When Kuramochi flees his room to avoid Sawamura's gloominess and goes to check up on Miyuki, we all remember how Miyuki completely blew his mind with his determination, right? You know, this scene:
A Miyuki and Kuramochi moment that's near and dear to my heart occurs right after the loss to Inajitsu
It's probably not the only moment that made Kuramochi think Miyuki should be the next captain, but it's definitely the one that firmed that thought up in his mind.
Anyway, the next time we see the two of them is in the next episode when they're crashing the "secret training" to bother check on Zono
You can see that they're still wearing the same clothes as last episode so we can safely assume this happens within a couple of minutes.
So what happened was basically that Miyuki completely blew Kuramochi's mind and then immediately went full gremlin like:
"hey I bet Zono's already training, let's go bug him"
"no way he is, we've got two days off"
"five bucks says you're wrong"
"ugh fine"
And then they went and did that.
The mood whiplash you get if you think about the whole sequence of events this way is huge and so in character for them, I absolutely adore it
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COMPILATION OF SAWAMURA EIJUN'S TEARS
a study in how Terajima portrayed his main character while he crying.
chapter 1 - DESTINY'S FATEFUL PITCH
Eijun is in tears after their middle school rubberball team lost in their first and only official game.
note: eyes properly drawn. cheeks red from the emotional exertion, a stead stream of tears and individual drops flowing from his cheeks. There's also snot from his nose brought upon by his crying.
In the two pictures above, Eijun slaps the opposite team because he was angry that they insulted his teammates.
note: cat eyes, pupils not seen, a stream of steady tears.
chapter 3 - DAY OF DEPARTURE
Eijun eventually breaks down crying while the train is in motion. His former team had sent him off in tearful goodbyes.
note: at first we only see his head is bowed. Then a moment later, teardrops start falling. The next panel we see a closeup of his scrunched up face. His eyes are properly drawn too. There's also snot from his nose brought upon by his crying.
chapter 6 -PITCHER ELIMINATION (introduction arc)
Eijun sobs after Kuramochi asks him if he's training to be an Olympic Marathon runner and not a baseball pitcher. He also cries from being manhandled into wrestling moves.
note: played for comedic effect. Appearance of cat-eyes and there is a continuous stream of tears.
chapter 105 - CUTTER (seido vs yakushi act1 summer tournament)
Eijun sobs after Kuramochi taunts him of being a lesser version of a moving-ball pitcher like Sanada.
note: there is an appearance of cat-eyes and there is a continuous stream of liquid from the tear duct. The tears go down in drops after leaving his face. Effect is initially comedic but upon closer inspection of the next panels you see that he was genuinely insecure about it and had to be comforted by Miyuki. Therefore we can say it's semi-comedic.
chapter 192 - SENSE OF REALITY (seido vs inashiro, act1 summer tournament)
Eijun breaks down in tears on the bus after he see Yuuki Tetsuya crying in the seat opposite to him.
note: we cannot see his eyes since they are not drawn in and are also obscured by his bangs. Moreover his face is hooded for effect. His tears are portrayed in drops. This is serious.
chapter 217 - INNER VOICE (seido vs yakushi, act1 yips arc)
Eijun breaks down after being pulled out from the mound in Seido vs. Yakushi scrimmage. He shut down while playing and couldn't pitch neither to the inside nor outside and had to be replaced in the inning that he was subbed in.
note: Eijun's face is entirely covered by a towel, his head is bowed. The panels show individual drips of tears, not a continuous stream like in comedic moments.
note: It was only when Eijun stopped crying/when his tears ran out that we could finally see his face. Note his blank eyes and dark eyebags.
ch 258 - STONE (act 1, fall qualifiers)
Eijun openly cries in happiness while reading manga.
note: Eijun's eyes are shown in this, the continuous stream of tears makes a come back, suggestic the comedic nature of the scene. Moreover this seem to be tears of joy rather than Eijun being genuinely upset.
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ACT 2 chapter 305
Sawamura in tears of joy after helping win the Seido vs Inajitsu summer tournament final match. He was holding it in until the medal was hanged on his neck. That's when the tears started flowing.
Note: continuous stream of tears, eyes properly drawn, individual drops. Serious. (But at least these are joyous tears).
Conclusion
If, while crying Eijun has
cat eyes - he's upset but with comedic effect
continuous stream of tears - can be serious but is comedic when there are no individual teardrops
individual tear drops - serious
eyes drawn properly - serious
eyes not shown - serious
Final Thoughts
this was interesting character and manga study for me. I did not expect there to be so much nuance in how Terajima drew things. While reading we now know why some stuff appear serious while other scenes do not. Laying panels all like this gives us an idea of the creative choices mangaka use to depict certain emotions.
Thanks for reading!
.........
EDIT 10/10/21 - WELP SO I SPOILED MYSELF. NOW I HAVE PHOTO OF SAWAMURA CRYING IN THE FINAL.
when i saw the spoiler i was like "that looks too familiar." and here we go! It's basically the same pose! From the eyes, to the tears, to the clenching of teeth, to the repressed shivers! what a payoff!
FEELS LIKE COMING HOME ISN'T IT?
Laying the two panels side by side feels like the end of the journey.
Okaeri.
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Miyuki vs the Inajitsu ‘All Stars’.
I’ve been trying to get something coherent out of my head about this for a day or two, but it’s kind of difficult to be concise and not start going off on a tangent.
I’ve just been thinking about the fact there’s not a lot to choose between Inajitsu’s so called ‘all star generation’ team and Seidou’s. In fact, in terms of Koushien, Seidou going to the Senbatsu kind of puts their achievements ahead.
And then I got to thinking that the so called all stars called on by Mei - Carlos, Shirakawa, Yamaoka, Yabe - actually chose the easy path. We’ve never seen any of them hit an actual wall in their development. Only Mei has experienced that, the others have not. And they’ve never had to face the challenge of competing against Mei. In fact, that seems to be one of the main reasons they choose to go to Inajitsu - so as not to have to face him as a rival. So they may be decent players, but because they’ve dodged the danger of Mei as an opponent, you can also say, maybe, they’ve coasted through to get to where they are now.
(Side note - although I’m not sure what the point of Yabe is, or why he’s included in Mei’s dream team, even now.).
Miyuki went against taking the easy path, bit the bullet, and chose Seidou. He chose a team where he had to start from scratch, where Koushien wasn’t guaranteed, and where he became the cornerstone of the defence on his own merit. But he also chose a place where he had the chance to be an instrumental part of a team.
While we’ve seen Eijun and Furuya hit more obvious walls in their performance, Miyuki’s ‘wall’ was becoming Captain, the doubts and struggles he’s had with that which remain even to the point of the summer final.
I said before that Seidou are a team and Inajitsu are individuals. Although they are individually talented, aside Mei, I don’t see any of the Inajitsu players as being better than the ones in the Seidou team.
But I also feel like maybe Miyuki chose Seidou because he is a team player, and not an individual.
There will be people who disagree with me, but if you think about it, he’s never played as an individual. While he’s bottled up his own problems and not shared them with his teammates, even that was done with the team in mind. Miyuki is willing to be hated by the pitchers to get them working at top level. He gives up his own time to practice with them. He is constantly watching everything, but also sharing that knowledge, not just in his room after hours but also on the field, when he mentions a pitching pattern to the next batter, or passes advice on in the dugout. Even when he scores the home run in the Seikou game, the thing that inspires him to put in that effort is the thought of taking the pitchers to Koushien. Not his own glory, but rewarding their hard work since the restart. And when he hides his injury in the final, even though he wants to play, the fact he’s priming Ono beforehand means he’s still considering what to do. He admits himself that he hides it because he doesn’t want to cause the team hassle. Even if it’s not the right decision, he’s still putting the team ahead of himself.
So Miyuki is not an individual on the field. And for that reason, even if he didn’t go to Inajitsu because of Chris and Rei, I don’t think he’d have fitted in there that well.
The Yakushi game shows Miyuki is willing to sacrifice himself to get the team over the line if he has to, whatever the cost. I don’t think there’s a single third year on the Inajitsu team who would ever think to do likewise.
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