Tuesday, March 22, 2016

Bamboo Blade-Part 4 Episode 11-13


 
The mission to find the elusive fifth member of the Muroe High Kendo team is well underway.  No section of the school is safe from Kirino and Saya’s frantic search.  Even if they can find her, will this Azuma Satori really want to join?  She might have to when Muroe enters a joint practice with Seimei High School.  And what happens when the happy go lucky Muroe team comes face to face with an instructor so fierce, he makes Kendo seem scary?  Speaking of scary, who’s this strange stalker girl who’s got Miyako of all people fearing for her life?  It wouldn’t be a day at Muroe High without a little bit of crazy.

As promised, I present to you Part 2 of yesterdays intended update.

It only took 12 episodes but we finally got our fifth team member.  Azuma is a very welcome addition to the cast.  Fallible but also likeable, she’s the only person who has a chance against Tama.  If Kojiro can work out an arrangement with the (quite lovely) Yoshikawa as to helping Azuma balance Kendo and school, she’ll be a great asset to the team.  You had to love Kirino and Saya’s never ending battle to get Azuma to join the team.  They pretty much turned into kidnappers at one point.

We got to see a whole other side to Kendo training with the guest appearance of Seimei High School.  Their instructor, Hayashi, was a very disciplined and tough teacher.  It was a very different look to how training goes compared to the more laid back style at Muroe.  For a moment, I thought Hayashi Sensei would speak out loud against the over energetic Muroe team.  But low and behold, he ended up being impressed.  While he vowed to keep teaching his way, it’s good to see he’ll take his visit to Muroe to heart and make things a little more fun. 

Hayashi wasn’t the only one blown away by Muroe’s performance.  The Seimei girls practically wanted to steal Tama away from the team by the time their stay ended.  Tama took on the role of instructor and inspiration this time.  She managed to convince a young first year to stay on the Seimei team just by demonstrating the power of her strikes.  Tama makes this sport look so cool and many people she comes across aspire to be just as good as she is.  Overall, Tama once again stole the show, not just as the golden girl of the practice meet, but also as that lovable Otaku.  While the Rami episode was pretty forgettable, Tama’s heartfelt description of a famous Anime creator is probably the happiest and most enthused Tama we’ve seen yet.  And that carried into her teaching the Seimei Team and reawakening Azuma’s fighting spirit. 

As I said, the Rami moments were kind of out there for me.  Her stalker storyline had a loop thrown when it showed that she was virtually in love with Miyako and not seeking to end her.  Still, it felt like a waste of time.  This was especially true in the fact that we had a whole episode dedicated to this instead of going right for Azuma.  Again, 12 episodes without a full team, that’s kind of pushing things.  Sure Miya continues to lose her cool when Rami’s around, but the joke wears thin quick for me.

With Azuma all but confirmed, our little troupe finally has a full team.  Not sure what lies next, it’s a long way to Nationals.  But we’re halfway done with this series.  It’s time to see our five noble female warriors fighting together at last.

See ya next week (no interruptions this time, promise).

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