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| Good to see him win that first set. There is no question that Nabae is tough, after all he is the number one ranked junior in Japan. Even if Maruo doesn't beat him here, he has raised his game to the point where a victory against Nabae is not a fluke but the result of hard work and perhaps a little luck. More importantly for someone who intends to go pro, he has begun to attract the attention of the press and the sponsors. |
Please don't feed the trolls! In my next life I want to collide at the corner with the cute transfer student carrying a piece of toast in her mouth...rodac |
| Sigh, it's gonna end next week. Man I hope S3 is announced. I need more Baby Steps! |
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| Nooo, this season is almost over. D: A third season better be in works already! >:O Anyway, solid episode for Maruo to understand that the zone isn't that simple and convenient. It all comes back to him actually applying the techniques and skills he's worked on these past three years. Final set, here we go! |
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| Final next time NOOO |
| I can't say I'm surprised with this outcome. No way they would let Ei-chan win both sets lol. That against the sports anime law. |
| Well it's all within expectation so far.. finally it's time for the last set. |
walldotfm said: Nabae is probably the best all-round player there is. He really reminds me of Federer in some way. Federer used to have a really short temper when he was playing in the juniors, and really developed his all-round game. Really an interesting comment, as a beginner that watched Roland Garros for the first time this year, I heard about talent of Federer, but I have never seen him play a match. Nabae is for sure a good opponent, Maruo will have an hard time. |
| It makes so much sense that Maruo would cling to the zone like he did which ultimately dragged him down. The only times he was winning last set was when he was in the zone and taking Nabae by surprise, or by playing absurdly recklessly. To put it as Nabae said, "Maruo's playing reckless not unpredictable". Only one of which can be maintained and still create a win, and clearly that's not playing reckless. Playing like that was fascinating but it hardly scraped Maruo by with that set win and without it he would've already lost here. But he's learned from throwing away the second set that getting back into the zone isn't an easy task, it's something you have to train your body to do. You can will yourself into it by getting into routines and letting your body take over, not by focusing really hard because if you're trying too hard you're getting the opposite result. From Maruo trying to force Nabae into a rally we got an incredibly interesting piece of information about him. We already understood his throw away shots were a way to reset the game into a neutral position, but now it holds so much more meaning. In fact, if Nabae was able to control his emotions we probably wouldn't have gotten to set 3. By visualizing all of his emotions into the ball and hitting it to the opponent to smash them away he sets himself free from all that extra baggage. I wonder how he would feel if they softly hit it back to him or did something bad mannered instead. In Nabae's flashback match with Ike we got another implied connection between Maruo and Ike. I imagine when Maruo is at Ike's level and they play a real pro match in front of an audience it will be the best match of the series. These two would go at it. Like Maruo realized at the end, this match is one that will be a deciding factor if he will go pro(better seeding for the big tourney), it isn't one he can throw away trying to rely on reckless play and praying for the zone. He must give it his all! |
| Pretty predictable episode where Maruo takes the first set 6-4, and Nabae takes the 2nd set 6-2, but still a good episode nonetheless. Nabae's all-round game is incredibly impressive and his adaptability to different styles and settings of matches is what makes him really impressive more than his actual strokes and serves. The only real stretch were Maruo convincingly pushed him against the wall was the beginning 4 games but ever since then, Nabae's been controlling the tempo of the game. And when Maruo tries to surprise him with something out of nowhere to throw his game off, he adapts really quickly to it and doesn't let Maruo's distractions mess with him, instead countering Maruo whenever he tries to crack Nabae. He did grade Maruo's decision making/strategies a D when they first met each other and that's where Maruo has struggled once he went out of his mental zone mode. It shows, since Maruo's never been able to convincingly bring him down since and his recklessness while being useful in getting a point here and there, doesn't win him multiple games in a row and shift momentum completely towards him. Both of them have 1 set, and the final set will be the final episode. Nabae's got the momentum fully whereas Maruo desperately needs to find a way to surprise Nabae while having him struggle to counter whatever Maruo throws at him, in order to have a chance at pulling off the ultimate upset against the first seed. Sad that the next episode is the final one for this anime. |
1lau said: I loved the part where Eiichiiro tried to get into the zone with the second set It's similar to KnB, but less flashy Next weeks final set is going to be exciting I hope ahh yeah i got that vibe too the match with Ike was a lot more enjoyable and better from what I've seen so far imo, I think that's been my overall fav match but this is going pretty tense too, enjoying it for sure! let's see what the final ep has to offer... |
If you don't like me, acquire some taste |
| Nabae is the finest all-around player in this episode. |
"......If I told you that I was a real witch, would you believe it?"  |
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