Dear Internet,
Are you
ready for some football? Yes? Then good for you. No?
Too bad.
Sena
and the rest have finally gotten through team Poseidon. Which is a relief if you have been keeping up
with me, Internet. You have not been
sending my letters straight to SPAM, have you?
The game took a whopping six episodes, which add up to the average three
hours that a professional or college game would take. However, most American football games do not
take six weeks to broadcast. Episode 63
completely felt like padding for the game arc, mostly due to adding back story
and fleshing out the characters on team Poseidon. While I am usually for fleshing out
antagonists in a show, I am only for it if when it does not become excessive
and detrimental for the flow of the plot.
At the start of episode 63, there is only two seconds on the clock and
30 centimeters to a touchdown. However
the play does not start until well into the second half of the episode. Instead, scenes of the various members of
Team Poseidon are showcased. It feels
less like a buildup and more like stretching the episode to place the climax
into the episodic formula that is created.
The only thing that was productive of this arc is the Devil Hurricane
move that re-introduced the concept of a spin when traveling with the
ball. But that like all other moves or
techniques only last for one match and are then made obsolete.
After
that, Ishimaru gets his own appointed episode, which was long overdue. Then the team learns to bump their opponents,
only to have that knowledge be made useless after another episode or two. Then there is the kicker of the next arc, or
lack thereof if you wish. The guy that
taught Sena to run years ago who was never mentioned before and partially
invalidates the running ability that Sena had at the beginning of the show,
Riku, shows up. There is next to no foreshadowing
in this show, and characters are brought forth from nowhere just for an episode
or two. Does every single game have to
revolve around Sena having to overcome some obstacle? While each match does involve the weaknesses
of the other team members and how they overcome them, Sena's problems always
get center stage and blot out everyone else's challenges. Somewhere in the Gunman v Devil Bats was a
battle of wits between quarterbacks, a duel of wide receivers, and a fight of
technique in the line. The show
overshadows this with the whole Sena's childhood friend coming back out of
nowhere. Riku even gets a number of
scenes after the match is over in the festival half of episode 74. I will say that how the match ended did leave me speechless and
caught me completely by surprise, but it does make me realize and pissed Riku
will show up again.
Before
I forget again, Internet, it took 52 episodes to show a penalty flag. This show went on for a whole year without
any yellow flags being thrown. It took
another seven episodes before a safety was discussed. Fifteen episodes later, an onside kick was finally
introduced. Mentioning the onside kick
so late into the show is rather forgivable since the regular kicker for the
team has not joined. What did make me
laugh was how surprised the opposing team and announcers were when the kick was
made. Did they not notice that the Devil
Bats were in formation for an onside kick?
Let the
madness continue.
Yours in digital,
BeepBoop
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