Fighting Spirit–Episode 25

And in today’s episode we get to hear a bit of the expected sob story of the Mashiba family.

That comes off kind of mean, I suppose.  But knowing that the bread girl was his sister, and his desparation to win makes it pretty clear that they’re on their own.  I was hoping they might put something a bit more to it, an extra little edge, but they don’t.  Maybe later we’ll discover why Mashiba is such a cruel and hulking jerk in the ring.  Desparation doesn’t lead to continuing to pummel people when they’re already down, or getting such glee out of destroying someone’s foot/ankle.  There’s got to be some mental illness involved, along with the feelings of isolation.  Even if he does lose his job frequently, that doesn’t make sense to take it out on completely unrelated people.  Even if they do still happen to have their fathers around.

Still, you’d think having that sweet little sister would temper some of that.  Getting laid off so much makes me wonder just what he did to get on probation in the first place.  I hope they’ll delve into that eventually, if only to take him from such a one-dimensional character to something more.  Otherwise, he kind of bothers me.  The series has done so well at giving opponents another side, something more than what they appear.  While it was a little shallow with regard to Ippo’s first opponent (at least to me), it’s been better and better with later ones.  Right now, Mashiba’s caught in a sort of limbo that frustrates me a little.  I’m entirely too used to the high quality of the series so things that feel like little slip-ups  stand out more to me than they otherwise would.  I think that says a lot about the excellence of this series.

The match up between Ippo and Mashiba should at least be interesting, even if the outcome will be guessed.  Ippo’s really, really upset about Miyata’s loss and injury.  To the point of injuring his hand on the sandbag, he got so lost in himself.  However, he has a 20 cm reach disadvantage against Mashiba, so it’s going to be really tough to find a good way to get in while avoiding the dreaded flicker jabs.

You know, the sooner I stop typing this post, the sooner I’ll find out what happens.  I’m watching at least episode 26 once I’m finished here.  Possibly 27 as well if I can keep my strength up (I’ve already worked out for 40 minutes, not sure if I can handle another 50.)  I think I’ve covered enough for now.  Time to go see how the Eastern Japan Rookie Tournament Championship match will play out.