birthday treats!!!
Finishing off birthday weeks with my own birthday (today). I am going back to a restaurant that I went to on monday with my friends/siblings tonight. (A small ramen business that re-opened up recently where I contributed to their mural wall… wait I think I may have posted about it.)
I was there on monday because the chef (the owner) wanted to express thanks to the artists that contributed to the interior.
I had a bowl of the signature Tonkotsu ramen (which is an extremely thoughtful blend of Japanese and Mexican cuisine) accompanied with some sake and umeshu. More importantly I met some new artists friends… and also this group in general is a newer social group of mine so I’m glad I’m able to show up.
I went in to work today. Normally if my birthday was on any day other than a Wednesday I would take off work, but I handle most of the sales for the small business I work for. TBH, my boss would not blink an eye if I took off today, but I find it more stressful to be off work and then have to catch up on emails the next day (double the work lol).
I got coffee from one of my favorite spots in Austin (a treat since it’s out of the way) and also got a treat from the bakery in our area. YAYYY
Okay more important brainrot stuff.
New Prince of Tennis ended!! I finished it in the early AM on my bday looool.
I caught up with the summaries to figure out what was going on. Basically from my reread/catch up I’ve figured out all my headcanons are still doable and could be soooo real (other than the fact I have more BL in my headcanons lol).
Notable things:
- Momoshiro actually appears a lot (compared to Eiji and Kaidoh), which… I do love. I like that canon establishes him being buds with Oshitari Yuushi (but also he’s buddies with Oshitari Kenya) because I’ve thought they were interesting since the Nationals match.
- Oshitari saves Momo!!!! (Have I mentioned my RyoMomo story has a side pairing of OshitariMomo lol)
- Momo and Ryoma grabbing burgers after Ryoma abandons American team to go back to Japan (of course momo does like… get mad that Ryoma has the audacity lol)
- Atobe and Tezuka meet up during practice sometime, but Tezuka also returns a CD to Atobe which ends up being Fuji’s CD. Atobe’s like “dont’ make me your errand boy ever again Fuji” HAHAHA
- Niou sealing off his illusion (WAOO)!!! I’ve had this thought that Niou being able to copy other people could be a terrible psychological thing where he starts to actually feel everything from the people he copies and lose his sense of self. And ShinTeni kind of confirms that train of thought. Niou mentions how depressed it makes him feels when he feels all of the person’s failures and success.
- There’s a part where Niou finally plays as himself!! He’s like I want to experience “Niou Masaharu” for myself. AUGh!!!
- There’s another meat battle, lol I love those stupidass chapters
- KiteBun became really popular in JP fandom (i think) because they were a doubles pair, but at their final match together Kite mentions that Jackal (Bunta’s real partner) came to support him. AHHH. MY SHIP SAILS ON.
- There were lots of good Jabun moments in the Hyotei v Rikkai OVA which I need to revisit.
- Fuji pic of him with a camera (my FujiMi lives!!). Fuji vs Ryoma happens.
- People comment on how Fuji has genius tennis sense
- Fuji mentions that while everyone was working hard to improve their tennis he didn’t feel that same drive/passion.
- At the end Ryoma says “you aren’t going to quit tennis, right?”
- (I still don’t think Fuji should go pro tho)
- Fuji has crazy eyes in one panel (!!!) its awakening something in me.
- I’m highly influenced by some japanese artists!! There is someone who draws a lot of OchiMouri (high school characters) - and I really love that doubles pair? I think Ochi was the captain when Atobe was a 1st year, and Mouri is a senpai of the 3rd year Rikkai members (also has some good drama with Yanagi).
- The high schoolers grew on me a lot actually (but the whole premise still makes no sense)
- Atobe’s hot mom appears!!
- So it IS mentioned that Atobe has obligations as the Atobe Heir (he originally needs to move to Britain to go to high school), but Atobe says his Tennis & obligations as Atobe Heir are equally important to him!!
- more importantly my headcanon is not dead.
- Many bad hairstyles in the final chapter LOL
- The Ryoga storyline is kinda crazy (from what I understand he’s actually Nanjiroh’s sister’s son)
- I LOVE YUKIMURA. This was always a fact but I forget about it because I don’t heavily ship SanaYuki. But I really love his effort to surpass Tenimuhou (lol a magical buff is my summary) with his own strength. He passes that belief to Akaya too. I also just love that in the original series he’s kind of the main antagonist (or like the BBEG for Ryoma) with lots of nuance.
I can’t remember the other things but congrats konomi for completing your series.