English Dub Review: Aoashi “The First Youth Match”; “Night Training”

Overview: Aoi (Ciaran Strange) struggles to keep up with the rest of the team as he discovers his underlying weaknesses as a soccer player. 

Our Take: Aoi overhearing Hana stand up for him makes for a sweet scene that more than confirms how much they like each other. It is made more personal and heartfelt by Hana’s reasoning for helping Ashito in choosing to do so because of her own selfishness and how reminiscent he is of a player she respects. 

Aoi’s skills on the field allow him to pull off some incredible plays. However, Ashito’s journey into Esperion continues to pull the rug out from under him and challenge everything he thinks he knows with this episode being no exception. The innate flaws in Aoi’s playing style, along with his roommate’s, Togashi, become abundantly clear and also how they differ from the J-youth academy members who graduated into the team. Not only does Aoi not have basic skills down but the J-youth are taught at a young age to adapt their playing style, based on their opponents. Aoi is unable to do so, with even Togashi being able to handle that much, showing how far behind Ashito is compared to legitimately everyone. A brilliant and pride crushingly executed lesson of a proper education paying off in dividends. It also shows how misguided Togashi’s prejudice about the players were and how discouraging of a hurdle it is for Aoi in realizing how much of a liability he was for the rest of the team. 

With Aoi’s morale at an all time low, never has there been a more opportune time for the giga chad asshole, Akutsu, to make his return and rub salt on the wound, harshly demeaning and demoralizing him. It also stirs up within him an even more heartfelt motivation in wanting to pay back his mother for all the expenses. A new character is also introduced in the daughter of one of Esperion’s sponsors, Kaido. She is a cool character is how perceptive she is of the game as a whole and calm and proper as a whole. When Takuya enters the picture, Kaido turns into a puddle, crushing on him and it reveals a fun, lighthearted weakness in her poised armor. Kaido, in love with Takuya, understands the fascination with Aoi in how he reminds her too of Takuya. It leads into a flashback that expresses why Takuya’s personality was impressionable and, through Hana’s interactions, how Aoi and Takuya are similar in their shared crazed determination, a positive quality in Ashito’s favor. 

Aoi trains his hardest to catch up, slowing his team down by not knowing simple principles until Otomo and Tachibana lend him a hand with his training. Ashito, Otomo and Tachibana’s chemistry continues to strengthen an already solid foundation that was already set with their endearing friendships and genuine care for one another. It is also neat to see not every senior member is a tool like Akutsu with Taida recognizing how hard Aoi has been working to improve and advising him to talk to Togashi because of how he has the basics licked. Ashito, not wanting to drag Otomo and Tachibana down, attempts to train alone, until he has a heart-to-heart with his roomie warning him of burnout and to loosen up. Aoi’s love and appreciation for the sport as well as being around amazing talent on all sides shows his simple upstanding character traits that make him very easy to root for when the chips are down. It also helps Togashi understand the misconceptions he had in Aoi, about him being nervous, and a great way to demonstrate his grit. Charming Togashi, he decides to help Aoi, which will no doubt be interesting in how he teaches him and how Ashito progresses.