English Dub Review: Hinomaru Sumo “Onimaru Kunitsuna and Dojikiri

A little bit of sumo, and a whole lot of talking.

Overview (Spoilers Below)

The tournament has begun, and Hinomaru is the first to step up to the ring. His opponent is Tennoji Shido, a high-school level Yokozuna who has never lost a bout. He’s skilled, fierce and huge, making him a tough opponent for Hinomaru to face in the first round.

The fight begins and Hinomaru immediately suffers a forearm blow to the face that knocks him off balance. Tennoji follows up by trying to push him out of the ring, while we learn that Tennoji actually has a story similar to Hinomaru’s. When he was young, Tennoji was short as well, and learned to use technique to defeat wrestlers much larger than him, a style that Hinomaru emulated and has adapted to his own style. However, unlike Hinomaru, Tennoji got his growth spurt and was able to dominate the sumo scene with his mix of strength and technique.

This allows Tennoji to keep control of the match, even while Hinomaru is using every technique he knows to try and get Tennoji in one of his trademark throws. Tennoji, respecting Hinomaru’s skill, sees through almost every one of Hinomaru’s moves and clever ways to find an opening. To everyone’s surprise, Tennoji is able to counter Hinomaru’s throw with another counter of the same variety, and is eventually able to bring Hinomaru down to the mat, making him the loser.

Hinomaru takes the loss like a champ and returns to his friends. He’s disappointed, but hides his pain under a smiling face. Shinya expresses that its alright, they’re still in the tournament as long as they win the team battle tourney, which they have no intention of losing. Yet, Shinya surprises Hinomaru by telling him that he won’t be joining them in the team battle, on account of his messed up arm. He orders Hinomaru to the hospital, and demands that Hinomaru have faith in his teammates that they’ll win this tournament and keep their dream alive.

Our Take:

This episode of Hinomaru Sumo is a prime example of how to do a fight wrong. While up to this point, Hinomaru Sumo has had a mix of ups and downs on its way to this pivotal point, this beginning to the new tournament completely implodes in on itself and fails to earn my attention, let alone my good graces. What should be an incredible battle between rivals feels like a poorly paced, rushed mess that needs a complete redo to compete with the action sequences of other, better sports anime out there.

An examination of this episode has nothing to do with story, but entirely to do with action. To begin with, the quality of this fight is going to be heavily dependent on the animation team’s ability to create a visually exciting fight, but that doesn’t happen here. For quite some time now, Hinomaru Sumo has failed to create a visual style that’s all its own, and a sport that like this that’s so based on physical combat absolutely needs one. This is no “Prince of Tennis”, this is no “Eyeshield 21” or “Ping Pong: The Animation.” All of those shows find a way to make the battles in a sport feel like a clash between superheroes, but Hinomaru is way too vanilla to compete.

Furthermore, the fight that we do get is completely swallowed by reaction shots that completely destroy the pacing and only serve to be easy exposition for the viewer and to fill time. “Show, don’t tell” is still the most important fundamental of a show, which is completely ignored here. Every action in the fight is explained with expository dialogue; every little move, every bit of character information is delivered through weak flashbacks and ugly reaction shots. I know it’s hard to explain the intricacies of sumo wrestling, but this is the laziest way to do it, especially when the fight here needs stronger visuals.

In essence, the thing this show is missing is “complexity.” While it’s simple themes worked in the first few episodes, there is a failure to elevate this show to the next level that is dreadfully apparent. The novelty has absolutely worn off and now the show needs more complex themes and characters to keep me interested. However, Hinomaru Sumo demonstrates that it really just wants to coast through the season here, and push out fights that are half-baked and not worth watching.