The matches turn decidedly dark as the truth about the pairings is revealed.
What They Say:
After picking a partner, the campers are informed they will have to play against each other. This causes strife as Seigaku’s golden pair are going to play for who gets to stay at camp.
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
With the pairings set in the previous episode with friends finding each other, events have shifted heavily as the director has made it clear that the pairings are more than they seem as they’re set to go against each other instead in a singles match. And the one that loses will be forced to drop out. It’s a pretty vicious approach when it comes to setting up matches and the director goes a step further by signaling that those that refuse to participate will be eliminated outright. While competition is certainly the name of the game, the brutal way the director is forcing people against each other that may be friends is intense. It does fit to some degree, but with the stakes so high it brings out the ugly side in some of the players.
A good chunk of the episode focuses on a variety of players to show this brutality, but it’s hard to really get behind it in a meaningful way since they’re mostly nameless figures at this point that have been at the camp for awhile. It does work well to show friend going against friend and those that have the drive to win. Where there is a bit more of a connection is in watching how Kikumaru and Oishi play against each other since we’ve followed them in the previous series for quite some time through thick and thin. Neither play the game to their fullest potential for a lot of it, coming across as off in what they’re up to, but once it gets rolling their really get into it since Oishi forces Kikumaru to act and play properly so that one of them can have a real and honest win rather than being given a pass.
Their match is the big focus of the episode and it gets to be pretty good, though it doesn’t have the intensity that we’ve seen from some of their previous matches. But we do get to see some emotion from the other players as some of the matches start to resolve and we see how badly it goes with friend against friend. But there’s some trickery that comes into play as well that will likely have an impact down the line, such as one player faking an injury with some fake blood in order to come across as weakened so he can surge in a way his opponent didn’t expect. So when things do get back to Kikumaru and Oishi, you realize just how honest their playing was once it got going and how much more meaning there is in their match.
In Summary:
This season of the series has definitely gotten right down to the action and there’s a lot to like with that since the tennis is a big appeal. The characters are varied within the team itself so there’s plenty to work with there, which makes watching all the other players going at things less than enjoyable since it’s just winnowing the field so things can get more intense. The main match between the two Seigaku guys is pretty fun here and even the other matches offer up a view of just how problematic the whole camp can be under this acting director. Things are a bit more comically done this time around, which is kind of weird to saying considering how strange that series went, but it still generally fits in with the whole Prince of Tennis franchise. I’m not sure just how well this series can sustain itself, but it’s giving me what I’ve been looking for ever since the first series faltered in its home video release. It’s goofy, fun and makes me grin for the majority of it.
Grade: B+
Readers Rating: [ratings]
Streamed By: Crunchyroll
Review Equipment:
Sony KDS-R70XBR2 70″ LCoS 1080P HDTV, Dell 10.1 Netbook via HDMI set to 1080p, Onkyo TX-SR605 Receiver and Panasonic SB-TP20S Multi-Channel Speaker System With 100-Watt Subwoofer.
