English Dub Review: RE-MAIN “Pass! Pass to Me!”

Overview (Spoilers Below):

The time has come for the first game in the prefectural qualifying water polo matches. Yamanami high school is set to take on Rikka Gakuen in their initial match, and they have a perfect plan in mind: pass it to Minato. The only problem? That’s just what Rikka Gakuen is expecting them to do. After going down by 4 points at the half, the team rebounds and goes on to win the game by incorporating a new strategy that takes advantage of all their skills.

Our Take:

RE-MAIN has been on a bit of a break for the holidays, but the dub team re-mained in place and has now blessed us with a new episode. Pass! Pass to Me! is the eleventh episode of the show, but despite having 10 previous episodes, it’s the first time that Minato and the rest of the Yamanami team has played a real game that matters. That’s a lot of pressure for the show as well as the boys on the team… can they overcome the odds and succeed?

It sure didn’t look like it at first! The strategy that Minato put in place last ep is front and center as the match starts: pass the ball to Minato every time no matter what. He’s the only one who has the skills to win against competitors at this level, right? Well, that would be true if he wasn’t being covered on every play. Excuse me, double covered. Wait no, triple covered? Nope—the guys at Rikka Gakuen are actually putting six players on Minato at once. It’s hilarious and also very effective at shutting down Yamanami’s team.

Because Jo and the rest of the squad aren’t able to successfully pass the ball to Minato, they go down by 4 points. Just before the half, Eitaro comes up with a plan to pass it super high; it would’ve succeeded but Mintato didn’t expect the plan to work so well, and he misses the shot. That marks the turning point for both the episode and Minato as a character. It’s a little too unexpected for me after all the ways Minato has been so self-centered over the past several episodes, but I suppose better late than never? At the half, Minato gives a little pep talk and tells everyone that their new plan is to get rid of the old plan.

This works a lot better, unsurprisingly. Especially because even when other members of the team are about to shoot, everyone on Rikka Gakuen’s side still decides to stick with Minato. It’s a joke that runs for a long time, but honestly it never really gets old—seeing Minato surrounded by an entire opposing team while Amihami gets to score is really silly and fun. The team manages to tie up the game, and with only a few seconds left on the clock, they’ve managed to get most of the opponents away from Minato. But instead of taking the game winning shot himself, Minato chooses to clear the way for Eitaro to bring it home. This is obviously really sweet, but I definitely found it a bit unbelievable. It’s one thing for Minato to put team above himself when it comes to halftime strategizing, but with the game on the line I would trust Minato over Eitaro, and I think he would say the same.

In terms of storylines, there’s not much else besides the game itself, which is just fine. There is some screen time for the previously absent club adviser, who is pretty hilarious, reading a book to learn about water polo for the first time on the sideline during the match. There’s also little subplot where Captain Jo leaves a note for his dad about how he’s been playing water polo for a while and that the first match is today, too. It’s very color by the numbers: Jo leaves note -> Dad finds note -> Dad makes it to the game just in time to motivate Jo. Still, I didn’t hate it despite how saccharine and predictably it was, perhaps because their relationship has been set up in past episodes so it could stand on the back of those developments.

Pass! Pass to Me! feels like the culmination of all the weeks of practice Yamanami has spent during the past six or so episodes. It had plenty of water polo action, but also included moments of levity and even a bit of emotions thanks to Jo and his father. It was a really solid episode, even if the team winning their first match against a supposedly much better opponent felt a little too forced. It kind of felt like it should’ve been the finale in that way, but it wasn’t—there’s still one episode re-maining.