English Dub Review: Hinomaru Sumo “The Refreshing Sumo Wrestler, Sada Mizuki”

He’s so refreshing!

Overview (Spoilers Below)

The boys are hard at work training to be the best sumo wrestlers they can be with the guidance of Kirihito’s training. Reina isn’t too convinced of the validity of their training, but Yuma sets her straight by explaining the importance of their unorthodox training regimen. Kirihito soon announces that they’re going to be training with Ishigami high school on their next day off, except for Hinomaru, who’s being dispatched to a secret location to do some individual training.

The crew arrives at Ishigami one short since Kunisaki failed his midterms and has to take a remedial class. Once they arrive, they run into some school punks who quickly disperse when they find out their guests are sumo wrestlers. The team arrives at the dojo to see the bulky first years working out and meet Kanamori, the Ishigami Sumo Club captain. As they negotiate, a rogue tire from training hurtles towards the team, but Shinya demonstrates the results of his training by stopping the tire in its tracks.

Meanwhile, back at home, Kunisaki finds a mysterious stranger in the sumo club room taking a nap on their bench. The man reveals himself as Gennosuke Araki and asks for a match against Hinomaru. Kunisaki lies, however, and says that he’s Hinomaru. Araki doesn’t think much of Kunisaki, but the former wrestler is dead set on fighting this newcomer.

Back at Ishigami, Yuma is up against a tough opponent but uses his impressive slapping strikes to push his enemy back. However, once his foe gets his hands on Yuma’s belt, the fight is over. Kunisaki, meanwhile, is about to take on Araki, who soon realizes that Kunisaki isn’t Hinomaru at all. The two begin to argue, but Araki’s trespassing is discovered by the faculty and he’s chased off of school grounds.

At the Ishigami dojo, national treasure Sada Mizuki reveals himself. Shinya’s up against the skilled sumo but gives his all against Mizuki. Mizuki is able to lock down Shinya’s movements with an arm lock. As Shinya is about to break free and grab Mizuki’s belt, Mizuki sends Shinya to the ground with an attack called the “Crescent Moon.”

Meanwhile, Hinomaru arrives at the Shibakiyama stable, a place known for its pro wrestlers and intense training.

Our Take:

The sumo saga of Hinomaru Sumo presses on one slap at a time, as our ragtag band of high school fitness obsessives continues to build up their bodies and minds against the overwhelming odds of the sumo world. Things proceed as they have the last couple of episodes of this show, slowly building up the cast of sumos they’ll have to face while presenting the techniques they’ll have to master to defeat them. Its a quality bridge episode, but most of this series has felt like bridge episodes so far.

This episode finds itself divided between the trials of Kunisaki and the rest of the away team at Ishigami High. This is good for the economy of story, but bad for episode focus, as the two stories we witness feel rather sparse. Though the episode is entitled “The Refreshing Sumo Wrestler Sada Mizuki”, he gets rather little attention in this episode, only really showing up towards the end. I would have preferred to see more of what he’s about and who his character is. As it stands, he comes out of seemingly nowhere without feeling like that important of a character. Not to mention, Shinya’s swift defeat at his hands makes his fight feel a bit too small. I think there will be more to him later, but for now, we could have used some more content.

Kunisaki vs. Araki, meanwhile, isn’t a fight at all, but just a way of having a B story to provide some comic relief to the main plot. That being said, Kunisaki and Araki are both dunces, so they play off of each other very well, especially since they’re both mixed martial arts fighters. The ending inspires some hype for the next episode, too. Hinomaru inspires a strong sense of shounen machismo anytime he’s on screen.

This is a solid episode, there’s no doubt, just not one that is going to win it a lot of attention. Its standard sports anime fare, but the storytelling is solid and the characters well characterized. Shinya gets his time to shine, as does Yuma, even if both of their fights end in defeats. One gets the feeling that a major theme of this show is going to be about the acceptance and overcoming of failure, which should work well in a brutal anime like this one. All that being said, Hinomaru Sumo is on a winning streak by my count, even if it hasn’t quite reached its full potential.