Tsurune Episode 3 – A Shot in the Arm

• Genre: Drama; Sports; School
• Studio: Kyoto Animation

You know, between Dakaichi earlier today and now Tsurune, Sunday is really turning into Funday if you know what I mean. I hope you know what I mean…One of us really should…

After posting my episode 1 and 2 reviews last week, I realized pretty quickly, instantly even, that I had made a slight miscalculation. This show airs on Sundays so I’m the very last person to get their review out. You are probably way over episode 3 right now and might have even seen 4. At least you don’t have to worry about soilers. I thought about changing my schedule around for a while but you know what, being sort lazy is how we do things here.  Let’s all catch up with the adventures of the Kazemai High School Archery Club…from last week!

True to his word Minato faces his misgivings and joins the kyudo club without making a scene. I gotta give it to him, one tiny tantrum in episode 2, and the boy is right back on track. Diligently practicing, getting up early every morning and cleaning the shooting range, trying every trick he can think of to improve. He is sticking at it, even though he hasn’t seen much results so far. Hard work and dedication. You guys know I’m a sucker for that.

But that wasn’t even the core of this episode. In fact, for the most part, we got a much better look at Seiya and Ryohei, Minato’s childhood friends. Sidenote, can we just appreciate how different Seiya looks without his glasses. That’s some Clark Kent/Superman stuff right there. Only much more impressive cause Clark Kent just looks like Superman with glasses. Anyways, I always like when cosmetic changes do in fact make a hue difference in the design.

Anyways, we already got a chance the get to know Seiya a bit and he stays true to himself. Calm, cool and collected. The golden boy archetype. I did like that despite showing a bit of bite, he turns out to be a very sweet character. Someone that truly cares about his friend and still feels guilty about not noticing his pain earlier. His approach to helping Minato is to give him copious amounts of space and just quietly support him from afar while he finds his own way.

Seiya does say himself that he’s not sure whether this is the way to go. And in comes Ryohei. In the first episodes, Ryohei is setup as the goofy, sighty ditzy comic relief. I was basically expecting him to jump on people all the time and tell everyone else to cheer up and have fun. That is who this character is suppose to be, right? I quite like folks like that in real life but in stories they can get tedious and are often boring. As such, it’s impressive how much this episode made me like Ryohei.

While remaining entirely true to his archetype, Ryohei’s quest to find something, anything to help his old friend out was honestly touching. A completely different approach from Seiya. Ryohei is meddlin as much as he can. Asking advice left and right, doing research on target practice, rallying the rest of the club to accept Minato as he still struggles to get over his condition. I couldn’t help but smile, and appreciate how nice it is to have friends. Even grumpy Onogi couldn’t stay indifferent.

Overall, the episode was possibly a little too cutesy, relying on the adorable a bit more than the substantial. There wasn’t that much emotional heft to it, but I’m not sure it needed it. I personally quite enjoy themes of perseverance and friendship, both of which were lovingly celebrated this week. The fact that Minato doesn’t seem to be improving so far, but is still keeping at it, brings a lot of charm to Tsurune that is fairly uncommon.

The ladies of the club are still decently present and also got a bit of development this week. I continue to appreciate the effort of bringing us a varied cast. On the other hand, I am a little afraid that the main cast will end up somewhat one note. Minato and Seiya seem extremely similar as do Ryohei and Nanao. And all four are in fact your basic nice boys only two of the are a bit more stoic. Even bad boy Onogi is likely to calm down and join the rest of his team mates as the slightly more tsundere nice boy. The girls may be more interesting to follow if that happens.

Then again, I can really think of worse things to do with my life than follow the trial and tribulations of five pretty and nice boys. Also, archery remains a very prevalent part of the story and continues to be a fascinating sport. I have always wanted to wear hakama and thanks to this show, I finally know what those pants are called. Tsurune is turning out to be a vocabulary lesson.

And of course Masa-san was going to be their coach. I guess the whole team is finally together now! I don’t care what the show says, in my head Masaki is still a ghost. Ghost coach, the anime!

I managed to gt a few decent caps. Lots of close ups on eyes in this episode. Very spaghetti western.