As a wrestling fan, I adore this episode. Whoever wrote this story definitely knows his wrestling. The struggling indie wrestler Stun Gun Nishimura feels father time closing in and picks our two main characters to be opponents of his final match. Any wrestling fan knows if you want to do a final match, you do it against your best rival or you do it to put over the most promising young talent around you.
However, I wasn't thinking hard and would accept any premise as long as it led to something interesting. The episode had me when Nishimura started doing back bumps out of happiness. (the one where he falls on his back and spreads the impact by spreading his arms) Wrestling is theater. Though fans today are smart to what it is, they also appreciate the art that goes into it and are willing to buy into a match when it is good.
So Stun Gun Nishimura's got a supporting wife, cute daughter and ex-partner who terrorises Nishimura's wife and beats up one of our main characters in public. Before I had time think too much about how the writer was going to get the ex-partner into the story, we get to the match. I love the line Stun Gun gives our two main characters when they question why he doesn't get the win in his last match. "You don't understand anything about wrestling". Winning and losing doesn't matter. Its about popping the crowd.
After the match, the ex-partner comes up and challenges Nishimura and it becomes obvious that it was a worked-shoot. Work means fixed and shoot means real ie to shoot on someone during a match means to really beat on someone. A worked shoot is when the lines between what is real and what is fake are blurred. When real life issues are brought in and fans just go 'I can't believe he just said that!'.
The plan was to take the fans, the wife, daughter and our two main characters on a ride to revive the company. To take real life issues and turn it into a match. I think the wife was more pissed off that the husband had taken her on a ride on a work shoot. And the mention of Kumamoto, oh how I would love to go back there.
From a wrestling angle perspective, the ex-partner should not have worn his wrestling gear. It made the work part too obvious. The ex-partner should have cut a 'you owe me lots of money you sob so I bought all your debts and I'm going to keep this group running so I can kick your ass every week until I get my money's worth' promo and then beat up the tired Stun Gun Nishimura down in street clothes, instantly turning Nishimura into a face (hero). It'll probably scare Nishimura's daughter for life but why let that get in the way of a good angle?
I love Nishimura's response of good or bad, this is what a pro-wrestler is. This episode is exactly about what pro-wrestling is. Working your fans and sometimes even your loved ones.
7 comments:
why did you spell indie wrong.
so nitpickers like you have something to say
Looking forward to seeing what you think of the rest of this series. I also need to finish it.
I haven't watched any wrestling since I was a kid so maybe that's why I found this first episode rather odd. It does however set up the premise for the series well. Which is the Benri-ya profession and the idea that they will take "any job possible" to make money.
As the story goes on you get to know the characters alot better which is a treat. Enjoy!
Have you watched the movie? Has a bit of back story about the two main characters.
Like Paul said, it has a movie...
Can I watch the series without watch the movie??
Or the movie has already subs??
The movie has subs. Is available on asiatorrents.The movie has it's up and downs as well, but it also has the greatest chase by foot I ever seen. The chemistry between Eita and Ryuhei is also very much there.
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