prince of tennis episodes 52-56

[cimorene]

please find enclosed more tezuka/ryoma squee and also some golden pair squee. and possibly a random comment or two, if i got careless. with illustrations, of course. 052. seigaku's biggest crisis

it's fitting that ryoma and tezuka are rarely surprised by each other. this is partially because they're not easily surprised but also because their confidence in each other (and their understanding of each other) is instinctively so high ♥♥. so when tezuka and inui are playing (and seriously--now i realise what bookshop meant about how just the footwork for the tezuka zone is so hot--because öalksdjfnnng) and tezuka finally gets [at least partially] serious and pulls out the tezuka zone... our reaction shot shows that ryoma and fuji are completely unsurprised.





at the end of his game, we get tezuka's stoic hero shot:



followed by reaction shots from other people, and an odd one of ryoma standing totally still, calm and expressionless, except he's sweating. a lot. as we watch, sweat drips off his chin. and then, at length, he smiles.





i'm just saying, he's not sweating from physical exertion.

also, in the same episode, even though oishi and eiji are having a spat and apparently about to grab each other by the shirts, lunge over the net and start rolling around on the ground and then angrily making out, when tezuka appears and snaps at them they still move closer together.





and then oishi moves in front of eiji.



golden pair ♥♥!



055. hyotei presses near (& 056. doubles for three)

the order's all messed up by oishi's injury! oh no! ryoma's on reserve! he's lying on the ground drinking with his cap on his face and ryuzaki-sensei feels the need to apologise, or at least to explain her reasoning, and then she's like, "that's okay, isn't it?"

he sounds calm about it and he doesn't look too upset, at least, and i guess politeness would be too much to ask for, but he says something like "whatever, it's not like i have a choice."



and then... even though they don't have any choice and ryuzaki apologised already, tezuka feels the need to apologise again. when he says "there's no way we can let you play doubles. that's all", well... that's a pretty long speech for him. and he looks at ryoma too: he can tell he's upset and he wants ryoma to have an apology (of sorts) directly from him as well. aöskldjfaösldkj. he looks sad (if also possibly shocked at ryoma's poor manners).





ryoma looks up at him and says "hmph" though. he understands, though he doesn't like it. poor guy.

also... gakuto looks like he wandered in from another show. possibly a 50s pulp science fiction movie. set on mars.

and on another subject, somehow i thought that the eyes splitting up into prisms was a "fuji is cool" effect, but it turns out that it's an inherent part of higuma otoshi, because it happened to oshitari too when he did it. okay, that is a pretty sweet tennis move. although i wonder if it's hard on your eyeballs.

obviously, i could squee about the golden pair in these two, but they're so married already and it's all so blatant and explicit that it seems silly. although even expecting it as i did, i was a little taken aback by how sickeningly adorable they were.

Comments

[bookshop.livejournal.com]

I love love love that Ryoma sweatdrops for Tezuka's sake when he's watching them play. Even though he knows Tezuka so well instinctively by this point the act of watching him play just engrosses him so completely. You can't imagine him sweating over anybody else's match, but for Tezuka, it's just natural.

And I heartily second your analysis of Tezuka's apology to Ryoma. I think he's half-exasperation at Ryoma for requiring an apology/explanation, and half-exasperation at himself for feeling compelled to give him one. But this is just one more example of the ever-continuous pattern of Tezuka extending himself and going above and beyond what is necessary, just for Ryoma. It's a delightful moment. I'm glad you caught it and commented. ♥

although even expecting it as i did, i was a little taken aback by how sickeningly adorable they were.

Now all the sickeningly adorable fluff is that much easier to stomach, perhaps? :D

[cimness.livejournal.com]

öaslkdöljask god. yes. his staring at tezuka playing--and his impassive look (for most of it). ajösdlkfjaöskld f

he knows Tezuka so well instinctively

THEY KNOW EACH OTHER INSTINCTIVELY. could ANYTHING be better than that? it's the greatest thing ever. aöslfdjaösldkjal. he's never seen the tezuka zone before (although of course he has seen tezuka playing) and--but he's not surprised. AT ALL.

and i also don't think he thinks tezuka could possibly lose. i can't imagine that interpretation. he's just so caught up in the game and what is happening and watching tezuka play which must be like watching porn if playing tezuka himself is like having sex (... i went there. x.x) that he's sweating from adrenaline. x.x i bet he feels it with his whole body too. aösldkjfaslkdfasjd. nnnng. this pairing.


ahhahahha. well, you notice i already read the sickeningly adorable fluff. as long as it doesn't have tezufuji in the background i can stomach it.

[bookshop.livejournal.com]

THEY KNOW EACH OTHER INSTINCTIVELY. could ANYTHING be better than that? it's the greatest thing ever. aöslfdjaösldkjal.

aWERJWERASKFLA. I really wish that I had, like, every episode ever in raw format, because I just want to make a whole bunch of REALLY CHEESY SAPPY TEZURYO SONGVIDS to express my love for them. One of them would be "I Knew I Loved You Before I Met You." BECAUSE TEZUKA SO OBVIOUSLY DREAMED RYOMA INTO LIFE. AHAHAHAHAHA. "A THOUSAND ANGELS DANCE AROUND YOU" AS THEY PLAY GAY CELESTIAL RAINBOW-COLORED TENNIS. I kill myself.

And of course: "I am complete now that I found you." :(( I sometimes think TezuRyo outsaps the Golden Pair. They are like. I dunno. the PLATINUM pair.

I don't think it's so much that he sweats over Tezuka's chances of losing so much as the intensity of the match - it's never in doubt, but it's just so tense and Ryoma has never seen Tezuka pushed this hard by anybody (other than himself) before. It's like he's been waiting to see Tezuka's true strength and the more glimpses Tezuka allows him, the more intense the match gets and the more intense Ryoma gets.

and I really think it's impossible to NOT compare tennis with sex. Their tennis, anyway. I mean. Pillars. Come, Echizen. I'll BRING THE BALLS.

[cimness.livejournal.com]

I really wish that I had, like, every episode ever in raw format, because I just want to make a whole bunch of REALLY CHEESY SAPPY TEZURYO SONGVIDS to express my love for them. One of them would be "I Knew I Loved You Before I Met You." BECAUSE TEZUKA SO OBVIOUSLY DREAMED RYOMA INTO LIFE. AHAHAHAHAHA. "A THOUSAND ANGELS DANCE AROUND YOU" AS THEY PLAY GAY CELESTIAL RAINBOW-COLORED TENNIS. I kill myself.

KLDÖFASKLDJFÖJGÖASLFDSFKLSD AÖSDKLJFAÖSKLDJFÖAKLSDJFÖASJDFÖAKLGAKFD½!!!!!!
AÖSKLDFÖASKLDJFÖFAJFD. i've been thinking exactly the same thing. i was composing songvids in my head. i have a fluffy australian pop song called "obsession" that includes the line "with my arms wrapped around you i breathe you in and i devour you" *.* which makes me think of the end of that myu where yanagi grabs shirota. although, hahaha, it might be kind of weird to mix anime with fuzzy clips from live musicals in the same vid. so it's probably a very good thing i don't know how to vid.

"i knew i loved you before i met you" would be PERFECT. what other explanation could there be? ryoma is his ideal partner, and he is able to tell this at like first glance (aöfdöa and he obsesses over him silently and WAITS to make his move and hook ryoma back and then it's like CRACKLE. instantaneous connection. was it you who said it was like ryoma gets hit with all of puberty at once in one afternoon?), and then ryoma is still able to constantly surpass his expectations and become more perfect anyway! ödkljfaöskld "i am complete now that i found you". :((

i know what you mean. their vibe is different from the golden pair's, though. i mean, you can compare them because they also essentially fall in love at first sight at the ages of twelve and fourteen, which isn't that different from eiji and oishi both being twelve (tezuka can't help being older after all). but because their personalities are different, their dynamic is different--crackling with tension, full of flirting and, well, both of them full of fire and ambition and they want to conquer the world together. they're filled with longing for each other, and i kind of see them that way even after their relationship is established and some of the novelty inevitably wears off. whereas eiji and oishi are so very married--they don't flirt all the time; instead they finish one another's sentences and have conversations consisting entirely of facial expressions.

Their tennis, anyway.

yeah. this is true. GOD. tezuka's surprised face when ryoma scores a point in the practice match in 63!!!

[cimness.livejournal.com]

I think he's half-exasperation at Ryoma for requiring an apology/explanation, and half-exasperation at himself for feeling compelled to give him one.

i understated how fascinating i found this exchange. because, i mean, i found it much more provocative than some of the other stuff--it surprised me in a way that ryoma's reaction shots to tezuka, or tezuka's to ryoma, don't. it's even different from everything else because, well, one thing that we can see from this is that tennis is a beautiful and mystical kind of personal spiritual experience or something for tezuka. anyway, how it's not about his opponents, it's not about winning and losing. tezuka is very careful to maintain his reserve--he's so monosyllabic and effortlessly commanding with the team, and he doesn't ever do anything that damages that .

but we've seen already that ryoma makes tennis personal for him--personal between the two of them, which is both more personal than usual for tezuka and less personal, because i really don't think he's ever shared it with another person before. but we've only seen hidden evidence of this--he watches ryoma silently in public, he talks to ryoma only when they're alone; fuji and ryuzaki are the only ones who've noticed his fascination and the most he's said to other people is "where's echizen" (albeit that an extremely high number of times). but here he breaks the reserve AND drops his captain role at the same time, in a way, by initiating a personal conversation here to apologise in front of everyone else. when he and ryoma talk it's always like there's no one else around @.@ because they just don't care. and the fact that technically he didn't owe ryoma an apology for that--he couldn't help the lineup when ryuzaki was decided on it anyway, and for that matter, they have the right to make the lineup however they want. it's understandable that ryoma was upset of course, but he hadn't said anything directly about it, so--yeah. but he could feel that ryoma was affected and he explained even though he knew that ryoma already KNEW his explanation. which means that his speaking there is basically a symbolic gesture like a coded "i wanted to have you play and i'm sorry you can't and i sympathise with and care about your upset" sort of thing. ryoma acknowledges this, to my mind, when he looks up and meets tezuka's eyes like that, even if all he says is "ch'."

[bookshop.livejournal.com]

I just rewatched it. :))

I agree with everything about your interpretation of this moment except Ryoma's reaction. I don't think Ryoma gets it yet. And I say that primarily because this sort of directly foreshadows an important sequence later on in canon. One thing I love about the Hyotei arc is how Ryoma sort of starts out sulking on the sidelines but then gradually gets more into it and is able to encourage his teammates and ultimately be the little pillar Tezuka wants him to be, even though his role is marginalized. Tezuka would have asked Ryoma to bench coach for his game no matter what. *_*

And he explained even though he knew that ryoma already KNEW his explanation. which means that his speaking there is basically a symbolic gesture

Everything is symbolism with Tezuka. I love that normally Ryoma gets that and understands it innately just like he understands everything else about Tezuka. But I don't think Ryoma trusts completely yet that Tezuka always, always puts Ryoma first no matter what. Tezuka speaking to Ryoma here is all that you said, but I think Ryoma needs a bit to ingest it and accept it as such. It's also a coded reminder of Ryoma's role as pillar. Tezuka's saying he'd rather have Ryoma sit out than risk injury because of his importance to the team, and Ryoma needs to be aware of that too.

[cimness.livejournal.com]

hmmmmmmmmm, it's probably just that i want ryoma to understand, but i can understand the other interpretation (and take your word for it). but i do think he gets that something is going on with tezuka's explanation, because it's a bit of a crack in his uncaring facade when he looks up to meet tezuka's eyes, even if he doesn't really say much of anything.