Tsurune 2 Episode 10 -Uncle -

Out of all the episodes of Tsurune’s second season, I would say that this one most closely resembled the first season. And by that, I mean that it was mostly drama and personal strife with very little actual archery going on. There was a moment early in the episode but that’s about it.

It’s not really my preference when it comes to storytelling. When it’s just an isolated episode like this one, it’s not that bad. But for the first time this season, I thought to myself that we could have done without it altogether. Not sure if anyone else agrees.

For a quick refresher, Kazemai and Tsujimine are currently on a shared training camp in a small beachside town. They accidentally double-booked the place so they are sharing it to cut down on costs. And Eisuke is being a little squirely. He’s in a bad mood and no one knows why. That hasn’t changed yet.

Masa is trying to gently give the Tsujimine team some advice since they don’t have a coach. And this is very ironic. He’s been practicing the completely hands-off approach with Kazemai all season basically letting them figure out everything for themselves. He’s been a coach in name only. But now that there’s this new team he’s not responsible for in any way, he’s all about coaching? Well, whatever, it doesn’t seem to be bothering his team so I shouldn’t whine either.

The Tsujimine team is kinda cool. We got to know the big guy a little last week and he’s an adorable dork. This week, we learn a bit more about Koushirou and his cool hair. That’s not true, we don’t learn anything about his cool hair. Just about him. Turns out, he’s a huge dork too. And you know how I feel about dorks! Very positively!

Kazemai are doing a bit better but they still have some issues working cohesively as a team so they end up asking Koushirou how Tsujimine manages to do it seemingly without any effort. The answer is pretty good. Instead of actively trying to match his teammates, Koushirou simply tries to get a feel for the overall flow. It sounds dumb when I say it but he made it seem a lot more reasonable. Like a rhythm game maybe. You just need to get the beat down and not worry too much about the individual notes.

While all this is going on, Eisuke continues breaking down. He’s angry. That’s really the core of everything. Eisuke feels like he has something to prove for his uncle and he’s angry that everyone else is taking it so easy. Not only his team but his rivals as well.

And it makes perfect sense that among the people that rub him the wrong way, Masa would be one of the worse. Masa is a coach, the role his uncle fills for him. Masa has that weird carefree attitude that makes it sometimes seem like he’s above everyone else. From everything we know about Eisuke, this is exactly the type of person he would have a very tough time with.

The other people Eisuke has a bit of a grudge against are Mikado and Shu. We already knew that but of course, Mikado is clueless. The reason is that the Kyoudo master who turned down teaching his uncle (and he got pretty sick after that) took on Mikado and Shu as students shortly after. Eisuke finds this particularly unfair and even though he knows it’s not their fault, beating them and by extension proving that his uncle’s shooting style can prevail over the students of that specific master, is the only thing Eisuke is after at the moment. And that’s got him all bent out of shape.

So naturally, he gets stuck in an elevator with Mikado. It’s a cliché. In fact, it might be a romcom cliché and I rolled my eyes a little. However, even as I did roll my eyes and admit to how deeply contrived it was, I still kind of liked the idea. Unfortunately, they pushed it a bit too far by having Eisuke learn that his uncle had collapsed and was in the hospital while he was still stuck in the elevator. That’s one step too far down the melodrama ladder for me.

Thankfully, turns out his uncle will be fine this time. And Eisuke got to cry it out and let out all the things that were festering. It turned out to be surprisingly easy to resolve everything.

My favourite part of the closing scenes was Ootaguro mustering up his courage to ask Seo out only to be turned down. It was a cute scene. I felt a little bad for Ootaguro, he was clearly giving it all he had. But at the same time, it was a gentle refusal and led to a sweet scene.

This said, I’m happy we get to go back to Kyoudo next week. I do like Eisuke but he might be a bit too dramatic for my taste and I would like the season to focus on someone else for a while.