This episode is called “Fierce Battle! Finale.” Let’s hope it lives up to its billing.
What They Say:
“Fierce Battle! Finale”
The battle is over, one team will walk away winners and the other team will have a player carried out.
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
So, we are still in the game that won’t end. Thanks to “Suguru,” the game is tied up. Will Enoshima be able to score again and end this game? Well, Yoin is going to do everything they can to prevent that from happening. It’s a real back and forth last few minutes of the game. But then Kakeru/Suguru takes one last desperate shot which arcs dangerously towards the goal. We are left in suspense as to whether it made it in or not. That’s because Kakeru collapses on the field, probably from exhaustion. It’s not much of a surprise: even the athlete’s heart his brother gave him is not invincible.
Kakeru wakes up in the hospital not knowing what happened. His family and Nana are there to greet him, his mother being especially happy that he woke up (I guess it was serious). But we don’t linger in the hospital. After all of that stress, tension, and wasted time on one game, we are rewarded with a beach episode, though not your normal one. It’s just Enoshima practicing on the beach as usual. Still, the reward for sitting through that long match is seeing Mai, who turns up, in a bikini.
Only now do we get to see what happened before, when Coach Iwaki starts a flashback to the game. Kakeru’s final shot hit off the post, the woodwork being against Enoshima. As it was tied after full time, it went to penalty kicks. Never the way you want to end a good match. While Kakeru’s family and Nana are at the hospital, the others carry on with the shootout. Of course, it goes to the last penalty takers on each team. For added dramatic flair, it happens that Araki, of all people, misses the final kick, and so Enoshima is out of the tournament. All that hard work, seemingly wasted.
But it’s not entirely over. As Kakeru is down in the dumps, Sawamura comes over and tells him that for him, it’s not over. There is a chance to get back at Yoin in the Winter Championships. He intends to work hard with that goal in mind. So, we have the set up for the next part of the show. Kakeru ends things with some narration of what happened in the tournament afterward, as Yoin went on to play Kamakura. That was a tough game, but Kamakura won thanks to a strong shot by Takajo that was not blocked by Asuka–in fact, Asuka wound up causing an own goal while attempting to clear the shot. Call it karmic justice for all of the goals he took away from others. So, it was Kamakura onto the Nationals.
Since we have reached a natural stopping point, I’m going to look back at the show overall. In the beginning, Knight in the Area appeared to be focused on the relationship between the young soccer prodigy Suguru Aizawa and his younger brother Kakeru, whose soccer skills seemed to all others to be far less, but in whom Suguru had high hopes. What could have been a friendly rivalry to push each other to get better and better was brought to a very quick and abrupt end with the tragic accident that claimed Suguru’s life and Kakeru’s heart. Kakeru would be the one who would have to carry on Suguru’s dreams of playing one day in the World Cup for Japan. But that’s long down the road. Kakeru first had to regain his desire to play and find a team. At Enoshima High School, he found his team, though there was a struggle in itself, as Enoshima had two warring clubs claiming the right to represent the school. With that sorted, it was on to their first major tournament, of which we have just seen the end.
That’s the straightforward summary of what happened, leaving out the paranormal. If that was all there was to this show, it would be hard to differentiate it from any number of sports dramas. Of course, the original writer, knowing that, put in an extra dimension: Kakeru received his brother Suguru’s heart after the accident, and so Suguru still “lives” inside of him. Literally, in this case, with Kakeru able to hear Suguru’s words, though there is more: sometimes “Suguru” takes over control of Kakeru. While I understand the need to create a catch that will make the story stand out, this has been something of a distraction and a detraction for me. I think it would have made for better story and character development if Kakeru learned to improve on his own. He could be inspired by his brother’s presence within him. He could even recall his brother’s words and abilities. But to have his brother be some sort of preternatural spirit who takes over Kakeru when the situation is bleak for his team, and basically pull victory out of the ass of defeat on almost every occasion, was kind of boring. It also fails to provide any real sense of change or development for Kakeru. If everything relies on Kakeru entering “Suguru mode” and that being a deus ex machina to ensure victory, that’s really something of a cheat, a cop out. It takes away from the reality of life where hard work and practice is what leads to being a better player.
Frankly, Kakeru’s story overall, sad and tragic as it is, is not particularly interesting. The most interesting part of the show was the little mini-arc focused on Kakeru’s friend Nana “Seven” Mishima, a very talented soccer player in her own right, who gets picked to be on the national team Nadeshiko Japan. Sadly, Nana’s story remains only partly told, as otherwise she is used more for fanservice and satisfying the need to distract teenaged boys with pretty girls (her teammate Mai has also been drafted for this role increasingly). I think the “Nana Mishima Show” would be much more interesting than The Knight in the Area. But, we’re not going to get that.
On balance, this has been a slightly unbalanced show. In terms of execution, it has been very solid, but completely unimaginative. The supporting cast of other players on Enoshima is a grab bag of eccentrics and sports stereotypes. The coach is the usual cliche of the genius young coach. The occasional humor has also been staid and lacking in freshness. The show sticks to formula fairly closely, though at least it does follow the normal patterns well enough. The only way in which it has been imaginative, the ghostly Suguru and Kakeru, has been the least interesting aspect. If you have never seen a sports drama before, this show is not a bad introduction to the usual cliches and story developments. If you have seen many, and are not that interested in them, and have no interest in people who get taken over by their organ donors, then this is not going to be a show that will do much for you.
At this point, I plan to bow out from reviewing the show, as I don’t see there being any significant new developments in future that are going to keep me interested.
In Summary:
We come to the end of the game, which ends in something of an anti-climax. Afterward, we see everyone preparing for the inevitable next part of the show, where we will likely see pretty much everything which we have seen before happen again. Well, those who watch it will see that.
Grade: B-
Streamed by: Crunchyroll Review Equipment: Apple iMac with 4GB RAM, Mac OS 10.6 Snow Leopard
