Next up is kendo-centric Bamboo Blade. I was first introduced to kendo through His and Her Circumstances, because love interest and eventual boyfriend Arima was a kendo player, but we never got into kendo playing itself. In Bamboo Blade, main character Kirino (no, not that Kirino) is obsessed with kendo and the smell of sweat that comes with it. She’s a pretty weird girl, but I still love how genki she is. As an aside, I’m watching Martian Successor Nadesico right now and, while a lot of the characters get on my nerve—Yurika especially—resident genki character Ryoko Subaru has always been one of my favorites. Maybe that’s MAI TYPEU. But I digress.
The show follows Kirino and her kendo club as they, well, try to win. It’s pretty easy to describe each of these shows, as their premise is always “Main character participating in sport tries to win.” What I really liked about the series was the presence of female characters in a supposedly male dominated sport. But what really put it over the top for me was the voice acting. I watched it in English, but the performance of Luci Christian is, as always, spectacular and Cherami Leigh as the cute little Tama went above and beyond. Watching her fight against the white-haired girl while injured was absolutely spectacular.
This is another digression, but the situation reminds me of Garak from Deep Space 9. There was an episode where they said he could interrogate someone just by sitting silently in the same room with the other person. Tama sort of did the same thing, but she completely won the match by her battle cry. It’s one of those shonen moments that brings a lump to your throat and just makes you want to jump up and down.
Unfortunately, Bamboo Blade is one of those shows that is awesome to watch transpire, but is mostly forgettable in the end. What I remember most is Tama, Kirino, and their growth throughout the series.
Kory Cerjak
I podcast about sports manga and anime at the Taiiku Podcast, talk about manga at Manga In Your Ears, and (you may know this one) write about manga and anime at the Fandom Post. I tweet about sports too.
Why no mention of Free!, Knight in the Area, Ginga e Kickoff, or Kuroko’s Basketball?!
I didn’t mention Ginga e Kickoff, because I didn’t know it existed. But I mentioned everything else. Name dropped, if you will.
I would just about shed blood for a legit release of Touch. I’m still holding out a faint hope that Right Stuf or somebody else will pick it up someday.