English Dub Review: RE-MAIN “I’ve Always Been Me”

Overview (Spoilers Below):

After rejecting his new teammates, the new Minato is miserable. He thinks he deserves to be the best water polo player in Japan, but now he doesn’t have any team to compete with. Not even Eitaro can persuade him to stick with his new team. Frustrated at being compared with his past self, Minato has a little temper tantrum at home before finding a note from him to his past self. After watching the ‘new’ Minato talk about his new team, the ‘old’ Minato decides to give it a chance—if only to show Shogakukan that they’ve made a mistake.

Our Take:

RE-MAIN returns this week with its ninth episode. I’ve Always Been Me is an exploration of the new (old?) Minato and what he wants from his life. It’s an interesting look at how memory loss can effect a person, as well as a sweet affirmation that teamwork makes the dream work—even if Minato still hasn’t quite realized that fact yet.

Last episode ended with Minato really giving his new team a verbal tongue lashing, and the first half of this week’s episode sort of deals with the fallout of that choice. Not many of his teammates are holding out hope after that moment, but Eitaro still believes that there’s some good in Minato. Or at least enough ‘not badness’ to consider continuing on with water polo. Eitaro tries his best, but not even he can overcome the crusty exterior of the old Minato.

This episode really delves into how angry and upset it makes Minato to be at odds with himself and the choices he made for himself in the last year. It’s almost like he can’t believe that any of this is real, stalking members of his old team, shrugging off members of his new team, and completely ignoring his family’s attempts to help him. It turns out the only one who can talk some sense into him is, well, him. In a surprise clip that we didn’t know about before, the Minato from the last year recorded a little pep talk for himself just in case he ever happened to lose his new memories. It mostly amounts to a lite comedy routine along with some introductions of the team members, but it’s enough to convince Minato to give the team a try.

And of course, he realizes they’re terrible. But it turns out that he’s pretty terrible, too. Or at least, not as good as he imagined himself in his head. It was one thing to wake up from a coma having lost all memories of a sport you were dedicated to, but this new Minato may have it even worse because he remembers how to move his body, but just can’t any longer. Seeing him attempt a shot and then sink underwater in shock at his poor attempt was definitely the lowest moment for post-bike crash Minato so far.

In the end, he decides to stick with the team—but not for selfless reasons. Whereas the team is all excited about trying to play together and improve, Minato has one goal right now: to prove to his former team that they’re missing out without him on the team. He wants to show his former coach how good he can still be, too. There’s clearly some irresponsible or at least unhealthy programming going on when it comes to Shogakukan’s coach. In a flashback, we see him tell Minato to focus less on the team and more on winning. I don’t want to blame all of Minato’s behavioral issues on his coach, but let’s just say that Minato probably isn’t genetically predisposed to being an asshole.