mako, overhearing Kakeru’s desire to join the Soccer club, invites him to join the Enoshima High FC. But wait, what is the Enoshima High SC?
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
So, time passes on. Kakeru and Nana are now heading off to high school, specifically Enoshima High School, where they plan on pursuing their soccer dreams. First things first, of course, they need to find the Soccer Club. They do, and it turns out to be filled with weird eccentrics. Not exactly the best start, but they don’t seem to mind.
And then it turns out that things just get worse. First of all, when the amazing Araki is brought in, it’s shown that he doesn’t even play soccer anymore, but has become a fat and lazy otaku. Then, it’s revealed that Enoshima High has two soccer-related clubs: the Soccer Club, which participates in matches with other schools, and the play-for-fun Football Club, which is the one that Kakeru and Nana have been tricked into joining. Of course, this will probably be for the best down the road, as the Soccer Club looks like it is more a drilling camp ruled over by a martinet, not a place where one could really enjoy the beautiful game.
When Kakeru tries to withdraw so he can join the SC, the club advisor lets him in on a local idiosyncrasy: before an important match, the FC and the SC have a match to see who will represent the school. He tells Kakeru that he is better off with the FC members, whose dreams are of playing in the World Cup one day, not just winning the school regional finals. He seems to buy the argument, but there’s still the matter of Araki, who seems uninterested in soccer. In a private talk, Araki tells Kakeru that it was his brother Suguru who in fact turned him off of soccer.
Since the FC has to face the SC soon, it’s time for training. On the beach. Yes, since they are not the “official” soccer club, they have to practice elsewhere and give excuses for Nana to appear in a school swimsuit. Well, of course. But beach soccer has its training advantages, as it is difficult to play soccer on the beach. And Araki is not so uninterested as he appears to be.
Still, the odds look long for the FC in their match with the SC. The SC is a tough, strong, disciplined team. Their only drawback is that they play a very boring brand of soccer that relies on strength and clockwork passing. Will the FC be able to knock them out of their comfort zone? We’ll see next episode.
In Summary:
Fortunately, this episode heads on the right path in some ways. We have less of the emphasis on Suguru’s heart controlling Kakeru’s emotions. The downside is that they feel the need to give Kakeru a bunch of eccentric teammates. Sure, ten boring boys to match boring Kakeru would have been bad, but ten eccentrics can make for its own brand of boredom. But at least we are back to soccer and back to the dream of wanting to represent the nation on the world stage. While they may be eccentrics, the Enoshima Football Club probably has the flair and the determination to go far. We’ll see how far next episode, as first they have to get past their own school’s Soccer Club.
Grade: B
Readers Rating: [ratings]
Streamed by: Crunchyroll
Review Equipment:
Apple iMac with 4GB RAM, Mac OS 10.6 Snow Leopard
