Bamboo Blade episode 4

Sayako becomes flustered with herself as she tries writing a story about her encounter with Miya in the previous episode. The next day at kendo practice, Kojiro is busy training Dan and Miya on basic drills. He assigns Kirino to work with Miya who in turn delgates the duty to Tamaki. Tamaki accepts and teaches Miya some basic principles while Kojiro-sensei and Kirino discuss Sayako’s past antics in the club. Apparently Sayako has always been a wild card with amazing athletic ability but would leave for days at a time when she became upset due to some sort of misunderstanding. Kirino even admits that given more time, Sayako could easily surpass her in skill.

As Tamaki and Nakata continue to work with Miya and Dan respectively, they are forced to evacuate the dojo when Kojiro sets off an insect bomb in the backroom. Due to the practice ending early for the day, Kojiro orders Miya to come in early the next morning for more practice. Meanwhile at Machido High’s kendo club, we get a glimpse of a very active kendo club under the tutelage of Kojiro’s senpai. The teacher rounds up his group of rowdy, snarky girls and chooses five of them for the match with Kojiro’s girls. That evening, Kirino sends a text message to Sayako inviting her to come to practice. Sayako replies back in a rather lengthy, dramatic message that she will show up tomorrow.

The next morning at school, Miya “warmly” greets Kojiro, but he sees through her facade and tells her that she doesn’t have to put up her nice girl act. Miya gets changed in the back while thinking to herself that she only joined the club to be with Dan. Kojiro decides that Miya will practice her strikes with Kirino as a human target. A very tired looking Sayako shows up at the door with bags under her eyes. Upon seeing her, Miya freaks out and runs to the back before they can be formally introduced. Anyway, Sayako’s new dream is to be a rock star so she stayed up all night playing the guitar, thus explaining the bags under her eyes.

Tama, Nakata, and Dan come in to to kendo club and are introduced to Sayako who thinks that the freshmen are absolutely adorable. Miya comes back out in full armor and introduces herself to Sayako very awkwardly. Shortly afterwards, Miya begins her striking practice with Kirino. Miya soon realizes that the enjoys she enjoys hitting people and Dark Miya comes out. As soon as Kirino sees the black aura she is just as soon barraged by a berserk Miya’s onslaught. Kojiro quickly breaks them up and the other members become deathly afraid of Miya’s dark side, except for Dan who remains blissfully ignorant of it.

After the practice is over, Kojiro confronts Miya about ignoring Sayako the whole time. Miya tells him the story of their encounter the previous day and Kojiro tells her to apologize wholeheartedly. Kojiro tells her about the typical hero shows where the main character does what they do because they have the courage to do the right thing. This convinces Miya to do it, and she marches down to Sayako’s class. She surprises Sayako with her appearance but apologizes nonetheless. As Miya leaves the classroom, Sayako returns the bokken that fell into the river. Miya then requests a sparring match with Sayako. Later at practice, Sayako is utterly traumatized at Miya’s brutal barrage of attacks as the rest of the team stands by idly. The closing scene shows the bokken sitting in the backroom with Miya’s and Dan’s names etched onto it.

This episode was really just about Sayako coming back to the team and the resolution to the dispute between Miya and her. Dark Miya really isn’t a separate entity but is a real part of herself that she was probably repressing for Dan’s sake. We still have yet to see the last member, but it looks like the next episode will focus on more training and a confrontation between Tamaki and the captain of the rival team.

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