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INAZUMA ELEVEN GO REWATCH Logging through episodes as I rewatch them. I'll talk about my thoughts, headcanons, etc. Just something self indulgent for my own enjoyment!
Some episodes will have more thoughts and tangents than others.
☆01: 雷門に吹く新しい風！ "A New Wind Blowing at Raimon!"
Air Date: 04/05/2011
Inazuma Eleven GO is about to start! (Woof!) Episode 1, let's go! I've seen this episode so many times, it's difficult to remember what my first impressions were. It takes under 40 seconds to recap where we are before jumping into some bizarre imagery with the Holy Emperor. (Who could he be!?) Why is he in a church? I wish we could've seen more of Fifth Sector and how it functions behind the scenes, but it's fun leaving it up to the imagination as well. Using what we see in the movie, you can get a bit wild with it all. I wrote a personal longfic in 2023 from Tsurugi's POV which got into it quite a bit. It's incomplete for now, but I'd love to come back to it.

Anyway, I already went on a ramble. Get ready for plenty of those! This episode is pretty faithful to the game (with some minor gameplay tutorial stuff with Aoi removed). Tenma greeting his dog and chatting with him before school is really cute. He's so excited for his first day of Junior High School, I feel a little sorry for him with how the day turns out. Hah.

Tenma explores Raimon and eventually bumps into Haruna. I always appreciated how this series handles the returning characters, but I'll probably get more into that when Endou shows up.

Anyway, Tenma introduces himself and my very favourite opening plays! "Ten Made Todoke" is just great. The part where Tenma kicks the ball through the clouds and the rain stops is the best. The game does a lot more with the gloomy sky and rain in its cutscenes, but I like how it's shown here at least. "Let the colors dazzle with our dreams and thoughts" ahh, I love it. The image of the whole team together is nice too, even if we haven't got to meet them just yet.

Tsurugi makes his appearance, here to destroy the Raimon soccer club, and I hope he's enjoying the evil-boy larp. He's a dear character to me, and I feel very bad for him here as well, lol. He's doing a lot of things he doesn't want to do, and Tenma isn't making it much easier for him to get it over with. It's still Tenma and Tsurugi's fated meeting. They call back to it in Galaxy, but I'm getting so far ahead of myself-- Tsurugi says, "you're the type I hate the most!" and maybe I do have a little thing for enemies to lovers... I'm not a big shipper, but they are my one true pairing, so expect these two to be brought up a bit. They're both having a pretty awful day, but it's one they'll always remember.

I like how Tenma's personality is shown right away. He has the endless determination of the typical shonen protagonist, but his natural awkwardness makes him stand out to me. He's so cute, and he doesn't come across as an attempt to replicate Endou at all. It was a concern I had before starting GO (since I was a huge fan of the original). Yuka Terasaki is the perfect voice actress to portray him, and (obviously...) Tenma is my favourite role of hers.

The episode ends with the appearance of the first Raimon team here to save the day. It took me a while to warm up to these guys, but I'm very fond of them all these days. Their personalities get more time to shine in the games.

It's a decent start to the series. I struggle quite a bit with TV show pacing, but I think this one sets itself up pretty well. It's very much partnered with episode 2, which is where things get a bit crazier. I had a lot of fun writing this, and I might come back to clean the entries or add more detail as I go, but we'll see. It's all for my own fun!
The Inazuma Eleven GO's proverb today is...
"If I have my mind set to do it, I'll do it no matter what!"
That's all!
☆02: これが化身だ！ "This is a Keshin!"
Air Date: 11/05/2011
Shindou makes his proper appearance! I really love him in this first season. I think he's a bit of a "chronically misunderstood by fandom" type of guy. I like him. He starts the episode with an iconic line:

Shindou: "What do you think you're doing on these sacred grounds?"
Tsurugi: "Soccer."

I love the GO Raimon uniform we get a good look at here. The original Raimon uniform really felt like an underdog team, whilst this one is more vibrant and has a feeling of a prodigal team that's forcibly fallen from grace. I have an official version of Tenma's uniform shirt, which was a CD bonus at some point. It came in two sizes; somehow one of them was mine.

The new managers make their appearances, and I think they're alright. I'll discuss them and more of my headcanons when they show up properly. I have some thoughts on Aoi, and I've written her interacting with Tenma a lot in my personal longfic, but not much of interest worth sharing! She's Tenma's only childhood friend, but the series sadly doesn't do too much with that fact.

"Goalkeeper Sangoku couldn't even move!" is a line we'll be hearing a lot. I really love him. Bless him. He barely missed being in the series where the GK was the main character. Sorry, man!

Poor Tenma gets put into the match against Tsurugi's team. (The way he speaks incredibly polite to Shindou is very cute here.) He's been granted his life-long dream in the worst possible way, but he won't give up! "Things will work out somehow!" I really love Tenma's catchphrase. We'll be hearing a lot of it this season.

Tsurugi doesn't have any trouble knocking the team out. He doesn't even take his hands out his pockets... I... Think his outfit is so... Unique! But I like the little cape swishing around here a bunch.

During the half-time, Shindou explains in vague terms what Fifth Sector is, and how people are valued in society based on their soccer abilitiy. I really like the way this story is told. You can interpret it in a lot of ways, really. I like the theme of being crushed under the weight of achieving in society; throwing away your morals and sense of self in order to do so. Ultimately, this series is--to me--about freedom, your values, and your true self.

Shindou says to Tenma, "You came to Raimon, like the rest, for its strong soccer reputation, right?", which Tenma immediately denies. It's been his life-long dream to play at Raimon, for his own reasons. (Throughout the series, Tenma has almost net zero knowledge of the soccer world despite it being his ultimate killer special interest, it's so funny). Shindou replies that Tenma is the only person saying such earnest things like this. Tenma's eyes shake, because he's not a person that wants to be told "this is the way things are."

"Retribution awaits if you try to retaliate." Fifth Sector really is interesting-- But we still need to reach the climax of this episode so I'll leave that thought train for another time.

Tenma watches the team get beaten up once again for the second half. It's really not the ideal morning to your very first day of Junior High School. All his hopes and dreams trashed before they even had a chance to begin! The soundtrack in GO is so awesome. I can't really convey it in words. This series takes itself dead seriously despite the premise.

Tsurugi kicks the ball to Tenma, hoping to kill his resolve by messing with him once again. But wait! You simply cannot defeat the dribbling skills of a boy with no friends!!

Aoi provides some background context, explaining that Tenma practised dribbling the ball since he never got into a soccer team, always having to play by himself instead. He's made fun of for this in the IE3 postgame, which shows Tenma in Elementary School. Tenma's oddly lonely childhood in spite of his friendly attitude says a bit about him, to me... because I'm crazy! I'm thinking too hard! I love him! But I've already said too much. I'll elaborate later.

Tenma dribbles the ball without passing to anyone, hoping to keep his teammates from getting hurt any further. Tsurugi's had more than enough, though, and follows orders by calling out his Keshin; Sword Saint Lancelot. Tsurugi's Keshin, his spiritual energy, being a saintly knight is very sweet. Bless him. Keshin being treated by the kids as an urban legend come true is a fun idea. Tsurugi's still ten episodes too early to be nice though, and uses his Keshin to beat Tenma. Haruna drops a "This isn't soccer!" The classic.

The voice acting is great in this series. There's so many lines and performances I could pinpoint, but I'd be here forever. It's the series that made me take an interest and start remembering names though.

Shindou has his first cry of the series as Tenma begs him not to give up on soccer. His emotional outburst and feelings of inadequacy as captain cause something big to happen. "Damn it!!" and Shindou's Keshin makes its appearance!! Thus the unique gameplay mechanic of this entry in the games is revealed. Hah.

I really rambled on this one, huh? The episode sets up a lot. It was inevitable!

The Inazuma Eleven GO's proverb today is...
"If you make it to the very end, you'll surely find a way through!"
That's all!
☆03: 崩壊！雷門サッカー部！！ "Collapse! Raimon Soccer Club!!"
Air Date: 18/05/2011
WIP! These take me over an hour to make, because I'm crazy.
The Inazuma Eleven GO's proverb today is...
"If you think it's fun, then I'm sure soccer would be happy too!"
That's all!