Well, that covered a lot of territory in a short time. Achiga enters the prefecture qualifier round, and breezes to victory. They met the prefecture champions, Bansei, in the first round and cleaned them.

Our coach arranges for the team to travel to visit other powerhouse schools, one per weekend, for extensive play and experience. First was Ryumonbuchi, where they ran into Koromo, loli of legend. It was their first experience playing against a demon, and it was a shock, but they recovered and eventually won. (It helped that Koromo is still Koromo, but she isn't sadistic any longer.)

Seven weekends, seven schools, and they won against all except one. Then they had a ten-day intensive training camp, and at the end we arrive in Tokyo for the national finals. And in the last scene they're walking down a hall at the venue, and a girl walking alone passes them going the other direction. They can feel her ki and they're all intimidated. It's Saki. She comes off as a monster. Koromo told them that it wasn't Nodoka who beat her, it was Kiyosumi's rinshan-tsukai. The others would have filled in just how formidable Saki is.

The other series was 25 episodes and ended just before the nationals. This series reached that point in 3 episodes, and has 9 to go. Apparently we're going to see the nationals this time -- only we're not going to see it from the point of view of Kiyosumi. We're going to see it from the point of view of Achiga High School.

So who am I supposed to root for? When, eventually, Achiga plays against Kiyosumi, who am I supposed to want to win?

One complaint about the original series was that events moved really slowly. The whole series felt padded. Sure can't make that complaint this time. On the contrary, it's too fast. I didn't like angst-of-the-week in the original series, but this time we're not getting any character building at all. I got to know the characters in the previous series by name, but this time they're the genki girl, the one who is always cold, the short stoic one with black hair, the younger sister of the cold one, and I can't even come up with a description of the last one.

The previous series was based on the manga. This one looks like it's the director himself telling the story -- and, well, it's a lot different.

What worries me a little is that if this series shows us the nationals, then we probably won't ever get to see a true sequel to the original series, showing us the nationals from Kiyosumi's point of view. So how will we ever get the resolution to Saki's own story, and see her reconcile with Teru?

UPDATE: Something just occurred to me.

Achiga only competes as a team. They aren't competing as individuals.

Saki plays last for Kiyosumi. Teru plays first for her team. So in the team play, even if the two schools eventually meet (presumably in the finals) Saki won't face Teru. They won't meet until (presumably) the final round of the individuals.

And we won't see that in this series because Achiga won't be competing in the individuals. I bet this series ends with the team finals. Which, I would bet, Kiyosumi will win.

Posted by: Steven Den Beste in System at 11:09 AM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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