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Whump Focus I: Manga Soccer Edition - Episode 3: Glass Heart, Dislocated Shoulder, Bleeding Knee

Welcome back to another installment in this first edition of the Whump Focus. This time, we’ll take a look at the actually most infamous arc of Captain Tsubasa: Boys Fight, the junior high school arc, and its iconic (often for the wrong reasons) injury arc. Yes, an injury plays a pivotal role in this story and yet I’m willing to bet none of y’all had any idea it existed... and had existed for like three to four decades.

Before we jump into it, of course, I urge you to read Part 1 and Part 2 of this saga, as I won’t be reintroducing the characters the first arc introduced nor the events that happened in there aside from vague contextualization. If you like sports anime and/or whump shlock that doesn’t require you to really follow most of the plot, then I recommend you at least read the first part to see if this is your kinda stuff.

With that out of the way, let’s get right into it.

Because we’re back on the 2018 DavidProd anime adaptation, I’ll be back to referring to its episodes only.

Boys Fight starts in the middle of episode 28, as I said last time. Everyone is now in their third year of junior high and is bound to graduate once the year ends. We learn most of Nankatsu SC’s players have decided to attend Nankatsu Junior High with Tsubasa, while some of them (...and I didn’t introduce any of them last time, I just realized) have joined another junior high school named Otomo.

Our first stop is, however, going to be the second opening, which debuts in episode 29: Kizudarake no Ai, lit. “Injured Love”. First of all, it’s a certified banger, but also, it has some visuals that will immediately show you what this season will feel like:

This shot is part of a sequence that shows you the most important characters of the season as drawn by Takahashi himself, thus the slightly different designs of the shorts (they’re longer than that in CT 2018, even during this arc). Those character would be, in order: Nitta, Misugi, Hyuga, Soda, the Tachibana twins, Matsuyama, Wakashimazu, Jito & Sano, Tsubasa. Why am I only showing you Misugi, then? Well, guess what. (A clue: his pose tells you everything you need to know).

Those shots of Tsubasa are clearly set during the final match of the arc, Nankatsu-Toho (hey, don’t look at me like that, did you really expect anything else as a finale?). It may come as a surprise to ome of you all that they’d put a reference to such a late event in the opening, but you have to keep in mind this manga has been around for 40+ years and most people know about Nankatsu-Toho already. Plus, it’s not like the series tries to hide the fact this is the final match.

Before we get to the real good stuff, we first need to get through the Shizuoka Prefecture tournament. This time, however, it has no whump to give us (mostly because Wakabayashi isn’t here, he’s busy living his best life in Hamburg, Germany, so he can’t get injured to the leg). I do need to summarize the plot from it a bit, however: Tsubasa plans to go to Brazil to become a pro player after graduating junior high and Nankatsu plans on winning their 3rd national title in a row (and to be the first to do so). Nankatsu now has three managers (Tsubasa’s love interest Sanae, Yukari and Kumi), Yukari is the cousin of Hiroshi Jito from Hirado (more on him later), and we get introduced to Otomo’s rising star, Shun Nitta. We also get introduced to Munemasa Katagiri from the Japanese Football Federation.

Yeah so Nankatsu beats Otomo, to nobody’s surprise, and Nankatsu gets to the national tournament. What’s a bit more interesting is the rumour that Misaki had to give up on soccer because of his injury from the Kids Dream arc, which we get told when Tsubasa says Misaki is the one guy he wants to face off against again the most (pissing Hyuga off while he’s at it), because Misaki has completely disappeared from the national circuit. Hmm, I wonder why that is.

Shot by the heart, anime hypertrophic cardiomyopathy’s to blame

We get glimpses into the other prefecture tournaments: Naniwa gets dethroned by Azuma-ichi for the Osaka representative role, the Tachibanas will be back, and Furano beats Sapporo Nishi 7-0. The one we get more info about is, of course, none other than Tokyo Prefecture’s finale, which opposes Toho Academy (which Hyuga, Wakashimazu and more recently Takeshi have joined) to... Musashi Junior High. Yes, there he is: it’s Misugi’s epic comeback.

He’s been MIA for 2 years but his heart situation has apparently gotten a bit better, to the point his nickname became “Ace of Glass”. He can only play 30 minutes per match, but hey, it’s been enough to make it there. He usually plays in the second half (the matches now lasting 60 minutes rather than KD’s 40), his cardiologist ships him with Yayoi, everything’s good. Meanwhile, Toho knows Musashi will send Misugi out during the second half and prepares. (Also, Tsubasa is trying to learn something named the Drive Shoot. It physically doesn’t make sense but it’s hella powerful).

It, uhm, doesn’t go this way for Musashi. They quickly get scored against thrice by Hyuga alone (with assists from Takeshi), so Misugi decides to go there himself in the first half. The coach only accepts because he says “he’ll only play his allowed 30 minutes” (yeah sure). He’s really pumped up because he wants to play against Tsubasa again and the madman scores in a minute and a half against an otherwise undefeated Wakashimazu. Kitazume, Toho’s coach, is surprised this guy actually scored himself since he was, until then, only assisting Musashi’s three forwards, suspecting it was to preserve his heart. Hmm.

Second half starts on 3-1 for Toho. Musashi pulls the offside trap again (it’s their gimmick, don’t ask). After a lot of soccer-ing, Misugi scores Musashi’s second goal in the match but - and everyone and their dog saw it coming - it’s not going to be easy smoothie for Jun-y boy over there.

Déjà Vu! I’ve just been to this place before... (ep 23)

Of course, Musashi’s coach isn’t completely brainless and remembered Misugi’s 30 minutes trial period, so he wants to send in a substitute player for the guy who’s literally bent over hand on his chest, but Misugi being Misugi (that is, a guy who lives to defy God for giving him a stupid anime heart disease), he insists on playing until the end anyway.

He’s fine, he’s got the power of anime and physics defiance by his side!

Misugi tries his best convincing monologue to his coach, quoting his role as the team’s captain to at least even out the score, and having been able to rest during the half-time break, and he knows his body better than anyone else, yadayadayada, the coach lets him stay and Yayoi of all people convinces his doctor to let him, citing the efforts he’s had to make in rehab to even reach the Tokyo Prefecture tournament.

I like anime hospitals, I think.

An epic showdown soon happens between Hyuga and Misugi on the field, with the latter running after the former for everyone’s best friend, the ball (Tsubasa literally said that in like the first episode). Hey, guess how it ends.

Aaaaah shit, here we go aga- wait what the fuck that didn’t happen last time.

You gotta love a homie who’s gonna make passing you the ball a priority, ratherthan his own health.

Okay, so, uhm, Misugi may’ve lost consciousness, but the team prefers to go ahead with trying to score... which doesn’t suceed because Wakashimazu is Wakashimazu. Only then does the referee stop the time (no, not before, he’s damn lucky Misugi didn’t actually have a heart attack like most people seem to remember this part going) and Musashi’s players check ontheir own capain (yes, for a minute or so, only a stunned Hyuga was even near Misugi). The first thing Misugi says to confirm he isn’t McFrickin’ Dead? “Did you guys score?”. Can’t make this shit up.

“It’s not a big deal,” he says as he almost had an attack.

The coach decides enough is enough and finally takes Misugi out of the field; and that’s it for Misugi’s appearance in this focus (he’s still around in the series, but obviously, I’ll have no reason to even mention him again), I hope you liked having him around!

Bye Juuuuun, see you in the next arc!

Kira (Meiwa’s coach from the previous arc and Hyuga’s personal coach from back then) meets up with Hyuga at the exit of the stadium and scols him for being “a tiger in a cage, who’s gotten lazy and slow”, and tells him that, once upon a time, he wouldn’t have had any pity on his opponents. To Kira, letting himself have any sort of feeling about Misugi was a major error, and if he remains attentive to his opponents’ conditions, he’ll never be able to catch up to Tsubasa. I don’t have the space to retranscribe the actual violence and warness of Kira’s words, so I’ll let a single visual from his speech do the work for me:

It was bad enough in the manga, but seeing it in colour and all prettied-up makes it a lot more messed-up than it already was. Jesus Christ.

This speech will trigger something within Hyuga that will keep him at bay from the tournament for quiiiiiite a while, so let’s move ahead to the national tournament.

Okinawa Interlude

We learn, through a letter/email (depends on the canon you’re following) from Wakabayashi that, actually, Misaki isn’t dead nor crippled: he’s just French now (well, his dad went to France and he followed; for more information, read the oneshot “I am Misaki Taro”). Hyuga’s gone missing on Toho, which pisses off the already hot-blooded Kitagure a lot. Nankatsu is shook at the news, but us audience are made different, so we get to see what he’s up to, and it’s a super duper turbo training from hell courtesy of Kira in his private soccer school in Okinawa.

I’m not sure training in the middle of a typhoon is actually a good idea. Did you ever play Persona 3? That shit’s bad for you... the typhoon, I mean, not Persona 3. (ep 34)

I mean, looks like the natural consequences to me.

Just kidding, it fucking works, so Kira gives Hyuga a ticket back to Tokyo for the tournament and we finally get on with this stupid national championship, dear God.

Makoto Soda Has a Plan

It’s finally the epic day for everyone: the opening of the national tournament. The first match of said tournament gives us two pieces of infomation, one which is relevant to us (Nankatsu is facing Azuma-ichi, complete no-names representing Osaka) and one that isn’t at all (Misugi and Yayoi are now dating... if you’re following the 2018 anime canon, at least).

Nankatsu quickly discovers Azuma-ichi is one of those annoying teams that mostly defends, just like Naniwa was in the first arc (which goes against the picture of Osaka I had, which was Heiji Hattori from Detective Conan and his tendency to fistfight people)... until their star player, Makoto Soda, opens the score. Soda is, by the way, a defender. Everyone is shook by this turn of events.

Soda has two special techniques: a Razor Shot and breaking the opposing team’s ace player’s leg- wait, what, that’s allowed? Well, yes, I guess, but it’s still considered a foul.

...this is gonna be a long season, isn’t it? (ep 35)

Soda is extreme in his means and is smirking even as he gets a yellow card handed to him. Nankatsu almost evens out the score but Soda counters Tsubasa’s overhead shot (which, for some reason, imprsses Matsuyama who’s in the audience. You’ll see later why this amuses me). Nakanishi comes behind the other important dudes in the audience to explain Soda’s nickname, the “Ace Killer”: he purposefully targets the opposite team’s best players to incapacitate them, which is also how Azuma-ichi defeated Naniwa. I guess that’s a valid soccer tactic in this universe.

Someone please take this kid to a therapist.

Manabu (the geeky guy with glasses that used to be part of Nankatsu FC) gets Sanae during the half-time to check on Tsubasa who, sure enough and like Soda told his teammates, is hurt.

I like how there’s no doctor in this infirmary.

Tsubasa suspects this ankle booboo to actually be an old pain waking up, from an injury he sustained against Hyuga a year or two before, and asks Sanae if she can bandage it up, which she accepts. He also urges Manabu not to tell anyone on the team so they don’t worry (...does every captain in this show have something against telling their teammates about their injuries or something?).

This is legit how you get a girl in the CTverse: you get hurt and she patches you up. Just ask Misugi, this is literally how his relationship with Yayoi started!

Nankatsu manages to get back a goal with a feint from Tsubasa and his assist so Takasugi (who is usually a defender, fyi) can score. They actually end up winning despite Soda’s best attempts at scoring a second goal for Azuma-ichi. Despite what you may expect, he actually takes his defeat gracefully, wishes Tsubasa good luck to master the Drive Shot (which he tried to use earlier) and asks him how his leg is. Ishizaki is surprised (and worried) to hear about this, Takasugi is astounded than Ishizaki didn’t notice Tsubasa being slower in the second half. It’s a little funny to see everyone think “Soda’s actually a pretty cool guy” (to be fair, it does seem a lot sweeter at the end of the match). We’ll actually see more of him in the third arc... but that’s gonna have to wait.

Meanwhile, Toho has to play without Hyuga, who is on bench warming duty thanks to Kitazume being very damn angry the guy left and came back, and Tsubasa gets a checkup during a day of rest. It’s just a sprain, but the doc’ tells him to rest another day and play with a bandaged ankle. We also briefly learn he doesn’t like hospitals much.

Why do I have the feeling this is not going to end well? (ep 36)

Some more matches happen on and off screen, including Kitazume still refusing to let Hyuga play and Furano eliminating another team 6-0 while Tsubasa and Sanae do gross love interest stuff like talk about soccer in a parc. This season sure lies a lot of emphasis on Furano, I wonder why...

Double Trouble

It’s soon the 3rd phase and Nankatsu is scheduled to face off against Hanawa, the team of the Tachibana twins (Kazuo and Masao). Nankatsu quickly opens the score against them, so the Tachibanas decide to unleash their accrobatic soccer (last time, they jumped on goalposts, I wonder what they’re gonna do). Ishizaki discovers that, to counter the Triangle Shoot, you just have to kick the goalpost.

Nankatsu dominates the match, so the twins decide to unleash their technique early. Everyone on Hanawa is scared for the state of their legs, but they gotta catch up on two goals. They indeed have a new technique: the Skylab Hurricane, where one of the twins jump on the legs of the other, and scores from the sky. Yes it makes no sense, even Tsubasa thinks it’s astounding, that’s what makes it so great.

Thank god the series made a schematic of it so I could show you some of it (ep 37).

We also get shown a short flashback showing us one of their numerous training sessions to master the Skylab Hurricane.

The way to get there wasn’t the most comfortable (ep 37).

In an attempt to counter the Skylab Hurricane, Tsubasa jumps on the goalpost... and gets tricked because Kazuo simply cut his jump short. That’s actually because the pass they got from their teammate wasn’t high enough and due to the strain the Skylab Hurricane inflicts on their legs, they have to use it as little as possible. I guess we needed another glass cannon, since we don’t have Misugi around this time.

For the second half, Hanawa has gotten a hard hitter so Kazuo and Masao could do their Skylab Shenanigans. Tsubasa jumps on the goalpost again to stop them; and it works! Except, uh, both Masao and he are now falling and Masao in particular is going to fall on his head or neck. Tsubasa, being a protagonist in a sports shonen, decides to volunteer.

We almost had a death by soccer over here, phew. (ep 38)

Issue: Tsubasa is less than fine, grunting about his shoulder.

Woop, there it is, the most iconic injury of the 1980s.

Masao is fine, but Tsubasa really isn’t, so the referee asks him to leave the field because he may have dislocated his shoulder. He refuses, claims to be in a condition to play, but nobody believes it and the referee uses the good ol’ “if you don’t obey I’m excluding you, brat” card.

While the boys are busy defending against Hanawa, the girls (who are all here for Tsubasa more than Nankatsu let’s be real here) decide to go to the infirmary to see what’s going on and hear Tsubasa scream from the other side of the door. Also, it’s not whump, but I have to show you that shot because it’s so damn stupid.

Nankatsu has a single braincell and I can’t believe it, but I think Tsubasa may be its holder.

Anyway, it doesn’t work and Hanawa gets back to the score. We also learn Tsubasa just screamed because the doctor used the brute force so he could get back to the field asap, so everything’s good.

Swagg bandage ya got there Tsubasa.

Tsubasa goes back to the field, motivating Nankatsu again, while Hanawa tries to score again. The twins load up the Skylab and... fail.

Defying gravity comes to a price.

More shenanigans happen. The twins’ last Skylab gets countered by Tsubasa. They do a Twin Soot (yes, the technique Tsubasa and Misaki used to score against Wakashimazu last time), Morisaki fails to stop it in time, and Ishizaki goes to the rescue and, in exchange, becomes the third character to get goalpost-bonked.

Ain’t a season of CT if Ishizaki’s face doesn’t save the day at least once and if someone doesn’t take the goalpost in the face. (ep 39)

Tsubasa transforms this last ball into a goal, the twins have it bad, and that’s how the match ends. Tsubasa’s doctor is actually not upset about having to bust out the bandages and shit yet another time. Doesn’t mean he won’t scold him about not avoiding contacts like he instructed him to later... in the locker room, with everyone else present.

Dislocated shoulders are fun kids!

Also Ishizaki is jealous.

The twins come to thank Tsubasa for saving Masao and wish them the best. Meanwhile, Hyuga gets scolded the fuck out by Matsuyama by the dispenser and by Misugi who came to his fucking house. Oh, also, just so you know: it’s been three years but Matsuyama sure hasn’t forgiven Hyuga for that slap in the cafeteria. It’s a fucking arc everyone, I tell you (legit, it only ends in World Youth, three years from now, when Matsuyama slaps Hyuga back for reasons to complex to explain here, and all Hyuga has to say is “I knew you’d make me pay for that cafeteria incident”). I’d show you pictures of both incidents because they amuse me for different reasons (for Misugi’s, it’s the fact it was obviously him on a date wiht Yayoi playing soccer with Hyuga’s brothers, and also how French!Jun just scolds the fuck out of Kojiro for being a little baby bitch, too capricious to represent Tokyo), but they don’t contain a single drop of whump (pensive emoji).

Hokkaido Interlude

It’s finally the quarterfinals and, first, we have to take a detour by non-whump stuff.

Episode 40 is (mostly) about Furano and we get introduced to, like, a couple things, including them being underestimared for being ~unused to the heat~ and, uh... ah, fuck I forgot to introduce that until now. Furano Junior High has a bit more budget than their elementary school club, so they have two managers, Yoshiko and Machiko. The former has a big fat crush on the captain, Matsuyama, but won’t spit it out, and Matsuyama is a dense idiot who won’t notice jack shit, much to the frustration of literally everyone else on the team, especially Machiko. I actually have to mention their romance because, unlike Tsubasa/Sanae and Misugi/Yayoi, it’s going to have an impact on this very focus. Oh, also, a flashback in the episode has a sneeze... but only in the French dub (and that’s why the French dub is the real CT 2018 experience).

Furano has a lot more trouble than they expected against Minamiuwa, the representatives of Ehime, being drained by the eheat and Minamiuwa’s strategy to break their collective play apart. They end up winning thanks to Matsuyama being able to keep his team together (and spite towards people who don’t have to train in the snow half the year). (As an aside, where can I stream CT 2018 Matsuyama’s theme, it’s so fucking good).

We’ll talk more about Furano when their time will be up, but for now, we have to go back to Nankatsu (sad Fly noises).

Hirado Time

It’s time for the last quarterfinal, Hirado VS Nankatsu, which will determine who’s going to face Furano (ooooh, that’s why there’s been so much focus on them this time!). Hirado, the Nagasaki representatives, is known for their iron defence and winning their matches 1-0. Jito, despite being a defender, has a cannonball-like kick and Sano’s headers make it so Nankatsu gets scored against in the first minute, after Jito roughly shouldered Taki (another of Nankatsu’s forwards). Just like when Furano got scored against in the previous match, everyone is shook.

Jito knows Tsubasa is injured to the shoulder and uses it to his advantage, because fuck it, he’s in a sports shonen, why wouldn’t he do that?.

Just so you know how powerful Jito really is: not only is everyone shook and Kisugi’s sliding tackle doesn’t work, Misugi (who is in the audience) realizes his charges are even more powerful than Hyuga’s. That’s how immense this guy’s strength is. (ep 41)

Hirado quickly scores again by being literally physically unstoppable and giving birth to Inazuma Eleven’s favourite trope: sending the goalkeeper into the net.

Had to double-check if it wasn’t Yuuki Tachimukai. Nope, still is Yuzo Morisaki who still has the worst time in the world.

Hirado is absolutely humiliating Nankatsu (to be fair, in the manga, Jito straightup found Furano chilling and told Matsuyama that their teams would face in the semifinals, they were ready), especially since some of the latter’s players aren’t doing too hot and it’s still the first half.

That’s Taki, the guy who was shouldered by Jito in the first seconds of the match.

That’s Kisugi, another Nankatsu forward, whose tackle failed earlier. It doesn’t show in my screenshot, but he’s limping.

And of course, the chef’s favourite dish: Tsubasa’s shoulder pain.

Soccer shenanigans happen, Nankatsu still can’t score and, when Tsubasa does try to shoot, he has to protect his shoulder from more harm from Jito and it doesn’t enter the goal. That... still doesn’t prevent the predictable from happening.

I hope you like shots on shoulders. If I’m honest, I’m getting a bit tired of them.

The first half ends on Hirado scoring a third goal and Tsubasa fainting dramatically.

I’ve run out of witty lines. God, can we get to Nankatsu-Furano already?

So yeah whatever he hallucinates Wakabayashi and Misaki telling him not to give up and gets back to his feet and whatever. The second half starts on Tsubasa managing to score with the Drive Shot (and only Misugi and Katagiri are able to tell what the hell the ball was doing in the audience).

In a change of pace, after Nankatsu scores a second goal, Jito stops a Drive Shot with his fucking face.

And he’s really damn happy to have finally been injured with a ball. Be my guest dude, this happens a lot around here.

I’m going to skip through the rest of the match bevause honestly it gets a little repetitive. Nankatsu ends up winning 4-3 after Tsubasa faints, like, 3 times (go check episode 42 out yourself if it sounds like your cup of tea, I honestly can’t be bothered anymore, I don’t even like Tsubasa that much as a character and certainly not enough to document everything). Okay, okay, I’m a bit mean. He mostly faints due to the pain and strain the Drive Shot inflicts on his shoulder and leg. Again, if that sounds like your thing, I urge you to check out the pisode yourself - to be fair, it’d get stale to susmmarize, even with pictures.

The last thing I’ll say about this match is that Sano has one of the best designs in the manga. I love this funky little dude.

LIKE LOOK AT HIM HE’S SO CUTE

YES I FINALLY GET TO LEGALLY TALK ABOUT FURANO I’VE BEEN WAITING FOR THIS MOMENT FOR LIKE TWENTY EPISODES AAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

So episode 43 saw Toho win against Meiwa Higashi (a team mostly composed of old teammates of Wakashimazu, Hyuga and Takeshi) thanks to Hyuga encouraging them; but now, it’s time for the second semifinal, which sees Nankatsu face Furano, who are still the Hokkaido representatives. This is my favourite match of the entire series with Meiwa-Furano, so get ready.

First of all, I have to introduce a totally inoccuous element: Yoshiko made headbands for all of Furano’s players, with their jersey numbers embroidered in them. Matsuyama decides that they’re going to wear them for the match because he probably knew, deep down, that this was their last match. Oh, also,I forgot to mention, but Yoshiko is leaving the country with her mom to the USA to follow her dad there once Furano is eliminated from the tournament. Keep that in mind... somewhere, anywhere. That was introduced back in episode 40, but I didn’t mention it there. Meanwhile, Tsubasa is doing better (at least, according to him).

I’ll try not to indulge in too much Furanoposting, but just know that Tsubasa’s injuries are somewhere on Matsuyama’s mind, even if he intends on ignoring them (we’ll see about that, Hikaru). The match starts with surprisingly little foul (less surprising if you remember one of Furano’s main characteristics is to be fair play). Matsuyama manages to both trick Tsubasa with a double-tackle (it makes no sense either but shhh turn off your brain the Tachibanas were defying gravity less than 10 episodes ago) and to stop the Drive Shot while Tsubasa is charging it. This man’s not going down without a fight.

Oh, yeah, I didn’t introduce it before, but Matsuyama’s actual little gimmicky technique (like Soda’s Razor Tackle/Shot, the Skylab Hurricane and Jito & Sano’s combo play) is actually a long-range shot named the Eagle Shot (unnamed in this arc, gets its nickname in the next one), and a flashback explains how it came to be: lacking any sort of soccer gift and painfully aware of that fact, Matsuyama actually had to spend hours and hours on this thing while training in the snow. CT 2018 doesn’t exactly do his training regimen justice however, so you know what? Instead of me explaining, I’ll just show you a screenshot from the manga:

Fuck Tsubasa being the poster child of the determinator protagonist of sports shonen, have you seen my man Matsuyama at work? (CT ch71 page 58, courtesy of Shinji’s scanlation) (also, the girl in this screenshot is Yoshiko)

Matsuyama opens the score of the match for Furano and Nankatsu is mad about it. Some more soccer sheneanigans happen until Tsubasa tricks Matsuyama during a showdown, preventing him from jumping after him when he scores with an overhead shot (it’d take too long to explain), allowing Nankatsu to get back to a 1-1 tie. There’s a tiny little problem he kinda forgot about, however: he’s freefalling right on his injured shoulder. Guess who decided to save the day, however. A hint: Nankatsu was too busy gawking at the scene.

Hey, Hikaru, what were you saying about ignoring Tsubasa’s injuries earlier, hmm? (ep 44)

I swear to God, the first time I saw this shot, I was like “are we gonna have two incapacitated captains?” and then the show did not deliver on that premise.

Yes I have a bias towards this episode. Cut me some slack please they’re my emotional support team.

Half time time. Tsubasa’s doing less than great but hey the Drive Shot needs to be shot.

The second half starts with Furano already heading right into Nankatsu’s half of the field and Izawa quickly manages to score the second goal for Nankatsu with a header, despite Furano’s best attempts at defending. I still laugh at everyone complimenting Nankatsu’s collective play against Furano of all people, the Collective People. Meanwhile...

Despite the tomato-themed jersey, Tsubasa ain’t too fresh.

Matsuyama, uh, kinda loses his shit for a second as he screams “are you okay, are you hurt??”, but Tsubasa profits from the occasion to tease him in response. That kinda makes Matsuyama realize “wait, shit I was actually taking into account his stupid injuries, was I”. Time to stop doing that, I guess.

Tsubasa is in enough pain to have to give up on shooting a goal and so decides he’s going to mark Matsuyama, who is the clear keystone of Furano’s entire collective play instead. However, when he does manage to counter one of his shots, Tsubasa gets to ~taste the pain~ once more; with a much different reaction from Matsuyama.

You kinda asked for it my dude.

“I can’t do anything for you.” Come to think of it, if Matsuyama had decided that much earlier, I’m pretty sure Furano’d have won due to Tsubasa being crippled by flaring shoulder pains. (No Fly, now’s not the time to write a canon divergenee fic)

Matsuyama motivates his team back by reminding everyone this is their last tournament, since they’re all going their sepaate ways, after like 9 years of playing in the same team (I didn’t mention it earlier, but their lineup is exactly the same as it was in Kids Dream, so they’ve been playing for years and years up to this point. Yes my bias is showing).

Nankatsu goes back on the offense and Tsubasa tries to score a decisive third goal with the Drive Shot, only to be stopped by Matsuyama with what has to be another cliché I’d have associated to Inazuma Eleven more than CT for some reason.

When you know even Jito couldn’t stop this one from scoring, it makes Matsuyama’s attempt a little desperate. (ep 45)

The true power of the Drive Shot is that it took half of Furano’s lineup to stop it. What’s even more impressive is that Matsuyama doesn’t even seem to hurt from taking the literal cannonball to the abdomen.

Also, when Matsuyama said “I won’t have pity anymore”, he really meant it.

Pictured: a man of his word.

Tsubasa is tasting the grass again. I love the cycle of life.

Furano catches up in the last minute or so with an assist from Matsuyama and a collective header (it’s a, uh, result from Furano’s main tactic, the Avalanche Attack, where everyone heads to the goal and waits for Matsuyama to pass them the ball. It’s more effective than you think), so Nankatsu has to reciprocate and does so with the most nonsensical shot of the series so far (it just defies logic itself). The shot is strong enough to blow away Matsuyama’s headband when he tried to oppose it.

That doesn’t prevent Tsubasa from showing his swagg literal “certain victory” bandage.

Nankatsu wins at the very last second, a fact about which I’ll prevent myself from salting over. Tsubasa collapses after the final whistle, however, when Matsuyama catches him and tells him winners don’t collapse like that and compliments him and a bunch of other stuff. This man is taking his defeat extremely fucking well.

This moment alone definitely sold me on the character, I’m pretty sure.

Tsubasa’s doctor scolds him for being a dum fucking moron yet again while everyone will mostly remember Furano being cool as fuck even in defeat (Hyuga himself says Matsuyama is “a man amongst men”, which is saying something coming from Hyuga). Yoshiko’s mom tells her it’s time to go while Matsuyama, back in the locker room, realizes there’s something embroidered in white on white in his headband and - oh no.

He rushes out of the room without telling anyone else, asks Machiko where Fujisawa is, and runs after a fucking taxi once Machiko tells him Yoshiko’s left for the airport. Be reassured, the manga didn’t actually pull off a 15-year-old boy having just played a soccer match running faster than a car: Matsuyama actually trips on his shoe when running after them.

I can’t believe injuries don’t just happen during soccer matches in this universe.

What the headband said? Oh, it’s obvious:

Yep. Yep, that’s the one romance the manga sold me on. Dear God.

Somehow, the mad man managed to make it to the airport in time to say her goodbye (without a single coin on him, as his teammates who have no idea what the fuck he’s trying to accomplish here point out). They have a short scene that really shouldn’t have made me as mushy as it ended up making me feel, and yet...

He explains he managed to make it in time because someone from the Football Federation (Katagiri, namely) found him and carpooled him there, speeding ahead because Katagiri is a mad lad too. As he’s telling her his shenanigans, Yoshiko interrupts him: “you’re bleeding!”. Indeed: Matsuyama didn’t even realize it himself, but he injured his knee earlier.

Still can’t believe it didn’t happen during a match. Matsuyama not realizing it, on the other hand, sounds on brand from him.

He tries to tell her not to worry about it, that it’s no big deal, but she refutes and says he’s bleeding a lot. Well, at least, she had a handkerchief on her...

them <3

Matsuyama muses about just how many times he saw her take care of his wounds, how she took care of him in general. Yoshiko, on the other hand, points out he’s the one who’d get hurt the most because he was always unreasonable, which he laughs off (depending on what version you follow, he either tells her he’d have rather heard her say he played intensely or if she isn’t scolding him for doing his best).

The scene ends in this very cliché way that just got to me: Yoshiko starts crying, to which Matsuyama kind of panics because he has no way to console her no matter how many times he tells her not to cry. The scene ends with her crying into his chest and him telling her to take care of herself, to write him letters/emails (again, depends on the canon you follow) and that he’ll take care of the headband she gave him. (And he actually held his word on the matter, believe me).

Anyway, that was it for today! Like for Nankatsu-Meiwa, I’ll give the finale its own part because I’m just not mentally ready for it tonight and MatsuYoshi brainrot is back in full swing I’m afraid. I’ll just leave you on this adorable little shot CT 2018 added to Katagiri musing about the upcoming tournament finale.