English Dub Review: Stars Align, “Episode 10”

 

 

 

Overview (Spoilers Below)

The summer tournament is only a couple of days away as a few of the team members are made to confront their parents.

Our Take

A few of the loose threads that have accumulated throughout the series are brought up in this episode. Taking the time to address some topics that were previously put on the table is a smart move. However, said topics are only put back on the table very briefly.

One of the bigger threads among them is the matter of Rintaro reconciling with himself over the fact that he was adopted. His birth mother suddenly wanting to meet him is a dramatic development. Unfortunately, as said before, this is dropped as soon as it is mentioned. It functions less like plot development and more as a big tease. I’d rather they put the entirety of this arc in the same episode instead of fragmenting it like this. 

The other character spotlight is on Toma. As the first big tournament draws closer, he becomes progressively more critical of himself and feels increasingly more inadequate. This is compounded further when his mom starts giving him grief, to which he starts yelling angrily back at her. There is clearly still a lot of emotional baggage that he has yet to unpack, which may soon impact his performance at the tournament. He was forthcoming about it in the past, but it is most likely his youth that is preventing him from truly confronting it.

Also, his relationship with his mother seems to become more unclear each time it resurfaces. This time, it seems as though his mother might not actually be his mother? Unlike Maki’s conflict with his father, which is very open and direct, Toma’s struggle with his mother is being kept occluded from the audience. This is leading to some sort of payoff, to which even the extent of is unknown.

The pressure begins to surmount as we enter the first day of the tournament. But there’s finally one person in this entire cast whose parental pressure is not surmounting him; Taiyo. We’re introduced to his parents, and for once we’re treated to relatively standard parents. They’re a little over-concerned, but not much more than a parent would be in this situation. Not only is this a breath of fresh air, it means Taiyo won’t be holding up the line for everyone else’s toxic parents.

The first two matches proceed apace. Valiant efforts are made, but unfortunately, it’s not quite enough. Still, it serves as a valuable benchmark that the boys can utilize.

Another unfortunate aspect of these matches is that the quality of the animation is beginning to slip. Instead of the short but vivid, fully animated shots of racket swings, we’re shown hasty shots of still frames moving across the screen. While the nice variety of angles is still present, they’re presented at a pace that’s far too fast to appreciate them at, and so it comes off as a little awkward. The quality of the character drawings has fallen just a little bit as well. I would be fine if it were just on the opponents who are only there for a few minutes, but these drops in quality are also on the main cast in a few shots. Hopefully, this is just a little hiccup and the quality will return for the finale. 

Despite a couple of missteps, both the characters and the tournament are still progressing at a pleasant pace. We’re coming up on the finale, which looks like it has the potential to satisfy.