Chousoku Spinner

This isn’t a very popular anime in Japan (read it somewhere of course and due to lack of info on the web). Chousoku Spinner or Super Yo-yo as it’s more commonly known here is another one of those sports genre anime about, you guessed it, yo-yos. We focus on this kid Shunichi Domoto who’s the all-sports-rounder-saviour of his school (meaning he plays any sports and is quite good at it) except yo-yo. Not until his classmates Rian and Beso asked for his help to defeat the big bully who took their yo-yos. But that doesn’t even get him really interested in the game until the yo-yo champion, Hojoin shows off some cool techniques thus beating him in a long sleeper match. So you may guess, he wants revenge after that loss, typical isn’t it. And he’s gonna do it by entering the soon to be held yo-yo tournament in a week’s time. Not enough time to practice you say? The thing is, Shunichi is really gifted and has a hidden talent in yo-yos. You’ll notice this when he picks up and learns yo-yo tricks very fast or even in the first try (wish I had that skill in real life for other things). Three quarter of this anime will be focused on the tournament then. As predicted, he starts as an underdog and goes on beating experienced yo-yo players like the runner-up of last year’s tournament Lakagi, the loop the loop specialist Wappa, the petite girl who uses short yo-yo strings Mai, and the pro yo-yo circus performer Chuta Kogure, to meet Hojoin in the finals. But surprisingly, Shunichi didn’t win the final match either, which was a little shock to me (as you know heroes are suppose to win all the way right?). And the funny part was at the end of the anime, yo-yo master Nakamura announced several players to help in the ‘future development of spinners in Japan’ after crowning Hojoin. A few weird unnecessary characters making such short appearences. Also, he left out Shunichi, to the dismay of Rian. I thought he saw something in him. Guessed he changed his mind, huh. But as usual, Shunichi’s no quitter and he’ll practice even harder. End of show. Well, at least it isn’t that typical. Draggy at some times but overall I enjoyed it. Oh, one thing I notice is that the Nakamura guy seems to spend alot of time in the yo-yo shop’s toilet. Usually see him coming out from there. Can’t stand the tension, maybe?