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kageyahma · 3 years

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i'm obsessed with how sports anime use the rules and positions and culture surrounding their sports as a way to support the narrative

like haikyuu uses this so well to reflect how characters interact with each other -- the third years comprising of a particularly good receiver (the captain, who provides a good foundation in order for the team to fly), a setter (a provider who supports the hitters without as much flashiness), and an ace hitter (who the team relies on to score a point when they're in a pinch, who has to shoulder their expectations and is supported by their faith). Asahi the ace hitter and Nishinoya the libero who constantly indirectly rely on each other and want to take the pressure off of each other. Tsukishima the middle blocker, the shield to Yamaguchi's spear. and this extends well outside of Karasuno, too.

diamond no ace also revolves around a team sport and while the positions aren't accorded as directly to characters as it is in haikyuu, every single player has an almost equal sense of responsibility and desire to improve in their own abilities. yes, baseball is a team sport, but having a player up to bat against a pitcher really does appear to be a one on one battle at first glance. it's first and foremost in their individual performance that they support and connect the team once the ball is in play.

kazetsuyo being an anime about running means that there's no positions and not many rules to build on or explore. when you run, you're alone, and that's where the story adds something new to fill the space -- it asks why the charaters bother running at all. kazetsuyo is a sports anime starring college students rather than high school students and that's incredibly fitting. a high school setting makes sense for these stories where tournaments and training seem to take up all of a character's time and thoughts, but in college, you're busy. there's always something going on, and the constant of it all in this anime is running. i think it's incredible how at the end each character is explored one-by-one because we are able to spend some time with each of them on their own, far away from the rest of the team as they run a long distance relay.

yuri!! on ice does something really interesting with the fact that the characters perform the same routines over and over -- the music and the dance carrying specific symbolism and meaning and the actual results of the performance reflecting the characters' current state. i also lose my mind from time to time thinking of how yuri's performance always ends w him pointing at victor fkdnfkdj

sk8 made a big point of talking about how it's much harder to make a living out of skating rather than most other sports and how it's associated with delinquents. the anime is incredibly colourful to match the aesthetic of skateboarding, but very dark (and very liberal with injuries) because of it essentially being an isolated sport where when you're on the board and have to race or compete you're on your own. at the end of the day, there's always the insistence that the sport is meant to be fun and there's incredible value in the connections it allows you to make with friends.

#i feel like it's important to note that i don't play sports cksbfksn but this is what i've observed #janina reads hq!!#long post #325

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syncopatedid · 5 years

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Since the novel ended on Kakeru's 4th year what if you continued it? what would write about future lives of our kansei boys?

*whispers* thank you for this ask! ヽ(＊>∇

I know this ended up being the tsunami wall of text that absolutely nobody asked for, but my feelings for the Aotake squad go really deep and I doubt I will ever get a Kazetsuyo ask as indulgent as this one again. It’ll make me very happy if someone enjoys all my headcanons (and then some).

Akihiro cleaned himself up and graduated properly by the following spring (he bowed out of the ekiden on his fourth year to concentrate on his finals). After graduation, he pursued a career at a non-profit organization as a software developer engineer. At the reunion timeline, Version 2.0 of his tracking software* has just been slated for an international release. Akihiro became an active member of Namban Rengo (Tokyo’s International Running Club), and continues to participate in various running activities across the country with like-minded fellows.

*I didn’t mention this in my Q&A, but in the novel, Nico actually came up with a running simulator software program (with Yuki’s assistance), that was supposedly able to track, compare and calculate each runner’s speed and final positions in the race. It didn’t work very well though, because it was running so slowly that the rest thought it’s just faster to calculate with pen and paper, lol!

Yohei was still out of work for a good six months after graduation, so he accepted a sales job at a Television network when it opened up. While it’s not his dream job, he did find that he was good at it so he stuck with it (he could keep a conversation going, and was good at making pitches to achieve a sale). Working at a TV station also has its perks, as it brought him closer to the variety shows that he enjoys watching. At the reunion timeline, he’s already at a senior rank where he gets to train new recruits. He still has difficulty connecting with people on an intimate level*, but recently, a new starry-eyed junior who just joined his team has showed interest in his favourite show, and his enthusiasm reminds Yohei of someone he knew back at Aotake…

*Yohei explained his thoughts a lot clearer to me in the novel than in the anime. Yohei sees the ekiden as also fulfilling his dream - to feel that intimate connection with others he never got in real life. And yes, even with the Aotake members, he has always felt left out until they started running together, and he admits that because of his pride and timidity, he’s not very likely to change, and he may never feel this closeness to others again when the ekiden ends (hence a dream he did not want to wake up from). But I wish for good things to happen to him, I really do. Don’t give up, Yohei!

Yukihiko reconciled with his family shortly after the ekiden (he called his mother after the race was over to talk), and by the time graduation rolled around, he had already secured a job as an intern at a respectable law firm located in Roppongi, and was confirmed as a graduate associate within a year. At the reunion timeline, he is still ambitiously working his way up the corporate ranks to make partner (which he aims to succeed within six years or less).

Yuki never moved back in with his step family and still prefers to live on his own (a guy needs his own space to invite dates home, so he says), but now he contacts his mother regularly, and dutifully visits his step family every New Year’s Day. He is also fairly over-protective of his step-sister (whom all her potential suitors get rigidly screened by him).

Takashi took over as captain of the Kansei U track and field team after Haiji left, and participated in the next ekiden running in the same section, where he ranked 6th. After graduation, he returned back to Yamagata to manage the family business, but still travelled regularly between Yamagata and Tokyo to visit his friends (he’s the one who diligently keeps in touch with everyone from Aotake). At the reunion timeline, his family has recently expanded into the sake export business, and Takashi is in talks with some of his dad’s partners to set up a business branch in Tokyo.

This year, instead of Musa coming to visit his hometown, it’ll be his turn visiting Musa’s family in Tanzania.

Musa stayed on in the Kansei U track and field team, and took part in the ekiden on his third and fourth year (he ran in Section 2 and Section 9 respectively, averaging 5th position for both). Since his first trip to Yamagata, he’s been visiting Shindo’s family back in his hometown every year, and has learnt to ski! At the reunion timeline, Musa is pursuing another year of studies at Kansei U. He then went and studied some more, and eventually obtained his PhD. He also became very fluent in Japanese*, and a position as adjunct professor in Kansei U happened to open up, which he applied for and got accepted.

He served as club advisor to the Kansei U Track and Field team after Mr. Tazaki retired, and remains as the oldest member of Aotake who is still affiliated with Kansei U.

*More as an additional headcanon than footnote, but I’ve always pegged Musa as being bi- or trilingual when he arrived at Aotake - being fluent in English, Swahili and a third dialect (since he’s from Africa), just that none of those were useful when he was in Japan!

Akane never participated in future ekiden races again, but remained in the Kansei U track and field team as a perfunctory member (so he could stay in Aotake till he graduated). He continued to dabble in all things manga for the rest of his uni years, but always made time to help out at the ekiden, mostly as Kakeru’s assistant in his section since he already has experience with it.

At the reunion timeline, he’s working as a Junior editor at the manga department of one of the top four publishing houses in Japan, where he handles shojo manga titles (he’s extremely popular among his female colleagues). Despite his constant complaints of tight deadlines and pressuring working conditions, he continues to remain in that industry, and in a couple of years he gets promoted to editor-in-chief and takes over managing the sports manga section.

Jojiro found his affinity with running after his first ekiden experience, and opted to stay on with the track and field team to continue to pursue running seriously. He took over as vice-captain after Kakeru was promoted, and can be credited for pulling in a record number of members that year. After graduation, he was recruited into a prestigious corporation along with his brother and joined their Running Club, and meets Kakeru and Haiji’s team regularly as friendly rivals in the races held in the Kanto region. Although he has yet to best Kakeru’s time in the races, there is one thing he did win over Kakeru, and that’s being the first to confess to Hana-chan after graduation. He also goes on to be the first among his same-age peers to get married, and Kakeru was his second best man together with his brother Jota.

Jotaro left the Kansei U track and field team* in his second year (with Kakeru and Joji’s blessings) and went back to his first love, soccer. He joined the Kansei U Football Club and earned his spot as a regular, and even got to play in the Kanto league. Since their “separation”, the Jo brothers were closer than ever, and they discovered something interesting that came out of them doing different things – that they’ve had even more successes pranking juniors in their clubs, most of whom had no idea they came as a set! After graduation, he joins his brother Joji in the same corporation, but doing work in a different department (and the pranking continues, lol). The brothers and Kakeru remain very close friends.

*My headcanon of Jota obviously diverts from anime canon where they’re both still in track and field, but I’ve always had a stronger impression that Jota never planned to stay on in running after the ekiden, from what I had interpreted from his thoughts about his brother, as well as his conversation with Yohei before the run. Also, in the novel’s epilogue, a junior from the Kansei track and field team had only mentioned about “Joji-senpai”, but not Jota. While it doesn’t prove anything, it really does make me wonder if perhaps it was because Jota had chosen to move on from running. I never believe it’s a sad thing for them to divert on different paths though, because siblings are like that and their bond is strong.

YOU’D THINK I SHOULD BE DONE BUT WAIT I HAVE MORE.

BONUS BITTERSWEET HEADCANONS!!!

Kakeru had been visiting Haiji in hospital daily after class since his operation, but by autumn, Haiji announced he was moving back to his hometown to recuperate, and his contact with Haiji naturally became less frequent. (Kakeru wondered if Haiji was deliberately avoiding him but he never asked. Knowing Haiji’s character, he’s not going to be honest about it anyway. Also, Kakeru was not good with texting or calling, a weakness he suspects Haiji knew and used it to put some distance between them). Kakeru felt hurt that there was nothing more he could do for Haiji, but chose to respect his decision for some space.

In response, Kakeru ran in Haiji’s section (Section 10) in the next ekiden, besting his own time from Section 9 and breaking records that were previously set. He believed that Haiji would not be able to resist watching the ekiden (because he knew Haiji’s weakness too), and that was his answer. His efforts to reach out finally paid off (Haiji sent him a very long text message scolding him for a minor flub he did in his run… but also “congratulations”.) Kakeru would continue to run in Section 10 for the remaining two ekidens, and on his final year, Haiji appeared out of the blue again, this time in person to recruit him into his running team.

Kakeru took over as vice-captain of the Kansei U track and field team from the second year, and later as captain after Shindo graduated. Since he’s been on the team, Kansei U has never failed to earn a seed in the ekiden for subsequent years, a legacy that would carry on long after Kakeru’s graduation.

Haiji had to be rushed to surgery after the ekiden, and as expected, his injury had been aggravated and the damage was severe. A knee replacement surgery had to be done, and the year would prove to be a painful time for Haiji, who had to re-learn to walk all over again. In autumn that same year, he decided to move back to his hometown, citing family reasons (in truth, it was also because Kakeru wouldn’t stop visiting him in hospital, and it really was harder to be around Kakeru at this point in time than his family, so he picked the lesser of two evils).

Haiji would spend the next few months coming to terms with his situation while thinking about where to go from there. There were days where his mind wandered a bit too dangerously far, but his determination not to go back down that same path before manages to pull him back. Between his physiotherapy sessions, Haiji would often stop by his alama mater and watch his dad at work, lost in his own thoughts. And when he saw Kakeru running in the ekiden on TV again, his heart began to stir, as if a gust of wind had lifted his spirit and was pushing him towards the answer he was looking for.

He had found his second wind.

Haiji talked his father into letting him go back to school…. this time to pursue a sports degree (while their father-son relationship remained fairly complicated, the dad was more receptive to Haiji’s request since it’s to do with running, and Haiji was smart enough to leverage on his dad’s knowledge and connections to his advantage). His dad managed to pull a few strings and got Haiji enrolled into Rikudo (!!!) for a post graduate course, and Haiji moved back to Tokyo and threw himself into studying while nursing himself back to health. At the reunion timeline, he is armed with a sports coaching master’s degree, and has joined a relatively new corporation that hired him to set up a new running team. And Haiji knows exactly who he plans to recruit as soon as that person graduates.

Thank you for reading all the way and may your day be filled with wonderful thoughts!

#Kaze ga tsuyoku fuiteiru #kazetsuyo #Run with the wind #kaze novel things #Haiji Kiyose #Kakeru Kurahara #akihiro hirata #Yukihiko Iwakura #Yohei Sagaguchi #Takashi Sugiyama #Akane Kashiwazaki #Musa Kamara #Jojiro Kizuki #jotaro kizuki #All my best memories come back clearly to me #Some can even make me cry just like before #*Yesterday Once More plays softly in the background*#Whoever you are anon thank you from the bottom of my fandom heart <3 #SyncoID

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