English Dub Review: The Gymnastics Samurai “Retiring Samurai”


OVERVIEW (SPOILERS)

Jotaro Aragaki hasn’t been at the top of his gymnastics game for awhile now, so much so that his coach is asking him to retire (although really he’s been hinting at it for awhile and hasn’t had the heart to be more forceful). While Jotaro mulls it over, he has to think of a way to tell his daughter, Rei, and decides to take her on a trip to her favorite ninja park. But while there, they seem to see a real life ninja be chased by people in suits. Even weirder, the guy follows them home. Yet this might just be the kick in the pants Jotaro needed, because he decides, at the press conference, to not retire just yet.

OUR TAKE

Gymnastics Samurai seems to be one of the more low key releases of the Fall 2020 season and it’s easy to see why. It’s not much of an Isekai fantasy drama or heavy sci-fi thriller but a grounded sports story, and not even a very popular sport either. That’s not to say it couldn’t use this in its favor though. We’ve seen plenty of sports anime in recent years that were about obscure topics yet managed to find critical success, the most notable of which being Yuri on Ice. Still, with the show more than half over in Japan already, it doesn’t seem to be really taking off in popularity, likely meaning the same for here in the states. That said, let’s try to judge it based on its own merits and see if we come to an at least serviceable story within this apparently eleven episode run. Right away we’re establishing the heart of the story, Jotaro and his relationship with his daughter Rei. And since we’re probably not going to see a Jojo Part 6 anime any time soon, it should be neat to see SOMEONE named Jotaro deal with his daughter, though probably without less prison breaks and priests resetting the timeline of the universe. But also with more ninjas than I was expecting, especially for a show with Samurai in the title.

This episode is mainly about giving us all the Act 1 rigmarole that is expected to kick a story off: Character has normal life, this life is threatened by a new change, he must then contemplate how to react to this change, and then he makes a decision about how to proceed. In this, that’s Jotaro grappling with his coach pressuring him to retire now that he’s off his a-game and doesn’t seem to be getting back to it any time soon. But soon that decision is overtaken by figuring out what to do with this new ninja guy, Leo, is looking to disrupt his and Rei’s lives, probably for the better. Why and how the ninja and samurai theming works into this show, I haven’t the foggiest, though for now it seems to just be a way that Jotaro connects to his daughter, who is plenty obsessed with ninja. Though now that he’s officially let go of the idea of retiring (and we need ten more episodes to kill) we’ll see how that decision will impact his now extended future as a gymnast as we enter the second act. Also this takes place in 2002? Weird.