Giant Killing 10

I laughed at Dori's face here.

Thanks to a particular nuisance I like to call the “silly history paper” I am late with my Giant Killing post. But in the essay’s defence I did this on purpose because now I can waste a lot of time and write about the World Cup too. Also I have forgotten most of the small details of this episode. This is the kind of honesty you can expect to get from me throughout our remaining Giant Killing/World Cup time together. Well I’ll be honest after, but just in case you thought I wasn’t; yes, I am a Liverpool fan, and no, I am not at all happy with their performance this season. FERNANDO TORRES!

Best screen of the episode.

It’s a funny fact that Spain has never won a World Cup, but I suppose they were too busy getting knocked out by Korea to win them. Can you believe that in the 2002 World Cup, Korea came in FOURTH! That’s almost as unbelievable as the fact that Turkey came in THIRD! Well they did have the home field advantage but Korea’s performance was impressive. Japan has a habit of scissor-kicking Africans and leaving their team without a paddle in their “rape” group. I will always remember that tournament…I think I cried when Spain beat Ireland in the Round of 16 on penalties. The worst part was that Spain then lost on penalties to Korea. Oh well, all three of them are still better than England at penalties.

Tatsumi grins in pain at the thought of England + Penalties...

Today was a rather bland day of Football but South Africa proved to be an entertaining team. Well, I say that as a fan of Football where most North Americans find it boring. I also say that when the only game to compare it to was France vs. Uruguay which was one of the most lackluster matches I’ve ever seen in a World Cup. France didn’t even look like a team. It looked as though tired and pissed off Uruguay team was playing against a bunch of tired and pissed off French people. Though they could have fooled me into thinking that it was Uruguay against some African team considering the starting line-up had about three white people.

SPOILER: This ends poorly.

I think South Africa being the first team to score in the South African World Cup made me feel soft and warm inside. But the fact that it was an amazing goal made me want to buy the World Cup game. The Mexican goal was okay; it just proved that South Africa needs to improve its defence, meaning that they need their six-foot something white guy back on the field. Here are a couple fun facts for you; France has never beaten Uruguay in the World Cup. Also, in 2002 France and Uruguay were in the same Group (even the same group letter, Group A) and neither of them managed to qualify and in fact, neither of them even won a game. They even tied 0-0 against each other then too, this is particularly sad considering that France had beaten Brazil to win the previous World Cup.

RAAAAAAAAARRRWWWWWWWWGGGGGGHHHHHH!

Alright, so five-hundred words later, let’s start talking about Giant Killing. Especially considering I’ve been spacing out my World Cup talk with Giant Killing screens. This was an episode all about the game, a game which may not even end next episode. Well if Slam Dunk is anything to go by the match will end when the series does. I was happy when Dori still did his growlish yell while saving the shot; Dori is second only to Gino and Tatsumi character wise; I guess that makes him third? Also as it turns out, Kuro is a pretty good defender. I laughed when both he and Itasaki (the striker he’s marking) were complaining about having to take each other on, when they both believe that there are better players that they should be dueling with.

Weird television effect is weird...

Something about this episode that really annoyed me (and I had to think really hard to remember this) was the lack of consistency when it came to the Brazilian players. Sometimes they would just give Japanese subtitles while at other times they dubbed over the voice completely. This seems very stupid considering that they recorded Brazilian dialogue, and then recorded Japanese dialogue which they played over the Brazilian dialogue. That would be fine for realism in an interview, but in the middle of a match where their one second thought lasts twenty seconds of double dubbed dialogue, it sounds pretty weird. Well, not as weird as Gino stopping with the ball IN THE MIDDLE OF THE GAME to talk to himself for about ten seconds.

Football is second only to UFC and Wrestling at promoting the male hug...well, and maybe Rugby...

Gino is such a great character; I like Tatsumi a lot because he’s great, but Gino is my favourite character because he could so easily turn into a villain. All Gino would have to do would be transfer teams and he would instantly become some sort of Aizen style villain, who knows, maybe he would even tell Tsubaki that he will “eat” him. However more and more I’m getting the feeling that Gino is surprisingly loyal to both ETU and Tatsumi; my one reason for this is that a player of his quality could have moved ages ago. I wonder if at some point in this series (Anime or Manga) that Gino will have to miss games because of playing nationally for Italy or something like that. You might be thinking; “Wait a minute Flags you handsome devil, if Gino could play for the Italian national team why would he play in Japan?” To which I tell you to look up Gary Lineker who is not only the best Football show host ever, but he was also still playing nationally for England when he spent a couple years with the Nagoya Grampus Eight.

Note: This is not a real player for Nagoya!

Speaking of Nagoya, not only is a fake Nagoya team the one that ETU is currently playing, but one last fun fact for you is that Arsene Wenger, yes, the same as the current manager for Arsenal used to manage Nagoya. That’s pretty amazing. Oh, I should mention that the irony of Thierry Henry complaining to the referee about a handball in the penalty box literally killed me so I am currently writing this post in Hell. The reasons for why I’m here are irrelevant, but trust me you wouldn’t like it, the only websites you can access are blogs and while there is television, the only channel is FOX.

/ 4 Commentsleave a comment /

• Kyokai says:

  June 14, 2010

  No, you didn't… but you did, all that history on a GK post! =P

  All my KnK plans were ruined by GK this weekend which I marathon'd. What awesomeness by Tatsumi and I love Gino! <3 And of course Murakoshi, Tsubaki, Dori and gang. Don't scare me with one match going till the end! Hopefully, the current match would end next epi and Tatsumi would rub Fuwa's nose in the dirt. xD

  Reply
• chudleycannonfodder says:

  June 15, 2010

  Don't feel bad about this being late; I'm watching it on crunchyroll so I get episodes 7 days after they come out. In general are you planning on recapping the episodes around the same time they come out or wait a week for it to be available to the general public?

  I was wondering about the Brazilian voice overs. I thought they were playing the voice over with an announcer playing in the background. I was going to ask you if the version you saw had translations for the announcer, but now I know that it was just Portuguese.

  I'm hoping they don't go the Slam Dunk route you suggested; I want to see more giants be killed than just this team. Although it would be really interesting if this game went for long time and they still lost.

  Also, glad to see that they found a way to make Kuro more fun to watch – I think his interactions with Itasaki were some of my favorite of his, although this may just be because I likethe character the most when he's psyched and looking to take down the other team. I'm wondering if the Brazilian he keeps glancing over to will cause Itasaki his first goal past Kuro. I have a bad feeling it will, but I hope the writers find a way to keep Kuro looking competent (for once). Tsubaki was barely in this one; maybe he'll play a larger part next episode and help save the day (and if we're lucky, maybe even win the game).

  Reply
• Fabrice says:

  June 16, 2010

  That felt so short this episode -.-

  but i have a feeling they are going to win for sure in the next ^^

  counter attack in my opinion.

  ,,.i want ep 11 NAO!!!

  Reply
• chudleycannonfodder says:

  June 22, 2010

  So without watching the most recent episode, I'm wondering if this game will run to episode 12 or 13. I thought the series was originally planned to run for 25-26 episodes, but after reading a few places that said 13, I'm wondering if they will win around episode 12-13, because that was planned to be a stopping point for the series.

  Anyone know if ep 12/13 was originally planned to be the end of the series?

  Reply