Birdie Wing: Golf Girls’ Story – 25 (Fin) – Wings of Desire

I agree, Miss Burton: It is bullshit that we’ve reached the end of Birdie Wing, for the time being, if not indefinitely. At least the second season goes out with a shining rainbow bang. This last episode also falls on the same week I played my very first round of real golf…and you can damn well bet I said Rainbow Bullet Burst on my first drive!

Aoi, Eve, and my worst fear is realized, as Aoi must forfeit due to her collapse. Since Juha predicted this would eventually happen, she completes the third day at the top of the rankings without showing any emotion. When Aoi wakes up, she has another tearful interlude with Amane, but Eve breaks it up by saying their game’s not over until someone—namely her—wins.

The same day Aoi forfeits, news leaks that Eve has ties to the mafia and once played for money, which we know isn’t just rumor! The info is leaked by Remelda for cold, hard cash from Juha’s caddy Karen. To Juha’s credit, she didn’t and doesn’t approve, as she’s perfectly confident in beating Eve without dirty tricks. But what’s done is done.

Juha hates surprises, but she gets a whole slew of them on the final day. If Eve is mentally damaged by the rumors broadcast about her, she doesn’t show it. Also, Aoi has gotten a cute new short haircut and will be serving as her caddy. The reason for that is Eve will be using Aoi’s Shining Wings, including her 48-incher, and no one knows the Wings like Aoi herself.

My heart was still fluttering at the novel sight of Aoi and Eve standing side by side, at least for one day on the same side, determined to defeat Juha. But then Eve whips out a new weapon that combines her already combined golf power with Aoi’s to form the Shining Rainbow Burst, in which the rainbow she creates is shattered not simply by shafts of light, but shining birds made of light.

It’s only natural that the ultimate golf shot would be one that doesn’t just combine the special shots of their fathers, but also their own special shots. In the same way Aoi and Eve make each other better by being in each other’s lives, when they combine their powers no one can stop them. The shot also may have suddenly made Amane and Ichina hot for each other, which is fine by me!

Through the temperamental British weather and with Aoi’s help, Eve keeps pace with Juha even after the Lunar Empress adjusts her final score upward. When Juha praises Eve for being the first to be so close to her on the final day, Eve returns the praise, but also makes clear she’s not playing Juha anymore; she’s playing Aoi.

Assuming she’d end the day at 15-under if she’d kept playing, Eve is determined to beat that score, and thus win their game. Juha is merely a speed bump on the road to that objective.

Alas, on the 18th hole, Eve’s clinching rainbow bullet is has a little too much mustard, and taps off the flag stick, resulting in a draw between her and Aoi. Aoi, at her limit despite not actually playing, helps Eve up. Eve does manage to beat Juha by one stroke, but she is immediately stripped of the win for her mafia ties, and her pro license is suspended for three years.

You can tell Juha is not happy about this result. She may be holding the trophy, but she knows Eve beat her. If I were her, I’d shitcan Karen immediately! Fast forward three whole damn years, and Ichina narrates that Eve has been neither seen nor heard from in all that time, to which I say:

It kinda is! You’re telling me Eve and Aoi, who could have gotten married after the British Open, remained apart for three damn crucial years of their youth? Unacceptable! They could have had a kid who would eventually surpass them by now! What a waste!

If three years wasn’t enough, the episode jumps yet another year, when Eve and Aoi are finally back on the course together, this time with Aoi’s hair regrown and Eve’s cut short. Their voice actors deftly add a little age to their voices as they resume the game to decide who is the best golfer in the world.

It’s an ellipsis of an ending that gives me hope that, despite how much of a miracle it was that this even got a second round, maybe we’ll get a third, which will complete these two golf girls’-made-golf womens’ story in a satisfying fashion.

After all, Eve still needs to teach Aoi Rainbow Bullet, and these two (as well as Amane and Ichina) still need to, you know, actually confess their love for one another and kiss! But even if we don’t get any of that, it sure has been a fun, ludicrous, heart-filling ride. I consider myself thoroughly shot through.

Akudama Drive – 05 – Damn Kids

“Mission Impossible” is accomplished…or is it? Brawler is ready to head back to Kansai to fight Master, who is the first opponent to ever scare him and thus more important than the money. Hacker wants to head the other way to Kanto, and even managed to deactivate his bomb collar. Just as Brawler lives to fight, Hacker lives for excitement, and there’s nothing back in Kansai but boredom.

They’re both right: their job should be complete; the Black Cat didn’t say anything about smuggling two kids back to Kansai. And yet that’s the job. The brother offers to double the reward to ¥2 billion, but as Doctor points out (as perhaps the most intellectually shrewd of the Akudama) it’s not about the money for any of them—except Courier, who is ready to complete whatever mission the kids want.

Still, with no bomb collar the kids can’t force Hacker to keep working for them, and he’s doubtful he’ll ever get as good a chance to see Kanto than now, so he’s going to take it. He gives one of his Haro to Swindler as a parting gift, but she fully intends to return it when they meet again.

Doctor isn’t prepared to go any further until she learns more about these mysterious siblings, which is where Swindler comes in—and I’ll just call her that from now on because she herself seems to have gotten used to it. She accuses Doc of bullying little kids (whose hands she can see are trembling). Brawler and Hoodlum scold Doc, and she backs down.

The brother does at least tell them where they’re headed in Kansai—Expo Park—and when everyone’s tummies start to rumble, he produces a special bento box that creates whatever food someone wants out of thin air. I’d call it magic, but the Kanto and Kyushu Plant are capable of some pretty spiffy tech. Bunny is clear to shark that Kyushu can manufacture anything—meaning it’s not outside the realm of possibility the brother and sister are themselves manufactured.

Both can feel their stomachs are empty but don’t register it as hunger, and when they eat some of Swindler’s takoyaki they can’t tell if it’s good or not, just that it makes their bellies warm. It’s fun to learn of each Akudama’s favorite food (Brawler, meat; Hoodlum ramen, then onigiri; Doctor, wine, bread and cheese; Cutthroat, marshmallows), and that Courier and Swindler share a love of takoyaki. 

With a considerable and likely intentional pause in the action this week, we get to watch these colorful personalities mingle and clash. Doc for one believes Swindler is putting on an “innocent act” that she’s not buying. And hey, it remains to be seen if Swindler really is hiding something from us as well as her comrades.

We also learn more about the Executioner Division structure, with a Boss (named “Boss”) answering to Kanto in the form of three Noh masks atop a traditional shrine-like structure. They aren’t just elite cops, but Kanto’s muscle in Kansai and a form of society control. Akudama, after all are the only people from Kansai who could threaten Kanto’s hegemony.

Boss is given an ultimatum to find and destroy the seven Akudama who raided the Shinkansen at all costs, but the hospitalized Master and Apprentice are suspended indefinitely for twice failing in their mission—something virtually unheard of up to this point.

Meanwhile, in a nice moment between Swindler and Courier as the skies clear and reveal a gorgeous sunset, she tries to give him back his dropped ¥500 piece, which she almost slips up by saying it’s what “got her in this mess.”

The Executioners’ Boss gives a rousing speech to all members, including trainees, to find and eliminate the seven Akudama, and their faces pop up all over town video boards. Frankly, while Boss talks about law, order, and justice, there are more than generous hints of fascism and hyper-conformity in both her rhetoric and the division’s uniforms.

Apprentice is frustrated she and her Master can’t take responsibility for their failures by participating, only to find that Master has given her the slip. The next we see him he’s already located the Akudama, who attempted to clandestinely enter Kansai through the drainage and sewage network. They failed, but is the Master and a single security drone really enough against the six Akudama—even if the little sister doesn’t provide defense via her flute shield? We’ll find out.

Not every episode is a bullet train heist, nor should it be, nor would I want it to be. This was just the kind of follow-up I wanted, using the calm between storms to give a little more depth and seasoning to the players and their relationships.

Whether Swindler is just an ordinary girl in over head or secretly and/or unconsciously the most powerful of all of them (due in large part to her ability to “move hearts”), the true nature of the siblings, and the all-hands manhunt add up to plenty of juicy material for the remaining episodes.

Kaguya-sama: Love is War 2 – 11 – The Other Side of the Story

The Cheer Squad’s cross-dressing skit goes off without a hitch, pleasing Yuu, who feared everyone would think he was gross. He starts to finally think about enjoying life more instead of dwelling on past regrets and failures…only for the greatest regret of his life to show up to anti-cheer him.

Just as Yuu is drafted to fill in for an injured Kazeno as anchor on the club relay race, all of the past unpleasantness rushes back into the forefront of his mind. All his ears hear around him are the discouraged and annoyed voices of the crowd cursing his name and everything about him.

The mystery girl who arrives is Otomo Kyouko, who was neither a crush nor a friend in middle school. She was just a kind classmate who’d look out for him whenever she could. She was a good person. Then she started dating Ogino Kou, whom Yuu soon learns is cheating on Kyouko with other girls.

Honestly I don’t remember middle school being this sexed up, but Kou further demonstrates how pure a scum he truly is by refusing to stop cheating, then using footage of Kyouko on his phone to threaten Yuu into silence.

Not about to let a good person, even someone who’s barely an acquaintance get hurt by a bad one, Yuu’s sense of justice curdles into rage before the despicable Kou, and he punches the shit out of him in the middle of class. He aimed to ruin his face so no girl would approach it again, but Kou quietly threatens to abuse Kyouko if Yuu doesn’t stand down.

If that wasn’t enough, Kou also loudly professes that Yuu is a stalker. To both her and everyone else around, it looks like a crazed Yuu is beating up her boyfriend because he’s jealous and obsessed, and he’s too shocked by how badly things are going for him to defend himself, though I doubt it would have helped.

For the assault, Yuu is suspended for a month and ordered to write a letter of apology to Kou, but despite writing and erasing over the paper hundreds of times, he’s unable to write a single word of anything; neither a false apology nor an indictment of Kou’s own misdeeds. In his absence at school his reputation as a creep crystallizes.

Back in the present, the relay anchors are ordered to their marks, but Yuu is so out of it he forgets what color team he’s on…until Miyuki puts his red headband on his head and offers him words of encouragement and a pat on the back. This mirrors Miyuki’s eventual visit to Yuu’s house to present the “Student Council Secret Report” he prepared with Miyuki and Chika.

While Miyuki doesn’t judge whether Yuu’s actions were right or wrong (merely that they could have been better), he cannot deny that Yuu’s ultimate objective was to protect Otomo Kyouko, and that objective was achieved when Kou broke up with her days after the beating. Turns out all those months of refusing to apologize made Kou paranoid, and he released his grip on the poor girl.

However, Kyouko never saw this report, and still has the same idea of what went down. She still believes Kou to be a good guy and blames Yuu for their breakup. She came to the festival specifically to “unload” on Yuu, but rather than continue to wallow in despair, Yuu draws strength from the knowledge someone—specifically Miyuki, Kaguya and Chika—learned his side of the story and supported him.

So before running his leg of the relay, Yuu responds to Kyouko’s heckling with the same words Miyuki wrote in thick black permanent marker way outside the gridlines of the apology letter stock…so hard that to this day the ink residue is embedded in the desk: GO TO HELL, DUMBASS.

As the race progresses, Yuu is determined to win. He believes he has to win to prove he truly “shake Kyouko off” and move on with his life. Kaguya and Miyuki and Chika cheer him on, hoping the good person they know can overcome adversity. Kobachi loudly cheers him on, while Miko, who helped get Yuu reinstated, cheers for him almost under her breath—but with no less conviction.

Yuu ends up losing by a hair. Like the lack of a forced reconciliation with Kyouko, the defeat is an excellent subversion of how these races usually go. But the fact is, he still tried his best and his cheer squad comrades appreciate that. Koyasu, the pink-haired girl, even tears up, so moved by his genuine frustration. Rather than calling him a loser and failure and weirdo like he feared, they tell him he did good.

Suddenly, as his tears give way and his field of vision clears, he can finally see the EYES of the cheer squad members, a pack of Normies with whom he thought he’d never get along and inherently distrusted due to past traumas. But there they are in all their glory. We’d never seen their eyes either because Yuu never looked at them properly. Now he does, and he’s elated to discover they’re all good people.

As Kyouko departs, she tells her former classmates she was glad to be able to give Yuu a piece of her mind, and leaves Shuchiin with fun memories despite how things turned out. As Kaguya and Ai observe, she’s blissfully ignorant, but the smile she wears as she leaves is the very thing Yuu worked and suffered to protect, and he succeeded.

That Yuu would do that for a classmate he barely knew, at the cost of so much personal turmoil and with no reward, then he must be the very best quality of person. It’s no wonder he was recruited into the StuCo. This episode of Love is War had virtually no jokes or gags, but it didn’t matter. What it offered instead was masterful character drama, further cementing its status as Anime of the Year.