Keijo!!!!!!!!

Episode 8

Every decent sports series requires a rival team for the protagonists to challenge themselves against, and usually it's one strong enough that the protagonists have an uphill battle facing them. With the introduction of Suruga Academy's team, Keijo!!!!!!!! has revealed that rival group for the Setouchi girls. So far they seem like a worthy challenge, but I do have to quibble about how long the series took to introduce them. Prior to last episode, there had been only one vague reference to their existence.

The format here is pretty typical: Suruga has been the better of the two schools for a decade. They win all the head-to-heads, have better equipment, personal trainers, etc. They also look down on the trainees from Setouchi in trash-talking fashion, including their instructors. As with the other rivalries seen to date in the series, these don't give the immediate impression of being mean-spirited or grandiose, and the potential for elitist snobbery has not been overplayed yet – frankly, I'll be a little surprised if we ever see much of that, even in this potentially season-ending playoff. The respect for the spirit of competition and sense of camaraderie that the series has shown so far is unquestionably one of the keys to its success, and having a natural diplomat like Nozomi leading the charge on the Setouchi side also heads off a lot of potential nastiness. (Mio also looks more likely to intimidate the opposition than be intimidated.)

But we don't actually get to the three team battles that will constitute the East-West War in this episode. (And really, does anyone not think that there's going to be a tiebreaker battle?) Instead, this episode is mostly set-up for that upcoming arc and a round-up for the previous arc, with Nozomi facing off against Usagi Tsukishita, the girl who has it in for Nozomi because Nozomi has unwittingly been grabbing Mio's attention from her. (And yes, the first name is doubtless why she wears that jacket with the long, ridiculous rabbit ears.) Although Usagi does not give the impression of being an especially challenging opponent, it nonetheless turns into a pretty good bout that introduces the newest crazy attack name: Meteor Hip. It's essentially last episode's Butt Flash combined with a downward slam against an opponent who has dodged low. In its wake, Usagi also shows a little more dimension to what had been a thin characterization so far.

The real juice is in the set-up for next episode, though. A jungle gym-like Land for the first team battle? Both teams are now sporting tasteful matching bikinis instead of one-pieces? Sayaka unknowingly performing before her reluctant-to-attend father? This has all sorts of potential to be tremendous fun and builds a lot of anticipation for next week. Perhaps most importantly, it also demonstrates that the series can be successful at putting a fresh, fun face on generic story elements.

Rating: B+

Keijo!!!!!!!! is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.