English Dub Review: The Gymnastics Samurai “Gymnastics Samurai”

OVERVIEW (SPOILERS)

With the agent from last time’s help, Rei and the gang manage to get to Leo right before he reaches the airport and convince him to come cheer on Jotaro, just in time for the final competition. And it seems this is the boost he needs to do the Aragaki Mk 2, helping him to win the competition. Years later, everyone attends one of Leo’s concerts to support him.

OUR TAKE

We finally come to the end of Gymnastics Samurai, reaching a rather predictable conclusion in that it brings the characters to an end point you could likely see coming based on the last few episodes. Leo is able to finally overcome his conflicted feelings and go support Jotaro, as well as accept his new family’s support in his own career, while Jotaro is finally able to overcome the doubt and grief from his previous mistakes thanks to Leo’s support. It doesn’t feel as well entwined or fully laid out as it could have been, but this was ultimately the story about these two characters being inspired by each other to put their negativity aside in order to chase their respective dreams properly. That’s a pretty neat kind of story in its own right, even if the execution is a bit less graceful or well paced, but it still manages to have a genuine heart to it that shines through all the mediocrity. I’ve made very clear my mixed feelings about the series as we’ve gone through it, but I don’t think it’s ever been bad, so much as just kinda boring at times.

I still end up finding myself struggling to come up with things to say about it that are worth mentioning, highlighting how lean a meal this is as a story, and this is no less true for its finale. Other characters get to have their own resolutions, like Minamoto losing the competition despite his hard work (which I’m not sure how to feel about since he was never quite a rival character, nor did I ever parse out what his arc was meant to be), Takizawa’s brief and subtle love story with Ayu which I assume ends happily, or the seemingly growing romance between Rei and her classmate (though she could just as easily be going for Leo by the end of the story for all I know, they seemed to have a thing). I guess it’s commendable to be able to wrap up a series in just eleven episodes, which didn’t really feel rushed as it did like the story could only stretch that far. Frankly there were quite a few episodes that felt very thin in terms of plot already, so I guess they just made the most of what they could. I don’t have very strong feelings about the show being over, which might be bad, but honestly I’m just glad to have it off my plate. Next time, the Season Review!