English Dub Review: Salaryman’s Club “Tradeoff”

Overview

The ultimate corporate tournament was known as the S/J League begins. Sunlight Beverage makes it into the top four, but for some reason, Tatsuru hasn’t shown up to their semifinal match. The scheming of an executive director who does not take kindly to the badminton club gets Tatsuru called into a board meeting where he is in danger of being fired. Tatsuru does everything he can to fight back. Meanwhile, Sota and Toya battle fiercely against Kirishima and Oginome of Unisys…

Our Take

So much happened in this episode and for what?  I didn’t like the higher-up’s meeting stuff at all, The Saeki brother’s dynamic works so well in badminton, their tenacity and somewhat cunning plan worked out well. I also liked how we saw the contrast of brotherly relationships with Hayato whose experience with his young brother was completely the opposite. Instead, he was overtaken by the younger brother and wasn’t able to handle it, which in turn soured their relationship.

Also, that whole incident with the exec being a dick and nearly sabotaging the Badminton stuff should have ended in that exec getting his ass canned. He just let an employee get harassed and tried to bring his own personal bullshit into the matter. At least Mikoto exposed the lies of the “injured” employee. Yet none of the other directors/managers said anything after it was revealed to be a lie and that he was in on it too, so stupid…

Overall, the business stuff with that old executive dude was fucking annoying. That director needs to go because now we have the stupidly insane plot of having to win the tournament just to keep Tatsu’s job which I’m pretty sure is not how most places of employment work. The boss really should discipline him and that other guy. It’s a poor example of leadership otherwise. But the doubles match was at least fun to watch. Wish the series had more time to flesh out its story. This episode felt packed with lots of sports cliches. Still fun, just a show crammed with too many ideas…