Kakeru can’t seem to replicate what he did the other night when he completely faked out the experienced one-on-one player Nana. Will he ever get his dribbling under control?
What They Say:
“The Mythical Feint”
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
So, it’s on to the next match for Enoshima. Things are not going all that well for Kakeru. He might have mastered a new ball handling trick the night before, but he doesn’t seem to be able to reproduce it during the match. That’s because he’s too focused on thinking about what he did. Of course, Coach Iwaki has to substitute him out before he causes too much damage (when he lost the ball once, it led to a goal for the other team). Hino comes in and scores a goal, but that doesn’t really help Kakeru. Iwaki tries to convince Kakeru to go back to his usual style of avoiding defenders, but he states flatly that he can’t give up on trying to master a feint.
Yes, he’s a self-centered brat. Like all the best strikers in the world.
Enoshima does manage to win the game (with Araki putting in a Beckham-esque curling shot on a free kick, followed by another goal). But the team stays to watch the next match featuring Shonan High (apparently a different Shonan High from last time, the one associated with Keiso), a team that features an iron defense (and has an old acquaintance of Kakeru’s on their roster). After the team heads home, Mr. Kondo and Nana stay to watch the next match, whose winner will be playing Enoshima in the future. All Japan High is a Top 8 team; their opponent Tsujido Academy, is an unknown. But later on back at school, after some technical difficulties (otherwise known as blatant Nana-service), the team is show a video made by Nana of parts of the game. It appears that Tsujido won 4-0, using trick plays. And their coach is an old teammate of Iwaki’s one with similar imagination and cleverness. Enoshima may have a tough time ahead of them in the next match.
Kakeru also has a meeting with the old acquaintance on Shonan’s team during his nightly practice session in the park. This is Hibino, the boy whose left leg he once broke during a rough challenge in a game when they were in middle school. Hibino later moved away but has now come back to Japan (don’t they always?), and is one of the strong players for Shonan, with a left-footed kick that can drill straight through a defense. It begins friendly enough, but Kakeru, in his usual manner, somehow touches a raw nerve while trying to be friendly, and Hibino declares that he won’t let Enoshima get a single goal if they meet.
But first, Enoshima will have to get through Tsujido, who seem to be full of tricks. Iwaki’s old teammate, Uryu, the coach of Tsujido, appears to lack a bit in terms of affection for his alma mater.
This episode is something of a transitional episode. The tournament is continuing, but we’re in a holding pattern with no great changes. It’s not just filler, though. Markers are being laid down for the long term confrontations to come down the road. While it’s clear that the next match, against Tsujido will be fraught with setbacks, of course Enoshima will get through, since, well, this is only episode 14, and there would have been little point in the foreshadowing of both Shonan High this episode, and Kama High in the last one, if Enoshima were to be knocked out before facing either of them. Thus, the suspense of “will they win or not?” is kind of lessened for those who are genre savvy. Still, we should expect some interesting soccer trickery in the next episode.
We do, however, see that the Nana Show subplot is not entirely dead, as an annoying blonde girls enters the ranks of Nadeshiko Japan.
In Summary:
Knight in the Area enters into something of a holding pattern, but we get indications of what the road ahead has to offer. Kakeru is working through his personal issues, and it is clear that his overcoming his past fears will be intimately tied to how well Enoshima will fare in the Kanagawa regional tournament.
Grade: B
Streamed by: Crunchyroll
Review Equipment: Apple iMac with 4GB RAM, Mac OS 10.6 Snow Leopard
