Sakuma Telling Kidou He Has Better Freedom As A Part Of Raimon And That He Knows Just By Looking At Kidou

Sakuma, Sakuma, Sakuma, Sakuma, and Fudou

🐎🐎🐎

Adding to this post with my analysis of the emotional implications of this scene because it gets even crazier when one tries to visualize from Kidou's POV

You can see that Kidou was standing behind Sakuma in the initial composition of the scene's frame. It then switches to Sakuma's close up, which is more or less should be similar to what Kidou's point of view. So what possibly could be going on in Kidou's mind when it happened?

The close up of Sakuma's face ends when he fully turns his head, revealing the eye that's normally covered by his eyepatch and the disheveled hair his Shin Teikoku arc design has.

As one can see on the first post, looking closely Sakuma was drawn in a way that makes him look like his original design with the pulled forward hair and the eyepatch covered right eye, it was what Kidou saw!

What Kidou (and the viewers) initially saw was the Sakuma he knew, the one who played soccer together with him, the Sakuma who is his best friend. But something about it is uncanny, until Sakuma's entire face was shown and it was Shin Teikoku Sakuma that Kidou was seeing. It wasn't the Sakuma Kidou knew.

Even if their scope of love in their writings are different (Sakuma loves Kidou, while Kidou loves EVERYONE including Sakuma) Sakuma and Kidou care deeply towards each other. And it was Kageyama's actual purpose in the arc, to not win the match but rather to inflict as much trauma he could on Kidou by manipulating and hurting (mentally and physically) his best friends against him.

Shin Teikoku arc has really good animation and storyboarding in general; this particular scene has cleverly drawn frames where Sakuma's hair was positioned to look like how he normally looks until he fully turns at Kidou and you can see the the black eye

I don't have frames that are of 1:1 comparison but I hope you get the gist

Genda Koujirou Analysis

I’d like to start by thanking dear @gracyfangirl2020 for requesting me this analysis, Genda is one of my favourite character after al,l and I hope to give him justice.

Genda is such a caring, reliable, down to earth friend, he inspires trust in others and despite being a supporting character, he often plays an important role. His first real appearance is during Raimon’s second match against Teikoku, ep 12, where he’s shown to be the only one worried about Kidou’s wellbeing and what he was up to.

We can see just how much he cares and how he’s ready to just stop his friends from doing anything that could bring them harm 

BUT, here’s the second most important thing about Genda: he follows orders. Despite his will to protect Kidou, he won’t defy an order from the higher ups.

He reminds me of the yakuza, honestly, he’s passionate but knows when to restrain himself, obedient and loyal, he’d make the perfect right hand man for a yakuza’s boss and anyway I believe he was born and raised in a very traditional/strict family.

But despite all this, he’s a person with a rooted moral sense and we can see, both in the original series and in Ares, just how much he despises Kageyama for his action. Even if he has to recognize him as his Coach again and again he won’t be silent about his disapproval.

He’s fierce and passionate and in the original series

his role as the emotional pillar for his friends is as clear as day.

It is no coincidence that during the Aliea arch he and not Sakuma was the one directly pursued by Fudou. If you weaken the one peoples rely on, it’ll be easier to bring the others down as well.

And yet, even with the Aliea Stone that enhanced his negative emotions, he was still able to care and worry for Sakuma, that shows just how big his heart truly is. Stronger than hatred, stronger than its dark side itself.

A similar situation happened in Ares as well. By putting him on bench, Kageyama knew he would upset the team, damaging its emotional balance and performances. And only when he came back on the field did they unite once more as a whole oiled machine.

Not only he gave stability to his team, he even acted upon his own moral code and judgment, ripping the captain’s band from Shimerigawa 

to give it back to whom he believed worthy of wearing it (Sakuma),

without asking first to the one that should’ve been in charge of such a decision. He follows orders, yes, but he also has limits.

Deeply disgusted by disrespectful people

Always supportive of his friends in all their decisions, like when Kidou switched to Raimon and wanted to take Zeus down

or when he went to Kidou’s graduation ceremony

A heart so big that makes him constantly worry for his team

but for others as well

In conclusion I’d say that he’s one of the few characters I’d go to for advices and I know I’d be greeted by an heart-warming smile.

Hope this was a good analysis and what you expected <3

Shin Teikoku Sakuma piece from 2024 when I was trying to analyze Sakuma's feelings in the arc (I keep forgetting to repost it outside twitter, oops)

Explanation under read more

The idea for the piece is to convey what Sakuma actually felt in the arc. What the aliea meteorite did was amplifying his negative emotions and converting them to hunger for power. Like how Kazemaru originally only started seeking power in a bout of deteorirating mental health; Sakuma (and Genda) only seeked the meteorite because he felt that Kidou abandoned him / them because they weren't good enough. So the idea here is to convey sorrow.

Unfortunately I'm very bad at writing analysis post in Tumblr's blogpost format as I'm very used to Twitter and Bluesky's thread style of writing; so I perhaps will revisit and rewrite this explanation.

Sakuma with covered eyepatch

Based on this frame from the end of episode 38, after he came to his senses:

The windows

Sakuma is wearing the same patient outfit as he did in episode 37's flashback

The sequence of closing the curtains is to express "closing one's heart off" (accepting the meteorite, going back to Kageyama, cutting ties with Kidou; etc etc anything works LOL). Also a reference to how Fudou entered their hospital room from the window lmao.

The eye

Should be self explanatory. It's also a reference to eye as a common symbolism used in Sakuma's character, which... he has... because Kidou himself has eye motif. gay ass.

You guys do know you're supposed to reblog things, right

Trying to like kisaku but some fans make it a bit hard haha

I was such a kisaku hater when I was younger but I’ve learned to like it, more in GO than in og cause I like their friendship too much

Also I meant to write doomed yaoi but the yuri took over and I think it’s really funny

Another inameme xD

limby art i posted on twitter part one

Nothing analysis important from this clip I just wanting to point and giggle at idgaf warriors Sakuma and Rika not reacting at Endou nor Megane (Kidou's double head turn is also silly)