×
  • remind me tomorrow
  • remind me next week
  • never remind me
Subscribe to the ANN Newsletter • Wake up every Sunday to a curated list of ANN's most interesting posts of the week. read more

All Out!!
Episode 10

by Anne Lauenroth,

How would you rate episode 10 of
All Out!! ?
Community score: 3.6

After losing the game against Sagami but winning their opponents' respect, Jinko and fans get rewarded with the prospect of a beach episode. But any anticipation of muscular shirtless fanservice is nipped in the bud, as the countdown to the preliminaries has reached a mere 147 days – less than 13 days total at a measly training schedule of 2 hours a day. Beating himself up for having his forehead kicked in only once during the recent game, Sekizan is ready to double everyone's effort and practice time. Some of his teammates might pretend to be less enthused about Coach's drills, but everyone's much too fired up to pull out of the commitment at this point. They complain but clench their teeth through fun exercises such as digging holes and sumo wrestling in the sand, supplemented with crab attacks and clothes being swept away by the tide, among other comedic interludes to make up for the very obvious animation shortcuts.

During last week's game, there was no time to further address Ōharano's pronounced personal issues, and while these are not the kind of problems that can be resolved by a quick heart-to-heart or an in-game epiphany, we now have a somewhat better idea of what makes the exceptionally talented first-year tick. After ostentatiously turning his back toward the camera in the group picture, Ōharano keeps to himself, neither complaining about Coach nor trying to socialize with his teammates. Noticing Ōharano's isolation, Gion (of all people) approaches the fly-half – not to comfort or listen to him, of course, but to get advice on his own future within the team. Our protagonist's initial euphoria has given way to a more realistic assessment of everything he's still lacking. It's nice to see Gion able to reflect upon his shortcomings in such a way without losing his cocky attitude or otherwise acting out of character.

Gion might still be struggling to find his undying love for rugby, but Ōharano is probably the last person on the team to help with this problem. Not only does he not love rugby just because he happens to be naturally gifted, his talent actually killed his brother's love for the sport—at least that's what Ōharano has convinced himself. I'm not quite sold on him truly hating rugby itself, as his resentment seems to be directed mostly at himself for stealing his brother's passion, while equally despising the less gifted players who claim to love rugby and then fail to give it their all. Ōharano's current attitude is neither healthy nor helpful, but the vow he made feels just as much like a commitment to himself (and his own yet-to-be-admitted love for rugby) as it is a promise to rekindle his brother's passion. While it would be too much to say that Gion and Ōharano bonded over their shared brother issues, their very brotherly sand fight does end in rugby position advice for Gion, which is further expanded upon in the episode's last scene.

Following the invitation of third-year Raita Kamō, Gion embarks upon a spy mission to Ryoin Academy, the champions among Kanagawa's high school rugby teams. With the intention of learning more about his desired position, Gion finds himself smitten with Sekito, Ryoin's superstar flanker, who's only marginally ahead of Gion in terms of height but very much out of reach in his number of fangirls. Gion has found his new idol/future rival, and with him, every excuse for his lack of height as a failure-inducing factor falls away.

While this episode didn't take home any prizes for originality or production values, it offered a pleasant enough change of pace and setting with some nice character moments.

Rating: C+

All Out!! is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.


discuss this in the forum (67 posts) |
bookmark/share with: short url

back to All Out!!
Episode Review homepage / archives