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"Tokyo City Esperion" (
Summary[]
Ashito attends the youth tryouts and finds out it isn't as easy as he thought it would be. Thrown into a new competitive environment where he's forced to become a team player, Ashito puts his skills to the test alongside new characters and a determined coach.
Synopsis[]
We see Ashito Aoi at a bus station asking a bus driver if a regular office building is the Tokyo Metropolitan Building. The bus driver tells him no and then asks him where he is headed. Ashito excitedly responds that he is going to take part in a youth team tryout.
We then see Ashito arrive at the Tokyo Esperion training facility, and while admiring it, he accidentally bumps into Hana Ichijō, causing her to drop her belongings. Hana asks Ashito if he is the one from Ehime. She recognizes Ashito from his hairstyle, which is similar to Valderrama’s, as she heard it from her brother. Hana mentions that her brother can’t stop mentioning “it” and tells Ashito to follow her to the training fields. When arriving at the fields looking over the other tryouts, Hana tells Ashito that there are 86 candidates this year. She introduces him to the most promising of candidates: Sōichirō Tachibana from Yokoyama Musashino's Junior Youth team, who won the Kanto Boys Soccer tournament, Akinori Kaneda, captain of Tama Central Junior High team, Yūdai Hasegawa from Seiran Junior High, and Suk Lee Jong from Seiran Junior High.
Hana asks if Ashito achieved anything noteworthy in Ehime, comparing him to the all-stars in the tryout. Ashito doesn’t answer and keeps his gaze locked on the field. Hana starts to walk away, wondering to herself what her brother was thinking of bringing Ashito here. When Ashito proclaims that he wishes his brother were here, to see that they are playing on a grass field, which surprises Hana.
Next, we see all the candidates grouped up on the training field facing the coaches. The head coach introduces himself as Nozomi. Nozomi tributes Esperion’s success both for raising and training youth players, and he says that their youth training is considered the finest in Japan. He then gives the word to the manager Fukuda. Fukuda welcomes everyone and sees Ashito standing in the crowd, and smiles. Fukuda believes that a team that fails to nurture the next generation has no future. By having no influx of young new players, they rely on acquiring players from other clubs, and there is no guarantee that the acquired players will work out. He continues to say that Esperion knows their young players in and out and therefore knows their strengths and weaknesses. The team's style will be learnt while training. This is what is meant by ‘raising’ players. Fukuda finishes his speech: the future of Japanese soccer lies in raising players. If they were to fail to pass the tryout, then they should use the experience to become better players and prove Esperion wrong. Fukuda then asks another coach, Benzen, if he did a good job, ruining the speech.
Ashito thinks to himself that he can’t seem to calm his heart down. Fukuda starts speaking again, saying he forgot to mention one thing. It is rare for players to get picked from the tryouts; there is a good chance no one will be picked. Ashito, shocked, shouts at Fukuda why he would wait to mention it until now. Benzen angrily responds that Ashito should show some respect. Fukuda starts walking towards Ashito, while Ashito thinks to himself that it is not fair that so many people came wanting to join the team and for them not to pick anyone. Fukuda walks up to Ashito with a serious-looking face, only for him to apologize, which leaves Ashito shocked. He must have forgotten to mention that part, as he was short on time back in Ehime. Ashito looks down and sees that Fukuda is only wearing sandals, which leads Ashito to think that the team is managed by a crazy, creepy old man.
Fukuda turns to all the tryouties and tells them that a youth team isn't a football school; they can only take players who are ‘game-ready’. Fukuda recites last year's promotions to the youth team: three scouted players, one from tryouts, and eleven from the junior youth team, totaling 15 players. Usually, half the players from the junior youth team are promoted; last year, there were 14 who were not. Fukuda tells them that Esperion has talent scouts always on the lookout, and if they find someone interesting, they will directly negotiate for them to join Esperion. Ashito reacts strongly to this, thinking to himself that he was not promising enough to be directly recruited. Fukuda continues, thanks to the scout team, they know all about the players in the tryouts, meaning they were players they didn’t deem worthwhile picking up. The other coaches react worriedly, questioning Fukuda. Fukuda thinks that the players were already aware of this information; he thinks players who manage to crawl through a crowd do shine through. It is the spirit of defiance that Esperion is looking for in players. Fukuda ends his speech by telling them to do their best, which erupts into excitement from the players. Ashito seems to be determined.
Later, the players are seen taking fitness tests, dribbling the ball, and running to measure their speeds. Ashito is standing and looking on when another player comes up behind and tells Ashito that he is trembling. Ashito hadn’t noticed, the other player mentions that he is also trembling, and that he gets stomach aches when he’s nervous. Ashito acknowledges that the other player is the first person to have spoken to him, introducing himself as a genius forward. The other player introduces himself in return as Eisaku Ōtomo (Othomo). He then quickly switches to being irritated at Ashito, and he blames him for being the one to hype up every other player right before the tests. Ashito seemed oblivious to this, however, Ashito seems to be happy about it. Telling Othomo that he now gets to play everyone at their best, which shocks Othomo.
Next up, they are playing 20-minute games of 7-on-7, which is the most important part of the first stage. Playing alongside Ashito are Othomo and Kaneda, and on the other team, Tachibana, Lee Jung, and Hasegawa. Othomo speaks aloud that he thinks the teams are unfair, and Ashito, on the other hand, seems excited.
Cut to Hana walking up to Fukuda with water, greeting Fukuda by calling him brother, which Fukuda doesn’t want to be called out on the field. One of the coaches, Tsukishima, apologizes to Hana for making her work under the scorching sun. Hana doesn’t mind, it doesn’t compare to the players putting their careers on the line. Hana notes that the ongoing game between Ashito's team and Tachibana’s team seems one-sided.
We see Ashito losing the ball, resulting in Tachibana being able to head in a goal. Othomo runs up to Ashito, telling him to stop trying to do it all by himself and stop giving the ball away. Ashito rebuts that it is because they won’t give him the ball, and that he wants to score, so he has to take it up by himself. Othomo tells Ashito that they won’t pass to him because he hogs the ball, calling him a show-off. Othomo calls down, he doesn't think Ashito is solely to blame, he at least has the guts to do something. He thinks that the team has zero teamwork and walks away, saying that they need to pull themselves together.
The bystanders watching the match are talking amongst themselves, noting how outclassed Ashito’s team is by Tachibana’s. They mention a rumour of how the tryouts were only set up to see if Tachibana was worth signing or not.
Kaneda takes the ball from Tachibana, Ashito yells for Kaneda to pass him the ball, but Kaneda loses the ball. Othomo tries to cheer Kaneda up by saying that it was a nice try, while Kaneda stares at Ashito.
At the coach's bench, Hana asks if it is okay to have such a huge gap in skills between the teams. Fukuda responds that all players' careers are at stake in the tryouts, and all of them want to stand out and be noticed. The player can only think about themselves, he thinks that showcasing your A-game in a makeshift team is impossible. They don’t judge their physicality or techniques, but their ability to think.
Ashito on the field stops to move, making three other coaches, one of them being Nozomi, observing the game, think that Ashito is no good. They start to wonder why Fukuda even brought him to the tryouts. Nozomi doesn’t contribute to the conversation.
Ashito thinks to himself that his bad habit is striking again, he thinks about what Othomo told him, and he thinks about his old teammates back in Ehime, who allowed him to play as he wanted. He acknowledges that his makeshift teammates are all skilled and that he wants to play real football with them. A crow flies over the field surveying the match when Ashito starts to move again by running towards Othomo. Fukuda notices and starts getting excited, Ashito calls out to Othomo to pass him the ball, which Othomo grants by passing him the ball. Ashito receives the ball and runs into the left home corner. Two opponents follow him, trying to take the ball from him. The coaches question his play, wondering if Ashito just wants to show off. Othomo doesn’t understand either, and urges Ashito to pass the ball back to him. Benzen yells out that there are only five more minutes left of the matches, and to do their absolute best with the remaining time and to leave no regrets behind. Ashito continues to hog the ball in the left home corner, thinking to himself to just bear it. One of the coaches doesn’t think Ashito has made the cut and crosses out his name from a list. Kanaeda starts to get angry and kicks the grass.
Hana glances at Fukuda, his hands are fidgeting, and he is menacingly staring. Fukuda's eyes are wide open, excitedly looking at Ashito's play. Ashito keeps hogging the ball in the left corner, thinking to himself that he just needs one more person to take a step into his team's side. Othomo, standing onlooking the situation, starts to realize that Ashito is planning something, while Othomo figured it out, two more opponents decided to help take the ball from Ashito. When Ashito sees them running in his direction, he takes the ball and runs towards his own goal. Othomo quickly reacts, screaming to Kaneda to run, which Kaneda does and starts running forward towards the goal. Ashito turns in front of the goal and shoots a long pass to Kaneda, which Kaneda heads into the goal.
Hana, Nozomi are shocked, Fukuda, on the other hand, seems pleased at Ashito’s play. Othomo runs up to Kaneda and congratulates him, and loudly says that his instructions were key to the goal. Ashito screams from the other side of the field that he is a guy who shines even when he doesn’t score. However, Ashito thinks to himself that it was pure luck that it all worked out. Kaneda applauds Ashito for his assist, which leaves Ashito with a smile on his face.
Outside the field, coach Tsukishima ecstatically talks about Ashito’s assist to Fukuda. Tsukishima thinks Ashito timed it perfectly and that he even saw a glimpse of Ashito’s bird’s-eye view, which covers the entire field. Hana looks on silently. When the match ends, Fukuda informs the players that they will now decide which eleven players will continue to the final stage of the assessment.
We then see the players at the Esperion cafeteria, where Ashito is eating with Othomo, Kaneda. Othomo questions how Ashito can manage to eat so much, and Ashito in return asks why Othomo has hardly eaten anything. Othomo responds that he can’t eat because he is nervous about the result; he thinks he didn’t get much ball time.
In the coach’s room, they are deciding on the roster of eleven players. The names Tachibana, Kaneda, Hasegawa, and Lee Jong are all mentioned as solid candidates. Fukuda asks Tsukishima for his opinion, to which Tsukishima responds that Othomo is an interesting candidate. Another coach didn’t think he did anything of note, but Tsukishima rebuts that it was not his actions on the field that intrigued him, but his actions off the field. Tsukishima asks if anyone else noticed, to which Nozumi and Benzen answer that they did. He continues that Othomo was chatting to different players before the tryouts even started, especially with the players with white covers and numbers close to his own. Tsukishima thinks he was gauging his most likely teammates' personalities and playing styles, he was also the one who tried to pump up his team. Fukuda coldly says that they are short on midfielders, so they will keep him. One of the coaches says that the real question mark they need to clarify is Ashito; they have split opinions on him..
Cutting back to Ashito going for seconds, gawking at Hana, who is volunteering in the kitchen during the tryout. Hana refuses to serve Ashito seconds, she tells him that if he makes the cut, he has to play right away. Hana starts to question Ashito’s play, she thinks a reckless guy like him couldn’t think that many steps ahead to pull off a perfect pass. Ashito responds that he isn’t sure himself, he started to look around the field, thinking he had to do something, as he usually does to calm himself down. He continues that he didn’t remember much afterwards and that his body moved on its own. Hana exclaims happily that she is relieved that it was just intuition and that a mere teenager couldn’t copy “it”. Hana continues that her favorite player said that he never stopped thinking about football, even when not playing. If you think, think, think, you're able to do things without thinking, and that is when you have mastered your craft. She finishes off by saying that a man is but a thinking reed, and she finally introduces herself as Hana Ichijō, Fukudusa’s stepsister, and shakes Ashito’s hand.
We are then thrown into a flashback to Hana’s past, where she is in a big stadium, when she was watching Fukuda do a play similar to Ashito’s. When we cut back to the present, we hear an announcer informing the players that they have selected the players who have made the cut. Ashito inspects the hand, which he just shook with Hana.
Highlights[]
TBA
Characters in Order of Appearance[]
- Ashito Aoi
- Hana Ichijō (Debut) (Name Reveal)
- Toshimune Mibu (Debut) (Background)
- Sōichirō Tachibana (Debut) (Name Reveal)
- Akinori Kaneda (Debut) (Name Reveal)
- Yūdai Hasegawa (Debut) (Name Reveal)
- Suk Lee Jong (Debut) (Name Reveal)
- Nozomi Date (Debut) (FIrst Name Reveal)
- Tatsuya Fukuda
- Daigo Benzen (Debut) (FIrst Name Reveal)
- Aki Tsukishima (Debut) (FIrst Name Reveal)
- Mamoru Hotta (Debut)
- Eisaku Ōtomo (Debut) (Name Reveal)
- Junnosuke Nakano (Debut) (Background)
Episode Notes[]
Anime & Manga Differences[]
TBA
Trivia[]
TBA
OSTs Used[]
TBA
References[]
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| Chapters | 1 • 2 • 3 • 4 • 5 • 6 • 7 • 8 • 9 • 10 • 11 • 12 • 13 • 14 • 15 • 16 • 17 • 18 • 19 • 20 • 21 • 22 | Volumes | 1 • 2 • 3 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Episodes | 1 • 2 • 3 • 4 • 5 | Seasons | 1 |
| Chapters | 1 • 2 • 3 • 4 | Volumes | 1 |
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