im dij

im dij basketball. this is the public archive of stuff that I make. Read about my OCs. Now.

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Part 1: an analysis of Tenma

Initial reader filter up front: if your favorite parts of Inazuma are the strongest players and the most hype fights, this essay is not for you. There is no way for me to convince you to think otherwise. If you think Tenma is boring, I’d like for you to read and see why I consider him the one character with the most character growth in the entire series. This is an essay split into two parts explaining why inagalaxy made the contentious decision to keep only the Gryphon trio, and why I think it was done excellently.

To understand why Inagalaxy is the way it is, I have to start all the way back in Inago. Inazuma Eleven Go is a series about Tenma. “Duh, he’s the main character.” You probably said. I want to clarify that I don’t mean that Inazuma Eleven Go is focused around Tenma’s soccer career. The entire trilogy is one whole character arc for Tenma himself.

In Inazuma Eleven Go, Tenma joins his very first soccer club, led by the capable Shindou. I have things to say about the execution of getting this across, but Shindou is clearly what keeps the team together. It was his injury that forced Tenma to assume that massive role.

In Chrono Stone, Tenma is now permanently captain of the team. They go through many, many trials, but something comes up when Tenma gets his miximax: What kind of a captain is he? While he’s learned how to command the others, he lacks the planning skills and deep understanding that Shindou has. In his eyes, Shindou is still the real captain. In the end, he came to the conclusion that he can’t, and won’t be a captain like Shindou. As quoted in Chronicle Mode: “I can’t lead them, but I can run with them!” His amicable personality allows the team to instantly trust him. The lack of his own unique captain skills leaves his team members with only one thing to follow: his ideals. Because the team trusts him and everyone aimed towards the same goal, they could do anything.

Inagalaxy is a direct challenge to the conclusion that Tenma arrived at in Chrono Stone. You can run with your teammates because the entire team trusts each other. How can you do that when they have never seen you before? He was on a level ground with his other peers. This was actually done briefly in the end of Chrono Stone in the El Dorado matches. I could see someone in the board room going "wait this idea has legs."

In Inagalaxy, only the Gryphon trio knows how to play soccer at all. All of the new members don’t see him as an equal. Even when they come around to liking soccer, Tenma is their ideal soccer player. Most damning is the fact that none of them refer to Tenma by his name. Only “Captain”.

This is the worst possible scenario for Tenma to be in. If Inazuma Japan was full of people he knew, this type of conflict wouldn’t have been possible. You can tell that he’s struggling with the responsibilities that wasn’t needed of him in Chrono Stone. He can’t tell everyone to just “play their best” because their best is garbage. Learning how to interact with his new team members and finding what drives them is key the conflict for many of the early episodes.

Most importantly, as captain, his reactions affect the morale of the entire team. He can’t be worried. The captain has to set a precedent. He refused to let anyone see that he was SAD when Tsurugi turned out to be fake. This is completely different from the Tenma who wore his heart on his sleeve all the way back in season 1. You can even see this in the goal voice lines, helpfully compiled in the Inazuma Eleven wiki:

He’s focused on keeping up the morale of the other teammates, not just expressing his joy of scoring a goal.

He’s so engrossed in the role of captain, that he doesn’t know how to be himself. This comes to a head in the final Inagalaxy match, where this causes Matatagi’s fuse to blow. The first thing he says? “Matsukaze Tenma”. Not “Captain”. Matatagi is talking to HIM, as a person.

The pressure forced him to become the ideal leader, because he had no other choice. That force also stifled himself completely. As Tenma said to Matatagi, all parts are considered you. You need all of them to be whole. In return, Tenma is reminded that he’s someone other than a captain. He’s human, he’s selfish. And his specialty is dribbling! In all of inagalaxy, this is the only match where he plays “his” soccer. This is the conclusion of Tenma’s arc. He followed, and then ran together with his team. Now, it was time for him to run forward and say “catch up with me”.

As i promised, i (attempted) to make some hissatsu art based on my own style + what makes a hissatsu a "inazuma". Under the read more is an abbreviated history of hissatsu styles whilte attempting to define this inazuma style.

So I am contributing to a victory road mod that replaces the in game hissatsu names with the textures that appear in the anime/strikers.

I only wanted to add the original inagalaxy hissatsu textures to victory road, but I ended up being inspired by the other designers who worked there. I tried making my own and taught myself inkscape. I did a lot of research into what makes a hissatsu "inazuma" too. I'd like to make a better write up of it once i finish my designs but just for fun, I'm listing some hissatsus that stood out to me. All of the below textures were isolated by me using anime screencaps from the wiki.

Asoko ni UFO

Honestly the main reason why I had to contribute. The line of the 'あ' pointing directly to the word UFO is just too good. S Tier

Defense Equation

The colors of this one are great and match the hissatsu anim. However, the overall shape doesn't make any sense. The hissatsu itself uses hexagons. Why does デ have its dots be squares, but other ones have triangles, circles, and a pentagon? I'd forgive it if it was only triangle and circles for pythagoreas, but overall, this design is a visual mess. C tier.

Bicycle Sword

The design is great, but there is an "error" in which the drop shadow overlaps another character in a way that looks unintended.

I ended up fixing this overlap in my edit, but it turns out that the grey was actually a pretty good visual separator. Maybe in the next patch i'll re-introduce it but with a multply filter on top. B tier.

Parkour Attack

Miyako Ishii Mrs. Conway’s 3rd grade class

Describe a possession that is precious to you.

I have a journal from my grandpa.  His last name is Ishii like me. He is very smart. The journal is about God. It has lots of math and words I don’t get but if I learn I can be smart like him.

Explain how you are grateful to God for this possession.

I am NOT grateful to god because grandpa did not visit me ever. My dad does not want to talk about grandpa even though I asked lots and lots. I am grateful to god because I found this journal under lots of cardboard and now I can read all about grandpa.

(there is a crude drawing of a square with dark branching limbs, with a single glowing core in the center) <- this is god

Teacher’s Notice to Miyako’s Parents/Guardians.

On XX/XX/201X, Miyako had a one-on-one with me due to a concerning response in her homework. Her depiction of God was not what was taught in class. Upon further questioning, she also said things such as stating that the earliest time that God has communicated with humans was 10 years ago, and that humans were not special. She responded poorly to suggesting that her journal is full of thoughts of witchcraft. Please limit what she is allowed to read at home and make sure they do not contain witchcraft and are of ACCURATE depictions of the Lord.

Mrs. Conway

Space Eggs

Can’t go wrong with the original, right?… Well, you can if you’re Space Egg. The video quality is grainy and Space Egg only has ONE weapon! His Space Whisk would be no match against Space Egg Century’s Lye Blaster and Darkness Whip! He’d be pulverized for sure. The other seasons of this era are the same too. You gotta wait aaaages for the show to get to the good parts, and guess what? Sulverous is ALWAYS behind it! So boring! So all of them are a big Nope for me. I’m not going to even bother reviewing them individually. Thumbs down for me.

Space Eggs: Wizards

WIZARDS? IN SPACE? Awesome!!! I’m totally taking some of Space Egg Wizard’s moves for my own sage training. I’d rate it higher, but they stopped doing all the flips after episode 5. Something about “workplace injuries”?

Space Eggs: Deviled

This is the one that’s airing this year! I thought they outdid themselves with Space Eggs: Wizards, but this one is cooler, grittier, and just plain awesome!

Especially Space Eggs Century. She’s the main rival this season, but her moves? Awesome. They go all out with special effects this season. Century has a special move that changes the sky to night no matter the time, and she says this: “You’re one hundred years too early to defeat me!” and she strikes the enemy with the force to break a mountain. She does that in episode 18, so I know it’s true.

You didn’t hear me say this, but I’ve heard rumors that they’re using a place that’s a train ride away for a huge battle! And someone saw Century in a completely new form! Not sure how they could tell it was Century… but COOL!!! If I could head over there and see for myself, that would be so awesome. But I have school…

The Creator created the flora and fauna. It watched them flourish, take care of each other, and replicate. This was beautiful. That wasn’t all they did, however. They stole, fought, and killed. This too, was beautiful. This was the magic of living.

The Creator was content with this for epochs until it looked closer and was forced to recognize a second beauty... Creativity, the beauty of achievement and the abstract made concrete.

Touched, the Creator sought to bestow three gifts...