Run With The Wind Episode 22 Review
I was surprised that nearly half of this episode of Run With The Wind ended up being devoted to King and flash backs of King entering the house. Other than his job hunt, King hasn’t had much characterisation within the story and is one of the characters that I didn’t think had a lot to offer.
To a point that is true with little being really revealed. On the other hand, this is kind of a good reflective moment for the audience seeing King accepting his failures and himself while he runs, doing something for the first time really since entering college and doing it with a team of people who are depending on him. it is also a nice calm moment before the sash gets handed over to Kakeru.
Sorry to say to King, but he was a character that was destined to be fairly forgettable out of the group of ten, and it would have been really cruel to have Shindo’s arc and moment directly followed by Kakeru because no matter how great the moment that came before it, Kakeru’s leg of the race was always going to overshadow the bit that came before it. So King played his role well, and that ten minutes didn’t feel dragged or wasted, but it did make the start of Kakeru’s leg even more exciting because of the build up to it. Haiji’s comment on the phone to Kakeru that he was already the best runner was just kind of perfect and to be honest set up some big expectations for the next leg.
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And Run With The Wind delivered. Kakeru running has always been kind of compelling to watch, and I don’t even like running. This is always achieved through some visual gimmicks that have been used just enough that it isn’t bizarre when they start occurring in this race, but not often enough to overpower the fairly realistic tone the anime has gone for in most other elements. I really liked the visual effect where it was like Kakeru shed a layer of ice or snow from around his body.
However, more impressive than Kakeru just running is the improved mental state we find this character in. Finally he’s running for the sheer love of it and has found a team he wants to run with. He wants to push himself to go further and faster. While I’m not convinced there won’t be a hiccup at the start of the next episode, this start to Kakeru’s run was truly impressive and everything you could kind of have asked for given the journey so far.
Run With The Wind remains an incredibly impressive anime in how it has put itself together and how it seems to understand its pacing and characters so well and seems to make the best choices for putting them on display.
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Join the discussion in the comments.
Karandi James
- Run With The Wind Series Review
- Episode 1 – Another character dragging others along in pursuit of their dreams.
- Episode 2 – The hard sell
- Episode 3 – As the wind blows
- Episode 4 – A wind of change
- Episode 5 – Scattered by the winds
- Episode 6 – No need to be frantic; It will all blow over soon
- Episode 7 – An opportunity to knock the wind clean out of their sails
- Episode 8 – The Downfalls of the Pursuit of Perfection
- Episode 9 – You Really Have To Step Back To See What’s There
- Episode 10 – How Run With The Wind Shows Us To Celebrate Effort Rather Than Achievement
- Episode 11 – Why Run With The Wind is an Oustanding Example of the Use of Sound
- Episode 12 – The Change of Seasons Welcomes a Changing Wind
- Episode 13 – Clearing the Air With The help of Friends
- Episode 14 – Facing Forward is Easier When You Know Someone Has Your Back
- Episode 15 – How Did They Make Me Start Caring?
- Episode 16 – The Moment Of Truth From All That Training
- Episode 17 – Should They Follow The Course Before Them?
- Episode 18 – May The Wind Be At Their Backs
- Episode 19 – They Are Three Runners Down With Seven To Go
- Episode 20 – Blowing Past Your Limits
- Episode 21 – Finding Your Own Wind
- Episode 22 – Running With The Wind And With Your Team
- Episode 23 – The Final Wind
- Images from: Run With the Wind. Dir. K Nomura. Production I.G. 2018.
I agree with your points about King. It’s like okay to me that he has the weaker story but the way that he overcomes those shortcomings was great to see. It is also great to see this new Kakeru that is no longer running from his problems but for the love of running and to prove Haiji right. Going to miss this show
I’m with you. As much as I’m looking forward to the final episode, I’m really going to miss having this to look forward to each week.
Do you choose which item shows on your affliate link thing? If not, it’s funny because it shows Butterfree right before your screenshot of Kakeru running and it just fits the shedding part. lol
Anyway, I actually liked King a lot after this episode. It’s like, this backstory explains so much of his appearances all throughout the series. Why he did what he did, why he said what he said. This episode brought much depth for his character which I didn’t really like before. I’m loving how we’re getting so much of the characters while in this race!
But of course, Kakeru’s part overshadows King since we mostly see the story from his character and he’s always been interesting. I’m so excited to see if he’s really going to overtake them all, though I’m betting that he’s not. I think Fujioka will be able to set a section record, but Kakeru will be able to break that soon after.
King definitely scrubbed up fairly nicely here, but was overshadowed. Still, it was a better showing than I expected from his character.
And yes, I usually do choose the item (there are some generic links I can use where it just chooses but I prefer to control it a bit). Sometimes there’s a clear connection between the item and the post. Sometimes not and it is just an item I think my readers might be interested in based on past clicks.