Clarification: Kaio is the name of the school. Kazama and Sakuma are the name of the two characters from that school. Bit of context that isn't obvious: The characters' play-styles often reflect their true nature and attitudes to life. Smile is a "chopper", which is a purely conservative/defensive/reactive style where you stay back and wait for the opponent to make a mistake or run out of gas (that's why everyone's surprised when he switched to an attacker style before the Kong match), while Peco is an "attacker", which is a straightforward, aggressive and instinctive style where you dictate the play (specifically, Kong said that he plays sloppy and leaves himself wide open). Some food for thought: Viewers automatically leap to winning = good in a sports anime, and want Smile to keep doing what gives him success, but there's a bit of ambiguity here-- the only way he's able to meet Koizumi's challenge is not by coming to a healthy conclusion or finding real passion in what he's doing, but instead he's adapted to what's being asked of him by shutting off his emotions and not caring about anything/becoming a robot (aka. exactly how he has passively dealt with his problems in the past, by retreating into a shell). The metaphor's a bit troubling/tragic, if you think about it.
Ah thanks for the clarification, I was getting so mixed up with the names. 😅 Ah ok! Thanks I'll try and pay more attention to the description when they come up! Also hearing it in that way about him shutting off his emotions I guess makes me curious to see if he will eventually come to enjoying the sport while also giving it his all or... 🤷🏾♀️
![Meshuggah - Bleed Reaction [ Is The Drummer OK?! ]](/img/n.gif)
Clarification: Kaio is the name of the school. Kazama and Sakuma are the name of the two characters from that school.
Bit of context that isn't obvious: The characters' play-styles often reflect their true nature and attitudes to life. Smile is a "chopper", which is a purely conservative/defensive/reactive style where you stay back and wait for the opponent to make a mistake or run out of gas (that's why everyone's surprised when he switched to an attacker style before the Kong match), while Peco is an "attacker", which is a straightforward, aggressive and instinctive style where you dictate the play (specifically, Kong said that he plays sloppy and leaves himself wide open).
Some food for thought: Viewers automatically leap to winning = good in a sports anime, and want Smile to keep doing what gives him success, but there's a bit of ambiguity here-- the only way he's able to meet Koizumi's challenge is not by coming to a healthy conclusion or finding real passion in what he's doing, but instead he's adapted to what's being asked of him by shutting off his emotions and not caring about anything/becoming a robot (aka. exactly how he has passively dealt with his problems in the past, by retreating into a shell). The metaphor's a bit troubling/tragic, if you think about it.
Ah thanks for the clarification, I was getting so mixed up with the names. 😅
Ah ok! Thanks I'll try and pay more attention to the description when they come up! Also hearing it in that way about him shutting off his emotions I guess makes me curious to see if he will eventually come to enjoying the sport while also giving it his all or... 🤷🏾♀️