Bamboo Blade episode 13

Mei contemplates leaving the Seimei Kendo club and her mind drifts to thoughts of joining the cooking club instead. Tamaki brings her back to reality with a couple strikes that leave Mei in awe of Tama’s skill. Tama gives Mei some instructions during the warm-up practice, but Mei’s aim is slightly off when she strikes the bare part of Tama’s arm. The two formally introduce themselves and Mei, now a full-fledged Tama fangirl, requests to be hit by Tamaki some more. Upon seeing Tama’s prowess, the other Seimei girls volunteer their bodies as punching bags too.

With a new role model to look up to, Mei reconsiders staying in the Kendo club to be like Tama someday. In the midst of all the action, Azuma starts to get pumped up as her Kendo instinct comes back. Even though it is a practice match with another school, Kirino suggests that Azuma and Tama have a match to compare their skill levels. In another corner of the dojo, Reimi continues to hassle the miserable Miya and recalls their fateful first encounter.

The rain begins to die down. As the sun peeks into the dojo, the duel between Tama and Azuma begins. Azuma tries to come up with a battle strategy, but Tama is ready and soon gets the better of Azuma with a head strike. However, Azuma isn’t out of the match yet and goes on the offensive again. As the two girls battle, Hayashi makes a comment to Kojirou about the laidback atmosphere of Muroe’s Kendo club. Azuma finally gets rolling as the duel comes to a climax. She reads Tama’s move and tries to counter, but Tama still proves to be the quicker of the two and scores another head strike.

The duel ends as Azuma concedes defeat to the superior Tama. Hayashi shares his story with Kojirou outside. The reason that Hayashi is so strict on his students is to foster a desire to get stronger and eventually love Kendo. Hayashi originally despised the sport but picked it up after being guilt tripped into it by his father. After that, the rest became history. Hayashi explains that he teaches Kendo the way he was taught, so it is imperative to be strict. While it is regretful that so many members quit his club, the ones that remain truly become dedicated to it much like Mei. Kojirou encourages Hayashi to stick to his strict, traditional ways and becomes an official Hayashi fanboy in the process.

Sayako sets up the team positions in preparation of the real practice match. Azuma starts and is followed by Miya, Saya, Kirino, and Tama in that order. Yoshikawa-sensei and Yuuji cheer her on, and Azuma realizes that she has been tricked into this situation. Regardless, she defeats her opponent without hesitation. All the while, Kirino proudly tells Saya about the success of the plan to recruit Azuma.

Muroe goes on to sweep Seimei’s club. Hayashi, unsatisfied at the results, challenges Kojirou to a match to get even. Hayashi promptly wipes the floor with Kojirou and earns an unofficial point for his team. The Seimei girls admire their teacher’s strength after seeing him in action. The girls bid farewell to each other as the day finally winds down. Everyone is in high spirits except for Miya who had to endure Reimi’s presence for the entire practice match. Reimi, having had her Miya fix, slithers away to play again another day.

Tama continues to be broken, but that’s not a big shock. This episode was pretty self-explanatory for the most part. In the next episode we’ll probably see Azuma’s struggle to officially join the Kendo club. No other predictions from me because I really don’t know what will happen.

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