Haha, while I’m trying to find the names of Suzuka’s parents, I found out that this chapter has already been scanlated in English since early Feb. 😅 They’ve finally caught up! So, I’ll just write a short commentary for this chapter.
This time around, Chika escaped from Isaki’s makeover. In a way, that is good in the end since it taught an important lesson to Tsukaji. The trio’s flashy appearance is amusing. Obviously, it only works on Atsumu types. =P And, we have a cute moment between Takezou and Hiro. ^^
I guess doing the ordinary practice stuff is boring for Tsukaji after seeing Himesaka practice. He did notice that the piece is out of the ordinary. All of them seems to be clueless on how to do about the piece. If this is shown on the show, that can actually be a lure for the curious to perhaps watch the Nationals like what Tsukaji intended.
They would wonder if Tokize will be able to pull it off whatever they are going to play based on what they’ve said. And, Ichiei would be clueless what or rather how Tokize are actually going to play that kind of piece. For someone like Tsukaji who is a veteran journalist in koto to be shock and confused like that...maybe it will also throw Ichiei off.
In the end, Tsukaji realizes the reason why Chika keeps on looking at the music sheets. I guess Chika’s answer is more like a ‘real musician’ that he earned Tsukaji’s respect to the point of changing his sitting style to that of the formal one, a seiza.
Now, there is still the lunch practice and after school practice. It makes me wonder if they will only tackle the music aspect or will they start asking personal things?
I think having a bit of background of the subjects can help pull more audience...well, TV audience than say, those who are only interested in koto music. Like, why are they doing this? How did they get into the koto club? What’s their motivation to win the Nationals? That can be quite inspirational even if one isn’t into koto.