Tsurune

Episode 2

It should come as a shock to nobody that Minato is getting ready to confront his target panic, but the second episode of Tsurune was not without its surprises. In “At Wit's End,” one character loomed larger over the story than even the show's protagonist. Masaki is an eccentric archer and owl owner who turns out to have a few secrets of his own. This episode focused on Minato's relationships with his parents, his childhood friend, and his mysterious mentor. It also made headway in fleshing out Minato's story through multiple perspectives on his problems. These relationships make Minato more interesting, but when conflict arrives so early in the season, some of the emotional scenes feel forced. As Minato interacts with different people in his life, a gorgeous musical score and graceful muted artwork soften the sharp edges of his trauma and add beauty to a story about overcoming defeat.

Masaki is by far the most interesting character in Tsurune, but for most of the episode, it wasn't clear if he even exists. Even though this sports drama seemed firmly fixed in reality, I definitely got fooled by the kyudo hall instructor's words. There was a lot of evidence that Masaki is a real person; for example, the bandage on Minato's hand and the fact that Seiya saw the feather, so Who couldn't be some ethereal owl spirit. But the sheer difference between the kyudo hall by day (bright and bustling) and night (Masaki's moonlit solo practice) lent an otherworldly plausibility to the instructor's mistaken words. Even without this mixup, Masaki quickly becomes the largest presence in Minato's life and the show's plot. As another archer with target panic who's much further along at overcoming it, Masaki quickly establishes himself as a potential future for Minato depending on what action he takes now. It's telling that Minato's first question for Masaki is “how many did you hit?” and even more revealing that Masaki is not counting—he's simply tracking how many arrows he fires. “I don't see myself as recovered,” Masaki says, even though his target practice looks pretty clean from here. It establishes early that nothing is going to be a quick fix. If Minato is to overcome his target panic, he needs to stop obsessing over success.

While Minato learns from Masaki, the kyudo club is moving forward without him. When Tommy-sensei points out that the boys' team only needs one more member to compete as a team in tournaments, Seiya becomes fixated on getting Minato back. But tempers flare during their evening confrontation, and the resulting blowout feels emotionally undeserved. “It's a trivial matter for me to make you cry,” Seiya says as he calmly states that the team would have won if Minato hadn't gotten target panic at the worst possible time. It's cruel how he voices Minato's specific anxiety out loud, and we don't know Seiya well enough yet to know if this is unusual for him, or if he's doing this for Minato out of tough love. It's a lot of drama before we have their characterization in place, making it difficult to assess the emotional payoff here. It feels like a forced confrontation before we understand how these characters relate usually. It occurs too early to feel like a natural progression of the plot.

“The worst part of target panic is feeling like you don't know yourself anymore,” Masaki says, and we can quickly see the light of recognition in Minato's eyes. It's no coincidence that Minato's target panic and his grief over his mother, who encouraged him to try archery in the first place, happened around the same time. Through flashbacks, we are familiarized with Minato's relationships with his parents, further reinforcing the juxtaposition of Minato's current predicament. He feels deeply alone but has a support system around him. In this quiet friendly setting, which can even make a verbal misunderstanding feel like a convincing supernatural phenomenon, there are a lot of helping hands he can reach out for, if only he could get out of his own head.

Rating: B

Tsurune is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.

Lauren writes about geek careers at Otaku Journalist.