{"id":378,"date":"2006-03-07T18:43:15","date_gmt":"2006-03-08T02:43:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/batrock.net\/anime\/?p=378"},"modified":"2006-03-07T18:43:15","modified_gmt":"2006-03-08T02:43:15","slug":"suzuka-episodes-6-10","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/batrock.net\/anime\/?p=378","title":{"rendered":"Suzuka episodes 6-10"},"content":{"rendered":"

Images come from episodes 8, 9 and 10<\/i><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

I got some great feedback from my last Suzuka ramblings: “I liked it too, at first,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d was the gist of the arguments, “But by the end I wished all of the characters were dead.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d
\nAs a result I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve decided to return to my old style of writing completed series in instalments as it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a hell of a lot easier to write and my initial goal in writing this site was to chart how I felt towards a series as it progressed (hence “pilgrimage\u00e2\u20ac\u009d). Basically it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s selfish writing, but I like it.<\/p>\n

Right now, Suzuka<\/I> is walking a very fine line between frustration and enjoyable drama. There are surprises in these episodes, and a new character, but Suzuka partially reverts to type in a big disappointment.
\n
\nYamato takes Suzuka to Fantasy Land, where he confesses to her. She rejects him, so he decides to take drastic measures by joining the track team to get closer to her. Idiot that he is, he confesses that this is his motive for joining the team, which angers her to no end.
\nWhen he actually joins the team and his results turn out to be quite satisfactory, well \u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 Suzuka\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s on ice<\/i>.<\/p>\n

For a few episodes it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s like this, and the only reason not to slam your head through the computer screen is the character of Hashiba Miki, a long haired athlete who is friends with Suzuka and becomes friends with Yamato very quickly. Miki is kind and has amusing arguments with Hattori; Akitsuki needs some discipline and Miki is precisely the character to do that. The way she admitted that she had liked Yamato but didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t worry about it was a good indication of how these characters should react; she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the most grounded of the characters without the sleaze factor inherent in thingo.<\/p>\n

With the focus shifting to the sporting field, there needs to be a way to keep Honoka around; she satisfies this requirement by becoming a manager on the track team. This is not only a thankless task, but it is also an even more blatantly obvious way to get close to Yamato.
\nHattori had a point about stalkers \u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n

For the most part, Yamato is clueless about that which goes on around him. It took some guts to confess to Suzuka at the episode six mark, rather than leaving it to the last second after far too many episodes of recrimination. The change affected in Suzuka is understandable, but she becomes less of a human being and more of a stone as a result \u00e2\u20ac\u201c and angry stones aren\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t that fun to watch, even on a dramatic level. The way that she judges Yamato is painful to watch as she is physically incapable of keeping a civil tongue in her head.<\/p>\n

The misgivings of episodes 7-9 are further forgiven by the adventures of episode 10, “Love Rivals\u00e2\u20ac\u009d. The story of Tsuda Kazuki gave a good level of rationalisation to Suzuka\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s behaviour, even if it is amongst the most clich\u00c3\u00a9d scenarios possible. The confrontation between Suzuka and Yamato in this episode worked because, unlike Suzuka, Akitsuki became capable of letting Suzuka know exactly why he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s angry at her.
\nYamato’s behaviour and outburst were, perhaps, paranoia; based in truth, but worded too strongly. Suzuka, on the other hand, cannot even begin to tell Yamato the problems that she has with him, and she hides behind ultimately meaningless words. Suzuka is still in denial, but it is good to see a character who realises what he wants and why he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s pissed off so early in the piece.
\nThat said, I really won\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t like Suzuka<\/I> if it turns out to be a series of these neighbours yelling at each other and taking turns at being the angrier of the two.<\/p>\n

The other new aspect of the episode was that the second half was presented from Suzuka\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s perspective, with her providing the monologue for a change. You get no indication of her present situation, but you can get a better feel for the character and she earns some much<\/I> needed sympathy from her scenes here.
\nWhat one must remember in a story is that you only see what the writers and directors want you to see; allowing us to see a calmer, gentler Suzuka was a welcome reveal.<\/p>\n

Suzuka<\/I> is a whirlpool. It fell into the trap of “needlessly angry woman\u00e2\u20ac\u009d in more time than most series took, but as long as she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not violent it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not a lost cause. The character set remains intriguing, and the track team are nice enough people too. If the sports become more earnest, and less of a tool to work the characters around (you know, a genuine sports romance drama series), well \u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll be just dandy.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Images come from episodes 8, 9 and 10 I got some great feedback from my last Suzuka ramblings: “I liked it too, at first,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d was the gist of the arguments, “But by the end I wished all of the characters were dead.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d As a result I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve decided to return to my old style of writing […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[120],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-378","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-suzuka"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/batrock.net\/anime\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/378","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/batrock.net\/anime\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/batrock.net\/anime\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/batrock.net\/anime\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/batrock.net\/anime\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=378"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/batrock.net\/anime\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/378\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/batrock.net\/anime\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=378"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/batrock.net\/anime\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=378"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/batrock.net\/anime\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=378"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}