ダブルスの無限の可能性

[fencer_x]

I should've posted this last night when it was all fresh in my mind before I let my dreams fill my head with zombie Oishi and Eiji using their powers of synchronization to more skillfully track down their teammates and eat them, but what can ya do *shrugs*



I STILL DO NOT KNOW WHEN OR WHERE THIS MYTHICAL VEGETABLE SOUP SCENE WILL APPEAR.

--so with that thought, I went to the OVA site again to see if I'd missed something. And of course I had. A bit of Kaida Yuki's (Fuji) interview, her favorite scene:

The vegetable soup one. Fuji-kun loves that stuff, after all. I'm glad they chose to put that kind of weird aspect about him in there. And also, the other regulars are all always so cool. But that time, I think they behaved the most like a club out of all the times we've recorded before, and that sense of, "Even though it's tough right now and we're getting really excited it's still fun," really showed itself. And like when Inui's talking about the muscles and going on about your "trisomethingsomething muscle," and everyone chimes in, "Where the hell is that?!"--I was glad that sort of thing made it in, too. I mean, Kaidoh's always just going, "Fushuuu~" and Oishi's always acting older than he is. Outside of Momo-chan and Kikumaru, it wouldn't be going too far saying they're all really cool and collected. But that time, even the post-recording session itself was fun, in more ways than one.

Sooooo.....I'm going to go with the 'vegetable soup' scene being the beach volleyball one >_> The kanji for "soup," after all, can also mean "juice." Plus it's the same kanji for the Inui Juice. Over a year waiting, and THIS is what Kondou and Hiroki had us getting all worked up for?

Oh right, there was the gay in OVA 12 XD

I was, I think, overall disappointed with the fact that this match was so SHORT! I liked the animation (god, everyone just looked so good *_____*) butbutbut so SHORT! They were already at the tiebreak 8 minutes into the episode! And I hate to say it, but I think I liked how the whole 'synchronization' thing was handled in the manga better, aesthetically at least. I loved that collage of memories that spanned pages XD

But seeing the looks of absolutely, "WHAT THE FUCK?" on even ATOBE's face was, I think, enough to keep me sated for a while yet 8D It's like, they all KNEW how gay the Golden Pair was for each other before, but seeing them become one soul? Going to take a little bit of getting used to.

And what the hell was that SYNCHRONIZATION? The random flashback to post-St. Rudolph that I SWEAR was influenced by St. Rudolph Myu >_>, the Eiji and Oishi TALKING inside their little just-the-two-of-us space ("Oishi, where are we?") AND THE EYES. WTF.

On a serious note, though, I think I really realized something with this episode (that I suppose I missed or ignored in my incensed state reading this in the manga) about the differences between Golden and Silver Pairs.

For Silver Pair, it felt like all their thoughts during the match were focused on just that: the match. Shishido was 100% in the zone, and Ohtori was 100% in Shishido...the zone, too (WTF, THE I FORMATION WILL NEVER CEASE TO AMUSE ME) Their thoughts were on the match, on winning the match. And even when Ohtori hurt himself, rendering him unable to use his Neo Scud Serve, he still fought on, with the single thought that he wanted to win this match with Shishido. He even told Shishido himself, "Even if I hurt myself, I'm going to hit this!"

This is so, so different from how Golden Pair thinks. For Golden Pair, playing a match is about having fun with one another first, and about winning second. Eiji was constantly there, backing up Oishi during the match, because he knew about Oishi's wrist. And even (especially?) when they were synchronized, and going purely on instinct and none of their conscious thoughts were leaking through (let's bend reality even more now!), there was still that underlying thought that one half was not going to let his other half hurt himself just for a win.

Oishi hadn't said anything aloud, he hadn't mentioned that even if he hurt his wrist irreparably, he'd win this match with Eiji, even though that might have been his last chance to win a meaningful match with him. And yet, unconsciously or not, Eiji still stopped him, still cared more about Oishi himself--EVEN in the height of a match--than anyone else. THAT is the epitome of Golden Pair, THAT is what makes them them.

They may not win matches as much as other doubles pairs, but they are the pair everyone strives to be, Silver Pair included. Why? Because there's more to doubles in the Prince of Tennis world, at least, than winning, and until Silver Pair learns that, they'll always be that: second best.

Everyone on that court saw the "infinite potential of doubles" illustrated. By a losing pair.

Comments

[rensahannou.livejournal.com]

I'm going to jump in and answer this :D I don't think a full translation was done of the entry, but you can find stuff about it in my entry here (http://rensahannou.livejournal.com/15483.html). ♥

[hibimaosuki.livejournal.com]

Eh? Courtney didn't translate it? Hm. *idea*

[adevyish.livejournal.com]

WAII, thank yous ♥ *digs up blog*