Spoiler - discussion thread

CG said:
Tbh, that thing with Shirakawa constantly on Miyuki's case and not letting up for a second has been bothering for a while now. I'm even on the verge of believing that he actually has some kind of weird crush on Miyuki or something that he's in deep denial about, and he somehow first got it way before the start of the manga, back in their middle school days. After Miyuki had refused Mei's offer, from the chapters before the Inajitsu-Seidou final and during the game itself, for all intents and purposes, it looks like the one who took his refusal the hardest wasn't Mei who actually had a reason and the right, but, surprisingly, Shirakawa. Like, wtf. Compared to his teammates who are no angels themselves and like to tease and put pressure, Shirakawa's aura of hostility and passive aggressiveness towards Miyuki, and only Miyuki, is literally on another level, with no clear reason as to why. I mean, I could understand it when Koushuu demonstrated that type of behavior, he and Miyuki are rivals for the same position and their approaches are often clashing, but Shirakawa, a shortstop not even on the same team? Gimme a break, jeez.

I like keeping the actual manga content and shipping entirely separate but this thing with Shirakawa is only getting progressively more weird with no explanation in sight, to the point where it seemingly robs him of all objectivity as soon as Miyuki is involved that he now ranks a clearly inferior catcher higher just because there's Miyuki in the equation, and I'm running out of rational ways to explain it.

CG said:
I thought about Chris being part of Shirakawa's reason to hate on Miyuki so much too, but then there's a few points that just don't add up, starting with how it was never so much as alluded to be about Chris for Shirakawa because Shirakawa never so much as mentions Chris' name in any way, shape or form or even implies his involvement into his thought processes. Hell, we only even figured out about Chris and him being on the same middle school team because we're good at correlating things enough to conclude that Shirakawa's Marukame must be the same as Chris' Marukame, but the fact was never really mentioned outright (there's no line anywhere in the manga outright stating that 'Shirakawa and Chris are from the same team')

Next, when Mei was dissing Seidou during that meeting of his featuring his perceived dream team, Shirakawa never showed any dissatisfaction at the fact or indication that he even cared. All the while he must have known that it was the school Chris chose, yet forget standing up for Chris, he didn't so much as mention that while Seidou may suck, their main catcher not necessarily did. No, he was seemingly perfectly content to listen to Mei's belittling of Seidou instead. Knowing Shirakawa's lovely personality as being one to never pass up on the chance to rub salt into the wounds, you'd expect a jab from him thrown at Miyuki like 'You'll never become the regular catcher as long as Chris-senpai is on the same team', just like he did before the final with his venomous line about Miyuki regretting his choice of not joining Inajitsu 10-20 years down the line and having to live with it. Yet there was nothing.

Next, when he talks/thinks of Miyuki, it's always in terms of his being 'unworthy of Narumiya', 'unworthy of being on the same team with them', 'unworthy of Inajitsu' but never 'unworthy of being Chris' replacement' or 'unworthy to hold a candle to my former teammate'. Even in the latest chapter, if Chris mattered any to him, you'd think the line of 'if it were <insert a catcher's name>' would naturally use Chris' name because bringing up Chris' formidable batting ability is an argument hard to argue with, yet he mentions Itsuki instead and is willing to cut him a lot of slack (more than he strictly should, at that).

And last but not least, if Shirakawa cared about Chris, I find it very unlikely for Shirakawa not to realize anything about his injury. Shirakawa knew for a fact how many homers Miyuki hit in Seidou's practice games, and Shirakawa's being so knowledgeable was pointed out by Carlos to be unnatural and too detailed, which clearly indicates the guy can handle info gathering just fine when he wants to, that is, when it concerns an object of his interest. So even if Shirakawa for some reason didn't want to just call and ask Chris directly, I think it's only natural to assume that he knew that Chris retired in the middle of a game seemingly due to some kind of injury (you can even remove this part, and it still changes nothing) and after that he was dropped off not only the regulars, but also the first string's reserves entirely and even, ridiculously enough, the second string. A catcher of Chris' skill...! You have to be braindead not to guess that he had been injured, which couldn't be a fault of Miyuki's. Or, alternatively, you have to not give a damn about Chris, but then Shirakawa's fixation on Miyuki can't be explained via it having to do anything with Chris. Which brings us back full circle to Shirakawa being unhealthily obsessed with Miyuki for no apparent reason.

Oh well, it's a minor point in the story, and there's still a chance something will come up when Inajitsu and Seidou inevitably clash in the summer.

Btw, Mei's line about him not getting a feeling they'd lose is a callback to what he said in the finale of Seidou vs Inajitsu game back last summer (basically the same line).

GDV said:
@CG @RoKrish

Instead of being obsessively fixated on Miyuki due to his history with Chris, I think Shirakawa's behavior are more likely due to his condescending attitude more than anything. Shirakawa has always been a character with venomous mouth and an excessive obsession to details, kid must be pretty damn proud about him being on Inajitsu, a Koshien runner up team. Hence, he's quite perceptive about "assessing others" like how good they are or are they as good as the players in his team or not and if he does find that they're not as good like Miyuki's case here, he'll immediately make comparisons to how either he or other players on Inajitsu would do things "differently" or better than others. To be frank, I think the kid has sort of a superiority complex.

Well he's a minor character anyway and if not for Sawamura getting tensed and bean him on the head, he would have been totally useless against Sawamura back in the Final. Considering he was almost useless against 1st year Sawamura, I would love to see how much more useless he'll be, him along with Carlos being the bragging combo, once they face up against 2nd year Sawamura in the inevitable Final clash. Carlos was able to steal from Conrad because the pitcher didn't even attempt to pick off on top of that his wind up is slow so that's a green light for any runner to steal. Even factor in the possibility that Carlyle may have a stronger arm and faster reaction, good luck to Carlos on stealing from Sawamura who knows how to pick off, varies his pick off pattern and do a slide step.

RoKrish said:
Sawamura has also tied down the #1 baserunning team in the country and basically prevented them from any steals (that we saw). Carlos is good, but Mima is a better baserunner than he is, and Sawamura didn't give up any stolen bases vs him. Personally I would argue that Sawamura may be even better just pitching from the stretch, as he gets to his release point faster. If I were kataoka/ochiai I would tell him to mix it up, even when there are no runners on. Use the windup when you want, but use the stretch sort of like a quick pitch, and ambush the other player to not let them get comfortable in the box.

CG said:

But I think it can serve as a sort of wakeup call for Miyuki to improve his batting, or Seidou's chances to score against Inajitsu start looking slimmer by the minute.

sannythebest95 said:
Wow
Another chapter on the Japanese team?
Truly exciting

GDV said:
I feel nothing for Miyuki whatsoever considering the constant nitpicking he has always given Sawamura along with all those condescending behaviors Seidou gives the poor pitcher at the expense of his confidence, tolerating a few hours of Inajitsu players’ jab is the least thing he can do. Not to say he’s on their turf, or the enemy camp. Sawamura has all the “special treatments” in his ally camp.

GDV said:


Yes exactly. Even if Hakuryu didn't have as fast of a runner as Carlos, on average, they're still the fastest team in Japan by a huge margin. Even if Carlos is as fast or faster than Mima (which we don't know), he's not a better batter than Mima or for damn sure not a better runner comparing to Mima's 80% on base percentage. Sawamura spoiled all of Mima's on base converting chance and lock down most of Hakuryu players, the strongest base running team in the Nation for 9 innings while only losing 1 run. We can be confident that Sawamura has this covered. But of course when we look at Carlos' achievement so far in this match, he was able to hit a single from Conrad (which is not bad) and steal from him (which is rather easy considering Conrad didn't slide step into it and he has a noticeable form and slow windup like any other tall pitchers Carlos has stolen from like Furuya), it's nothing much compare to Sawamura almost completely shutout Hakuryu.

GDV said:
I feel nothing for Miyuki whatsoever considering the constant nitpicking he has always given Sawamura along with all those condescending behaviors Seidou gives the poor pitcher at the expense of his confidence, tolerating a few hours of Inajitsu players’ jab is the least thing he can do. Not to say he’s on their turf, or the enemy camp. Sawamura has all the “special treatments” in his ally camp.

shinjikai01 said:
I think Shirakawa's just a very bitter character. And he only approves of their group led by Mei, so for Miyuki to reject to join their 'elite' group has made Shirakawa's bitterness towards Miyiki to skyrocket. This type of character will always find fault on someone they hold a grudge.

I actually see Mei's team as the mean girls of Daiya. If not for Inajitus's loss against Ugumori last Fall Tourney, I wouldn't even dare to believe Mei could have a mature side. He's so cheeky that seeing him cry was a shock. Harada and Coach Kunitomo were really good for him.

I started seeing Mei in another light after that. If only Terajima could do that to Furuya's character.

But then, I just realized when you talked about TJ's other manga (giant steps or baby steps, waah i forgot), that maybe he's editor is always reminding him that he can't give Sawamura a break lest he wants the series to be dropped. So they could have a compromise that TJ can give Sawamura good moments, but be quick to remind readers that ooopss, yes Sawamura is improving but sorry, he doesn't have the ace number yet.

If this is how they work then, ok, I'm 5% less bitter (and btw i'm super bitter) with the way Eijun is being treated in the manga. I mean I can understand your former series being rejected before so you don't want to make the same mistake again that you become so blinded you don't even recognize you've been downplaying your MC too much.

Or maybe he knows. Maybe he's giving Eijun a hard time as revenge for his OP character not being good enough for the readers?? TJ be like, ohh so you don't want an OP character. I can do that. Here's Eijun. Bet you wouldn't even think he's OP bec the people in-universe wouldn't even believe that. "Oh there's Furuya, the monster. Sawamura who?"

OMG. I'm just giving myself a headache. Imma stop now.

Loyalty06 said:
I don't post much but I'm a lurker..and I am really really bored of this game so I have quite an off topic questions if it's okay.

I am also a fan of Major and Oofuri and I just recently watched a Koshien documentary with Higuchi-sensei and how she started Oofuri (basing Nishiura on a real high school). She even stated she studied the sports formally and well, some commentaries too how realistic the manga is. Does Terajima have this formal study on baseball? From what I can gather, he doesn't specialize on baseball (?), knowing his first manga is tennis, does he likes sports in general? I'm interested if he is also featured in some Koshien or baseball related topics/documentaries because from what i see, Daiya is the representative baseball manga recently in terms of reach and sales (has better sale numbers than Major 2nd of Shonen Sunday and no baseball manga from Jump). With how many activities Daiya has (the live, musicals and well collaboration withe pro teams) and the amoung of official sponsors like Nike and Mizuno, also recently Under Armor lol, I'd figure Terajima would be prominently featured. I'd want to watch it, too.

Also, just how much is the sale Daiya has? I heard it reached 28 million copies with the recent volumes and every year, each volume ranks in the top 10/20 depending on the competition. It has a slightly lower initial first print than Major 2nd in 2016/2017 so I don't know what to think with its actual popularity. I don't have access to oricon sales or if there's any other source so I'm sorry if this is something I can easily find ( i rely on MALs articles only).

So yeah, sorry for being off topic and I'd appreciate if someone has the answers but if not, I understand.

pepbut said:


But it's just extremely poor form to not feature your main character for like an entire 4 months in a row. And just before an extremely pivotal event no less.

.

GDV said:
Yeah the consensus I’ve seen from most places is that people feels very bored about this Tokyo Senbatsu game which is totally reasonable considering how little importance it has on the “real” competition at hands. I’m not even referring to the Summer Tourney where information on Mei from Miyuki will sort of help Seidou out a little, What I want to emphasize as “real” competition here is the games at Seidou that will decide the Ace race and this Tokyo Senbatsu game is taking the hype and the focus away from the main premise a lot. This could have been easily done as a side story or at the very least cut down to half its current length but as it is now, it’s just a cheap way for Terajima to drag out the story to buy time to think how he will execute the Ace race.

Regarding Otani’s debut match.

RoKrish said:

To be honest, I don't mind that much if there is a filler arc. Filler arcs can be quite good if the author actually thinks about them in the overarching scheme of the story itself. The first few chapters of this international thing was good. Maybe they can teach Miyuki a few tricks on beating Mei, maybe they get Miyuki to humble himself. But so far there hasn't been all that much of it. I have some hope, but Terajima needs to expand on it.

Gundens said:
Itsuki wouldn’t be able to hit it.

CG said:
Exactly. Especially considering they're using wooden bats, not metal. Miyuki gettin teased hard feels satisfying to a degree, but it's hard to ignore that Shirakawa is being his most unreasonable to date with putting Itsuki over Miyuki like that.

Zer0Pilot said:


nah, imho he's doing it to play some mind games.
the US match is not important, so he's bashing miyuki to make him do errors, while showing his team mates as stronger as possible without showing their abilities. Pretty commons with kids

"if we don't win it's your fault"
"[hit a single] -> meh, X would have hit a double while holding the bat in his butcrack"
"[pitcher K a batter] --> see? our Y eat batters alive, no matter their dominating hands!"
and so on

it's like during karate meeting, when you do light kumite with people from other dojos, you tend to hit a little harder than when you do with your fellow students to leave an impression.

Tora_Tazz said:


But that would only work if the other party actually hears it.
Shirakawa isn't saying this to Miyuki's face. He's thinking it. Which means that it's not for the purpose of mind-games, but rather arrogance. Shirakawa feels the need to praise Itsuki over Miyuki, if just to make himself believe that they are the better team and that they would never make such an error/mistake that Miyuki would. Shirakawa's mentality is somewhat narcissistic, as he believes that because of the school he goes to, or that Mei is on his team, he and his school are better than everyone else(because the team you're on dictates how strong a player you are obviously). And while this may apply to other characters, Shirakawa shows it the most.

Zer0Pilot said:


nah, imho he's doing it to play some mind games.
the US match is not important, so he's bashing miyuki to make him do errors, while showing his team mates as stronger as possible without showing their abilities. Pretty commons with kids

"if we don't win it's your fault"
"[hit a single] -> meh, X would have hit a double while holding the bat in his butcrack"
"[pitcher K a batter] --> see? our Y eat batters alive, no matter their dominating hands!"
and so on

it's like during karate meeting, when you do light kumite with people from other dojos, you tend to hit a little harder than when you do with your fellow students to leave an impression.

GDV said:

Regarding Otani’s debut match.

pepbut said:

GDV said:

GDV said:


Okay fast spoiler from 2ch

Yamaoka hits over to outfield and scores the Tokyo team it's equalizer, the match is now tied.

Mei: Although it's an international game, we'll be the victor.

Conrad got worked up a bit but pulled through to retire the remaining batters thanks to the vocal support of his team.

Miyuki recalls Mei's statement of "I don't feel like we're going to lose" and think "Such confidence and determination stem beneath that kind of statement. This is Mei's mentality...our rival.

At Seidou, they are being led by 2 points, score is 0-2

-------------------------------------------------------------
A certain poster on 2ch: 話すすまねぇ
Lol, ya I feel you.

GDV said:


Okay fast spoiler from 2ch

Yamaoka hits over to outfield and scores the Tokyo team it's equalizer, the match is now tied.

Mei: Although it's an international game, we'll be the victor.

Conrad got worked up a bit but pulled through to retire the remaining batters thanks to the vocal support of his team.

Miyuki recalls Mei's statement of "I don't feel like we're going to lose" and think "Such confidence and determination stem beneath that kind of statement. This is Mei's mentality...our rival.

At Seidou, they are being led by 2 points, score is 0-2

-------------------------------------------------------------
A certain poster on 2ch: 話すすまねぇ
Lol, ya I feel you.

pepbut said:




So basically another filler chapter, at least they're hopefully finally over for now. Now time for 10 chapters of Furuya having a mixed bag performance before we can actually progress with the story again :/

RoKrish said:

pepbut said:

RoKrish said:
Ohtani and other baseball news:

GDV said:
Chapter is out


Chap 114: Baseball kids (lol Terajima with all these English)

Opening note: At bat is Injitsu's main canon, Yamaoka

Yamaoka hits over OF
Players: It went over! He pulverized Conrad's fastball with 1 swing.
It's tied, Yamaoka has arrived!
female reporter: he aimed for that straight fastball didn't he

Mie: with that said that was his first look at it...to have such power to not lose to Conrad's velocity
Mie: As the main canon of Inajitsu, Yamaoka-kun has put his style on to display there.
Miyuki: He hits 3 homers back in the Kantou Tourney, to certain extend, it may means he is the one who has shown the most growth
Mei: Hey, it doesn't matter if it's unauthentic baseball, nor is it a contest between red and white, nor is it an international match, it ain't gonna matter
Mei: Once "WE" are playing it, we're gonna win it!
Umemiya: As expected from the guy who went unbeaten in the Kantou Tourney, what he says are really different

Carlyle: You okay?
Conrad: Was is that bad of a pitch?
Carlyle: Well it was indeed a little high but it was a pitch with good power
Black guy: We should give credits to the guy who was able to hit it
Conrad: Boss has given me the assignment regarding the way to pitch to right handed batter, to think that I would show that exact weakness here in Japan.
Carlyle: Add to that, pitching from the stretch as well (which was obviously missing XD)(edited)
Power for power, technique for technique, such psychological strategy is baseball.
Conrad forces a grounder from Ichidaisan's 4th batter and retire him
Players: Yes, Conrad! The game starts now. Now, it is our turn. We'll score for you for sure. Go! USA!!(edited)

Umemiya: Alright, it's the last inning, defend it well guys
Inui does a double fist pump: Let's go Narumiya
Mei: A double fist pump?!
Inui: take it
Miyuki: underneath that statement lies his confidence and resolution. This is Mei, this is Inajitsu's mentality. Our Rival
Mei: Let's go
Miyuki: right
Let's go finish it

--At Seidou ground--Furuya seems to be breathing heavily
Top of 6th inning, Seidou is behind 2 runs

Ending note: after bottom of the 5th, Seidou is behind by 2 points.