Tsurune: The Linking Shot

Episode 9

It's a beautiful day, and you're at a seaside training camp. There's a panoramic ocean view from your onsen, delicious curry and fresh sashimi for dinner, and unlimited time to hone your craft. But you're the antagonist in the kyudo anime, so you're blind with rage.

At first blush, this episode of Tsurune: The Linking Shot appears to be an escapist return to the “cute boys doing cute things” brand of high school sports nostalgia that this anime perfected in the first season. But as “Bending Will” ramps up, it reveals a deep dive into Eisuke Nikaido's psyche: his traumas, lifelong hangups, and the actual reason he's itching for revenge against Minato and Shu specifically. Against a backdrop of envy-inducing training camp slice of life, everything becomes clear on the stage for Tsurune's season two endgame. The narrative offers an honest answer to the question, “What the heck is Eisuke's problem?” while the nonstop fun of the training camp keeps things from getting too heavy.

Last week, Kazamai Kyudo Club shared a planned practice session with the rival school, Kirisaki. This week, they shared a distinctly unplanned training camp with their other major rival for the upcoming Nationals, Tsujimine High. Thanks to the type of comical mix-up that only happens on TV, these two very different teams share the same lodgings and archery range for their training camp. This could go one of two ways: a mutually beneficial exchange of techniques a la the Kirisaki joint practice or a cold war situation that deepens their antagonistic feelings. Luckily it's the first scenario that occurs, leading to plenty of inter-team bonding on the lighter side. These comedic hijinks revisit Kazamai team members' familiar personality traits (especially Seiya's slightly devilish inclinations as he guilt-trips Kaito for accidentally cracking his glasses—despite having a secret spare pair) while introducing us to Tsujimine's colorful cast of characters (in particular Kenyu, who turns out to be a sushi chef in training). However, it doesn't appear that Eisuke got the memo, and he spends the entirety of the training camp in a funk bordering on fury.

Who pissed in Eisuke's barley tea? That's what the second half of this episode finally makes clear. It's not simply that Minato obliviously gushed about his awesome kyudo teacher to Eisuke without knowing much about her. It's far more deep-seated. Eisuke spent a lot of time with his archer uncle to escape an implied troubled home life, so he took it really hard when his uncle dealt with the one-two-three hit of a stalled kyudo career, a rejection from a prominent kyudo teacher, and failing health all at once. The teacher who rejected his uncle was none other than Saionji, so Eisuke tails her pupils, itching for a confrontation that Shu refuses to give. From then on, Eisuke vowed he wouldn't trust any kyudo teacher or coach, deciding to become self-sufficient. One kyudo master's insinuated attempt to gently let down a would-be student with a white lie like “I'm not taking new pupils” had repercussions spanning generations! A bit of an overreaction on Eisuke's part, but it fits his hyperfocused, all-or-nothing character as we've seen it so far. Jun Fukuyama's performance of false pleasantry alternating with brooding teenage angst sells this backstory expertly.

The show's decision to delay Eisuke's backstory for this long was successful. For multiple episodes, viewers have been invited to contrast Eisuke's scrappy survivor attitude and sincere devotion toward his team with his seemingly unreasonable anger toward pure little cinnamon roll Minato. If his private rage had been made clear initially, he would have been too sympathetic to be an interesting antagonist. But this training camp's forced closeness with the object of Eisuke's dislike, including a chance beach encounter with Masa—a coach just like Eisuke said he'd never need, who gets the ball rolling. Now that Eisuke's trauma has been brought to light, it's time for another character arc to begin for him, and it's looking a lot like redemption.

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Tsurune: The Linking Shot is currently streaming on HIDIVE.

Lauren writes about model kits at Gunpla 101. She spends her days teaching her two small Newtypes to bring peace to the space colonies.