prince of tennis 25-6 caps and recap
6 Apr 2006 08:33 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
cimorenethis episode. wow. this episode just blew me away with the incredible slashiness and blatant symbolism and other blatantness. and, well, this post was meant to be shorter than this, like a smörgåsbord of favourite slashy caps, but there were so many, and it just kind of snowballed and, well, i didn't hve the strength to resist, so it's kind of the whole episode, in all its glorious slashiness. and, well, this is kind of more fun to read and write than plain squeeing. and also prettier to look at.
caps taken of prince of tennis 25-26, "the strongest man in seigaku": 849
caps kept, after culling, of prince of tennis 25-26, "the strongest man in seigaku": 331
i think i sprained something tuesday night trying not to laugh, squeak, squeal or otherwise shout out loud. i've been spoiled for this episode in every conceivable way, by reading every bit of fanfiction i could find on the internet for tezuka/ryoma (barring some on fanfiction.net, but i'm reading there too), not to mention plenty of meta in essays and other discussions. in fact, i'd also heard about many of the slashiest elements: the pillar theme, the rushing train imagery, the "come alone, i'll bring the balls", the naked contemplation in the bathtub.
but i still wasn't prepared. maybe you can't be.
first of all, the completely mind-boggling extra slashiness actually starts in the special credits they made just for this episode.
there's an extra verse added to the beginning and ending credits, and both of those verses are a bit more slashy. and meanwhile the regular credits images? have been replaced by a gold-tinted slideshow of Significant Tezuka/Ryoma Moments starting from the first time they meet and featuring a lot of tezuka staring at ryoma, since that is what tezuka mostly does. example:
the credits segue smoothly into a continued tezuka/ryoma montage, this time in colour, from tezuka's point of view. it's partly about the sequence of cool and impressive things ryoma has done, and partly about how tezuka is irrationally obsessed (although, initially, he also rather futilely denies it). example:
included in the flashback especially is the conclusion tezuka has drawn from the whole thing: ryoma's tennis is an exact copy of his father's (which was good enough to take on the world of pro tennis and win in the day and is still extremely impressive--but it's not true to ryoma's self, so it's bad!). when ryoma comes out of that tunnel at the other end, says flashback!tezuka grimly (from ryoma's match against shinji in eps 18-20), what will be there?
cut out of the flashback. tezuka is in ryuzaki sensei's office, lit very dramatically. he approaches her extremely solemnly and demands that she please let him play a match with echizen. she doesn't think that's a good idea, but tezuka doesn't even seem to hear her. he just stands there, being solemn and yellow and very, veryobsesseddetermined.
we see tezuka come up to ryoma after practise and demand that he follow him off the court. ryoma is completely surprised. the thick yellow watercolour light of drama/awesome tennis moves that are passionate and pure of soul/love is still very much in evidence. tezuka asks a befuddled ryoma if he knows where the haruno university tennis courts are and then tells him to meet him there in three days, still in that painfully emphatic and controlled, solemn voice.
then he pulls a tennis ball out of his pocket and throws it to ryoma, who still looks completely and totally shell-shocked.
then he walks away, and ryoma stares after him.
then we see ryoma at home. he takes tezuka's tennis ball into the bath with him, and sits with it between his legs, catching it, letting it bob back to the surface, fondling it and generally staring at it.
meanwhile, tezuka has gone at night to the university courts, which are right by a place where trains race by with their enormous (and kind of noisy) penetrative thrust. many times, through tunnels. (i'm just saying.)
he stands and looks at the trains and at the empty court in the dark, and clutches his elbow.
the next day we see both him and ryoma practising extra hard, ryoma acting pensive and withdrawn (both of which others comment on) and ryoma staring at tezuka without saying anything. after practise, tezuka and oishi go to the hospital together, and we meet oishi's uncle, who is tezuka's doctor. he shows them an x-ray of tezuka's elbow and says that it is healed and he can use it again, but he cautions him to go easy and not perform his zero-shiki drop shot yet, because that puts a special strain on it. as they're leaving, oishi tries to mother and tezuka brushes him off quite rudely.
and then, thank goodness, it's time for the match! we're at the university courts. ryoma is scowling with concentration.
tezuka (modelling a very gay lavender tennis outfit with attractively rumpled collar) slams home his first serve like he's really not screwing around and shocks ryoma into black and white.
ryoma's immediate reaction is delight and pleasure. he says it's just what he expected from seigaku's buchou, but then when he smiles up at tezuka--
--he sees how very, very far from laughing tezuka is, and his face gets serious, although he has no idea why they're being so serious.
tezuka keeps up this kind of intense, scowling concentration throughout the match. he doesn't say much--just keeps playing.
and flies.
tezuka might not be going completely all out, but he's not holding back much. oishi, who has followed them there and is lurking nearby and watching from under an overpass, keeps whispering things like "no, tezuka, don't!", but to no avail. ryoma is quickly exhausted, sweaty and panting, and falls to his knees on the court.
this first part of the match is intercut with echizen nanjiroh by himself out by tennis court, first napping under the temple bell, where he is awakened by two birds flying together out of a nearby tree. he muses aloud to himself that it is the time for young to leave the nest. as ryoma is staring at tezuka here, panting, with this particular confused and intrigued and slightly betrayed expression in his eyes, nanjiroh is watching the sunset himself with an unusually solemn face and a hint of satisfaction.
tezuka stands unmoving on the other side of the net, looking down at ryoma, and demands, "echizen! can you beat me?"
ryoma takes a gulp of breath and deliberately straightens his back. he looks up at tezuka and smirks, "i'll do it if you say so."
tezuka doesn't soften, though. he demands why ryoma plays tennis. ryoma is confused but eventually admits he wants to beat someone. tezuka demands "what will you have after that?" and "what are you going to do after you beat him?" ryoma keeps playing, and he keeps being confused.
tezuka demands, "echizen, see if you can beat me!" at this point, ryoma smiles.
then we cut away. ryoma comes home in his school uniform, very tired. his dad demands where he was and asks if it was a date, to which he says, "something like that."
ryoma goes into his room and flops down on his bed immediately. he stares at the ceiling and starts to remember the end of the match.
what he remembers is himself smiling eagerly and panting, tezuka's frown of concentration and his seriousness. tezuka uses the zero-shiki more than once, i think, and goes into slo-mo and becomes gilded in the yellow light of awesome tennis moves that are passionate and pure of soul.
we see tezuka and oishi walking back to the train and riding it away right after the match. tezuka is scowling and appears not to be paying any attention, and oishi is exasperated. he doesn't understand why tezuka's done this, but tezuka insists it was necessary. oishi says he might have been too hard on ryoma, but tezuka responds there would have been no use in not going all-out. oishi says he thinks ryoma must still be in shock, because he doesn't know if he's ever been beaten before. now we get a flashback from tezuka's point of view.
ryoma pants up at him.
tezuka stares down at ryoma and tries to convey his message again. "echizen, become seigaku's pillar of support!" he says.
next we get a glimpse of school, and at practise the other tennis players discuss the fact that tezuka and ryoma are both absent ("sick") again.
we see ryoma walking home by himself, standing on an overpass and looking down at the trains and the tracks. (it's nice that both of them appreciate this aspect of the symbolism. and the aspect with the balls. it serves to show that they're on the same page.)
he finds his dad in the backyard, wakes him up and asks him (abruptly but not too rudely) for a tennis game. nanjiroh is shocked and seems pleased that ryoma is "finally" treating him with respect. he accepts, and they start to play. ryoma demands that nanjiroh treat him seriously, which he more or less does, and the shots of the match--which is unusually intense--are densely intercut with flashbacks to the match with tezuka.
tezuka has visited oishi's uncle again by himself, just to check up, but he's still fine. oishi's uncle guesses shrewdly that he used the zero-shiki. tezuka apologises, but he looks offended. the doctor says that as tezuka's doctor, he should know, and tezuka tells him that it was necessary. then he flashes back to the end of the match again.
in tezuka's memory, huge iridescent beams of sunlight fall on the court, illuminating both tezuka and ryoma.
tezuka chants over and over again "give it to me" and "hit it", and they're both referring to the same thing: a shot he can't return.
and ryoma really tries.
tezuka walks home by way of a bridge and he stops, too, to watch the trains and the sunset, and to clutch his elbow protectively, but he's frowning and thinking about how it was worth it: he visualises some of ryoma's final shots, the old nanjiroh, and the new nanjiroh. he tells ryoma to show him his own tennis, the tennis that only echizen ryoma can play.
then we are back with ryoma playing his father at the temple, flashing back to the same thing, the very end of the match. he sees himself kneeling and looking up to tezuka. his kneeling posture here is markedly supplicating. he looks like a knight kneeling before his lord.
"hit it to me, a shot that i can't return!" tezuka says again, in the flashback, and ryoma looks desperate.
ryoma remembers tezuka telling him to improve himself in the flashback, and in the present he frowns in determination and says to himself, "i'll do it." nanjiroh is saying things like "this guy..." and "there's something different about the balls today," and he keeps looking alternately pleased and surprised.
then ryoma hits a shot that bathes him in the gold light of passionate awesome pure-of-soul tennis shots... and it gets by nanjiroh.
it leaves him panting and exhausted but very happy. he smiles proudly and says, "dad, i want to be stronger. much, much stronger." then he turns away, and nanjiroh thinks that it was evidently a good thing to send him to seigaku.
"i don't know who it was," he thinks, "but he understands ryoma's personality and gave him what he needed the most." we see tezuka in closeup for a moment, still on the overpass at sunset, with the wind in his hair. "in other words," nanjiroh thinks, "he lit a fire under ryoma."
ps. re 28 "a new regular appears": öaklsjdöfaskl helped a pregnant woman to the hospital AHAHAHAHAHHAAH their FACES ♥♥♥♥♥
ps 2. re 29-31, OH MY GOD, suddenly i understand momokai SO, SO WELL. asöldkfasklödjffjöasldkfj.
caps taken of prince of tennis 25-26, "the strongest man in seigaku": 849
caps kept, after culling, of prince of tennis 25-26, "the strongest man in seigaku": 331
i think i sprained something tuesday night trying not to laugh, squeak, squeal or otherwise shout out loud. i've been spoiled for this episode in every conceivable way, by reading every bit of fanfiction i could find on the internet for tezuka/ryoma (barring some on fanfiction.net, but i'm reading there too), not to mention plenty of meta in essays and other discussions. in fact, i'd also heard about many of the slashiest elements: the pillar theme, the rushing train imagery, the "come alone, i'll bring the balls", the naked contemplation in the bathtub.
but i still wasn't prepared. maybe you can't be.
first of all, the completely mind-boggling extra slashiness actually starts in the special credits they made just for this episode.
there's an extra verse added to the beginning and ending credits, and both of those verses are a bit more slashy. and meanwhile the regular credits images? have been replaced by a gold-tinted slideshow of Significant Tezuka/Ryoma Moments starting from the first time they meet and featuring a lot of tezuka staring at ryoma, since that is what tezuka mostly does. example:
the credits segue smoothly into a continued tezuka/ryoma montage, this time in colour, from tezuka's point of view. it's partly about the sequence of cool and impressive things ryoma has done, and partly about how tezuka is irrationally obsessed (although, initially, he also rather futilely denies it). example:
included in the flashback especially is the conclusion tezuka has drawn from the whole thing: ryoma's tennis is an exact copy of his father's (which was good enough to take on the world of pro tennis and win in the day and is still extremely impressive--but it's not true to ryoma's self, so it's bad!). when ryoma comes out of that tunnel at the other end, says flashback!tezuka grimly (from ryoma's match against shinji in eps 18-20), what will be there?
cut out of the flashback. tezuka is in ryuzaki sensei's office, lit very dramatically. he approaches her extremely solemnly and demands that she please let him play a match with echizen. she doesn't think that's a good idea, but tezuka doesn't even seem to hear her. he just stands there, being solemn and yellow and very, very
we see tezuka come up to ryoma after practise and demand that he follow him off the court. ryoma is completely surprised. the thick yellow watercolour light of drama/awesome tennis moves that are passionate and pure of soul/love is still very much in evidence. tezuka asks a befuddled ryoma if he knows where the haruno university tennis courts are and then tells him to meet him there in three days, still in that painfully emphatic and controlled, solemn voice.
then he pulls a tennis ball out of his pocket and throws it to ryoma, who still looks completely and totally shell-shocked.
then he walks away, and ryoma stares after him.
then we see ryoma at home. he takes tezuka's tennis ball into the bath with him, and sits with it between his legs, catching it, letting it bob back to the surface, fondling it and generally staring at it.
meanwhile, tezuka has gone at night to the university courts, which are right by a place where trains race by with their enormous (and kind of noisy) penetrative thrust. many times, through tunnels. (i'm just saying.)
he stands and looks at the trains and at the empty court in the dark, and clutches his elbow.
the next day we see both him and ryoma practising extra hard, ryoma acting pensive and withdrawn (both of which others comment on) and ryoma staring at tezuka without saying anything. after practise, tezuka and oishi go to the hospital together, and we meet oishi's uncle, who is tezuka's doctor. he shows them an x-ray of tezuka's elbow and says that it is healed and he can use it again, but he cautions him to go easy and not perform his zero-shiki drop shot yet, because that puts a special strain on it. as they're leaving, oishi tries to mother and tezuka brushes him off quite rudely.
and then, thank goodness, it's time for the match! we're at the university courts. ryoma is scowling with concentration.
tezuka (modelling a very gay lavender tennis outfit with attractively rumpled collar) slams home his first serve like he's really not screwing around and shocks ryoma into black and white.
ryoma's immediate reaction is delight and pleasure. he says it's just what he expected from seigaku's buchou, but then when he smiles up at tezuka--
--he sees how very, very far from laughing tezuka is, and his face gets serious, although he has no idea why they're being so serious.
tezuka keeps up this kind of intense, scowling concentration throughout the match. he doesn't say much--just keeps playing.
and flies.
tezuka might not be going completely all out, but he's not holding back much. oishi, who has followed them there and is lurking nearby and watching from under an overpass, keeps whispering things like "no, tezuka, don't!", but to no avail. ryoma is quickly exhausted, sweaty and panting, and falls to his knees on the court.
this first part of the match is intercut with echizen nanjiroh by himself out by tennis court, first napping under the temple bell, where he is awakened by two birds flying together out of a nearby tree. he muses aloud to himself that it is the time for young to leave the nest. as ryoma is staring at tezuka here, panting, with this particular confused and intrigued and slightly betrayed expression in his eyes, nanjiroh is watching the sunset himself with an unusually solemn face and a hint of satisfaction.
tezuka stands unmoving on the other side of the net, looking down at ryoma, and demands, "echizen! can you beat me?"
ryoma takes a gulp of breath and deliberately straightens his back. he looks up at tezuka and smirks, "i'll do it if you say so."
tezuka doesn't soften, though. he demands why ryoma plays tennis. ryoma is confused but eventually admits he wants to beat someone. tezuka demands "what will you have after that?" and "what are you going to do after you beat him?" ryoma keeps playing, and he keeps being confused.
tezuka demands, "echizen, see if you can beat me!" at this point, ryoma smiles.
then we cut away. ryoma comes home in his school uniform, very tired. his dad demands where he was and asks if it was a date, to which he says, "something like that."
ryoma goes into his room and flops down on his bed immediately. he stares at the ceiling and starts to remember the end of the match.
what he remembers is himself smiling eagerly and panting, tezuka's frown of concentration and his seriousness. tezuka uses the zero-shiki more than once, i think, and goes into slo-mo and becomes gilded in the yellow light of awesome tennis moves that are passionate and pure of soul.
we see tezuka and oishi walking back to the train and riding it away right after the match. tezuka is scowling and appears not to be paying any attention, and oishi is exasperated. he doesn't understand why tezuka's done this, but tezuka insists it was necessary. oishi says he might have been too hard on ryoma, but tezuka responds there would have been no use in not going all-out. oishi says he thinks ryoma must still be in shock, because he doesn't know if he's ever been beaten before. now we get a flashback from tezuka's point of view.
ryoma pants up at him.
tezuka stares down at ryoma and tries to convey his message again. "echizen, become seigaku's pillar of support!" he says.
next we get a glimpse of school, and at practise the other tennis players discuss the fact that tezuka and ryoma are both absent ("sick") again.
we see ryoma walking home by himself, standing on an overpass and looking down at the trains and the tracks. (it's nice that both of them appreciate this aspect of the symbolism. and the aspect with the balls. it serves to show that they're on the same page.)
he finds his dad in the backyard, wakes him up and asks him (abruptly but not too rudely) for a tennis game. nanjiroh is shocked and seems pleased that ryoma is "finally" treating him with respect. he accepts, and they start to play. ryoma demands that nanjiroh treat him seriously, which he more or less does, and the shots of the match--which is unusually intense--are densely intercut with flashbacks to the match with tezuka.
tezuka has visited oishi's uncle again by himself, just to check up, but he's still fine. oishi's uncle guesses shrewdly that he used the zero-shiki. tezuka apologises, but he looks offended. the doctor says that as tezuka's doctor, he should know, and tezuka tells him that it was necessary. then he flashes back to the end of the match again.
in tezuka's memory, huge iridescent beams of sunlight fall on the court, illuminating both tezuka and ryoma.
tezuka chants over and over again "give it to me" and "hit it", and they're both referring to the same thing: a shot he can't return.
and ryoma really tries.
tezuka walks home by way of a bridge and he stops, too, to watch the trains and the sunset, and to clutch his elbow protectively, but he's frowning and thinking about how it was worth it: he visualises some of ryoma's final shots, the old nanjiroh, and the new nanjiroh. he tells ryoma to show him his own tennis, the tennis that only echizen ryoma can play.
then we are back with ryoma playing his father at the temple, flashing back to the same thing, the very end of the match. he sees himself kneeling and looking up to tezuka. his kneeling posture here is markedly supplicating. he looks like a knight kneeling before his lord.
"hit it to me, a shot that i can't return!" tezuka says again, in the flashback, and ryoma looks desperate.
ryoma remembers tezuka telling him to improve himself in the flashback, and in the present he frowns in determination and says to himself, "i'll do it." nanjiroh is saying things like "this guy..." and "there's something different about the balls today," and he keeps looking alternately pleased and surprised.
then ryoma hits a shot that bathes him in the gold light of passionate awesome pure-of-soul tennis shots... and it gets by nanjiroh.
it leaves him panting and exhausted but very happy. he smiles proudly and says, "dad, i want to be stronger. much, much stronger." then he turns away, and nanjiroh thinks that it was evidently a good thing to send him to seigaku.
"i don't know who it was," he thinks, "but he understands ryoma's personality and gave him what he needed the most." we see tezuka in closeup for a moment, still on the overpass at sunset, with the wind in his hair. "in other words," nanjiroh thinks, "he lit a fire under ryoma."
ps. re 28 "a new regular appears": öaklsjdöfaskl helped a pregnant woman to the hospital AHAHAHAHAHHAAH their FACES ♥♥♥♥♥
ps 2. re 29-31, OH MY GOD, suddenly i understand momokai SO, SO WELL. asöldkfasklödjffjöasldkfj.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Date: 6 Apr 2006 07:50 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 7 Apr 2006 09:19 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 7 Apr 2006 11:25 am (UTC)I mean, if "I'll bring the balls," wasn't innuendo, then Ryoma in the bath with the ball? Yes. Innuendo doesn't even describe it because it's about as subtle as a battering ram.
(no subject)
Date: 7 Apr 2006 11:46 am (UTC)i love this show's complete and utter lack of subtlety. *.* it's so, so, so, so great.
it's hard to imagine how the show could get more slashy than this, but i guess i have to believe the people who insist it does.
(no subject)
Date: 7 Apr 2006 12:15 pm (UTC)(Also, er, I'm friending you, if that's okay?)
(no subject)
Date: 7 Apr 2006 02:34 pm (UTC)your icon! eiji! hee. i can't wait to see the first chibi episode.