Iwakakeru!: Sport Climbing Girls (Episode 8) – Tears of Disappointment

Sayo finally gets her chance to take on the semi-final walls and everything is going well until she hurts her finger. Will it be enough to stop her from competing and leave Konomi to take the finals on alone?

What happened?

Sayo felt something go wrong in the middle of her third climb. Having completed the first two walls and unable to keep climbing, she had to think about how she was going to continue. Would she be willing to risk it all to make the finals, especially when Nonoka and the others were depending on her. Sayo decided to keep going and just things were looking dicey, she called on the crowd for support and that was enough to push her on.

Sayo and Konomi made the finals, although Nonoka demanded that Sayo pull out because of her injury. That left Konomi as the only member of the team left in the tournament and she was determined to bring it home for the team. However, things continued as they had after Konomi’s fourth attempt in the semi-finals. She had seen the problems, solved them all in her mind, but her body was exhausted and couldn’t keep up, not to mention the added pressure she was now under.

In the end, Konomi couldn’t even climb a single wall and left feeling utterly deflated. However, she still wanted to climb and met up with the others at school the next day. Well, Sayo and Nonoka were there. Jun was taking a break from the team to work on her mental strength much to Konomi’s shock. She blamed herself, but Sayo laid out everyone’s problems so that they too can focus on getting better for the next tournament.

---

What did you think?

It’s always hard seeing someone have to leave a tournament with an injury. You spend all that time training and then the most unassuming thing can completely derail it. Back when I played rugby, I broke my big toenail when another player stood on my foot. It was just the nail, but it kept me from playing for four weeks. But then, that’s nothing compared to what I did to my knee playing kabaddi on the beach…

Anyhow, we got to see more of why Konomi couldn’t keep going and it was as Juuzou had hinted at in the previous episode. She simply didn’t have the experience and the stamina to keep going, despite what her mind was telling her. So, it was good that she didn’t win and now the team can go away and work on their weaknesses. I did have an issue with this episode and that was the way that we didn’t really watch any of the climbing in the final. That’s one of my favourite parts and I feel a little cheated that we just skipped to the awards ceremony.

---

What have you learnt?

I understand why they skipped the climbing and went straight to the awards, but when it’s a show about climbing, you’d think they would want to focus on that. This is probably the biggest lesson I’m going to take from this episode and that is you must always live up to the expectations you set for a story. If you were to pick up a book called One Punch Man and he actually never beat anyone with one punch, you’d be disappointed. Well, the same goes for Sport Climbing Girls. We better see girls climbing. The worst part of this is that the climbing happened, we just didn’t get to see it!

---

Other reviews in the series

• Season One
  • Episode 1 – Rocky Puzzle
  • Episode 2 – Believe in Yourself
  • Episode 3 – The Anti-Monkey Rock
  • Episode 4 – Powerhouse Climbers
  • Episode 5 – Hard Work and Talent
  • Episode 6 – Unbelievable Ability
  • Episode 7 – Failure of a Climber
  • Episode 8 – Tears of Disappointment
  • Episode 9 – The Princess of Climbing
  • Episode 10 – Restart!
  • Episode 11 – The 15 Second Wall
  • Episode 12 – The Road to Best in Japan

Other shows I’m watching

Discounted and Free Books

---