Episode 3


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I think it's actually pretty neat that for the most part, Nozomi isn't in a position where she's always making these amazing shots on goal like most sports series. She's actually the central midfielder, and this entire game was playing support roles until the very end when their idiot striker missed again. Instead she's flipping back and forth on defense and offense pretty seamlessly, as one does.

Once she finally gets excited, she spends the majority of the 2nd half just enabling the other girls, encouraging them to stay fired up, and coming in to annoy the other team as needed.

She pairs really nicely with the idiot's overconfidence, feeds Suo's arrogance at the right moments and suppresses her "strategic" self-defeatism, and keeps Sonozaki's confidence up. I'm going to guess that sooner rather than later, Nozomi will be replacing the current captain because she's really perfect in that role.

This episode sped by, so yah, the overall pacing is slow, on par with an Adachi series, but I found it very engaging nevertheless and think it is a quality sports series.

The fact that at least half the opposing team gets well developed personalities is really worth while too.