Wednesday, April 13, 2016

Bamboo Blade-Part 8 Episodes 24-26


Tama’s lost a match for the first time in her life.  And with this loss, she’s lost the will to take up the sword again.  What good is practicing Kendo if you cant always win?  Everyone’s at their lowest point and they’ve got one final shot to make things better.  This team has been through a lot together, but they’ve never been through this kind of badness before.  The future is at stake for several members and they’ll need each other more than ever before to pull off the biggest miracle their club has ever known.  One chapter in the history of the Muroe High Kendo Team is about to end, and another is about to begin.

Im just gonna come out and say it, this is easily one of my favorite finales of any Anime EVER!!!

Everything got resolved, everyone found a solution, everyone found their groove again.  I’m actually a pretty big fan of stories where the heroes hit a low point in their journey’s. Yeah it sucks to seem them in such despair.  But I know that’s just going to make the come back all the more exciting and worth it.  Seeing Muroe come together as a team on all fronts was excellent: Tama went to Ishibashi and Kojiro for help; Azuma stepped up to Miya and told her to get her act together; Saya declared her eternal friendship to Kirino (a shipper fans dream) and Donnie proved himself against one of the douche Kendo bullies that nearly got the club disbanded.  It was such a good feeling to see the team back together after the turmoil of the last few episodes.  The family was reunited.

Then it was time to settle all scores.  Miya won against Carrie, TWICE (and Rami finally came in handy for once.  Oh and Little Carrie with two swords is too adorable).  Donnie managed to score a point on Yuji, its almost hard to forget how much progress Donnie himself has made this series. He was such a shy dude back in the beginning and he never wanted to practice Kendo.  Low and behold, he’s become more than just the comic relief/support system.  But of course, the one match everyone was looking forward to was the rematch between Tama and Rin.  It was a whole new match this time.  No longer scared off by the high stance, Tama was pretty evenly matched with Rin.  What I liked best about this match wasn’t really the fighting but the realization Tama had during it.  Everyone at the tournament, besides her sensei and teammates, loves Kendo and it fueled her love for it as well.  It was a beautiful feeling that I think I understand pretty well from a convention goers point of view.  It was a good fight and easily the most feel good moment of the series.  It’s why I hold the finale in such high regard.

Though if I did have to sound a little negative, the final episode could have been merged in with Episode 25.  I don’t think we needed to see Iwasa and Toyama’s younger siblings, especially Shinobou who was kind of a brat.  This could have been a post credits sequence really, showing the start of the next chapter for Muroe High’s team.  As far as I know there is no second season of Bamboo Blade.  So the tease of new blood and Yoshikawa taking over as advisor is kind of unfair (btw when did she and Ishibashi hook up?  That’s gonna be one good looking kid).  Still, the team is continuing on and Tama’s friendship with Rin is stronger than ever.  The two of them witnessing their roles in the Blade Braver movie was cute.  Ok so maybe the last episode had a lot of merit to it after all.  I couldn’t ask for more from this finale.

So, my final thoughts?  Bamboo Blade is a great mix of slice of life with action added in for fun.  The cast is diverse and fun, the lessons are ones that will stick with you, the comedy is really freaking funny.  And Tama, well what haven’t I said about her I haven’t said already.  If I made up a set of Anime Expendables, Tama would be on board for sure…God only knows how many guys she could cut down with a real sword.  Some of the supporting cast was hit and miss, especially those who had no real purpose until the end like Rami.  Rin Suzuki and the Machido Girls were fun and friendly rivals I wish we’d seen more of throughout the series.  And there were a couple of story arcs I think lasted too long (the search for Azuma).  At the end of the day, I love this series and it’s fun to pop in every once in a while for relaxation and background noise.  Kendo is a sport anyone who’s an Anime fan can fall for.  And these girls make it look so awesome.

The final score is an
8.5/10

Well that series is done.  Next week we head back into the mecha realm.  Brace yourself for the second coming of Evangelion…or rather the series I think is actually a little better than Eva.  The much overlooked mecha classic, Rahxephon, starts next week on the Anime Corner.

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